Home Decor - 30/32 - The Idea Room

Weekly Menu Planner

I like to plan out my weekly dinner menus two weeks ahead. I usually will take a minute to sit down and write down in my day planner what I plan to make for dinner in the coming weeks. Then when I am at the grocery store, I pull out my planner to see what dinner ingredients I need to purchase for the coming week.

I have been wanting to make something with chalkboard paint ever since I have been seeing it used all over the internet. So I came up with something that will work for our home. A weekly menu planner. I love it! Now at a glance, I know what I am making and can get an idea of when I need to start making dinner to have it on the table at 5:45 (the time dinner is {ideally} served in our house). Which I like so much better than staring into the fridge at 4:58 and wondering what to serve my family for dinner. Ever been there?

I found a metal plaque (I am not really sure what it is??) I found it at Ben Franklin (which is a local store). I know most of you don’t have one near you. Any frame would work really. You could use a framed metal board like I used for my hair bow organizer, etc. I taped around the frame edge and then attached paper to the painter’s tape to protect the frame from being covered with the chalkboard paint.

Then I took my Chalkboard Spray Paint in black (purchased from Home Depot) and sprayed the inside of the frame according to the directions on the can. I painted it with 3 coats of paint and allowed the proper drying time between each application. When it was completely dry, I removed the tape. My chalkboard paint told me to then rub the side of a piece of chalk over the entire black surface and then erase to prepare it for final use. I love how it turned out! I also made some glass magnets (great tut here) to represent the days of the week. Go ahead and make one!

September 15, 2009 · Filed under: Home Decor, Organization Tips Tagged with

Decorative Vase with Dried Millet

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**Be sure to enter the Giveaway for a fabric key chain here!

All you need to make one of these is a vase (I found mine at Taipan Trading Co. for around $4), dried millet (or any dried flora of your choice; found mine at Michael’s), a length of ribbon, and rice.

Take the dried millet and gently arrange them so that they sit nicely with the ones in the middle at the tallest and some around the edges at different lengths. Eyeball it! Then measure how tall you want them to stand in your vase.

With scissors, while still firmly grasping them, cut the bottoms of the stems so they are the same length. Then gently tap the stems so that they are all even at the base.

Set the millet in the vase and center it. Grab your rice, which has been placed in a pourable container, and pour it into the vase all around the stems. You may need to place the stems of the millet into a foam or styrofoam base if your vase is not tall enough. Otherwise the rice will firmly hold the millet in place. Fill vase 3/4 full.

Take your ribbon and tie a bow around the base of the stems. And your done!

August 21, 2009 · Filed under: Crafts, Fall Decor, Home Decor Tagged with

Name Wall Hanging

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Want to hang your child’s name in their bedroom? This is how I did it for my daughter. First of all I bought the resin wall letters on line. I am picking my brain to remember where. I will update this when I figure it out. They were a lot cheaper than the ones from Pottery Barn and other stores.

Then I bought a white curtain rod from Target.

Lay out the letters and curtain rod on the floor and play with it till you are happy with the layout. Make your measurements to determine how you will hang them on the wall.

We (yes, that is my handsome Hubs) measured the length of the curtain rod and centered it where I wanted it to go on the wall. Then we marked with a pencil exactly where it would be hung. Set the curtain rod aside. Take your resin letters and center the middle letter (if there is an odd number of letters in the name) or center the name between the two middle letters (in an even lettered name).

Hang the letters on the wall so that they are evenly spaced. I did not extend my letters all the way to the ends of the curtain rod. I wanted the curtain rod to be longer than the letters. Just play with it and determine how you like it.

Now that the letters are on the wall, take your curtain rod and hang it on the wall. We did not use the hardware that came with the rod. We pre-drilled holes into the rod and then screwed the rod right onto the wall. This made it so it did not stick out to far from the wall.

Take your ribbon and determine the length you will need to come up from behind the letter, up over the rod and back down behind the letter. You will want extra length to go behind the letter next to the wall. Do this for all the letters. I used tape to secure the ribbon behind the letters. (I know…high tech, but it works).

Then I took another length of ribbon and just tied a bow around the curtain rod above each letter. It takes some adjusting but you can get the ribbon to look like it is tied from the same ribbon that is attached to the letter below. It worked out so that the ribbons covered our screw holes. So be sure to plan for that by screwing the curtain rod directly over one of your letters on each end. If you don’t get it to work out, fill the screws with a little putty and then paint the same color as your rod. It won’t be perfect, but most likely will not be noticeable unless you look for them.

That is all there is too it!

*Edit–I remembered where I bought my letters from online. Click here for the link!