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My Kids Love These Adorable Themed Chore Charts – and Yours Will, Too! [with Free Printable Charts!]

Posted on by Daysha

This post’s printable template is brought to you by my kids’ inability to stay focused on their daily routines in the face of, well, anything. How many times must I repeat the same questions about clean teeth and pajama locations before it becomes a habit without need for a nagging parent? Well, I’m afraid I will never find that answer, but I will settle on a nearer-term goal instead: accountability.

During one of my nightly Pinterest scroll sessions, I came across several project ideas for helping kids remember their chores. Some were super-detailed magnet boards, some were simple lists with clothespins that moved when tasks were completed, and others were everywhere in between. Regardless, the “pinner” ideas were inspiring for my gradually worsening attempts to corral my young kids into some sense of order morning and night. All that in mind, I came up with a simple cutout concept with pockets to put little game-type pieces into whenever a chore was done.

My kids love to count down days to special events and visit their garden to check in on every fledgling seed for growth status, so I took a gamble that being able to move a little cutout icon into a pocket when they finished a chore would help improve their memories immensely. It might even be fun! Behind the scenes, they certainly had very strong opinions about what they wanted their personal charts to look like, so there was some built-in excitement to boot!

Included in this free printable PDF file are four themed charts, one blank chart, four sets of themed icons, and two sets of chore labels (one color, one for DIY coloring). The rainbows, dinosaur, and space charts are pretty self-explanatory; however, the raindrop one was chosen by my second eldest as a “meditation” concept. She’s very into nature sounds and listens to nature music playlists when going to sleep or sketching in her art pad.

While the themes I included were based on my kids’ tastes, the concept should be pretty flexible outside of what’s in this printable. Any small clip art should be suitable for the pocket pieces, and the blank chart can either be cut out and taped to a scrapbooking page or designed and colored as-is.

Chore Chart Construction Guide

1) Cut out the chore labels, the little clip art drawings that match the chart theme you’re using, and a 1.5″ x 6″ rectangle from some extra paper. (Any paper will do, cardstock is best).

2) Tape the bottom and sides of the chore labels where you want them on the designated spaces on the chart. (Note: Make sure you only tape the bottom and sides so that it makes a little pocket where the clipart tokens can slide inside.)

3) Tape the rectangle bottom and sides on the bottom of the chore chart. The rectangle serves to hold the little clipart tokens when not being used. (Note: Again, make sure you only tape the bottom and sides so a little pocket is made with the rectangle.)

There is a short video at the bottom of this page that serves as a guide for how they come together and are used. Hopefully everything is easy peasy!

If you use these charts for your kids’ chores, I’d love to hear how they work out for you! As always, thanks for reading!

– Daysha

Printable Home Planners: A Fun Spooky & Cosmic Twist on Organization [with Free Printable Planner Sheets]

Posted on by Daysha

If you’re anything like me, you probably already have a gazillion organization tools at your fingertips via your smart phone whether it be the built-in calendar, a personal journal, specialized apps, etc. Why in the world would anyone use a printed home planner in the year 2024? Let me inspire you…

Trust me when I say that I’m a snob about storing and providing information in an electronic format (please don’t hand me paper anything!). Despite being an early adopter of palm pilots, keychain SD cards, and cloud computing before it was called that, I still kept running into the issue of…(drum roll)…other people that were NOT so high and mighty about this same conviction.

Yeah, I’m talking about my husband. But! I could easily adapt that sentiment for many other non-techies in my life or perhaps the miniature not-allowed-to-be-techies in my life, i.e., my children. It’s actually not totally fair to pin my need for non-electronic organization tools on anyone in particular because there is another – far larger – looming obstacle in my desire to become Borg: human biology.

It’s Science. No, Really.

My working life is about as close to living online as I can get without being a professional streaming gamer, but I still run into the need to grab a spiral notebook and organize my thoughts…on paper…all. the. time. These darn hands just need to be doing something physical in order to connect properly with my creative mind signals for whatever reason. Although I’ve been working for decades (decades!) to train my brain to use a screen for all that sort of stuff, it still says “goobleygookaboragorkapotus” after a while. Once I’ve relented and pulled out some recycled tree-stuff, all is well again. (Insert exasperated Jackie Chan meme here.)

Apparently, this is a known thing in science, and it’s more than just an organization hang up. Working with one’s hands is also good for overall well-being. So, using a printed home planner is not just helping my family understand our schedule and task lists every week (instead of forgetting to check Trello before asking me what’s for dinner for the 42nd time), it’s also helping me stay calm. As goes mom, so goes the house, no? Plus, I get to make something cute. Form meets function, baby!

Okay, so I already published the homestead planning sheets that I made a couple of years ago (and actually use to this day!), but lately I’ve been wanting to add a little more fun to the graphics that appear on it. The older ones were inspired by a Victory Garden community pamphlet that I found on Archive.org, and I still love the little family doing some farming while WWII-era B-series bomber planes are flying overhead. Since Victory Gardens are still a huge influence in the modern homestead community, I want to keep them around as a tribute.

That said, I have some other interests that also influence my home and garden styles such as, you know, cosmic and spooky stuff. I figured if I was redesigning a home planner that has been so useful for me in order to broaden the inspiration it channels, there might be others with similar interests that might find my planner useful, too. So, here it is…or rather, here *they* are! Yes, I made several!

Cute Printable Home Planners for the Win!

These free printable home planners have several versions available as downloadable PDF files, both colored and line drawings:

  • A kitchen witch holding up a book of spells and recipes
  • A spooky pumpkin-head figure in a graveyard with a skeleton popping up under the moonlight
  • A cute couple coming home after a trick-or-treating Halloween party
  • A cosmic gardener growing planets and stars in her garden

I encourage mixing and matching the different versions to maximize the fun and inspiration despite the possible drudgery of task planning you’re facing. And hey, if you’re still wedded to using electronic formats for everything (admittedly, I do this a lot, too even after citing research in favor of prints), the PDF file can be easily imported into any notetaking app like GoodNotes, Noteable, the iPad Notes app, and so forth. There’s many a week where I will start off on GoodNotes with my “hopes” for the week and print out the planner to put on our family clipboard in the kitchen in lieu of using a physical pen for everything.

Well, I hope you find these home planner templates helpful and useful! Let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas you’d like to see made available in the shop. I’d love to hear your ideas and give them a go!

As always, thanks for reading!

– Daysha

Time Travel with Yarn: Vintage Space Comic Designs [with Free C2C / Tapestry Crochet Pattern Grid]

Posted on by Daysha

Today’s project is inspired by the amazing photos which continue to be released from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Launched on December 25, 2021 after decades of development, Webb is now the world’s largest and most powerful space-based telescope in operation. With its four onboard instruments, scientists will be able to study the very early days of our universe, the ways stars, planets, and galaxies form and evolve, and obtain spectroscopic data on the atmosphere compositions of exoplanets.

Webb’s first full-color scientific images and findings released on July 12, 2022 marked the official start of its formal science work. If you enjoyed the amazing images and space facts made possible by the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope is probably going to blow your mind. Personally, I can’t wait to see the exoplanet data that comes out. I love dreaming up life and landscapes on other planets, and I imagine I’ll have content in the future that’s inspired by the same (décor, stories…garden projects??!!).

“Galaxy M51 (MIRI image),” taken by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
“A Massive Cluster is Born (N79),” taken by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
“This image taken by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar,” taken by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

A quick review of history seems to show that space has always inspired humanity, thus the golden era of our rocket age is unsurprisingly ripe with all sorts of retro visions of what our future might look like. Perhaps one of the most recognizable images of a “vintage” or “retrofuture” rocket, in my opinion, is the one designed by Belgian artist Georges Remi for his famous cartoon adventurer named TinTin. Its missile shape combined with a red and white checkered coloring seems to be a classic reference point in popular culture whenever rocket history is being discussed.

A Brief History of TinTin

Remi, better known under his pen name of Hergé (a play on his initials “G.R.” said backwards with a French pronunciation of “R.G.”), completed twenty-four stories involving TinTin the reporter which comprised many historical events in its plots during its run from 1929 to 1986. However, the pictured space technology contained in his two moon adventures are likely some of the most recognizable images from the series and evoke a nostalgia for the era they represent even from those not familiar with the series more specifically. In other words, many people recognize the TinTin rocket without knowing anything else about it. It has become that iconic. SpaceX’s Starship rocket that’s hoping to ferry humans to the Moon and Mars in the coming decade is even possibly inspired by the TinTin rocket! (Elon Musk tweet-confirmed something to that effect, but I’m no good at searching on X/Twitter, sorry.)

Here’s a very early self-designed crochet project of mine. I had so many ideas for a retro-themed rocket inspired by TinTin, but in the end, I just made a giant applique of sorts.

The apron ties were a last-ditch effort to make something useful out of it after every other concept fell through. There are a bunch of little pockets in the back for dowel rods to tuck in and keep the rocket fins straight. I think I was going for a Halloween costume at one point? Who knows… It gets to stay in my collection for memory’s sake.

According to biographical accounts of his life, Hergé did an incredible amount of research and had many discussions with involved scientists to make sure the rocket trips in the Destination Moon (1950, 1953) and Explorers on the Moon (1954) stories were as accurate as possible to what was being designed for future space travel in the day. That said, reading and watching in modern times, where real trips to the Moon are decades old and astronauts regularly ferry to orbit for long stays on the International Space Station, TinTin’s adventure almost seems commonplace with all we take for granted now.

It further reminds me of how far humanity has progressed in the “final frontier” considering Hergé’s stories came out nearly two decades before Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon in 1969 and several years before the first satellite (Sputnik I) made it to space in 1957. While there are definitely details in TinTin’s adventure that turned out to be incorrect as far as space travel goes, I will say it’s quite a relief that astronauts don’t actually black out during launch and landing like the Destination Moon crew did.

Project Time! C2C Crochet Vintage Space Comic Rocket Pattern

What would a C2C or tapestry crochet tribute to the retro rocket age be without a nod to the classic comic book rockets from science fiction stories? I took to my pixel software and put something together that would capture its overall vibe in blanket format, but I ran into a hiccup: I didn’t have the right colors in my yarn stash!

What would a C2C or tapestry crochet tribute to the retro rocket age be without a nod to the classic comic book rockets from science fiction stories? I took to my pixel software and put something together that would capture its overall vibe in blanket format, but I ran into a hiccup: I didn’t have the right colors in my yarn stash!

Since I’d been on a neutrals kick for my house decorations, my options were limited to shades of tan, grey, and a bit of black, so that’s what my finished project looked like. My husband claimed it for his chair in our room – a success overall in my book.

For the pattern itself, though, I did do my best to use nostalgic and fun colors. I’ve also included a couple of bonus grids in case a whole blanket set is in mind based on the retro rocket age. It’s definitely on my gift list this holiday season for any rocket lovers in the family and friends circle!

Note on C2C / Tapestry Crochet Patterns

I have not included any instruction or tutorial directions on how to do C2C (corner-to-corner) or tapestry crochet in my pattern file. My abilities in this area are limited, and there are so many amazing crochet instructors out there that can lead you through these techniques much better than I could. The video that I used when originally learning was put out by The Crochet Crowd, so I can personally recommend it. However, a simple search on YouTube or your favorite search engine is sure to lead you to many excellent teachers all the same who I’ve learned other things from in crochet.

I hope you enjoyed this little tribute to the retro rocket / space comic book age (that’s a thing, right?). This project was fun for me to make!

As always, thanks for reading!

-Daysha