When I travel to places on my own (often for business), I sometimes remember to bring Clint’s camera with me. On those occasions, I may quickly snap a couple of pictures here and there. However, to my dismay, the results when I get home are usually quite boring.

The photos don’t have any human subject matter in them. Instead, they are just mediocre pictures of some landmark which I could have easily purchased postcards and gotten better results.

This time around while in Portugal, I did notice that many of the buildings had elaborate doors and I recalled a poster I had seen once which chronicled interesting doors in Napa.

So I thought it would be interesting to take photos of decorative doors in Portugal and then make a stylish photo collage of them. I’ll post up some of them once I get some more time to organize all the photos I took in Portugal.

2007_11_22_0193 In the meantime, when I got back from my trip, I was faced with another daunting task. The mahogany door for the wine cellar had arrived and was awaiting my attention. I had found this door online and when I saw it, I just had to have it. It didn’t matter at the time that the door came unfinished and yours truly would have to put some elbow grease into it.

I always believe there is a first for everything and staining and finishing a solid mahogany door would definitely be a new endeavor for me.

What I don’t know is, should one stain and finish the door prior to installing it or after? Do any of you dear readers know and could provide some advice on the matter?

Clint and I are hoping to get the wine cellar up and running before the Christmas holidays.

Loni Stark is an artist at Atelier Stark, self-professed foodie, and adventure travel seeker who has a lifelong passion for technology’s impact on business and creativity. She collaborates with Clinton Stark on video projects for Atelier Stark Films. It’s been said her laugh can be heard from San Jose all the way up to the Golden Gate Bridge. She makes no claims to super powers, although sushi is definitely her Kryptonite.