Huge Wall

Here are some ideas from Pinterest, Houzz, and google images that I'm using for inspiration as I try to figure out what to do with the big wall in our front room:

W is for Wride

Corey was gone last night, he went to go be one of the fatherly figures at the girl's camp that Melodie was at.  So, since he was gone, I stayed up late crafting.  I got the frame at the local thrift stoe, painted it black and the mat white, then that's a 12x12 scrapbook paper inside from Hobby Lobby with some paper embellishments, also from HobLob.

I made this W sign as one of the things that I'm planning/hoping will work as our big huge front room wall's decor, which I'm still mulling over in my head.  

Holiday Song Board

There's a little wall by the little desk in the kitchen, which I've decided is the right place to put a holiday/song board to make the kitchen a little more festive.  We aren't using the chore boards from 2 years ago anymore, so after taking off the nails I just glued scrapbook paper on top of one of them to make this little thing.  I think for each month I'll have one up there, sometimes with a holiday song, or just with a song that has fun or special meaning to our family.  We'll see what I come up with.  :)

Pillow Makeover

I went into Hobby Lobby on Saturday to let my creativity meander around and see if it could find anything for the projects in my head.  My main project (and has been since we moved in here 2 years ago) is to figure out something to do on our big huge blank wall that welcomes people when they walk in the front door.  I was looking at fabric for ideas for a picture to paint and stumbled upon a pattern I liked in the fabric remnants.  The colors go along with things we've already got in the room, plus some other things I want to do.  Plus it looked like it could replace the hideous pillows we currently had that I always had turned around backwards so they couldn't be seen.  Look at how ugly these are:

Actually, that is how ugly they WERE, cause Melodie helped me unstitch one as our experiment to see if we could improve them, and it was a success!  Here is the pretty makeover!

I did the first one and was so excited that I wanted to finish them all and so I stayed up past my bedtime until 3 a.m. unstitching, unstuffing, sewing, and re-stuffing all four.  They make me so happy!  We'll see what I come up with for the wall that they will help tie all together.  :)

Season Pennant Banners

I made this out of paper and cardstock, just a little pennant banner for each season that I'm hanging in the front room window.  I've only made them for SPRING and SUMMER so far, but have the template for myself to make AUTUMN and WINTER ones too.  Isn't it nice that they are all six letter words?  :)  It is fun and it makes me happy to see the colors of each season in the room.

Update - I didn't find a template anywhere for them, I just made my own.  I figured out what size would work good for each pennant to fit the length of the window and then knowing the pennant size free-handed my own letters to fit, using a scrap paper and then when they looked good enough I traced them onto the cardstock I wanted.  I think just find a font you like to trace or copy.  I used this font below from some wall stickers I found at Dollar Tree.  :)

Here's another google image that shows all the letters, but the L and T aren't right, must be an older image.  Anyway, it's just a cute font I think.

Budget Binder

This is a little creation of my own and I really love it, so I though I'd share -

To manage our finances, I have a "Family Finances" binder where I keep a paper record of our family expenses.  It includes, starting from the beginning:

1) Pocket Folder for receipts

2) Sheet Protector side a) Outline of our Monthly budget - how much we spend each month (or that I wish we had each month!) to spend on the things I'd like to spend money on.

3) Sheet Protector side b) automatic payments by day - so a monthly list of our different bank accounts and what charges are automatic from each account and on what date.  Our includes things like Rent on the 1st, utilities on the 3rd of each month, life insurance on the 15th, student loan on the 15th, car payment on the 22nd, etc.

4) Sheet protector #2 side a) I've written out all of our card numbers for me and my husband and online account usernames and passwords, so that I don't have to go find my cards in my purse when I want to make a online payment or something.  Things on this list are:

• credit and debit card #s, expiration dates, pins, etc
• all our bank account #s and log on info
• drivers license #s
• library cards
• utility account info
• student loan info.

5) Monthly Money Tracker - I think I got this idea from the book "America's Cheapest Family".  I write down all our monthly expenses, and divided our expenses into the following categories and put the corresponding "code" on each line depending on what expense catagory it falls into.
A - Auto (gas, payment, repairs)
C - Clothing
D - Debt
E - Entertainment (date nights, movies, 1 on 1 dates, movies or redbox, birthdays)
G - Groceries (includes all food plus household things like tp, paper, toys, anything I get at walmart and Costco.)
H - House (rent, repairs, yard stuff, decoration, tools and appliances)
I - Income
L - Lunches (hubby's lunches at work)
M - Medical
O - Other (b-day presents for friends, bank fees)
R - Recreation (Kid's sports, ballet, family outings)
S - School (school fees, music education, books & cds from Amazon)
T - Tithing and Charity
U - Utilities
V - Vacation (Trips, timeshare maintenance charges)
X - Taxes
Z - Mom'z Stuff (my once a year haircut or other things for me)

Then after the monthly money trackers, I have little Code tabs for each of the above categories where I keep track of the monthly amount spent on that thing and am able to see how much we spend (or need to stop over spending.)

Then behind that I have a few different articles about Money, Charity, and Provident Living:
Provident Living.org: Finances
One for the Money
All is Safely Gathered In
Happily Living Within our Means
The Priviledge of Giving

So that's my little family finances binder.  I use this each Wednesday to plan when I do Errand Prep.