Dana Burland

We made it! The big work project I’ve alluded to much over the last year plus launched! And it feels real, real good. The main gist was to combine three Steelcase owned ecommerce sites together on one new software platform. In doing so, we re-evaluated every photo, word and feature. Our new platform allows us and the customer more functionality in shopping than we ever had. The result is beautiful . I got involved in the project in November 2013 and have been working on it full time almost since then. I truly have never felt so verklempt (and a little afraid) as I did when I refreshed my browser on Saturday night to see so much hard work on display to the masses. A LOT of work is on display with that one refresh! Because my blog is half about informing my grandma about weekend adventures and half professional portfolio, I’ll be posting a few more follow up entries with specifics on my involvement in the project. If this isn’t your jam, come back in a few weeks and I’ll probably b...

Ben will tell you, I’m not one for relaxing. I’m happier in go-mode, running around until my body just about forces me still. This past weekend, he seemed in a similar spirit, so we took advantage of it and Got Stuff Done. Yeah, capitalized Got Stuff Done. Soon there won’t be much left to do and then I’m really gonna struggle. Here’s how the weekend went: Behind the couch table Thanks to my AM crafting technique , this long skinny table was done when Saturday morning rolled around. It matches the coffee table in stain and legs and makes the room feel really cohesive. Also, our couch isn’t floating in the middle of the room anymore, and that’s a win in itself.   Revised deck set Our deck set was made of mismatched hand-me-down forest green chairs and a bought-on-super-discount white iron table ( see here ). I’d been dying to spray paint it all to match, but Ben always reeled me in and said that was not an apartment project. Welp, there’s no apartment in sight, so here’s...

For my birthday this year , Ben signed us up for a burger making class at the Downtown Market. I could live in that market. I’ve ooh ’ed and ahh ’ed over every vendor 1,000 times already but I don’t care! It’s local food! It’s community at its finest! It’s delicious! Anyway, the burgers. Our class was taught by a Downtown Market chef (same guy who taught our pasta making class ) and co-hosted by the owner of the market’s meat vendor, Montello’s. We got a tour of the meat shop (hello hanging pigs) and then made four sliders from scratch using goat, beef, sausage (!) and turkey. It was pretty wild to see, feel and taste the difference in using local meet taken care of vs. bloody grocery store meat. It was also fun to learn how to play up the natural flavors of different meats with spices and toppings. My favorite was the goat burger topped with fresh feta cheese, sprouts and curry aioli. Ben drooled over the sausage burger stuffed with local cheddar cheese and topped with sa...

“No one will know what you don’t have at your wedding” . This was really good advice given to me by a good friend super early on in my planning process. Of course it would be noticeable if you didn’t secure an officiant or decided not to serve a meal, but the point is no one is going to walk away in a tizzy because you didn’t have fabric chair covers matching your color scheme. All the big, noticeable stuff has been done for months, and I’m so relieved. February and March have been incredibly inconvenient months for wedding planning due to a big, gigantic work project I’ve taken extra responsibility on. What I do have left are little, management details that help me decompress from work and make me excited for May to arrive. Stuff like: Making our cake toppers I found one I liked online for $60, then I found I could buy the pieces for it and do it myself for $4. With the supplies in hand and one episode of The Walking Dead, our toppers were done. Shopping for attendant gift...

Remember that coffee table building project I mentioned? Project complete! We had some spruce cut to size at Lowe's, then sanded, stained, sealed and screwed in a set of metal hairpin legs I found online from a company that hand makes them in Colorado. It's simple, modern, and just what I was looking for and having a heck of a time finding (for my price range, mind you). We did it all ourselves for under $60 making for two thrifty, happy and crafty homeowners.

I love northern Michigan so much. I could move there, life off the land, wear only organic cotton clothes and go to Sunday yoga classes with my husband—just like the husband/wife team next to me at my Sunday morning drop-in yoga class. Get ready for a retirement full of pigeon pose, Ben. I dropped in to a new-to-me yoga studio up north since we were in Petoskey with Andy and Ashley and I couldn't make my normal class. Our quick trip was great; we relaxed, worked out, watched MSU basketball, drank beer and didn't even let some snow flurries bother us. Saturday night we played Settlers at a local brewery. Even the pace of the game seemed to be on up north time (read: slowww). But hey! It's up north, what's the rush? When we got back to Grand Rapids on Sunday, I ditched Ben for a Miranda Lambert concert with my work friend Ashley. Is “ditched” the correct term if the person you leave behind would rather tackle home improvement projects then listen to songs about beer d...

We're currently in the process of building our own coffee table. Yes, I wanted to build. With no building experience. This should come at a surprise to no one. Right now we're in the process of staining the wood surface, except even in our very well ventilated basement this still makes the whole house smell like we're one Hanukkah celebration away from a whole neighborhood explosion. My solution? Stain in the morning and ventilate all afternoon while no one is home to suffer from the fumes. Brilliant, I say. So for the past two mornings, I've woken up extra early to sleepily rub another coat of stain into our table. Some workout in the mornings, some stay sleeping for as long as possible (cough, B, cough), others craft. 

How late is too late to keep a birthday celebration alive? Whatever the answer is, it's certainly not a week. My family was in town this past weekend partially for a late celebration of my birthday, partially for the West Michigan Home and Garden show, partially for a house tour and wedding planning, and partially because hey—it's been awhile since we'd all been together, so why not? We could have used two weekends in a row, I think, but we had a fun long weekend together anyway. We did the birthday celebrating, including salted caramel apple cupcakes my mom brought from across the state that are even better than they even sound. And then even better than that. Ben and I showed off the house and our neighborhood a bit, too. It's not bad hosting three guests in a house instead of an apartment, especially with the five of us all cooking dinner in the kitchen together, and having the room to do it. We did the Home and Garden show, reviewed some wedding stuf...

Yesterday I went to Sunday morning yoga where my beloved little yogi teacher beat us all to pulp. Way too much Chaturanga , not enough Balasana . Afterward, my pal Ashley and I hit up antique row in Grand Rapids where we lusted over many things, wondered about many smells and ultimately found me a $15 nightstand. Win! But most of the weekend I spent in my personal zen zone—the kitchen. I cooked my way through a double batch of chicken cupcakes, two loaves of challah and some birthday chocolate chip cookies for work. Our fridge is packed with goodness, but the main goal was packing Chelsea and Rob’s fridge. Chelsea, my little lady pal, just had a little lady of her own and on Sunday Ben and I got to meet her. I remember a time when it felt so strange to see friends my age get married, for some reason it doesn’t seem so strange watching them have kids. Maybe it’s because I’m closer to those life events than before; maybe because little Sadie breaks the cuteness mold; maybe because Ch...