Impromptu wood “frame”

My daughter is a lucky girl. She is so loved by our family and our friends and you can feel it in her nursery. Her walls are adorned with pieces of art that loved ones have made for her. It warms my soul.

Our friend Kate just painted a sweet flamingo painting for her, so I made an impromptu frame for it (if you can call it that).

I found a piece of scrap wood in our basement and cut it down to size with a jigsaw. Then, I sanded down the edges.

After centering the painting on the wood, I tacked it down with, yes, tacks.

Then I drilled two holes for twine so I could hang the frame on the wall. It was a quick and easy way to display her beautiful new piece of art.

Check out some of Kate’s other beautiful artwork.

 

No splinters for you!

My husband and dad did the un-fun task this summer of redoing our deck. After years of weather left the decking worn and splintery, we decided it was time — especially with a baby soon to be on the move. We didn’t want to have to worry about her soft skin on the rough wood.

Speaking of our little one, I was on baby duty, so I wasn’t much help on this project. OK, I wan’t any help. And I’ll admit, it was tough to just be a spectator! But I documented, and that’s something… right?

Here’s the deck (mostly) before:

You can see some of the damage on the individual boards here. Thankfully the supports were in good shape so they only had to replace old boards and railings.

New treads!

New rails:

For the decking, they took off some of the old boards before adding the new boards. It was easier and safer for them to work that way.

The baby liked to watch.

They discovered the most perfect egg during the renovation.

Progress:

Here is the final result:

The best part? The Maryland flag and baby swing.

It took them a week to do the project, and it turned out wonderfully.

Architects of Air: Katena Luminarium

Happy 50th birthday, Columbia! (And happy belated Father’s Day, dads!)

This past weekend was the annual Columbia Festival of the Arts and this year’s festival had a special treat as part of the city’s birthday celebration: the Katena Luminarium.

Katena was designed by Architects of Air. It looked like a giant, enclosed moon bounce, but instead of jumping around inside, visitors walked through tunnels illuminated by red, green and blue lights. It was beautiful!

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I had heard of the Luminarium a few months ago and was excited to go. I wrote about another light installation a few years back at Longwood Gardens, and with that experience in my mind, I took the baby to walk through Katena to see how it compared.

It was over an hour to get in, but it was well worth it. After all, it’s not all that often that a giant art installation opens up in my backyard!