I'm addicted to Pinterest. There is just no other way to put it. I LOVE that site. I think it's awesome. The crafts and do-it-yourself projects and recipes and photographs and, well, you get the idea. It's fantastic. But now I'm excited because I got to use one of the ideas I found on the site!

     The blog that the "pin" is from is one that makes an organizing nerd like me very happy. :) Delightful Order is written by DaNita, and she also maintains an Etsy shop where you can purchase all her wonderful organizing kits. The idea I first found and fell in love with was the Children's Homework Message Center. After reading through the blog post, I knew this was one idea I was going to have to add to my house. Now this is one of those things that is available in the Etsy shop, but as I wanted to do this for both girls (since little Abby will be starting preschool this year) I found I didn't have $70+s&h to spend on this-- we do need food and gas and pull-ups ya know. So for the more budget-concious me, here's what I came up with.

     Last week, Target had their 16x20 inch dry erase boards on sale for $5 each. I went ahead and picked up 2. The only other thing I purchased for this project was a pack of clips that I could glue to the boards; the clips were $3.50 for 6. After the girls went to bed that night, I got to work.

     I used Sharpies to draw the different sections on each dry erase board. (Little note: The hubby says that Sharpies can be wiped off of dry erase boards using rubbing alcohol. Cool, huh?)

     Then in the largest section on the right, I wrote in the days of the week. The original homework frame on the blog had a calendar under the days of the week, but let's be honest: I'm not going to write in every month on both boards every time, and then those squares would have been so small that what could you have written in there anyway? So I solved this little quandry by hanging a wall calendar I already had on hand (which only cost me $1 at Target anyway in those awesome dollar days racks) in between both boards so the girls' appointments and school functions can be written down as soon as we find out about them. So this calendar is strictly for the girls and what they have going on--I have a "master" calendar in the kitchen that I use to keep track of everyone.

     After drawing out the sections, I super-glued one clip on each board. I centered it in the section that I made big enough for papers to hang--such as newsletters, project sheets, etc.

     While the glue was drying, I set the boards aside and moved on to the nameplates. I had originally planned on using foamboard from Target but then I saw that it was another $3.50 or so for one board. I decided I could find something around the apartment to use. And I did. I had some extra cake boards on hand that would be perfect. I cut one in half and then measured out cardstock (that I always have on hand since I love to scrapbook). I used pink cardstock and sharpie for Kyleigh and purple for Abby-- I thought having color-coded things might make things a little easier.

     I know there isn't a picture for Abby, but I'm going to fix that this week. Kyleigh's picture is from the school pictures she had taken at the beginning of the year, so that worked out nicely. :) And we thought it'd be cute to have their names written over with glitter glue because, let's face it, everything looks better with a little sparkle. :)

     And then the next day while Kyleigh was at school, Abby and I put everything together. The boards are sorta high enough to stay out of reach of little fingers...except for my string-bean-of-a-daughter who has an incredibly high reach. Then the pegs are under the board and are high enough to keep the bags off of the floor. The butterfly pegs were bought at Target (at a different time and we intended to use them as coat hooks) for only $2.50 a piece from the dollar days racks. (Yes, I spend a lot of time in that section. haha)

     As for where to put this whole ensemble, there aren't a lot of options in a small apartment. But I found a section of wall by the entryway (which is in the hallway that leads to their rooms) that are a high-traffic area so the boards can't be over-looked.

     So the Homework Message Center off of Delightful Order's shop on Etsy would have been $70 +s&h. The total for my little project comes to $20 +tax. Not too bad. :)

Kids' Homework Message Center all put together

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