About a year and a half ago I arbitrarily decided it was time to paint the kids’ rooms. So we went out, selected paint, then let it sit there for about a year.

This summer we started painting Alyson’s room, got two walls done, then I realized that I wasn’t sure what to do with her bed surround (aka ‘The Tunnel’.) So things kind of ground to a halt whilst I ruminated.

Eventually I arrived at ‘padding’ then set about pondering the best way to do this. Finally we purchased foam, fabric and assorted materials, then set about building. Notice I said ‘we.’

The surround has three lids along the side, and each lid got padding, as well as a corner piece and (yet to be done) the backboard area. Alyson and I cut foam, glued, stretched fabric, glued and stapled the fabric to the lids, and applied a finishing fabric to hide the uneven ends of the fabric on the bottoms of the lids.

This picture shows Aly applying the final smack to the staples holding that covering material (it’s just landscaping fabric shhhh…)

So anyway, that’s been the home project. Alyson’s been doing most of it, with some guidance and prompting from me to keep things on track.

Today I heard someone at the store complaining about tangled headphone cords. There’s a quick and easy solution to this problem that’s free. It’s called an electrician’s or monkey chain knot. I tried to get a link to a video, but was failed by iPhone.

Guaranteed not to tangle in your pocket, though.