Vinyl Chalkboard decorating

I love chalk boards. I have been dreaming of painting my entire fridge with chalkboard paint for a long time. There's a show on the Disney channel called "Good Luck Charlie" that has a chalkboard fridge as well. When you have an old boring fridge you gotta do something to make it better. I got super excited when I saw this idea on Under the Sycamore, which meant I could put off the long process of painting the entire fridge but still have all the fun! I bought my chalkboard contact paper roll here. I looked all over town for chalk board markers and everyone looks at me like I have three eyes. So I'm gonna have to break down and order some online. Until then we will have fun with old fashioned chalk.

I also replaced my white dry erase board for this sleek, fun, flat chalk board from the contact paper. Now it fits in with my Tuscan theme kitchen more than the big white board.

And here's a shot of our kitchen. It's been a slow and long transformation. It used to have green counters and wood cabinets. I LOVE paint. With it you can transform anything for very little cost.

Below you can see the table that sits our big family for meals. There used to be a green table attached to the wall with 4 green chairs. The old owner was obsessed with green. Our carpet is green and the fans used to be green. The last green left is the carpet in the house. One day....

Below is another new addition Sean added a few months ago that I don't know how I lived without! Now I have more space in my cabinets and I'm not having to rummage through a ton of pots to find the right one and then go looking for the matching top. Below it you will notice the Menu I designed for my family. To see more about it go here. I used to have it hanging on the wall but recently put it in a recipe holder instead.

Live well....Laugh often...Love much

I painted the cabinets beige and then went over them with brown to make it a more Tuscan look.

These bar stools go way back. When I was going away to college my mom and I found these at Salvation Army. They were covered with green leather (what is it with green people?). It must have come from a smoking home because the foam smelled awful. I got new foam, covered them, refinished the wood and here they are still being used 15 years later.

Wall Art

I hung these old clipboards on Friday as a way to display the kids art. They love to bring me pictures more recently and my fridge is only so big (and since I'm a visual person when I look at things I like to have them be clean and this was a much more visually organized way to display them for me.) I got the idea from this boys bedroom. I snagged a few old clipboards my parents house they no longer use. I already had the pictures of the kids hanging so it just made sense to put one clipboard under each person's picture. Of course then I wanted them labeled so very quickly I printed out some letters, cut out black circles and glued them to the clipboards. What's funny about the picture below is that I have kids sissors. All of my adult ones are missing...of course. By the way this was Sydney's first piece of art work. She is always picking up crayons and markers but I had not yet taken the time to sit down with her and let her color. I honestly didn't think she was ready, but my baby girl is growing up fast. Of course mama picked out PINK!

Whitman Family Menu

I plan a menu for our family every week (usually two weeks out so I can get the bulk of the shopping done every two weeks.) I used to have it on some scrap piece of paper and would make my shopping list according to the menu. The problem was that sometimes this little piece of paper with scribbled dinners written on it would go missing and I would be left with my memory, which after 4 kids is not something you want to rely on.

Being the Photoshop junkie that I am I designed our own beautiful Family menu, had it printed on at my photo printer shop and framed it with a regular 8x10 frame. Now I just write our menu on it with a dry erase marker each week.

You might notice the theme each day. We have a theme for each day of the week. This makes coming up with meals easier and its more fun for the family and there's some sort of consistency (which is always key when you have a child with Aspergers.)

Our themes are:
Monday: Italian
Tuesday: Crockpot (we have baseball practice that night and it makes it a lot easier)
Wednesday: Mexican
Thursday: Chicken
Friday: Family Favorites
Saturday: Pizza
Sunday: Breakfast 4 Dinner

I can't take the theme idea as my own. I got it from The Food Nanny and changed it around to fit the needs and tastes of our family.

If you don't feel like making your own just send me $15, your family name and the themes you want for your night (or I can take out the themes) and you will get your own framed Family Menu.

Whitman Family Rules

I have been wanting to create our own Family Rules for a long time now. When I happened upon Pleated Poppy's Family Rules and saw exaxtly what I was looking for.

Instead of creating mine with paper and modpodge I did it digitally on the computer. I have an empty 24x36 frame that I'm going to use and it's been sent off to the printers. I can't wait to get it hung up!!!

Here's our rules:
Always tell the truth and keep your promises
Obey your parents without challenge, excuse or delay
Forgive easily and quickly
Work cheerfully and never give up
Encourage your siblings....share in their joy
Use your manners - Yes, please.....No, thank you
Husband - love your wife daily and Wife: always be by his side
No fussing, no whining
Sing silly, dance crazy, hug often, snuggle up, say I love you
Be on each others team
Be a blessing in this house and out of it
Use Nice words....Ignore dirty words
Too much TV is bad....Too much reading is good
Hands are for hugging not hitting
Bless your food, be grateful, eat together, clean up after yourself
Share everything expect bad ideas
Say your prayers....thank God for this family.

I copied many of the rules from Pleated Poppy's guest post and other examples and created a few of our own. It was hard to narrow down but I'm happy with the final product. Hope it inspires you. If you create one I would love to see it!

Bookshelf makeover

I saw this idea for using rain gutter as a bookshelf and I thought this was going to be perfect for our family. It was so super, super, super easy to do too! I cut and hung this one while dinner was in the oven. :-) This is the bottom bunk and I plan on installing on above the head and also install on the upper bunk as well.

The biggest reason I'm doing it is to make it easier for the boys to put their books away. My boys love to read, especially at bedtime. Boston and Dallas each has a light in their bed and they can read for a little while before going to sleep. But in the morning there is a huge pile of books on the floor and they aren't allowed to go play until they are picked up. And they quickly put them on the bookshelf any way they can get them in there. Of course the perfectionist in me cringes wanting all the books to be sorted by size and standing up straight. Of course the mama in me has learned that perfectionism cannot be expected of my boys.

Problem solved. This new bookshelf makes it possible for them to put them away easily AND they look nice. Another bonus is that it makes it easier for them to find books.
Interested in making your own....check out the tutorial on this blog....

http://raisingolives.com/2009/07/raingutter-book-shelves-tutorial/