I Read somewhere pretty recently (It may have been on this forum) that Gordon Graham's 7lb. 12oz. Tomato was grown on a gigantic vine, That it reached over 50 feet in length/height. So would this mean that the bigger a plant is, the larger the tomatoes in can support? If so, I'm gonna be growing some Huge plants next season. =) ***** I don't think any length for Graham's plant has ever been mentioned b'c the plant was on the ground and it was very weedy there and he only accidentally found the fruit that was reported. The size of a fruit is determined by the genetics of the variety so I don't think I'd say that a larger plant grows larger fruits. You can have a huge plant that has cherry tomatoes on it and they're going to give you cherry tomatoes. You can disbud and remove fruits from a variety that has the genetic capacity to grow large ones and the remaining few fruits will be larger and this is something that those growing for contests might do. But in general plant size is not correlated with fruit size. There is a new book out by Dr. Marvin Meissner on how to grow large fruits and you might consider buying that if it's your wish to grow super size tomatoes for contests. Carolyn

Outside, I enjoy those books too--- my late FIL went to school with Ferrol Sams and we love his novels. I hadn't realized he wrote essays as well. "When attending art shows, I swear off coffee table books but I am weak." We share that weakness, lol. Seems I am "always" never going to buy another huge book... Beagles, that room is fantastic, and I do see your pile of books peeking out from under that chair to the left :-) I'm with you on the kindle, but every now and then I like to hold a real book. Even though I find myself pushing the edge of the page instead of turning it (hanging head). No screen can reproduce the heft and color of those prints in large books, there is something about a good quality art print that is somehow more convincing than an image on a screen. Sloe gin, over the past decade or so I've seen many people putting lovely shelving in their dining rooms to combine functions or simply bring books into a room that doesn't often see them. I love that look, of a literary dining room! And your basket sounds eminently practical, we use our shagreen boxes and ceramic bowls for the same purpose--- the "stuff" has got to be corralled somehow. I have seen that Circus book, Robo, and the Atomic Ranch book also, they are both marvelous! It's clear that our collective enjoyment of these tomes is at least partly for the esthetic quality of the books themselves in addition to the content. I suppose that's what makes them "useful" decor :-) In some cases they might function purely as decor, as the leather books you've used, tinam. Have you seen the book purses that are so popular in some circles? Kate Spade has or had a few, and there's quite a cottage industry on Etsy making real old books into small handbags. They aren't a tenth big enough for me, but I love looking at them!

I am so glad, Sue, I know everyone will enjoy it! Funny you mention the cost. When I first embarked on this, I was thinking it will be a big impact present where the gift is our time not the cost. Yikes, even with the 50% off, each book was $200 OMG. I didn't really expect that, but after all the work putting it together, I wasn't going to go back and trim. I may regret making them so large, 11x14, but I know i usually like photos to be bigger. I also fell for that very pricey for that "lay flat" upgrade that allow you to do those "centerfold" shots. Heck, i actually fell for every type of upgrade they offered, including a storage box. And then I have the engraved USBs and those boxes. But oh they will be so pretty. I actually went with this one because I liked the idea of putting a photo with it. They also have them in navy, grey, and Tiffany blue. I was upset that I had to switch my product to Shutterfly, but I have to give them a big shout out. They have added so many features to their books, and so many options for designing them. Plus, they still had my photos on there from 2005, though I had not done business w them in years. In some cases, they were photos i did not find anywhere else in my files. Whew. One of the best parts of making the book was doing the captions, and adding in things like scans of their footprints, their baby announcements, etc. I also commissioned DH to write a letter to each of them talking about the day they were born and their first few years. He did a wonderful job, brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh, too. We finished yesterday. Finally. Annie - love that tree! we do have a few photo ornaments, but a whole tree! Fab Running - Even from book 1 to book 3 i got better at it and fancier. There are soooooo many options and embellishments and features. And if you have the right dates on your photos, the autofill feature is a great start. Enjoy!

Ok, are you getting an error message, or is it just taking forever with a grey box? If an error message, share it. If it's the grey box- it's just that Houzz can take forever to upload images. Maybe try uploading images to your profile. When you click on your profile, there will be idea books- those are meant to have photos loaded into them. Click on an idea book- and when that pops up, there should be a button on the right called "add new". Click on that, and you will get an option to upload a photo. Either drag your photo over, or browse to choose your photo. Once it shows up in the upload box, hit the upload button. Once your images are in your idea book, you should be able to pick them to post here.