Over the summer we got a family pass to the Portland Japanese Garden. Our son found a cool miniature Zen garden toy at the gift shop. Inside was a beautifully written pamphlet explaining Zen meditation, and how raking and caring for your rock garden can be a great way to clear your mind and attain...Continue Reading
Warmer weather is coming, and last week I made cutoff shorts from some holey jeans. A couple of springs ago, I made this ball, and I always wanted to try narrowing the panels to make a football shape. So yesterday I gave it a go and it worked! In addition to some regular stuffing, I...Continue Reading
My five year old daughter has recently discovered the fun of catapulting things with her spoon. To bring the action a bit further away from the table, I decided to make some very simple catapults out of scrap wood. After dinner we spent the entire evening catapulting Star Wars Lego figures outdoors. It was super...Continue Reading
We’ve been enjoying our first week of summer break, and spending a lot of time playing in the backyard. Planting sticks, I mean trees, playing in the playhouse I made two years ago, and drawing a lot of chalk art. A couple of weeks ago on the Made by Joel Facebook Page, I asked for...Continue Reading
Here are a few things we’ve been enjoying in the great weather we’ve had this month: The kids really love riding their bicycles on our driveway. Last week we spiced things up by drawing a track with some sidewalk chalk. They love practicing their turns while trying to stay in the lines. I was impressed...Continue Reading
I was talking about stilts with a friend the other day, and remembered the old coffee can stilts that were popular when I was a kid. For Jack and Tess, I thought the tall coffee cans would make me a little too nervous, so I used some pieces of 2×4 wood instead. They were a...Continue Reading
We were at the park over the weekend and I spotted some very nice tree branches on the ground and decided it was time to make some fishing poles! The kids each picked out a stick and we carried them home. I took my knife and whittled down the bumps, found some string, a couple...Continue Reading
We’ve been spending time outside in our playhouse lately, and I realized I’ve never posted pictures of it on this blog. Some of you might have seen it in my Daddy Story on Bloesem Kids. Last fall I decided to utilize the strip of cement behind our garage and fit a playhouse to that space....Continue Reading
