Paint Chip Calendar

Organization.

We had an older couple in our congregation over for coffee one afternoon not too long ago. In order to keep Hadassah occupied while we chatted, I tempted her with something from our craft cupboard - a conveniently located cupboard in our peninsula that faces the dining room that I've filled with buckets of craft things. There's a puzzle bucket (filled with bags of puzzle pieces), a bucket full of crayons, pencil crayons and kids scissors, a coloring book bucket and and "no craft bucket". (Not sure how it claimed that name...it's just what Hadassah knows as the bucket she's not allowed to pull out and use unless I'm around to give permission and keep an eye out...glue, finger paints, glitter, etc.) Neatly (ok...not always neatly) stacked beside these buckets is construction paper and the puzzle boards/bases. Anyway - the gentlemen visiting noticed my cupboard from his seat and exclaimed "Wow! You're organized!"

I chuckled and said "Well...I try."

Because who's the most scattered brained person E.V.E.R.???

Yes. My hand it up. It's {most definitely} me.

My husband claims I make lists to keep track of my lists. My response? I have to.

Well, as I mentioned in this post, I've been getting ready to implement some more organization in our house in an attempt to keep things running smoothly and to keep me from forgetting...well...everything. (who promised to play piano at a nursing home and totally forgot? Yes, that's my hand up. Again. Please don't weasel any more confessions out of me!)

One of those organization implementations? My Paint Chip Calendar - inspired via Pinterest. (Oh Pinterest, how I love thee!) Here's the sneak peek I gave you a couple of posts ago:

I knew I wanted dry-erase capabilities and I knew that glass would do the trick. So I wandered through my basement and attic (where I stash unused goodies with potential) until I came across this frame. A couple coats of paint from Martha Stewart's samples (on clearance @ Home Depot over a month ago...I might've stocked up...) and the frame was ready to go. Now. What to do about the calendar part.

Thank you Pinterest! The frame was too big to simply design a calendar, print it off on my printer and stick it in the frame. So what other options were there? A quick search on pinterest and I had the answer...paint chips! For example:

via

In comes Martha Stewart again. (what can I say? I like her paint line...) I grabbed some scrapbook paper from my favorite local shop The Paper Pickle, used it for the back, punched out squares from the MS paint chips and started lining 'em up. The Paper Pickle also had some letter stickers on clearance, so I grabbed a pack to spell out "month". And another piece of scrapbook paper helped out with a to-do list on the side. The results?:

I'm really excited about how it turned out. It's a little difficult to get a good picture of it, due to the glare from almost every angle...but you get the idea.

Another bit of organization I'll be implementing come September is a way to keep Hadassah's Sunday school song and verse, as well as another weekly memorization tidbit, always available. Memorizing things is not easy for me, so I thought if it were out in the open somewhere, I'd more easily go over it more often, helping both her and me! I've Mod Podged some fabric to clipboards and hung them around the corner from this calendar, in just the right spot so that when Hadassah and I sit down for our morning devotions in Tim's chair, we can easily see what we need to learn and go over them. Here's a shot of them all ready to go: (the craft cupboard I was talking about? Bottom right)

What do you think? Will it work? Here's hoping that this calendar keeps me from forgetting things! Like I said - the most scatterbrained person ever lives in this house. That list of lists?

Oh so necessary.

What are YOU doing to keep on top of life's events and stay organized? I'd love to hear it!



Linking to: Jennifer Rizzo, Simple Home Life, & The Shabby Nest