Dana Burland

Our yard! Our yard!! Quit reading this instant and come see our front yard!!! Thanks to my family’s free labor, all the big yard projects we wanted to accomplish this year are done. And our yard looks SO good. The biggest task we needed extra hands for was the relocating of 14 burning bushes. They once lined our property along the street, killing our curb appeal and driving Ben crazy every time he had to mow around them individually. The idea of moving them seemed so overwhelming—until my mom offered to help. Between my parents, my brother, Ben and I we moved 10 burning bushes, cut down four, trimmed five trees, cut back two other bushes and edged/removed the sod around a big tree to lay a circular bed of mulch. ALL hands were on deck all day Saturday and for a little extra time Sunday morning. I had a feeling my team would show up and work like mad so I baked a big apple crisp Friday night in anticipation. Nothing was sweeter on a cozy, cold fall night than ...

This was a real good weekend to be home for. We had an early celebration for my dad’s birthday. We toured a local Frank Lloyd Wright house—which has really become a favorite hobby . We watched my brother finish his first half marathon. We had a lunch I hosted at my grandparent’s house. It was just a really full, fun weekend. Sunday morning we all woke up at 4am to make it to the Detroit Half Marathon race start by 7am. Parking, and Detroit with the 26K some runners and all their cheerers was crazy, but we made it happen. I saw an online ad earlier in the week for big, cut-out heads and decided to make my own as cheer sticks for my brother. I spent a really creative night covered in Elmer’s glue jazzing up four cut-outs of his face for my parents, Ben and I. My dad might have frightened a little girl cheering on the side lines with the female Evan face. The cut-outs were big hits most importantly with my brother but also for whoever saw them. We waved them ferocio...

Man, ArtPrize this year… it felt really meh . I’m definitely spoiled from so many great ArtPrize years, but it really seemed like the quantity of art was lower than usual ( especially outside, there was almost nothing outside!) and the amount of wow-did-you-SEE-this?! pieces were lower than usual, too. All that said, I also think some really great art was overlooked (maybe due to venue placement off the beaten path?) in the top 20 rankings. We’ll always go downtown to see ArtPrize—likely twice playing tour guide to both of our visiting families—but I’m after two lackluster years I’m beginning to wonder if we’ve seen ArtPrize’s peak. Here are some of my favorites from this year: Father Time This life-size wood carving of an old man was incredible. It doubled as a clock—with his eyes ticking left and right, clock hands doubling as his mustache and his tie wagging rhythmically in place. (Pardon the glass glare on his head) Two people embrace This looked so incredibly li...

We’re back from what seems like the fastest trip ever. Thursday morning we woke up at 3:45am for two flights and a long car ride out to the Massachusetts countryside. Our friends in Kalamazoo—Ben’s buddy from high school/college—got married. Despite lots of chilly and rainy weather, we had fun spending time with friends that live out of Grand Rapids or out of Michigan all together. Ben was best man and totally rocked at it. I’m not sure saying that as his wife either—he got lots of well deserved praise for a really great speech. Also, we had a blast with our buddies in the photobooth and on the dance floor. If you’ve never danced in imaginary double dutch jump ropes you’ve never lived. Nice photo bomb by Allan's uncle! We ended up cutting our original New England travel plans short since we’ve spent lots of vacation time elsewhere this year, but still managed to check out Salem, Massachusetts briefly on our way out of town. Judge Jonat...