Tag: colors

Free Printable Letter Writing Templates for Grandma, Pen Pal

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Family is important to us and we live a little too far from the kids’ grandparents for our taste. Now that both Dub and Eve are writing I want to encourage them to work on their letter writing and communication skills via snail mail. To help them (and your little writers), we use letter writing templates for kids.

Letter to Grandma Printable Templates | Five Marigolds

Letter Writing Templates

I’ve searched high and low for letter writing templates that will work for young writers and have struggled to find a template with prompts that are appropriate for casual letter writing.

Many are specific to summer break (we love this one, especially for non-writers), summer camps and travel which is great but doesn’t work year round.

So, I created these letter templates that I’m really happy with.

The friendly letter template includes writing prompts that cover the things we talk about at home at the end of each day: what they’re learning at school, their feelings at the moment, and the best and worst part of their days.

I also added a “weather today” section, just for fun, and an area for them to just draw, which is their favorite part.

With different writing prompts the kids don’t feel like they are writing the same letter again and again.

You can find our letter writing templates for kids below. 

Letter to Grandma Printable Template Girl | Five Marigolds

More Letter Writing Ideas

Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are the obvious first choices when thinking about who your kids should write letters to but don’t forget about friends that live close by.

Start a neighborhood pen pal program when your kids are preschoolers. It was so great for them to have friends their own age in the neighborhood that they could easily walk to visit. When they get older, they can write letters about shared interests, weekend plans and stories about school.

Another idea is for the kids to list things they want to do with their grandparents when they visit. This way, they can start thinking about and looking forward to their next visit!

If your kids are hesitant about letter writing, have them start with a postcard. They can be found almost anywhere (we even have some from our travels that the kids love to send) and are less intimidating than a full sheet of paper.

Another great way to ease into letter writing is with a fill in the blank letter. These are great for younger kids or those just getting started.

You can also hype up the writing process with cute kids writing paper, special stamps and some washi tape.

And don’t forget that you can always encourage your kids to write letters by writing a few yourself!

I hope these templates help your young writers and that you enjoy getting letters in the mail as much as we do!

Do you have friends and family members who live far away? Are your kids starting to interact with pen pals, or heading off to summer camp? This template is for you! I’m sharing them here for my subscribers. Enjoy!

Bring Life and Personalization to a Neutral Family Room

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I recently posted a photo of our family room on Instagram and got lots of notes asking me about the space. I had friends tell me it looked like something out of a magazine. What a compliment!

Neutral Family Room with Bold Pops of Color | Five Marigolds

I was really surprised by the reaction I got, though. The truth is, anyone can make a space look amazing in just one photograph. Our home is a work in progress. Most of our home is not decorated. I finish little areas of a room and wait to finish the rest of the space as inspiration strikes me. That means there are uglier areas of the room that don’t get shown in photos – like the comfortable, oversized, slightly worn leather chair the corner where it doesn’t quite fit. The lamps that don’t quite match but that continue to live on in the room until I find the perfect lights that fit my budget.

I’m not very confident as a decorator, so I just go by my gut feeling. If I put a rug in the space and I find that I don’t feel comfortable, it’s not the right fit for me. If I put a wild throw pillow on the couch and it makes me want to sit down and enjoy the space – it was the right design choice for me.

Here are the design tips I follow in my home:

  1. Start with high quality, neutral furniture This means a great neutral couch with clean lines, a high quality rug and furniture in the space. Keep the colors neutral so they can last – both in structure and in design taste –  for many years. Like all things in life, when you get the foundation right everything works much better!
  2. Bring in texture In our home, we add lots of texture with mixed leathers, deep rich woods and distressed reclaimed woods, too. It means sleek cool mirrors and hard metal vases and decor juxtaposed with wild flowers and dried wild grasses. We use fabrics with varying textures, too – but they must always, always be comfortable and soft! Make sure your throw pillows are filled with down, too. They will look 100% better and will be more comfortable, too.
  3. Add pops of color For me, this means bold colors and patterns, as you can see with our throw pillows. I love all of these colors and patterns, and somehow when I mix them all they come together perfectly to me.
  4. Personalize This is my most important design rule. Nothing makes an environment more sterile than lack of personalization. I like to decorate with lots of pictures. Some I keep in their frames forever for nostalgia. For our main wall, I use updated family photos every year.
  5. Keep it versatile One of my favorite tips when buying mats and frames is to buy square or symmetrical frames, and have the mat cut to the size of photos you plan to use. Here’s why this is genius: if your favorite photo this year was portrait – oriented, inevitably you’ll one day have a favorite that is landscape – oriented. Instead of buying a new frame and re-hanging the photos on your wall to fit, you just turn the frame on its side, and you’re in business. See how I have examples of both portrait and landscape photos on my wall?

Sources:

  • Sectional: Carson’s Furniture
  • Ottoman: Restoration Hardware (old) similar here
  • End Tables: HomeGoods (old) similar here
  • Lamp
  • Pillows, similar: animal print, black/white geo, floral pillow made with Robert Allen fabric
  • Throw: HomeGoods (old) similar here
  • Wall Monogram: HomeGoods (old) similar here
  • Wall frames and mats
  • Rug