Chore Charts

I have been wanting to make a 'chore' chart for awhile now. Mostly because I can't remember to brush my toddler's teeth and thought this would help me get on the ball. My inspiration came when I saw THESE.

Super cute. So here's my take on them.

I used a clipboard from the dollar store.

Covered it with Mod Podge and scrapbook paper.

Made their names and hot glued them to the metal clip.

Printed off chores on cardstock and stuck them under the clip (that way they can be easily switched out whenever chores change).

Then painted some stars and adhered them to the sides and bottom with tiny magnets that I painted (and hot glued on - of course :)

Finally, hot glued some magnets to the back so that they hang nicely on the side of my fridge.

Ta-da! Easy and super cute - now hopefully some chores will get done around here - I'm thinking mommy and daddy need one as well :)

holiday frames

After getting a new bookcase I soon got the urge to fill it with decorations. My friend used burlap and stamps to create cute frames here. So I took an old frame I had and sprayed it and distressed it (free).

I took her idea and decided to use the stamps (already had) as well but put mine on some fabric (79 cents for lots of it) I found. This one says fall but I also did one for Halloween using scrapbook paper I already had.

Now I have only one frame but can interchange the center to coordinate with various holidays. I love having decorations that stay in the same place all year but can be slightly altered to celebrate all year long!

how tall are you...

I want to make this

I'm going to make it!

I think it's absolutely adorable and would be the perfect addition to our basement.

Go check it out!

Taggie

This past weekend we went to my mom's house and I mentioned that I possibly wanted to try and make baby girl a taggie blanket because she is so in love with tags right now.

My mom immediately said, why don't we go downstairs and make one real quick?

I hoped on that offer and so before I knew it we were browsing through her plethora of fabrics and ribbon and came up with this:

Things you need:

- 2 pieces of fabric cut the same size (any size you want)

- enough ribbon to make as many tags as you want to fit around the edges

Directions:

1. Lay out your fabric.

2. Lay out ribbon, fold in half, and pin to one piece of fabric.

3. Sew straight across one piece of fabric adhering the ribbon to it.

4. Lay the other piece of fabric on top and sew across each side.

I love how it turned out. It was way easy, cheap, and oh so quick to make (under 15 minutes)!

Thanks mom for knowing how to sew and letting me scrounge around all your crafting supplies :)

Kid Wall

Here is the most recent update on our basement transformation. I have had this 'vision' of what I wanted this huge wall to look like forever - and now it's finally all come together. My pour hubby is hoping my project list will come to an end sometime because it always ends up being partly his 'to do' as well!


The blue wall is painted Pale Spruce from Color Place (Walmart brand). Then I bought 5 unfinished wood frames from Micheal's. I painted them brown, distressed them, added some cute scrapbook paper, and finished it off with some white wood letters (also from Micheal's which I hot glued onto the frame). All together (with all of my hundreds of 40% off coupons) it cost me a little over 30 bucks.

Under the monogrammed frames are 3 - 3ftx3ft squares.

The first one is a whiteboard. I bought shower board from Home Depot and the entire 4x8 sheet cost under 12 bucks. They cut it to size for me (love those guys!) and I finished it off with molding (that cost around 50 cents per foot) that I painted brown.

The middle square is a magnetic board. I bought two pieces of sheet metal (around 8 dollars each), used a ribbon to hide the seam, and finished it off with the molding. Here is my sweetie modeling just how she uses it!
The third and final square is a flannel board. I used leftover shower board that I purchased for the white board (free), flannel (from JoAnns that cost around 2 bucks), and spray adhesive. I finished it off to match the rest with the brown molding. As you can tell the girly loves it already!
In between each of the squares are art boards. They are 3 foot boards with 3 clips adhered to them to display the kid's artwork. Soon enough they will also have their names on them with some vinyl lettering. We're making them for our church craft day so here's my friend's cute completed ones. Just click here to see hers along with directions!

Now - on to the other 3 walls... :)

Basement Couch

First off, I have to start this post by telling you of our basement dillema. I've been slowly completing some projects down there to make it more of a place that I want to hang out in (since it's the playroom I'm down there a lot with the girls). Lately we decided there was no way a sectional or even a couch and loveseat were going to fit nicely in there. They would just be huge and really limit the playing space. Needless to say I was kind of disappointed to make this realization because I wanted some type of seating for when we're down there.

Then this past weekend one of my favorite stores (Goodwill) was having 50% off EVERYTHING! So needless to say I knew I just had to find something :) As soon as I walk into any resale place I always go straight towards the big items to check out what they've got. I immediately saw this:
A couch that was butt ugly and looked like it came straight from someone's great grandma's house. I was seriously considering buying it - I was meeting a friend there and as soon as she came I asked what she thought. She gave me the reassurance that this was a good buy - plus you can return at Goodwill (one of the main reasons I LOVE this place!) so I went for it.

Then even better - we discovered it has a hideaway bed in it!!! It was my lucky day :)

So twenty bucks later we were loading this beauty into the back of my van. One Walmart slip cover later and some throw pillows I took from our living room and VIOLA! One of my new favorite parts of our basement (it's so much nicer nursing and snuggling to watch kid shows on this than the floor!)

So stop in to your local Goodwill store! The money goes to a good cause and you just never know what you might run across :)

Photo blocks

We made these last year at a craft day and I think they are just about the cutest, cheapest, and easiest things out there! I made one for my grandma and even she loved it!

1. Have your lumber cut to whatever size you would like your photo block to be.
2. Print off a picture to whatever size is appropriate for your wood.
3. Paint, stain, sand your wood.
4. Modge Podge it and then apply your picture.
5. Let it dry.
6. Apply some Modge Podge over it.
7. Accessorize it however you want.

These are adorable and aren't just for pictures. You can add scrapbook paper, vinyl lettering, etc. - just about whatever you can think off!