a couple weeks ago mathew flew to new york to visit his brother misha and to attend a party celebrating misha and aja’s birthdays.
siblings! (left) misha, mathew and leo, visiting from harvard. (right) leo and mathew.
(left) misha and aja. (right) misha and mathew.
(left) pretty snow covered trees. (right) a snowy, mathew-made eight two.
eight two and misha. (misha, you can download the original photos by clicking these photos. xoxo)
(left) someone putting up a lost puppy, eight two, music flyer.
(left) mathew and misha. (right) aja, misha and mathew’s hat.
(left) when mathew returned home late one night, bella was so excited she jumped onto a shelf then up above the closets! but she needed mathew’s help to get down. (right) the girls playing with our organic delivery box. can you see bella peeking out?
(left) bella loves to jump onto us, climb onto our shoulders and try to get onto doors! ack. she’s extremely ambitious. before mathew left for new york he made the mistake (?) of helping bella get on top of a door then letting her explore an overhead bedroom cabinet. ever since then, whenever she has the chance she will jump onto our shoulders, chests and heads in the hope that she will be allowed to explore that cabinet again. unless we’re wearing sweaters, it can be quite painful!
and the work continued that weekend. here we are priming steps that will become our new side entrance stairs. the weekend before going to new york, mathew and my dad cut these together.
the following weekend mathew decided to try out a crazy plan for getting a new rain water collection barrel into the back yard. it’s bigger than our other barrels and didn’t fit through the door leading to the backyard. so the obvious solution? hoist it over the fence! (left) here’s the ladder ready for me. (right) mathew on the other side of the fence with the barrel. fortunately no one was parked in that spot that afternoon.
(left) my view from the ladder. (right) can you see me in the shadows? i’m holding that huge barrel up with rope! of course there are no photos showing how the barrel got into that position… if there were photos, they would show mathew on the ladder pulling the ropes up while i held them tight. after he took this photo he carried the ladder around the block to the other side of the fence where he pushed the barrel up and over the fence while i gently let the barrel down into our yard.
(left) the last bit wasn’t so gentle as it landed with a thud onto some plants… my dad and our neighbor thought we were nuts for attempting this! but it worked! (right) clothes line poles!
we decided to swap out my grandmother’s daybed with this very modern and comfortable convertible sofa bed. we got it at a local furniture store, the box called it “click clack sofa bed.” it clicks up to form a sofa and clicks down to form a bed.
and over the last few weeks mathew has been finishing a box to hold my dad’s tile saw. the wood box replaces a cardboard one and also supports the tile saw when in use. we’re gotten some good use out of this tool over the years. mathew had me design the top. only after he finished routing and carving it did he tell me that originally he was thinking it would just have some simple letters or words. of course mathew is always up for a challenge! my parents were really pleased with the end result.