Artkive

What to do with all the art? 

I've come to realize this is a fairly common problem for parents whose children come home from daycare, preschool, grade school and beyond with arm fulls of their latest creations and artful masterpieces.  And so begins the ongoing struggle of storing, preserving and displaying the "favorites" while forcing yourself to let go of the majority.

We have a couple of solutions for the never-ending art in Jackson's playroom.  Like this gallery wall:

And this frame from Target with built in storage and a hinged cover to allow for easy exchanges:

Yet, just a few months ago, the pile of projects Jackson had brought home from school looked like this:

I had great intentions of taking a photo of each piece so I could at least store it digitally before tossing the original, but instead the pile just grew and grew and grew.

Then I stumbled upon the app, Artkive.  It's as simple as snapping a picture on your phone, tagging the images with details such as your child's name, grade or the date it was created and saving it for future use.  From there, you can print the images or turn them into a photo book, calendar or the like. 

I downloaded it immediately and while Jackson was occupied with a cartoon one Saturday morning I managed to "artkive" the entire pile of art.

I draped a black piece of fabric across our coffee table to serve as a solid background and snapped away.  Of course, I held onto a few of my very favorites but by the end of my 30-minute session I was ready to part with this entire pile.

And here is what was left.

All filed away nice and neat.

Now that I've got the initial stack taken care of, staying on top of the incoming flow of art is super easy.  I just snap a few pics right from my phone as the projects come home.  Piece of cake!

I think I'll wait until Jackson starts Kindergarten and then I can turn all of his Princeton projects into one pre school-years keepsake book.  Cool, right?

So, what are you waiting for?  Go to the app store!

Pinterest Project

This weekend, I tackled one of the projects I found on pinterest that I've been meaning to do for quite some time.  I'm so glad I did.

This is what my costume jewelry collection has looked like since, well forever. 

Thrown (and often knotted) into the drawer of a Rubbermaid container that I've had since living in the dorms my freshman year in college.  So yeah.  It's old.

First I sorted the jewelry and got rid of several pieces I never wear.  I was actually a little surprised how few I decided to keep.

Then I mounted a cheap towel bar on the wall in our master bathroom and added some shower curtain hooks.

Can you guess where this is going?

Necklace (and a few bracelets) storage!  Theoretically, they'll get a lot more use now that they are displayed and easily accessible as I'm getting ready in the morning.  And I'll be much less likely to forget about a piece with them all hanging in plain view.

Gotta love pinterest.  Quick and easy organization solution.  It was cheap too.  Until this new display brought to light how many colors and styles my necklace collection is missing.

Time to go shopping!

The Chore Board

There's a new addition to Jackson's room.  It hangs at his level right at the foot of his bed.

We call it:  The Chore Board.

It all started with bedtime - which has once again become a war of wills.  We have a very consistent bedtime routine which ends with stories and me laying down with Jack as he drifts off to sleep.  I've created this monster, I fully admit, as I've given in to his big blue eyes and pleas to "lay wiff me, mommy" since, well, forever.  And if I'm being honest, I do it for selfish reasons as well.  It's in those few minutes of bedtime cuddles each night that I can pretend he's still just a baby instead of the fast-paced, talkative, witty and rambunctious little boy that he is.  So I lay with him.  The problem is that when I leave, if he is not already asleep, he follows me out the door and so begins the sometimes hours long battle of getting him back to bed.  It's a lose-lose.  Jack wakes up tired and cranky the next morning.  Drew & I go to bed frustrated and annoyed after battling with a stubborn child all night and getting zero adult-only time to get things done or just have a conversation.

We've tried reasoning.  We've tried tough love.  We've tried threats.  We've tried bribery. 

Then I remembered the chore board.

My cousin Robin purchased the Melissa and Doug Responsibility Chart for her son while our family was vacationing at Lake Okoboji a couple of summers ago.  Jack was too young for one at the time, but I thought it was an awesome tool and made a mental note.  Just a few months later I happened across one on super sale at TJ Maxx, bought it and stashed it away in the closet. 

Drew & I decided this was a perfect opportunity to try it out.  The plan:  use positive reinforcement for having a successful bedtime (Jack gets to put a smiley face on the board - yay!) followed by a reward for reaching a predefined goal (if he earns a specific number of faces he gets a special treat - yay!).

We let Jack pick out a spot in his room for it and made a big deal about hanging up his chore board.  As we were putting it together, we realized that many of the "chores" were things Jackson is already doing so we added them too. 

Rather than being about bedtime only, it gave him a chance to earn some smiley faces for doing other tasks.  More smiley faces = more positive reinforcement.  Good plan, right?

Guess what?  It worked!

Sort of.

He LOVES putting smiley faces on the board.  He even asks to feed Ruby and take out the trash so that he can earn a smiley face.  Unfortunately, the row that represented going to bed and staying in his room all night - you know, the entire reason we started the chore board -  looked like this:

We strategically set the target number (which would earn Jack a "special treat") so that at least one bedtime smiley face would be required.  During week 1 of this little experiment he didn't have enough.

We just finished week 2 and I'm happy to say, he did it!  He started slow in the bedtime category, but finished strong on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Victory!!

Of course, we made good on our promise.  This time, his reward was a trip to Target where he could pick out any toy in the entire store.  Thankfully, he's too young to truly appreciate the freedom he had!  He didn't go for a new bike or a flat screen TV.  He chose this:

The jury is still out as to whether the success will continue.  And we definitely need to make some adjustments along the way - for example, he is certainly not going to have free reign of Target every single week should he meet his goal.  But we wanted the first "victory" to be a memorable one and hope to carry the momentum forward.

So that's the story of Jackson's special treat that I eluded to in Sunday's post.  How about you:  any other bedtime struggles with preschool-aged children or tricks of the trade for getting positive results?  We're sure crossing our fingers for continued success.

Cleaning Closets

After last week's nursery conversion, I was inspired to do some more cleaning/organizing in Jackson's room.  Specifically, his closet.

It had elements of organization, but over the past year or so the amount of stuff stashed in every nook and cranny has multiplied.

With the change of seasons his clothes needed going through.  And let's face it, there's no need for slings, diaper genies, boppy pillows, pack 'n plays and the like to be within easy access anymore.  Jackson helped me and we dug right in.  As usual with these types of projects, things got much worse before they got better.

But a mere 2 hours plus 1 trip to Target later and we were in business.

Jackson is especially fond of his shoe organizer (as am I).  And am I the only one who is giddy at the sight of  clearly labeled storage bins all stacked in a row?!

I couldn't help but feel sad as I folded tiny little articles of clothing and hauled supplies out of the room.  Wasn't it just yesterday that I labored over which receiving blankets to buy and what bottles would be best?  How does the time go so fast?  I manged to choke back any actual tears.  We still have a lot of hope that a day will come when we need all of those supplies again.

Luckily, it wasn't all doom and gloom.  After all, Jack's closet now looks like this!

And that makes me happy. 

Three cheers for organized living!

Published

I've finally finished something I've been meaning to do for over two years now.

The Elser 411 is in print.

Well, 2 years of it anyway.

You see, despite being uber-organized (or so I thought), my priorities have changed a bit since entering motherhood.  My hours at home with my family are precious and few.  Projects that, once upon a time, I would have devoured now take a back seat to more important matters - like building towers, baking cookies, coloring pictures and going to the park.  Oh yeah, and keeping my family fed and clothed and my house clean presentable.  Well, it's time for me to come clean.

Jack doesn't have a baby book.

Actually, he has one.  It's a really nice one.  That I love.  But it's blank.  (*Gasp!*)

Instead, I have this blog.  Every milestone, trial and tribulation of my pregnancy and Jack's life are documented here on The Elser 411.  Safely recorded for future reference or trips down memory lane.  Unless blogger.com goes defunct or ends up compromised by some crazy hacker at which time all of my precious memories are lost forever in cyberspace.  Yep.  These types of thoughts actually keep me awake at night.

Enter Blurb.

I first learned about Blurb from my BFF, Cortney.  Much like Snapfish, Shutterfly, SmileBooks and many other companies like them, Blurb is an online application for making photo books.  What makes Blurb special is that in addition to photos, it can transfer your entire blog to a printable book.  A beautiful, shiny, bound book to display on your coffee table or tuck away on a bookshelf safe from the perils of cyberspace.  Literally, with the click of a button.

For The Elser 411, I decided to make one book for each year.  Seemed like a logical break and with Jackson's December birthday it comes really close to mirroring his years of life.  I spent about 4 hours on each book customizing layouts and editing pictures, so it can definitely be on the time consuming side.  The final result; however, is so worth it.

I adore them.  And while I already have some different layout ideas in mind for the 2010 installment, I couldn't be happier with the final product.  Not to mention a bit relieved that Jackson's first bath, tooth, goose egg, and haircut are safely documented somewhere other than the inter webs.

So, while not for sale, The Elser 411 is officially published.  And I can rest a bit easier. 

Now maybe one of these days I'll get around to filling in Jack's baby book.

Disclaimer:  This is not an advertisement for blurb.com.  The folks at blurb have no idea who I am.  I just think it's a really cool product and wanted to share it with you. 

{Playroom} Art Corner

Another section of Jackson's playroom is now complete.  I like to call it the art corner.

I'm in love with the white frame (showcasing a stoplight Jackson made at school).  Not only does it display your child's art in an attractive and affordable frame, but it opens via a magnetic door for easy access.  Behind the door is a pocket where you can store additional artwork as you rotate the pieces on display.  Brilliant!  Thank you Target.  There's plenty of space on that wall, I just might be back for several more of those puppies.

The smocks are courtesy of Gram from awhile back and they finally have a proper home in the art corner.  Of course, the simple clock will come in handy down the road when we start teaching Jack how to tell time.

Auntie Cortney gets full credit for the next section of the art corner.  With the nearest IKEA in Chicago, I can't exactly zip over and grab a few things (which, in hindsight, while inconvenient it is certainly better for our bank account).  Lucky for me, there's a store near Cortney's house in Washington, DC.  She graciously served as our personal shopper and picked up the BYGEL rails, wire basket and plastic containers I had my eye on and then shipped them all the way to Kansas.  They work absolutely perfectly to organize paint, paintbrushes, crayons, markers and colored pencils.  Combined with the clear plastic wall files (from Staples) for coloring books, sketch paper, stickers and construction paper and an organization freak like me is in heaven!

I'm having a hard time keeping up with everything these days, hence the somewhat sparse blog posting.  But stay tuned.  There are more playroom accessories that I need to show you and lots of other projects and activities in progress at the Elser house!

{Playroom} Art Display

Jackson & I were  feeling crafty this weekend and whipped up a super new addition to the playroom.  I get no credit for this idea since it was 100% stolen borrowed from my favorite DIY bloggers over at Young House Love.  Hey, imitation is the greatest form of flattery, right? 

This project was easy, ultra affordable and perfectly accomplished my desire to decorate the walls of the playroom with Jackson's own original works of art as opposed to your run-of-the-mill wall decor.

The supplies are nothing more than a few sheets of scrapbook paper, clothespins, craft glue and (not shown) 2 drawer pulls and some twine.

After just a few minutes of cutting and glueing, we were left with these festive and, of course, color coordinated clothes pins.

The next step was to create a clothesline to hang the artwork from.  My original plan was to find a couple of cute hooks to tie the twine to, but "cute" hooks weren't so easy to find.  I was thrilled when I came across a tutorial that suggested you could mount drawer pulls directly to the wall.  Simply cut the head off of the screw that came with the hardware (Drew provided the muscle for this part of the project), insert a dry wall anchor into the wall and you can literally screw the drawer pull right in!

Here is the final product.



And a close-up of those custom clothespins.

While we were hanging things on the wall, I also threw up some hooks for a couple of galvonized buckets I found at Target in the Dollar Spot.  The perfect solution for storing chalk and magnets for the chalkboard wall at toddler height.

And now one more corner of the playroom is officially complete.

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.  I love the idea of swapping out the art as Jackson brings home new projects from school.  It looks so festive in the room and I hope it makes him proud to see his work on display.

His Mommy sure is.

Art

One of the many things I love about Princeton is the curriculum (if there can be such a thing for not-quite-two-year-olds) that is offered.  Every week has a theme.  Along with that theme comes games, activities and  lessons.  And daily art projects.  Which means we now have piles, seriously piles, of Jackson's artwork in various locations around the house.  And I, along with many mothers before me, am faced with the dilemma of what to do with all the art.

It is impossible to display it all.  Besides, as much of an uber-organized and anti-clutter person as I am, covering every square inch of the refrigerator or tacking glue and glitter filled pieces of paper to the walls just isn't going to work for this mama.

Yet I want to display his work.  I am proud of it and I want him to be, too.  And how could I possibly bring myself to throw *gasp* in the trash my baby's masterful works of art?

So I did what I always do.  Turned to google.

My first find, was this frame from Lil'DaVinci.  It comes in 2 sizes and has space to store up to 50 pieces of art.  Not only can you display your child's latest masterpiece for all to see, but you can also store the previous pieces out of site.  Brilliant!

My second find is a bit less organized, but fun none the less.  Simply fashion a clothes line of sorts (either a purchased curtain rod as shown or something as simple as a string tied to hooks) and display away!

Last, I found this collage.  A little techy since it requires digital images of the art and some layout into one larger image, but very clean looking and quite cool if you ask me.

In the next couple of months I hope to transform a little section of our dog/mud/storage room into a playroom for Jack.  I have plans to incorporate some of the above items in the space, but for the time being I've turned to the digital age to help me de-clutter the piles of art.

A few weeks ago I found a black piece of fabric to use as a backdrop and took photos of all of the pieces of art Jackson has brought home to date.  I then threw away (guilt-free since I have a digital record of it) those that were torn or bent or especially messy or just not my favorite.  I chose a handful to save for future display and to keep forever as keepsakes.  You know, cuz moms do that.

Wanna see?

Farm Week #1



Farm Week #2



Outer Space Week

Colors Week, I believe

Kansas Week

Not sure what this one was, I just like it.

And there you have it.  My guilt-free method for balancing the desire to save everysinglething my son creates with my inherent need for organization.

 

How about you?  Any other ideas for storing, displaying or documenting your children's works of art?  Do tell!