Chore Charts

They’re a necessary evil.  But, in my house, they make our days go a bit smoother.  Everyone knows what they need do before bedtime.

When my kids complain about their chores and call me mean, I just tell them, “I’m not mean!  I am teaching you life skills!  When you grow up and leave home you’ll thank me, because you will have had lots of practice doing {insert whatever they’re complaining about here}!”

For a long time, I used a chore chart like this:

When my boys finished their chores, they’d just wipe them off.  It works great!

Only….sometimes I forget to write their jobs down.  We also started an allowance system, where they get a nickel for every job they do without being asked.  That was getting hard to keep track of, especially since we were ERASING the chores as they were completed.

What to do?

Thanks to KidPointz I’ve got that one all figured out!  They have about a million different behavior/chore/exercise/homework/etc… charts to choose from. 

I chose four different designs from their behavior charts and filled them in with our chores.  (I only made four since Monkey is only two and doesn’t have chores.  Yet…) 

I laminated them so that they can mark their chores off with a dry erase marker.  Each chore is worth 5 points.  Five points=one nickel.  At the end of the week, they get the money they earned throughout the week.

You’ll also notice that these chore charts don’t have names on them.  I’ve numbered them 1-4, and each week we rotate charts.  This way, my kids get a variety of household chores!  Score!

This system has been working out really well for us.  My boys are loving the allowance.  I am loving the motivation they have to do their chores.  There’s also less fighting, because they know what they’re supposed to be doing.

You may be thinking “A nickel per job?  That’s it?!”  Don’t worry, it adds up, and their chores aren’t the only way they earn nickels.  They also earn them when I catch them doing good.  They can also lose them…

Whenever they want to cash in their nickels, I trade them for cash.  That way I’m not always running to the bank for nickels, and my boys aren’t carrying around 50 lbs. of change. 

If these chore charts don’t suit you, check these out:

Here’s a fun one Ash made a few months ago.

This Family Home Evening chart could easily be converted into a chore chart:

Anyway, there’s a few ideas.  What works for you and your family?

P.S.  KidPointz didn’t sponsor this post.  I’m just sharing the info and their site because it works for us.  Their charts are free, too!  Bonus!!

St. Patty’s Day Decor

Okay, I’ve had this all decorated since the weekend after Valentine’s day, but I’m just finally getting around to showing you. Without further ado, here’s our St. Patrick’s day décor.

My lovely vignette. Sarcasm heavy. It’s just random green things I had…

I pulled out my cauldron from Halloween supplies and stuff most of it full of plastic bags, then gold fabric, then just a few gold coins. The girls and I made the clay necklace and shamrocks from TP rolls last year on one of our crafty days. The green candles are from my closet, and the ombre green “I” was a mess up elsewhere, but we can pretend it’s for Irish, right?

I made this gumdrop wreath last year when I got a TON of gumdrops, which I don’t like, and decided to make them into a wreath. It was supposed to be for Christmas, but I didn’t like it, so it became a rainbow St. Patty’s wreath.

The green beads, tulle, flowers, wire shamrocks, ribbon, and stain glass shamrock are just things I’ve collected or made through the years.

I had made the LUCKY rosette last year with this rainbow:

Last year, the girls and I made a rainbow for the mantle, so I hung it up here. Half heartedly. It’s falling down. It leads to gold at the end…

My gold mirror… We cut out all the circles with this fun toy my husband got me for Christmas:

So fun….Then, the girls helped me sew them all together on the sewing machine. They thought that was fun.

I just kinda draped it on the mirror. By the mirror, I wrapped my lamp with some shamrock wire…

By the tree is a chair we don’t use and a leprechaun my mom found on clearance.

The girls like to play with him, but he kinda weirds me out watching me….

I still want to print off a cute printable, but haven’t gotten to it yet, so we’ll see….So there’s our décor. I know, you could hardly wait to see it, huh? Anyway, happy St. Pats day!

Girls’ Room Reveal!

Okay you know those AWESOME room reveals all over the internet that have amazing before & afters, and pretty much blow your mind? This isn’t one. For several reasons. We rent. We can’t  paint walls, and most of the furniture isn’t even ours. It’s our landlords. We don’t know how long we’re going to be here, but we know it’ll be awhile, so we don’t do a ton of nail holes (because I’ll just have to patch them all), and our girls have very strong opinions, so they get input on their room. In parts. Okay, so with all that said, here’s their room. Some stuff you’ll recognize, but some stuff will be new, and this will just show it all working together, mkay?

First off, do you remember (if you’ve been here awhile) how Thing 1 told me she wanted a Fancy Nancy room? Like so:

So little by little the past month, I’ve been doing things for their room to make it “fancier”. (she reminds me of the checklist all the time!)

Remember the bedspread I showed you here?  Yeah, I sewed that bedspread. It took forever. But not as long as Thing 2’s bedspread, since I hand-dyed everything for that.

Do you remember the sparkly pillow from a shirt? I made that cute ombre heart pillow from using 2 tutorials from V and Co. This one for the heart and this one for the ombre pleats. Then I made the turquoise shag one using this tutorial from V and Co. Pretty pillow? Check!

Yeah, that bedspread and pillows. Okay, back to Thing 1’s bedspread.

Feather boas strewn across the headboards, set in place with thumb tacks. Feather Boas? Check!

Then you can see the Flower Canopies I made on each bed with my Command hook rent friendly tip. Canopy? Check!

Let’s see, above the bed is some of my rent-friendly polka dot décor. It used to be spread all around the room (but the room is GINORMOUS), so I took them all off, and put them on one wall, and layered some of them.

I kinda love them, so do the girls. You can also see the Christmas Ornament lamp (about halfway down the post) my hubby helped me make.

You can also see the mini gallery wall that they helped me paint all the frames, and the blessing dresses I made for each them when they were born.

The little banner is sweet. Thing 1 wanted to try sewing, so we used hole punches to cut out bunches of shapes, then she sat on my lap and helped me sew them together.

Right by the bed is the microwave cart bookshelf I revamped from my Grandpa. Plus a diffuser to prove that they’ve been sick for the last 2 weeks….Ugh.

Right by that is my first upholstery project. Still love the chair, still going strong! Can you see the woven rug I made on the floor? Fancy Rug? Check!

Right next to the chair is all their bows I’ve made them on the bow holder. I showed you a few bows here, and Nat showed you some here.

Then the mirror I “fixed” with washi tape. Love that stuff! Hanging on the back of their door is this:

They have so much crap. Little rings, necklaces, etc. I get so tired of stepping on things, so we hung up this and put on labels.

With pictures on them so they know what goes where. They helped decide so they keep it a lot cleaner now!

I forgot to show their mismatched curtains. I made the yellow one for our previous rental, but it didn’t work by itself on a this larger window, so they picked out the other curtain from the DI (a thrift store), and they think it’s fancy to have colorful curtains. There’s also a strand of Christmas lights strewn over the top and side that they love. (Lights? Check!)

Hung over the top of the closet doors is a strand of turquoise (a fancy word for blue) beads I got on clearance at Target after Christmas.

Then there’s the kitchen I made for them last summer, and the growth chart a few months ago.

My hubby painted this dresser we got from my parents way back in our first house when we were expecting Thing 1. It was already blue, so he painted the minty-turquoise color with a crackle paint.

I still have a project I’m working on for above the dresser here. It’s pretty fantastic in my head!

Hanging on the wall is my thrifted painted owls, and more of my free cornstarch art. Then, there’s the stuffed animal storage I made, and an old bookshelf that was painted the same time as the dresser.

This other dresser I got from my grandparents, and painted a few summers ago, but I really would love to strip it down and refinish it. Maybe something like this?

(source)

Finally, right by Thing 2’s bed is the dollhouse I made 2 Christmases ago for the princesses.

Speaking of princesses, all of their dress up clothes currently reside in their closet where they can reach them, and mostly stay put away…

So, there is the reveal. Eventually when we do move into our own house (whenever that is) the girls will probably not have a HUGE cavernous room. Plus, we’ll have to get a bit of new furniture. So, I just did touches of fancy to make them happy, and they love their room. It’s fun to look back and see all of the projects that have come together to make their room theirs. If I can finish the awesome art I’m working on (think pallet art) then it will be that much cuter.

I’m trying to decide if I should enter the contest Creating with the Stars. It’d be awesome to try, but I just don’t know if I can do awesome things when I’m in a (basement) rental and on a very tight budget. Are you going to enter?

Woven Rug!!

What do you do when your daughter wants a Fancy Room (yes, still on that), with a fancy rug? You go shopping for ideas, first.


These were both rugs that my daughter loved while we shopped at Target. It’s the same trip we got the sequin shirt for her pillow. So I let it marinate in my head while I finished her bedspread. Then I remembered this idea I had seen elsewhere.

I originally saw this idea on Craftaholics Anonymous. It was an idea from Everyday Art. I logged it away in my brain. Then, I read through it and found a non-slip rug thing at Walmart. It was for a 4x6 rug for $8. I cut it half, and then went through my hoard of scraps.

At least it’s organized! By color, and in some cases, by type of fabric (knits, satin, tulles, etc). And I cut 100s and 1000s of strips. All about 1” wide. But, instead of doing them just one tuck under and letting it be, I did different lengths of strips and wove them in through the non slip rug mat. After weeks of watching TV/movies, with my husband thinking I’m crazy (which I am), I finished 2 rugs!!

For Thing 1, purples, white, some greens, and turquoise and blue.

All scraps, some of it from the bedspread.

And Thing 2’s rug.

She got pinks, oranges, greens, and white.

I kinda love how they turned out. Almost makes all the hours and carpal tunnel worth it FYI they are about 32” by 28”. Almost square, but it works.