Dana Burland

It's as common as a seasonal garden update or anniversary post--it's my annual Halloween costume creation injury.  Last year I walked away from an attempt to make pizza costumes with several minor hot glue gun burns. The two years before that C's costumes were purchased, not made, so there were no accompanying injuries. What's the fun in that?! This year the costume request was a tiger. Which I made. Perhaps I should leave it at that and just let the guesses roll in for what DIY related injury is this year. Submit your guesses in 3... 2... 1... A puncture wound on my thumb. From a tube of tacky glue I tried to open with a metal shish kabob stick. Because I was rushing to get said tiger costume made during nap time. And because I was being stupid.  Sigh. Here's hoping I don't have an update to give next year. 

Hey, it’s our third house-aversary today! Three years ago today we took possession of this lovely little home. My, how far its come in our hands. (Here’s the news of our new home , year 1 and year 2 .) Big house projects this year included: A bathroom nook cut-out (Feb. 2020) Deck refinishing (June 2020) Front exterior projects (September 2020) This year I spent a lot of time thinking about space efficiency. Our house is not big for four people ( one who was added this year !), especially considering the main area we use every day is about 1,280 sq ft. I like that we don’t have more space than we need and geeked out in determining how to use every inch of our home well. I spent a good amount of time reorganizing closets, cabinets and shelves. I also got smarter about home purchases, getting very critical about footprint and usage of everything we brought into our home. This year, especially as we’ve spent so, so so much time inside, I’m thinking about how I can sharpen ...

I’m still working from home . Every morning I wheel a very nice desk chair that’s stored in the corner of the playroom to the dining room table and set up shop for the day. My office is the corner of the kitchen. We do have a designated office space downstairs, but without windows I don’t enjoy sitting down there for hours at a time. At some point in the morning I’ll throw a load of laundry in. I find without rushing I usually make and eat lunch within 15-20 minutes. In the afternoon I’ll flip the laundry. If dinner has a long cook time, I’ll start it at 4:30 so dinner, the laundry and my work day all wrap up at the same time. This is why I’m enjoying working from home. I pick up the boys at 5:05, and we’re home enjoying the rest of our night together. Last night was a start-dinner-at-4:30 kind of day. I made chicken shawarma from a British cooking show on Netflix where the host shoved spiced chicken into a bread loaf and baked it. It came out looking good on TV, and when I mad...