Friday, February 17, 2012

Family Calendar

I have been busy working on some crafts, but it seems like the extra few steps of uploading pictures and writing a post is just too much. Such is my life lately.

For some time now, I have been irritated with our lack of family calendar. I try to sit down with JM on a weekly basis to review, but that doesn't always happen. And there are things I need on his calendar and there are things of his that I need on my calendar. I considered linking our phone calendars, but that was a bit much. I don't care about all his work meetings, and vice versa for him and my meetings. So I decided to go low tech and do a wall calendar. I wanted a white board so we could re-use it. I started out with this. A basic white board from Wal-Mart.
I didn't like the color so I sanded it down and painted it. I tried to skip the sanding, but this thing has serious lacquer coating on it and the paint wouldn't adhere. I only did one coat because I kind of liked the streaky look. Made it look a little old and worn

Next I figured out how I wanted to lay out my calendar. Originally I was going to go with five weeks, but Hubby requested six so we can always see at least two weeks out. That works better for our family. I also knew I wanted some space for a menu. I've also been looking for a menu board idea that I like. I didn't need anything too complicated, but someplace I can write down what meals I'm planning for the week.

After I had it all laid out, I turned to my Silhouette to cut some vinyl. My Silhouette needs a whole post all on it's own. Mostly because I want to gripe about all the issues I have with it. I do really like it. But about every third time I use it, I want to throw it out the window because it doesn't do what I want it to do.

Once I got the vinyl all laid out, I added the tags: Menu, Events, Key. I also decided to add the days of the week at the top too, just to make sure everyone is clear. The key at the bottom is because the calendar is color coded. Each family member gets their own color. Family events are in black. That way it's easy to see at a glance who is doing what. Here is the final result.

I like the way it turned out. It took another few weeks to get it hung on the wall in the kitchen. Now that it's up, I'm hoping we'll actually use it. It's going to take a little getting used to, but it will be better than the nothing we had before. I am already loving the menu portion. Eventually, I'd like the train JM to look there on nights when he has the kids and/or gets home before me. I would love to have him get dinner started. (A girl can dream right?) Here's to family organization!



6 comments:

Jenny Whiting said...

I think it looks great! i know exactly what you mean about trying to figure out what's the best system calendar-wise. I also wanted to do some kind of dry erase calendar, but ended up using a paper one Kyle made at school. I was also able to get a hanging organizer thing from 31 and it hangs on the back of our basement door in the kitchen and has helped a lot to have our calendar there and pockets for each kid and their papers. I also understand your Silhouette feelings...I've given up on it but need to come back to it one day. Great job on getting a project done!!

BlakeHerz said...

Thanks to sharing a good post. It's give a batter explanation to make a nice calender. It give a easy and understable suggestion which is helpful to make a nice calender.

photo calendar

Jessica G. said...

PERFECT! Great idea. If I had a handy place to put one, I'd totally copy you. For now, our little 12x12 calendar works. Once the kids get involved in more activities, we'll need a bigger space.

Kris said...

I love this. We have a dry erase calendar on the fridge and we love it. Mine doesn't look as nice as yours, though, because I used sharpie in place of vinyl for the grid and it's starting to rub off in places.

One thing to consider that works really well for our family is to have a grocery list on the board as well. As soon as we run out of something (or when I'm planning the menu for the week--when that actually happens) I can write it on the board right while I'm thinking of it. It makes shopping much more efficient, and we don't find ourselves missing things week after week. Also, Paddy does most of the grocery shopping at our house on the evenings I'm at work, and he's found the quick idea of snapping a picture of the list with his phone to take with him. Then he erases what he purchased, leaving the things we need from other stores (Costco or whatever) on there for the next trip. Just a thought!

Mary said...

I have one in the kitchen for the nanny, of my work schedule. Then the hubby and I schedule everything in our google calendar & automatically sync with each other. Its the only way we avoid chaos!

Erin said...

Ooh, I love your new calendar! I need something like this. But, I don't have a Silhouette and I wouldn't even know how to use it if I did have one :)