Hi! I’m excited to be doing my very first guest post ever! Thanks Kaysi for giving me the chance! My blogging name is Rach H (I like my name cuz it rhymes), and I write the blog Family Ever After, where I post about sewing, crafts, cooking, recipes, clogging, running, photography, gardening and how we are happy living with a small budget. My husband and I grew up in South Dakota, then went to college at BYU in Utah. I majored in Family and Consumer Science Education, then taught middle school sewing before I became a mom. Now I’ve got 3 kids! Life’s really great, I hope you hop over to my blog and pay me a visit!
Today I’m going to show you how to turn a regular piece of wood into a cute growing chart for your family. If you move a lot, this is a great project since it can move with you!
I mark every person’s height on their birthday. Soon after I made this, I realized I couldn’t find my oldest daughter’s height from the first 3 years of her life, anywhere. I was so bummed. I’m pretty sure when I called the pediatrician’s office, that we had since moved away from, and asked them to pull her chart from their archives, just to tell me her height, they thought I was crazy!!! But hey, we moms will do silly things for the sake of crafting and recording important things! Right?
On to the project…
Start with… a regular piece of wood. (Mine is a cheap 6 foot plank from Home Depot).
Then paint it with an acrylic wood paint, any color you wish. I chose a light brown.
Let it dry.
Next, take it outside and sand the edges with an electric sander or just a piece of sandpaper.
With an old rag, rub wood stain all over it. A little goes a long way.
After everything is dry, attach hangers to the back and decide where you’ll be hanging it.
With a regular flexible tape measure, figure out how high off the ground you want to hang your board. Mine fit perfectly in a little space off my kitchen, but wasn’t exactly a foot off the ground like I wanted. The ceiling is too low, so I had to start it at 11 inches off the ground. And that’s where the tape measure begins. Does this make sense? I hope so! Hot glue the tape measure.
Then you’re ready to attach some cute things to it. These little wooden creatures from Hobby Lobby were on sale for pennies. I hot glued them.
You can add your name, a title, or whatever else you want.
You can also skip the tape measure and paint your own inch markings to the board.
Gather your family’s measurements, and you’re done!
Thanks Kaysi!
Come visit me at Family Ever After!
okbye!
That is so cute!!! I need to make one of these, thanks for the fun idea!
Rach H
Thanks for letting my post this project. You're awesome Kaysi. I hope the moving in is going well for you!
Erica
This is a super cute idea! Thanks for sharing.
Tanya Anurag
This is cute. Will pin it.. might use in future 🙂
I am hosting my first Link-up party – Tea Time Thursdays. Would be glad to see you there 🙂
http://tanyaanurag.blogspot.com/2011/08/celebrating-one-party-time.html
Jilly
exquisite work and super cute idea you shard with us. It is very much helpful for my new home furniture. For me it is really impressive work.
Ear plugs nrr
handmadebyclairebear.com
Kaysi, I did a very boring version of this (plain unpainted wood) with my kids when they were little.
As we were renting, I even made sure I could pull it off the wall when we moved and guess what? When we moved I totally forgot! (understandable under the circumstances, but still so frustrating).
Now my kids are 19 and 20 years old, and I really wish we still had their height measurements from our old home. Oh well.