Two vintage Window Chore Charts

I promised to show you another project using my 'ole buddy, tin.  This project came about a number of years ago when I was trying to come up with a cute chore chart for my children.  Everything I saw online was too funtional and not "pretty" enough if I was going to have it hanging around every day.  I found an old window and replaced 3 of the panes of glass with tin.  I have two versions that I've done.  My first was this one:

I blew up a farm print on my printer to fit the top pane.  I found some cute folk-art pigs to laminate and put magnets on the back.  I then wrote the chores on the pigs and assigned chores to my kids.  I loved to say that our house "looks like a pig sty!  Time to do chores!" I also took some fun photos of the kids in overalls and cut out and laminated those as well.

I really loved this one, but after having this one for over 8 years (not to mention we had 2 more children and needed to add them) I was ready for a change.  I found this beauty and did a similar thing:

I fell in love with the style of this window and knew I had to make it work.  I knocked out all the glass, painted a couple coats of black paint and then used Glazier points to hold in the tin.  I ordered some vinyl lettering to say "Chores" and to decorate the side panes. 

I found these cute frames for the kids' pictures in the scrapbooking section at Michael's.  I glued magnets to the back of the pictures.  I typed up the chores and then used mod podge to stick them to clear floral marbles.  When dry, I glued on magnets (see a theme here?!)

This method of chores still works best for our family.  I can go lighter on them when they have a lot of homework to do or load it up for Saturday House-cleaning day. The kid's like to tease each other and I often find it looking like this (poor 3 year-old!):

I'm waiting for the day that the little stinkers hide all the chore marbles!

I find old windows at garage sales and once found a guy on Craigslist who had a barn full of old windows!  I bought around 30 and my gal-friends and I had fun making tons of things out of them.  Here are some we did:

And some internet inspiration for using old windows and frames:

I need your help!

I found these windows up in the Adirondacks and had to have them.  I got a free piece of mirror from Habitat ReStore and for $10 a glass shop cut it for me.  I used mirror clips to attach the mirror to the backs.  I still need to play with the arrangement since everyone that sees it thinks its a wagon wheel! Sigh... I don't want it to be country.  What do you think I should do to tweak it so it doesn't come across country-themed?  I'd love your ideas.

Should I paint them?  Would they look better spaced apart?  It's missing something but I can't figure it out yet!

I'm participating in Linky parties at:

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2010/04/welcome-to-66th-metamorphosis-monday.html
http://iamonly1woman.blogspot.com/2010/04/check-me-out-saturday-week-12.html
http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2010/04/party-time-excellent.html