Who's birthday is coming up?

I am awful at dates - remembering anything, especially numbers, is very hard for me.  When Eric and I first started dating, we decided our "dating anniversary" as the 14th because the 14th is my birthdate - so then I would be able to remember!  

So when I came across these on pinterest - I thought how perfect.  It doesn't have to be re written on the calendar each year and gives an at a glance feeling to it.

From my pinterest board

The versions I found online were a little too advanced for what I wanted to do.  For example each date was made out of wood.  I didn't want to bother Eric with cutting out all those circles or painting all the circles.  I wanted to be able to add more dates easily and without being a chore.  Just as you would quickly add a date to a calendar.  So I came up with my own version.

I found a board from Michaels and painted it white:

I then found these fun words and painted them to add on.  I thought the phrase live and love was fitting for the calendar since the dates were birthdays (live) and anniversaries (love).

Dividing it up to put the months on it was a little tricky, but it worked out.

For the dates I used a new circle cutter (these are pretty fancy!)

And cut out circles at 1 3/4" and punched holes at the top and bottom.

I put the hooks in by hand except for one - the wood was soft and the hooks have screws on the end of them so they went in pretty easy.  Eric had to drill the one stubborn one.

I wrote everyone's anniversaries and birthdays and even drew a fun picture on them to represent what the date is:

And yes, Ellie gets one too :)

And on the back of them I plan to write the year as well so I can always check how many years it is:

Using necklace spring rings, I attached all the dates in order to put under each month.

They somewhat overlap but I was ok with that.  I didn't want to make the circles too small or have to buy too long of a board- so this works for me.

Here is the final project.  Not hung up yet - it has a specific place in the laundry room but the laundry room isn't ready yet! 

I hope to add more dates of extended family, but have only started with immediate for now.  We have a niece coming soon - so I can't wait to be able to add her date in!  She has one more day to be added to the July link!

**UPDATE: I realize the April, May, and June got flipped!  Oops!  It was fixed after the picture was taken - They had fallen off while moving it and I didn't pay attention to where I put them.  See... another reason I need something like this!  

Happy Monday!

-E