Meal Planning Board ~ TUTORIAL

I'm working on a few posts to catch everyone up on our recent adventures ... until they go "live" I've posted my Meal Planning Board Tutorial over at my DIY blog, OH SO Chichi. Enjoy!

Kitchen Command Center ~ Finally!

I started drafting up plans for my little Kitchen Command Center a few month ago ... and FINALLY ... I've finished! As I've said before, the hardest part about living in Europe and having a DIY addiction is actually finding the materials. This is one of those projects where I spent weeks trying to find the right materials and waiting for them to arrive. When all of my supplies came in ... I swear, the skies parted and a little beam of light glistened through my kitchen window ... I may have heard angels singing (or it could have been my iPod).

So here it is ....

Kitchen Command Center

Do you see the little ray of light shining into my kitchen? Yes, this was a happy day!

Our Kitchen Command Center features a Meal Planning Board, Dry Erase Note Board, Magnet Boards and Chore Charts ... it has everything we need to plan out our week.

The Meal Planning Board was originally inspired by Charity over at All Things Beautiful. I'll be sharing a tutorial for my Meal Planning Board later this week over at OH SO Chichi, so please stop over.

I divided our meals into 3 categories; "favorites", "fast", and "new"

I embellished good 'ole clothespins to display our meals for the week (Sun - Sat). I've shared a tutorial on how to make your own "Not Your Average Clothespins" here.

The fabric makes me smile ... and crave sweets.

A simple-to-make DIY Dry Erase Note Board for important reminders, "to-do" lists, and loving notes to the hubby and kiddo! The tutorial for this is also coming later this week over at OH SO Chichi, but you can get a pretty good idea from one of my previous projects here.

My personal favorite ... the Magnet Boards and Chore Charts! I purchased these beauties on Etsy from a wonderful shop, Abbie's House. Now I know every DIY'er has that urge to make everything themselves, but I believe in supporting others in their artistry too. I {heart} handmade! When I saw these Chore Charts at Abbie's House, there was no hesitation ... they were clean, simple, and beautifully made. She was also so kind as to create two, custom "blank" Magnet Boards to coordinate with the Chore Charts I ordered. She's great ... go check her out!

I love them so much that ... you see the top Chore Chart titled "Jaime & Al" ... that's my Chore Chart (ok, so I share with the hubby ... but we know the truth)! So much cuter than scribbling out my chores on a piece of paper ... you're NEVER too old for a Chore Chart! :o)

Abbie's House has a cute selection of "chore magnet" bundles. This Magnet Board keeps all of our "extra" chores that don't have a home under the "to do" or "done" list for the day.

The 2nd Magnet Board is for general use. I clip up mail that needs to be taken to the post, permission slips, etc. I made large, 1 1/8" cover-button magnets in coordinating fabrics to match the Meal Planning Board and Dry Erase Board. You can find my Cover Button Tutorial here.

... and one last look at the Kitchen Command Center. It makes me smile every day!

Find out how I hung everything, here!

Not Your Average Clothes Pin 2

I just posted a really simple and quick project to re-purpose and re-style your average clothespin ... making it oh so functionally cute ... over at OH SO Chichi!

Not Your Average Clothespin 2

This is ramping up for the reveal of my Kitchen Command Center project that I started in December!

Scrabble Tile Decor

I randomly purchased a hand-blown glass Chicken at a Bizarre last weekend ... I know, right!? Let me tell you ... I don't "do" knick-knacks or random decorative purchases. So you can imagine when I walked into the house and showed my hubby our new "chicken" he seriously thought it was some kind of joke ... a chicken? I don't know, maybe it was the color ... but this little guy stole my heart. It was the fastest and most spontaneous purchase I may have ever made!

Moving along ... I needed to find a home for "Peep". I thought on top of our old wine barrel would be a great place. As I struggled to decorate this little corner, my kiddo pulled out the Scrabble box ... the inspiration was right there in his sticky little hands! I grabbed a really cool empty wine bottle that I had kept from over a year ago, pulled out a few tiles, dumped the rest in the bottle and voila! Then I decided it needed a little more color. I grabbed a bottle of craft paint, applied a thin layer and then ... VOILA! I love how something so incredibly simple can really make an impact. P.S.... Do you like the little love note to my hubby I snuck in there

Before (left) and After (right)

A few strokes of craft paint and 5-minutes later we were done ...

Scrabble Tile Letters with a Blue Tile Holder

"U R MY FAVORITE" ... a little love note to the hubby ... think he'll notice? The extra letter tiles are in the old wine bottle that is also used as a bookend for our Wine Journal. Maybe the hubby will spell out a new note occasionally ... hint, hint.

Re-purposed wine bottle turned decorative

... let's not forget the inspiration behind it all. A chicken named Peep.

Decorative {Documenting Your Travels} Map

This is one of my favorite "decorative documentation" projects in our house. This project can be done with a World Map, Country Map, or State Map to fit your personal travel journeys!

We are fortunate and blessed to be living in an area where European travel is easy and quite affordable. If you look over to my sidebar under "Our Destinations", you'll see we've done quite a bit of traveling in the last 2 years. Traveling around Europe when you live in Europe is near the equivalent of simply exploring your "home-state" in the U.S. We're talking ... Paris is only a 4-hour drive, Rome is a $30 plane ticket, the Netherlands is a 4-hour drive, Austria is 4-hours away ... you get my drift. So as I said, most of our destinations are just a simple drive or a cheap plane ticket away.

We wanted a simple yet decorative way to document our travels as a family. This Travel Map is by no means my original idea ... in fact, as a pilot, my husband's flying unit usually has one of these hanging in their building ... just not as "pretty"! At a semi-recent spouses' meeting, the host had a decorative version in her home and as I wiped the drool off my chin, I said ... "this is it"! That night I hopped on Amazon and found a 36" x 40" antique-style, laminated world map and ordered it immediately. Shortly after it arrived we took it to get framed and adhered to foam poster board (a good DIY project) and then found the perfect spot for it in our home. I would have loved to do this as a full-blown DIY project but we have a hard time finding the right supplies here.

Now, I have to admit ... the hubby was not really on board with this little project until he pushed-in the first map tack ... then he was quite excited to step back and see the beauty of the project! This is a great conversation piece when you have guests over and also great for the kids .. and to be honest, Al and I have spent a lot of time just looking and reminiscing about the places we've been has a family.

Decorative {Documenting Your Travels} Map

Supplies

World Map or U.S. Map
Map Tacks
Foam Board
Custom Frame

We used 1/16th map tacks to mark the cities we've lived in and the cities we've explored as a family. We decided not to mark the places we've traveled individually; just our family travel.

We didn't realize how much time we've spent on the East coast! It's time to venture "out West" when we move back to the states.

Taking a step back to get an idea of size and scale.

Thanks to my awesome husband for just "trusting me on this one"!

I'm linking this to ...

DIY Jewelry Tree

On my most recent trip back to the "states", Mom and I hit JoAnn Fabrics (whoop!). The hardest part about living overseas and having an addiction to DIY projects is the ability to find the supplies you need. I usually end up ordering on-line and waiting .... waiting ... waiting for the delivery ... or I make a list of projects and supplies then wait until I travel back to the U.S. and make a GIGANTIC purchase! Either method requires waiting ... and I don't like waiting!

Anyway ... I found this Valentine Tree at JoAnn's for $4.99 plus 40% off ... yippee! When I saw it I immediately thought "jewelry organizer". My only regret is that I didn't buy more! A few coats of black paint and the transformation from Valentine Tree to Jewelry Tree was complete ....

Supplies

Valentine Tree (JoAnn Fabrics is having 70% their Valentine decorations ... so go! go! go!)
Black Paint (I used spray paint)

Jewelry Tree

I place my "everyday jewelry" on the tree for safekeeping and quick access

Before ... Valentine Decoration (ho-hum)

After ... Sophisticated Jewelry Tree (cute!)

Top to bottom ...
(no, I don't keep my jewelry on the floor by our wine crates ... this was just the best lighting in the house)

The kiddo came over while I was taking photos and said "oh, nice" ... nothing like a little approval from the little one!

Then he decided I needed to wear ALL my jewelry ... so sweet!

I'm linking this to ...

Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Show Of Your Stuff @ Fireflies and Jellybeans
Sugar & Spice and Everything Nice @ Seven Thirty Three
Free For All Friday @ Sassy Sites
Saturday Soiree @ A Little Lovely
Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff

Interchangeble DIY Dry Erase Board

Originally inspired by Lynette over at Get Your Craft On; I finally got around to making a few Dry Erase Marker Boards this Christmas! Did you know that glass makes a great dry-erase surface?! I changed up the materials a bit to give it my own spin; this is literally a 5-minute craft! These make a great last-minute Christmas gift!

I used double sided scrapbook paper so you can switch out the paper whenever you're in the mood for a fresh look. Simply keep the other papers in the frame behind the front paper and you can do a switch-a-roo in seconds! I bought a scrap pack that came with the tag and used my Sizzix to cut the letters "n-o-t-e-s" to embellish.

I have several variations, including interchangeable "embellishments" so stay tuned for more.

Materials

Picture Frame - I used an 8 1/2 x 11
Scrapbook Paper
Embellishments
Dry Erase Marker

DIY Marker Board w/ Interchangeable Papers

Make sure your other papers still coordinate with your embellishment!

4 looks in 1

I'm linking this project to

Sumo's Sweet Stuff (Market Yourself Monday)
Today's Creative Blog (Get Your Craft On)