DIY Skateboard Swing

Hi everyone, here is a quick blog post showing how to make one of these cool skateboard swings- great for older kids and a really quick and easy backyard project!

You will need

* a skateboard deck

*2 pieces of dowel approx 20cm long each for the 'handles'

*a rope - ours was approx 10 metres long- cut this in half for each side of the swing

 (it all depends on the height of your branch so you may need less or more rope than ours)

Pic one

1. Drill a hole at each end of the pieces of dowel the same width if not a bit bigger than your piece of rope

2. Drill 2 holes at one end of the skateboard deck- you can see in the photo above where the holes are (where the rope has been threaded through and knotted.) Do the same at the other end of the deck. (The other holes on the deck are from the wheels)

Pic two

Pic three

3. Use a lighter to burn the ends of each piece of rope to stop the rope fraying and for threading through the holes. Thread one of your 5 metres approx pieces of rope through the holes underneath the deck so it looks like the pic above with equal length of rope coming out of each hole. Tie a knot as in Pic one to keep the deck stable. 

4. Do the same on the other end of your deck

Pic four

5. Thread each end of your pieces of rope through the holes you drilled into your dowel. We put our dowel about a metre up from the deck. You could make it lower or higher depending on the height of your children.  (Ours are 3, 5 and 7- the handles are probably a little too high for our 3 year old). 

Tie a knot above and below each piece of dowel where you have threaded your rope through to keep the handles stable.

6.  Loop each piece of rope over a branch and tie securely. Our deck is about 30 cm approx above the ground.

7. Done- swing time!

Thanks for reading, feels good to be getting back into some blogging again :)

Megan

ABC's in the garden

We've been spending a lot of time in the garden lately and one of the things I really wanted to do was a little garden bed for Amelie. We actually bought the raised bed last summer and it's just sat next to our vege garden all year looking very sad and empty!  Finally a few weekends ago we got some top soil and compost and filled it up ready for planting. It was neat planning with Amelie what she would like to plant and going off to the garden centre together.  She chose a pansy in her favourite colour, a cherry tomato,  two strawberry plants and some marigold seedlings.

I remembered seeing ages ago (in a gardening magazine I think) a grandmother that had spelt out her grandaughter' s name using flowers which I thought was such a neat idea.  So we used the marigolds to plant a letter A which she absolutely loves. Everyday for the last couple of weeks she has been out there checking on her 'A' and telling me how many flowers have 'popped' out.

You could use flowers to make little pictures in the garden too- like a love heart , a star  or a flower made of flowers!

♡☆❋

Will have to try growing them from seed next- so far all I've managed is some cress!

Megan