Road Trip
So we're driving through Kentucky, and oh man, things are crazy down here. I mean, in Kentucky you can get breakfast at Arby's. These Carhartt-clad Kentucky hipsters take the bike lane thing to whole...
View ArticleWinter unraveling
I'm sitting in shirtsleeves somewhere in Charleston, South Carolina and a few dozen voices on the phone screen are complaining about how cold it is back home. We came here, in part, to escape the...
View ArticleDown South: Seen
Just a few pictures from our trip down south (Lexington-Knoxville-Asheville-Columbia-Charleston).
View ArticleThe Honorable Samurai, Age Five
It turns out it's not so easy to explain the concept of honor to a five-year-old. This is one of the wonders of parenthood: knowledge that you have spent decades taking for granted suddenly requires...
View ArticleBroken May
When your kid breaks a bone, everyone wants to know how it happened. Like with divorce or some freak accident, there is a natural, selfish curiosity that surfaces when someone else breaks something: we...
View ArticleKids at the Jeffries Projects, 1953
Several readers have sent me links to this great image taken forty years ago in a Detroit suburb. It reminded me of a picture from my personal collection of old press images (found at a local book...
View ArticleHere Be Dragons
I started this project a few weeks back as a way to use up some smaller leather scraps I had sitting around. I twisted them into dragon's teeth, tendrils, and horns and designed the dragon mask so the...
View ArticleBack to School Project: Favorite-Animal Lunchboxes
My wife puts a note in our daughter's lunch every day. Our eldest still has some anxiety about school, and the notes are always written to help her conquer some of her challenges, to let her know how...
View ArticleMishemokwa
They were both wearing shirts of that orange only hunters, convicts, and ten-year-old boys can get away with. I didn't know much about them---just what you can glean from conversations between...
View ArticleAttention West Michigan Folks
I always feel awkward promoting stuff, but here goes: I will be giving a talk at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts next Wednesday (October 9, 2013) at 7:00 p.m. to launch the Kalamazoo Art League's 59th...
View ArticleHalloween 2013: Anubis and King Tut
The kids decided to go with an ancient Egyptian theme this year. I loved the idea of taking a Halloween classic like a mummy costume and adding a bit of craftsmanship and educational quality to it...
View ArticleUp North: Seen (summer & winter)
1. Like most Michiganders we try to go up north every year and this past summer we rented a little farmhouse in one of the nicest corners of the state and we liked it so much we rented it again for...
View Article2013 Sweet Juniper Holiday Card by Phoebe Wahl
This year we had the pleasure of working with the talented Phoebe Wahl [portfolio, blog, tumblr, etsy] who created this custom family portrait for our annual holiday card. We've been fans of her work...
View ArticleLiterary Giants
Hello all. Most of my blogging energy has been absorbed by another project for quite some time now. Otherwise things are pretty much the same here. I've really been enjoying the liberation that comes...
View ArticleHalloween 2014: The Big Friendly Giant
My daughter is a tiny thing. There's no use denying it. At school recitals and other events we see how the top of her head hardly reaches the chin of the next shortest kid in her class. She doesn't...
View ArticleHalloween 2014: Cyrano de Bergerac
This past summer my son wanted to learn to fence. At six he was still too young for most of the area fencing classes and camps taught by people who actually know what they're doing, so all he had was...
View Article2014 Sweet Juniper Holiday Card by. . . sweet Juniper
This year our daughter asked if she could draw the family portrait for our holiday card. She worked very hard and we're proud as heck to share the result. Hiring a favorite illustrator to do a family...
View ArticleWerewolf in Sheep's Clothing
My son decided to be a werewolf for Halloween. So I made him this mask out of felted wool. Then I made him those arms out of felted wool. Then I made him wear his wool suit and take some pictures in...
View ArticleEye of newt, and toe of frog
My daughter wanted to be a witch for Halloween. Not a striped-sock witch, she said. A real-looking witch. A creepy one. The classics are classic for a reason, I said (and got to work). We found a...
View Article2015 Sweet Juniper Holiday Card by Yinfan Huang
It has become our tradition to commission an artist every year to do a family portrait for our holiday card. Part of the fun is looking at the portfolios of so many amazingly talented illustrators out...
View ArticleThe Twelve Labors of Little Hercules
He says he wants to be Hercules for Halloween, so I say let's start the lionskin. Lots of heroes wore lionskins, I tell him. Samson wrestled a lion with his bare hands. Gilgamesh killed lots of lions...
View ArticleHalloween 2016: Half Pint
Last summer she decided she wanted to be Laura from the Little House books for Halloween (after seeing a woman playing the role of Laura Ingalls Wilder at Greenfield Village). I am proud to say I had...
View Article2016 Sweet Juniper Holiday Card by Claire Bédué
Happy Holidays to you all out there. The Christmas holiday really crept up on us this year and we're busy sewing and hammering to get everything done in time. This year we are so happy to share the...
View ArticleHalloween 2017: The Ghost of Harry Houdini
The magician and escape artist Harry Houdini died in Detroit 91 years ago, on Halloween. Before his death, Houdini had added "spiritual debunker" to his resume; he was disgusted by mediums who used...
View ArticleHalloween 2017: William Shakespeare
I asked my daughter to write her own explanation of why she wanted to be William Shakespeare for Halloween. "When I went to camp last summer, I chose Shakespeare as my minor. Not because I was already...
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