Countdown Frame

It seems we are always counting down the days to something: a visit from Gramma, a trip we'll take, and most recently, how many days until our exchange student arrives. In the past, I've made a paper countdown with a photo of whatever we're looking forward to doing or seeing, and every morning D would cross off a number. 

I starting thinking that maybe I could make something a little more permanent. When I saw my old menu board, I found inspiration. 

I made this menu board about five years ago when I first started menu planning. I have a nicer board now. Since I used puffy paint for the type, it was easy to scrape that off with a knife.

Then I gave the board a good cleaning.

Next, I painted the board a pretty pearlized purple that I had in my stash of paints.

Close up of the paint color.

It took about three coats of paint since I didn't use any primer. Next, I used the glass from a frame to outline a 4x6 rectangle, which I marked with stickers.

I used some foam letters I already had for the "Days Until."

Here you can see the sticker outline.

Since this countdown is about Marissa, I printed out a fun recent photo of her.

I placed the photo in the rectangle.

I used some washi tape to secure the photo. I think next time, I will use a 3x5  photo instead so it doesn't look quite so crowded.

Finally, I added the details with my dry erase marker.

I found just the right place for it on our console table.

Linked to:

Debbie Debbie Doo

House of Hepworths

I Heart Naptime

Lego Storage

Between our recent trips to Arizona, Vegas and Michigan, we haven't been home to work on projects.  We arrived home from Michigan Sunday night, and I spent Monday and Tuesday preparing for a family of six (four boys under five!), who are staying with us this week. Our guest room is usually D's playroom, but with all those little curious boys on their way, I had to do a little extra clean up.

Niels' birthday was this past weekend, and D gift to him was a Lego playset that they could do together. D's interest in Legos is growing, so I started thinking about how I could keep those teeny tiny pieces in order.

Then I remembered some plastic storage trays that I was no longer using, thanks to all the drawers in my command center. I emptied the last few drawers and removed the labels.

 Then I made new labels for each drawer using Excel.

I could have done the labels on my label maker, but it only has black ink. I figured color coding the words would make it easier for my 3 year old to know which drawer to use.

I used scotch tape to attached the labels (in alpha order).

There's a nice little spot in the closet for the lego tower. The big flat pieces fit nicely on top.

Easy peasy clean up. Especially because my son loves order as much as I do! He loved helping me sort all the legos.

I have another set of drawers I can empty out so there will be drawers for brown, green, and the instruction binder. Thomas the Train is still D's #1 toy, but I see a lot more Lego love in our future.

Linked to: 

CSI Project * I'm an Organizing Junkie * Mums Make Lists

Landscaping Update, and Niels' Veto

I'm dealing with some health issues again so instead of posting during D's nap time, I've been napping, too. Hopefully, I'll have some energy again soon and get caught up with the posts from my last burst of productivity.

In the meantime, we're very excited to be getting ready to put our lawn in. Hopefully, our guy will get started later this week.

As I was researching landscaping ideas, I found this online and asked Niels (the computer guy) what he thought. I'm shocked he vetoed such a green idea.