Children's Art Gallery

Having a cluttered refrigerator front drive me crazy. It can make my kitchen look messy even if it is clean and picked up. I've been looking and thinking for a long time about how to best display my kids' wonderful art creations without sacrificing on style.

I happened upon a blog post a while back at Just Another Hang Up where Suzanne had made a gallery wall for her grandkids' art using frames that she repurposed into pin boards. I loved the idea and made a few modifications to suit my style. If you're interested in making a wall of your own, head over to her blog to see how she made it.

 

Welcome to the Street Fine Art Gallery!

I chose to spray paint collected frames Rustoleum's Heirloom White, then use a small amount of  wood stain on a rag to antique them a bit and draw out their beautiful details. Once dried, I attached cork to the frame backing or a piece of cardboard using spray adhesive. I got some of my cork on a roll at Michael's and some as sheets at JoAnn's. Once the cork was adhered, I did the same thing with the muslin. 

After they were all ready, I popped them back into the frames, without the glass, and hung them on the wall. I used a similar method to hang the frames as Suzanne did, except I cut out the frame-sized pieces from butcher paper. Old wrapping paper would work too. Once I had them placed on the wall in the right spot using tape, I hung the nails right through the paper where I noted the hanger and pulled the paper off. I also used a little bit of art putty to keep the frames in place so they wouldn't lean to one side.

The kids and I had a fun time making some fall crafts, most of which came from Pinterest. I chose to buy my vinyl sign from Whitney's Etsy store, Just The Frosting. Whitney was fantastic! When I contacted her to see if she could make a custom piece for me, she responded immediately. She sent me a mock up of what my sign would look like and once I ordered, she had it shipped out the next day. My vinyl arrived within two days of shipping with great instructions on how to hang it. I would highly recommend Just The Frosting for any vinyl needs you have. She has great customer service and an amazing price!

My kids are thrilled to see their art hanging on our wall with so much fanfare. I'm thrilled to have my refrigerator back. ;)

Storing School Paperwork

School papers can quickly get out of control. It's a good idea to be ruthless when throwing papers away since you can't keep everything. But what about those special papers through the year that really highlight the special things? Things like report cards, a few art projects, an essay or other writing sample, and special projects. My favorite go to organizer is a binder, but a binder can quickly fill up. Do you really want 5 binders for each of your children just for their saved schoolwork? Probably not.

IHeart Organizing has a post with a great idea to store all of your childrens' schoolwork in one place. Enter the hanging file box, with cute labels and a personalized cover sheet!

Head on over to Jen's blog to get this and other great organizational ideas!

Family Organization Binder

One of the things that keeps me (and our family) most organized is our Family Organization Binder. In this 2-inch binder I store everything that our family needs in one place.

I have dividers for the following:

• Meals and Menus
• Home Management
• School and Activities
• Family
• Health
• Address and Phone Numbers
• Finance
• Emergency

Every bit of important information goes into this binder so that if we ever needed to evacuate our house, everything of importance is in this one place. It also serves as reference and storage for all of those papers from school, work, etc.

Two of my most used areas are my grocery list and weekly meal plan. My husband knows where to find the grocery list, so if he uses anything up, it goes right on the list. I have my grocery list organized by the aisles in my favorite grocery store, and most purchased items are already typed in so I just need to check them off. This saves a ton of time each week. No more slips of paper laying around.

Another area we use often is our Medical Log which keeps track of the childrens' illnesses and medications. It's all in one spot, dated, so that when we need to speak with our doctor, we have an accurate account of temperatures, medications, symptoms, dates, etc. I also never have to try and remember (or communicate with another caregiver) if I have given a medication on a certain day. Once the medication is dispensed, the date and time go on the log. This has been invaluable. I now have almost three years of medical history on my children.

To help you get started on your own organizational binder, I've compiled some documents that you can download and print. Some of them you'll simply insert into your binder and others you can fill in. The first file, Family Organization Binder, contains three pages that list each divided section that you might want to have, along with a list of documents that might go into that section.

Feel free to download any of these documents to get started. Make this binder work for you by including any information or documents that you feel will help keep your home (most likely your kitchen) paper free. If you have any questions, post them in the comments and I will respond!

Downloadable documents:

• Family Organization Binder
• Grocery List
• Meals This Week
• Grocery Price Book
• Family Information
• Pharmacy Information
• Medical Log
• Homeowners Insurance
• Vehicle Information
• Contact Information
• Emergency Information
• In Case of Emergency

Back-to-School Pictures & Scrapbooking

For some, school has already started. For others, school is about to begin. Don't forget to document, through words and pictures, the school process. The first day, Back-to-School Night, their classroom, backpack, teacher, friends, etc. It's all important. It's all worthy of remembering and documenting.

 (Photo Credit)

One really good post to help you remember what pictures you should take on their first day comes from The Crafting Chicks. They have a great "bucket list" of photos that you'll want to remember to take on that important first day.

Another thing to think about is how to you store all of their pictures and paraphernalia. I LOVE Cathy Zielske's clean and simple designs. She takes the fuss out of scrapbooking, but gives you such great style. Her school albums are fantastic. Homemade, but doable. She even has digital templates for those of you who'd like to use Photoshop.

If you haven't started documenting you child's school experiences, start this year. Be intentional about what you want to save and remember. Don't save everything. Just a few things each year that are representative of your child in that grade.

Command Center #1

It's time to get ready to go back to school! Before sending your kids out the door, make sure you have a good system in place for backpacks, lunch boxes, papers to sign, etc.

 This picture shows a creative use of a small wall: A family calendar for everyone to see at a quick glance, baskets for each child/family member to house their shoes or backpack, a file tray to collect papers and folders that need to be returned, a white board for notes with a place to hang notes as well, and some pens and pencils so you'll have them handy when you need to sign important papers.

Organizing Fabric

If you are a sewer, quilter, fabric lover, or if you just have some extra fabric lying around that you've used for one project or another, you know that fabric can be a bugger to store. Even if you fold it up neatly and stack it in a closet or on a shelf, it can still look messy and be hard to handle.

The Little Green Bean has the answer for you. Using some foam core board and an exacto knife, she created her own little mini bolts of fabric and lined them up in an old bookshelf. What an easy way to create order out of chaos!

Key Art

One neat way to organize those old keys that you can't seem to let go of is to display them in a frame. Young House Love shows how they took keys from their old apartments and first home and put them in a frame with a handwritten description.

No more random keys stored in a junk drawer that you've forgotten what they go to!