Happy Family

Currently we have a bulletin board on a little wall in our kitchen that is connected to the dining room.

We've had it a while so the cork in it is pretty hole-y. I used to write Sunday-Monday on the dry erase part to tell what was going on that week with practices, games, and appointments. This summer I have been totally lazy about writing on it at all!

With school starting, I knew I needed to get my act together. My step-son, Karch, is now a junior and the kicker for our football team. My son Colin is going to junior high (help me) and plays on the 7th grade football team, and Riley is going into second grade and plays soccer! Needless to say, we are going to be busy. The little cork board and magnet-mounted-fridge calendar weren't going to cut it.

I totally changed how this little wall between our dining room and kitchen functions.

Enter the Board Dudes Dry Erase Calendar Board. Love it. Recently Jen from I Heart Organizing (AMAZING site) featured many of "The Dudes" products. I found my calendar board for $15.99 at Hobby Lobby. No, I did not have a coupon, but if you did, that would be a deal. The board is large and magnetic.

I wasn't a fan of the white frame so I decided to give it a little character and paint it. I painted it this pretty green, then used a sanding block to distress it some.

To take my board one step further, I typed out numbers 1-31 onto colored cardstock and laminated them for durability. I put a tiny piece of magnet on the back. I did this because I did not want to write the numbers in ....I knew they would get smeared when we wrote on the board. With the magnets, each new month all I have to do is move the numbers where they need to go.

At the bottom of the board, I used Command hooks (the small, clear ones) to attach to the bottom. I did not want to drill holes in the board in case in the future I don't use hooks anymore. Command hooks allow me to take them off without the damage. I used chipboard scrapbooking letters that I already had to label each hook with our three kids' initials. (We have four kiddos, but one is at college)

I used plastic sleeves since they protect and have the holes on the side to put on the hooks to store the kids' schedules and other information that may pertain to the calendar. Even though events and times are written on the calendar, sometimes I need to refer to the info. the coaches hand out like away-game directions. This way the information is right there and I don't have to go to another place to find it. Also, the boys like to have information, too, and they don't need to ask me where their papers are hiding.

As the school year starts, I may end up putting each of my children's school information sheets on upcoming events in here, too, since you can put many sheets in these protectors. This way if they are looking for something, they know they can go to their hook and look in their plastic sleeve for it.

I also put up one of my frame-turned-message boards {see my post about how to make one HERE} where we write items that we are out of and need to get at the store. (And cleverly spelled out "GET" with the same scrapbooking letters I already had that I used for the kids' initials) This is a beauty because if you have a phone with a camera, you can just take a picture of your list and you have it at the store with you! I did this recently and was waaaaaay pleased with myself for thinking of it. :) I used the curtain tie-back that came with curtains I have to hang the frame.

To complete our little family information station wall, I added a paper flower I made out of a paper bag (see tutorial on THIS great site), a funky little wreath I had, and a framed "Love Your Nest" print I made. I already had all of these items or all of things that I needed to make them, so the only thing on this wall that I bought was the dry erase board!

As we start to use our Information Center, I may need to tweak it or add to it to make it more user-friendly for our family. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and feel much more on top of things for when the school year starts.