DIY Raised Garden and Flower Bed

So a couple of years ago my wife and I bought a new home and moved into it.  It is a nice house and perfect for our family but the backyard is nothing but dirt and weeds.  I want my kids to have a beautiful place to play that is fun but I also want them to learn something.  So I came up with the idea to start landscaping it on my own.  Here is the before picture of the corner.

I spent quite a bit of time online looking through different styles of bricks and researching how to build one of these myself.  I found these bricks at Home Depot.  They are called Flagstone Impressions and are really quite nice.  Each brick has a little lip on the back that hangs over the back of the row of bricks below.  This will stop them from being pushed forward by the dirt in the garden bed or by kids.  It also creates a slight backward slope on the retaining wall.

Now the next step is preparing the area.  The first layer of bricks is the most important first you are going to want to dig out a small ditch this is important because the first layer of bricks will be held more strongly in place if set into the ground a little bit.  I recommend 1-2 inches in the ground,  Each stone then needs to be set and leveled.  If done properly then all the rest of the rows will simply set right on top.

Once the first row is in you may find that there is a spot at the end not big enough for a full brick.  If you draw a line along where you need it cut then take a chisel and a small sledge hammer to it tapping it along the line you drew, each time hit the chisel a little harder it will cause the stone to crack along that line and you can complete the row.

Once the retaining wall reaches your desired height you're ready to fill it.  I found a Rock, Gravel, and Sand company in town that sells dirt for various needs.  I chose their blend of dirt and compost for gardens.  Luckily for me the deliver.

It took three cubic yards of dirt to fill my raised garden bed.  That is equal to 4,500 lbs of dirt.  We used a wheelbarrow and dump it in loads into the bed.  My wife and kids raked it flat while I brought loads back and forth.

Finally We bought the cap stones, also from home depot, and used landscape glue to seal them in place.  Finally the wife and kids planted various flowers and veggies.  We're very excited to enjoy the beauty that will grow there.  I hope you found this helpful and I wish you the best of luck in your own backyard designs.

The Yearly Elf Visit

So I am sure that many of you have heard of The Elf on the Shelf.  Every year this Elf comes to visit the homes of thousands upon thousands of boy and girls in the world.  He is there to remind the kids to be good and to help them remember that Santa is watching.  Parents give the elf a name and put him in various mischievous poses that are often times things you wouldn't want your kids doing anyway.  Every day or every few days he switches what he is doing.

Now personally I like the idea of something to help remind my kids to be good and to bring them some joy but I think this elf looks creepy.  I don't want it in my house and I'm not a fan of much of what parents make it do that their kids see.  So I decided I would come up with something else for my kids.

I decided I would draw some elves for my kids and surprise them with my own version of Elf visitors.  Some are serious like one making a list for Santa, some are silly, and some are just cute.

Every day, from December 1st through Christmas Eve, I take one of the 24 elves I drew and place it somewhere throughout the house.  I have a mix of boy and girl elves and none of them are causing trouble that would be unacceptable for my kids to do.  They are cute and funny and every morning my oldest three kids run through the house looking for the new addition to the elf visitors.  They give them names and it makes my heart feel happy to see my kids so happy.

Now I know that not everyone has the ability to draw anything better than a stick figure but there are plenty of images of elves online you can print out and use should you like this idea.  I took my drawings and backed them on posterboard for durability.  On Christmas morning the elves "gather" on the tree to watch the present opening and festivities and while the kids are distracted I quietly remove them all and hide them.  At some point the kids notice they are gone and I tell them the Elves have gone home until next year.  I have thoughts on drawing a set of Elves for all four of my kids to use in their own homes when they are older but we'll see what happens.  For now I am just glad to be able to put a smile on the faces of my children.

Homemade Sun with Clouds Nightlight

So I decided for my next project I was going to piece together something more functional for my little boy.  He is 16 months old so I decided a nightlight would be something he could look at while going to sleep and enjoy.   First I bought the supplies.  The nightlight itself I found on Amazon while searching for lights with cords as opposed to ones that just plug straight into the wall socket.  Once I had the light I found a simple wire coat hanger to bend to use as my bracket for hanging it on the wall and to build the light around.

I needed something to make the light "sunny" so I hit up my local Michael's craft store.  After looking all over I finally found this yellow plastic.  It is the same type of plastic wrap that people stick gift baskets in.

I got to work with some pliers bending the wire into my desired shape.  I was able to use one hanger to loop around the light, bend it back to give some distance to between the light and the wall.  Then a couple loops for the thumbtacks to hold it up and the bend it back to the front to keep the plastic a good distance away from the light to not let it melt.  You'll find a design you like though it does take some trial and error.  Here is what mine turned out like..

Now I needed my sun to go over the wire frame.  I got some posterboard and cut out a sun shape I thought looked nice.  I used the first one as a stencil to make a second as well.  I used posterboard strips and a stapler to connect it to the wire frame.

The film turned out to be pretty thin so I doubled up on it to make it more yellow and stapled it over the first sun.

Finally I took the second sun and colored it with yellow and orange colored pencils and a yellow highlighter to make it colorful for the when it is looked at during the day.  Glued the second colored sun over the first one already connected.  Here is the final sun.

I hung it up in the room being sure to stretch the cord up the wall and turned it on.  It was to bright in the room though so I decided to cut out some simple posterboard clouds.

Here is the final item.  The picture is dark because it is backlit but even with the clouds it is just about perfect in the room now.  I hope you enjoy this idea and thanks for your views.  

Homemade Skylanders Skystones

So I don't know how many people have kids who are into the popular kids game Skylanders but my kids definitely are in that group.  I have to admit I enjoy the game myself and I think it is a brilliant idea.  For those who don't know basically the kid gets toy figures that when placed on a "Portal" or a game pad allows them to play that character in the game.  

Now in the game there are also a few mini games and my kids love them.  One specific game is called "Skystones"  

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Skystones is a game where you and an opponent fill a 3x3 board with Skystones. The objective is to have more Skystones on the board than you opponent by the time the board is filled up.

To overtake your opponent's Skystone, you must place a stone with more arrows next to their stone. If you place a stone with more arrows against the side of your opponents stone that has lesser arrows, the Skystone with the most arrows will then overtake the lesser stone, and count as a stone for your side. 

Each player only uses five Skystones for each game. Before the game starts, you can change the stones you're holding.  Whoever owns the most Skystones on the board at the end wins.

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Now my kids, when they discovered the game, took time to draw their own pieces because they loved them so much but they didn't hold up well since they were just on paper.  The other day I got an idea on how to make them a more durable version myself.

First thing I did was find the images of all of the different Skystones and copied them into a computer paint program to edit them for detail.  I decided on the general size of each stone as being about 2 inches by 2 inches.  I chose only to make the pieces  have seen my kids actually play with which totals 24 out of a possible 80 Skystone designs.

Next after getting all of the images edited to my liking I printed them out on plain white paper.  I then measured each piece and cut it out.  to make each piece strong and sturdy. I glued them to poster board which I doubled up for thickness.  On the reverse side I put the corresponding piece.  I came up with the idea of using a treasure chest to put them in and was lucky enough to find a chest at a family members home.  Other options would have been EBAY or Amazon.com.

This is what I used.

It measures 2 inches deep inside the box not counting the lid and about 4.5 inches by 2.5 inches inside along the bottom.

I decided to put a divider between the two decks of cards for easier storage and sorting.

Finally I took a piece of plain white paper and cut it to fit the top curved portion of the lid.  Measured it out and created a Skystones Logo as a label for the box.

I printed it out and glued it to the top of the box.  Here is the final result.

My kids love it and the can play a game they love without being on the video game all the time which is nice. If you have any questions feel free to let me know.  And thanks so much for reading.

-Jason