DIY: Dry Erase Calendar

A week or two ago, I was writing some upcoming due dates and events in my planner and I found myself really wishing I could roll the whole thing out, unfold it and stretch it so that I could see everything I have coming up all at once.

I presented this wish to my boyfriend. Casually. While he was playing video games.

"They have those, you know," he said whilst blasting a zombie to smithereens. "Those big calendars you can put on the wall and write on and tear off the sheets one month at a time."

"Yes," I said, "but that seems so wasteful. What I really want is a dry erase board with a calendar on it."

"They make those, too."

"Yes," I said, "but there's a major problem with all of them. They're ugly."

I mean, aren't they? They all have cheap wood or plastic or metal framing them and just look so sterile and middle school math class-ish. No, if I was going to have a dry erase calendar that made me walk into my office each morning just burning to get started marking all over it, I was going to have to make one myself.

And so that's just what I did.

I used this tutorial here. And I used some of the leftover fabric I had from the DIY jewelry board project here. And I went to Michael's and bought a nice frame that was 50% off. (Is it just me, or are all the frames at Michael's always 50% off? What is going on over there?)

Do ya wanna see the end result? Do ya?

Ta-da!

The low quality of the photo is intentional. I can't have anyone unearthing the details of my deep dark secretive plan for freelance writers to take over the world someday, otherwise what would be the point of all my plotting? That's what we writers do, you know -- we plot. Ah ha. Ah ha. Ahem. Sorry ...

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the finished product. I've organized it so that it's revolving, too, meaning as soon as a week passes, I erase that week and incorporate it into the calendar for next month. For example, in this photo, October is only represented by the last row and back up at the top begins November. Even though, yes, it says October at the very top. Look, I have my own system, all right? Lay off.

Total cost for the project, since I already had the fabric, permanent markers and dry erase markers, ended up being for only the frame. And since I knew I already had all the other supplies, I splurged a little -- maybe $20-$25 (on sale!). I'm sure you could find a great one for much cheaper, though. Or perhaps you even already have one lying around? One that's not holding a photo? One that you're getting really tired of moving from closet to closet in your house?

If you make your own, let me know how it goes! (And wear GLOVES. Glass cuts. And it hurts.)