How Crazy Is Your Week?

A friend wanted a week-at-a-glance calendar to keep track of all her family's weekly activities.  Between three children in a combination of sports, scouts, study sessions, play dates, and church activities she was starting to feel overwhelmed.  Add to that her exercise classes, book club, and volunteer work, and her husband's (random) part time job and it was getting a little impossible to keep track of who was supposed to be where on what day.

I suggested a dry erase frame.  I have a 16x20 inch frame with a vinyl calendar grid.  Every family member has their own color, so I can easily see the week's events:

I also have an 11x14 inch frame in my kitchen for menu planning.  Whereas my calendar has no backing (the glass is glued to the frame), I chose to frame some colorful fabric.  I also added chipboard letters, buttons, and homemade fabric flowers to dress it up.  Unfortunately I just realized I do not have a final picture with my lettering, I added the days of the week in a dark turquoise color.

My friend opted for a cute idea she found online, and I absolutely adore it!  She picked out a frame with seven openings and asked for colorful paper and vinyled days of the week.  It came out super cute.  I think this idea would be equally cute for a menu board, or with each window having a name of a family member rather than a week day.  I have also seen seven windowed frame collages arranged as clusters rather than in a row so don't let this large frame scare you.  Here are the before and after pictures:

 

Custom Work - Decorating for Guests

We sure love when family comes to visit. It doesn't happen often because we are so far south and no one seems to want to vacation in the hot, humid climate. So when a grandma comes to visit it is an especially big deal! My boys have named the guest room "The Grandma Room." I thought that was so cute, we officially named the room using vinyl. And when my mother came to visit over Christmas, I let the boys put red hearts anywhere they pleased. They even put hearts on the door knob! :)

Vinyl can also be used to help your guests, not just welcome them. A few years back, a grandmother generously offered to watch my children while my husband and I vacationed for 10 days. I knew that she would feel lost in our new house, and that she wouldn't be able to talk to us on a regular basis based on our travel plans. So I labeled drawers and cabinets to help her navigate the kitchen, dress the kids, and find important supplies like diapers and towels.

You can customize your cabinets, drawers, bins, canisters, and any other smooth surface. You can pick almost any type true font (there are thousands free on the internet!), the size of the font, and pick colors that match your decorating scheme. You may also choose to label with pictures, this is a great organizing tool for children's rooms and play areas.
And the application is a breeze! You do not have to apply each letter individually, your designs will be coated with transfer tape. Simply peel off the tape with the design, place the design on your surface, and burnish with a credit card or bowl scraper. You will then be able to carefully peel away the transfer tape and your design will stay in place until you decide you are ready for a change.