Upcycling requires quality ingredients: time, creativity and bits and bobs.
With a house move looming, messy making is off-limits — but that hasn’t stopped our festive creativity entirely. From simple paper chains and toilet roll reindeer to driftwood trees and branch-made reindeer, Christmas crafting with the kids has been all about small, meaningful projects. Working with wood remains my favourite, even when things have to stay minimal.
Merry Christmas — what have you made with your kids this year?
There’s something deeply satisfying about building something with your hands and then watching it spring to life through play. My four-year-old is deep in a “build it” phase. Dens, caravans, planes, boats, if you ask him if he wants to make something, the answer is always yes. Outdoors? Even better. His two-year-old sister is rightContinue reading “Building, Crafting, and Imagining: Summer Adventures with My Little Engineers”
It was birthday season in our house, just a week between the two. As is tradition, we marked the occasion with a bit of guerrilla tree planting, using saplings we’ve nurtured from seeds collected over the past year. This time, we were lucky to be gifted a couple of ash saplings especially for the birthdays.Continue reading “Plant pot markers”
Our dining room floor was truly a labour of love. It was a bit of an odd project. Technically part of the same space as the kitchen, yet completely different in character. The kitchen had a beautifully polished, hundred-year-old wooden floor, while the dining area featured raw, untreated, and stained boards that were loose andContinue reading “A Labour of Love: Our Dining Room Floor”
Upgraded the outdoor kids’ play area with a DIY water feature for the pallet den! My toddler’s a water fanatic, so he wasted no time testing it out—even if it was a bit high. No problem for him: he dragged over the slide, climbed up, poured water, and whooshed right down. (Don’t tell his mother!)Continue reading “Kids outdoor play area water toy”
When my son was born, I crafted an oak chair for him—a solid piece of furniture to last a lifetime. However, he was a robust and energetic boy, and the chair bore the marks of his enthusiasm. For my daughter’s first birthday, I decided to make another chair, this time from the same piece ofContinue reading “Oak Child’s chair”
I love making things with old wood. I drilled a hole through so small twigs and branches found on beaches (driftwood) with my toddler and ran a wire coat-hanger down the centre. With some even smaller twigs and yarn I bound together in the shape of a star. Super simple.
Not all projects are exciting. Our utility room had a boiler and no cupboard. This really upset me. With some wood lying around, unused hinges and bought Louvre doors a made this cupboard to hide it. I still hate hinges, I can never get them to work first time…
When my first child was born I made some toys such as a sword and shield, scrabble letters and chair. However, a house move, new job and second child limited toy making. My son loves cars and the train set lacked a car bridge. This one was constructed with off cuts from a sliding bookContinue reading “Toy wooden train bridge”
After making my pergola out of reclaimed fence posts, one night my wife said, you know, one of these would be good outside the house for the kids to play under in winter… ignoring the fact I had suggested that for the one we were now sitting under at the other ending the garden. SoContinue reading “Kids outdoor play area”
Cool Upcycled