What I do is build my poster on the computer to fit an eleven by seventeen piece of paper. Then I convert it to a PDF file and save it, (always open it in Adobe Acrobat to double check the look and colors and save it again) I move the file onto a flash card or burn it onto a cd. I take the cd or flash card to Kinko's (copy store - should be everywhere) where they have work station computers and printers for you to use. Where I go they rent the computers by the hour but you pay by the minute with a credit card. Before I do anything I make sure the color printers are avaiable and loaded with the right paper and that no one else is gonna be printing anytime soon - THEN I start up the computer, insert my credit card and open up my pdf file of the poster. I send it to the printer. Once it confirms the charge to print and begins the upload I close down my workstation and go wait at the printer for the poster. The reason I do all this is to keep the number of minutes that I use their machine to a minimum - they are charging my card by the minute. I can often get my 11 by 17 print for a few dollars that way. They have printers capable of printing larger but these are not self service so you will have to pay and the last time I used them it cost about the same as what you were quoted.

Hester, your butterfly bush is so pretty! Maybe someday I will find a spot for one. That white blooming plant is an alibertia. Mine is blooming now too and it is a great plant. You know I'm not fond of white, but when I saw it 2-3 years ago I had to have it, and it has not disappointed. Mine has only bloomed in the summer, but it is very eye-catching. Of course, I planted it it the very back of my property and I wish I hadn't. It's the color that made me do it. It does root at the nodes, but very slowly, so the expansion is quite pleasant and desired. I think I will have to find a better place for mine where I can see it more. Also, it is very cold-hardy and the foliage is disease-free and always looks nice. Great plant! I also love your bowtie and wish I had a spot for one, but no, notime soon. I will enjoy it at your place. Anna

I agree about the mega- pixel count. There will come a point where the mega-pixel count on camera's will be more than what the human eye can even see. Remember the big stereo book shelf speakers of the 80's? Many of them had a tweeter high range/bass reflex range higer/lower than what the human ear could hear. Overkill, but the dogs could hear that ultra high range! A good mega-pixel is needed for print photos. For showing pictures via the web many times people use the huge mega-pixels that make the pictures so larger you have to scroll around to see it even with a large monitor. This is because people don't resize the photo but never the less large web files can be a waste. My first decent digital was a Sony Mavica that used the crap floppy, however it had a 10x opitcal lense which was extremely great for taking macro's and the photos were decent at that time, thoough never as good as a good 35mm in general but you could take some decent close-ups of flowers. Optical lense zoom is important, digital zoom is IMHO useless and you can do the same sort of digital zoom with even a basic photo editing program. I don't ever use digital zoom. I think the most important thing is to spend a few extra bucks and get a camera with a view finder, do not rely strictly on a small LCD screen because you will be sorry if you are in bright light. You will not be able to clearly (if at all) see the subject to be shot due to the bright light. Pot luck photo shots in sunlight is what I mean. I have a small decent Olympus 5.1 mega pixel given as a gift but it only has a LCD screen, no view finder. It is no good for taking pictures of plants in the sun.

Right, but you may be able to buy glass, have them do the cutouts, and temper it. There may be local glass shops that will do all of the above. Alternatively, if you can move your outlets under your cabinets or in your counters, then you could just order tempered glass online. Some will drill holes in the tempered glass. It also looks cleaner. [Contemporary Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by Tacoma General Contractors NW HomeWorks That web site that you mentioned, what exactly do they do? It sounds like they'll temper and print, right? How much do they charge? This post was edited by nosoccermom on Tue, Dec 9, 14 at 14:49