The impact of having a planner

I used to love my Dilbert Dayrunner planner. He stayed faithfully with me through high school. Then I had kids, then I moved to a foreign country where I didn't work and just raised them. He wasn't as useful anymore. He's still around in the capacity of an address book. I fell out of the habit of needing him. This last month I tried to revisit him and bring him back to life. Unfortunately, his parent company just didn't have anything to suit what I needed. Bummer I would have loved to use all his bells and whistles then it hit me. I really don't them. 

    Now with the movement towards planners and binders, I love me some of the companies out there. Again though, I just don't need all the detail planning that these companies offer. Lovely Bridgett said lets make our own. Well, I researched it and the problems I had were 1. just about EVERYTHING is printed on 8x10 format & 2. the few I did find for smaller sizes would still need a binder and this thing lives in my purse. Ladies you all know what abuse we put our things through in our purses and bags. A binder just wasn't going to work. 

Let me show you what I found that works for me. First some supplies, I decided on these 4 colors to use with my awesome calendar stamp set.

 

The set was given to me after a friend decided she no longer wanted it and I didn't think I would find a lot of uses for it but I made it hang around. Good thing too.They are the perfect size.

My only requirement was it had to have a monthly and a weekly calender.I had so much going on that a monthly just wasn't going to cut it. I found this beauty at Target for $7.99. 

   

 

The front of the cover slides out so I can personalize it with the crafty stash! YAY! Until I do though the manufactured one is pretty. I made 3 paper clip markers to mark sections off some areas of my binder.

I love that the tabs are monthly...and that the cover extends beyond them so no accidents to rip them off.

First, inside the cover I have my stickie note pad Bridgett made for me and the front page I use as a dashboard of sorts.

    

This planning page I believe I will use to jot blog ideas. I don't need a lot of room for that because as long as I don't forget the idea I will be ok.

   

Next is the monthly calendar where I stamp and color coded important things. I also highlighted all the holidays. Here I will just do a quick note , like Dr. Dentist etc

  

 

Then in the weekly I will write the important details....

     

There is another planning guide in the back and I plan on using that for ideas for possible you tube videos but I did such an awful job on the last one I may never do another one!

Some note pages and on the back of the last page I have my most frequently used addresses for quick on the go mailings.

The binder clip in the back holds important paper work

As an added bonus I can take this out when I get home and write the important things on our family calendar. That way even my husband can't say he doesn't know what I have going on!

There it is my planner and how I try to keep it all flowing together. Do you use a planner? If so whats your favorite brand?

In a box far, far away...

      Everyone wants their own personal touches in creative space. I am no different. I love purple and I love my purple craft space but, come on, one can over do it so I try not to buy too much unless I just have to have it. Browsing pintrest one night, I saw an amazing idea. Cover empty shoe boxes with fabric and hot glue! One of those What the hell !?! Why didn't I think of that? moments. I had plenty of Star wars fabric left over from the bestests quilt so I set forth and made one.

      I have no idea what I shall use it for yet. Maybe a gift box for someone else to use. Whatever I decide it was a fun, fast, I feel crafty kinda thing that I managed while binge watching tv! Even though I almost set the house on fire from an exploding hot glue gun and got a 2nd degree burn. But that's beside the point. It's STAR WARS!

Finding my place

        Just when I think I have this whole timing blog schedule under control, the curve balls come flying out of no where. Add that with my impatience of wanting everything done now attitude and you have a recipe for no blogging for 2 months. There have been health issues with several members of my family, I myself have had bronchitis that lasted 6 long weeks and a minor outpatient procedure.  I have however been getting stuff done in my absence. I will share one of those do it now projects today. 

         I have been on a declutter binge for quite some time now. I have cleaned up my pantry before but I had to run to the dollar tree for a certain item and they had amazing purple fall bins sitting out waiting to be plucked into my hot little hands. Here's what happened next.....

My semi ok before. Still cluttered but i can find what I need....

 My after. The bins helped coral all the straying items that never wanted to stay put.

 You can see I added bins to hold snacks, bags, and puppy items. I was even able to fit more on the top shelves.

I am happy to report that 2 months later it is still organized and kept neat. I haven't even had to yell at my family to keep it up. They know where everything goes and have been fantastic at putting it back. Major battle won in the clutter war.

Another year to put things in order..

I had an original post about putting a family binder together here. I have found it surprisingly helpful except in the Christmas season when everything in my life revolves around work , sleep and trying to get the holidays in order. Ironically, I started my binder with the calendar from Organized Christmas. But I wanted something that had holidays and daylight savings time already in it. Since then, I have been on the hunt for cute, functional free printables for my binder and I believe I just found the calender for the year...

I love everything about it . Its cute plenty of room to write notes. There is even a weekly view you can add to the monthly calendar, for you uber busy types out there (IE Cynthia). You can find all the free , yes free, printables here.  I am also including links to where I got my other printables. My dates to remember, last years calendar and password log I got here from DIY home sweet home and my contact and bill info I got here from The Good Wife. Have you started a home binder yet? If you have, have you found stylish free printables you love? Leave a link and comment below I would love to have a sneak peek at what everyone has.and does it work for you?

 

Did someone say Copic?

Because the one thing no one tells you when you get addicted to these markers is how expensive the storage is when you start to buy these gems. If you start small no problem but seeing as they have over 300 colors in the arsenal you quickly realize they need their own space.  At first, I was just using a galvanized tin with beans to hold them. That quickly became too full and I had to look into alternatives. Pintrest to the rescue. ( How we ever survived without that website is beyond me!)  I put the hubs to work and here is my new Copic holder. 

 

 

We got a 16l very useful box from office max ( yes,that is truly what they are called)  and some lighting grid from home depot. Hubs did the measuring cutting and super gluing of it in place and when I came home form work all I had to do was add the markers. Now that's my kind of project.

 

 I have somewhere in the 80-100 range of markers but as you can see there's room to grow. The only down fall to the box is I can not use the lid because the copics are smidge too tall.  I am ok with that because I don't need them to be portable. ( I just jinxed myself.)  I have seen people use some of the very nice boxes from Michael's as well. You know the décor kind you can find near the baskets?

 

But I am curious. If you have the whole collection of markers (IE Jeanne) how do you do store them? I never thought to ask.

 

The Secret To Organizing My Paper Scraps.

 Scrap room, Craft room, Craft Haven...no matter what you call your area that you create in it is always evolving. I thought I found the perfect way to sort and use my paper scraps and it always wound up looking a lot like this...

 

I always seemed to forget the little scraps perfect for card making that floated gently ( ok sometimes not so gently) to the bottom of my folders.  A lady in one of my Facebook groups showed how she stored hers and it got me to thinking, while it won't be exactly the same, it was doable so off we go to sort...where my piles looked like this 

 



What a mess of bent up paper, punched messes and scraps.

SO I cut the big pieces to 4.5x6  perfect for card fronts, kept some scraps as long as they would serve a purpose in card making, sorted it all by color and used an old photo organizer I had to pop them all in..

Now That I can live with and the best part was now I have room for the much bigger scraps that are still perfect for scrapbook pages.

 If you are paper crafter how do you store all your scraps? Do you keep them all or just certain sizes? This enquiring mind would love to know. So leave your answer in the comments below.

PS this is one of the projects I completed before Christmas LOL.

I love a know it all

No not a real know it all but this one ....

I had been toying with the idea of a home binder for a long ,long time now.  Since I stumbled across the web site Organized Christmas in fact. I always had an excuse to put it off , but now that we own a home (and the fact that I am home bound) I couldn't come up with a reason not to do it.  So some research, A LOT of  paper gathering  and some head scratching later I decided on 5 main sections for my binder.

The very first page in my binder is the all important emergency info. 

I know it seems weird with teens and adults in the house but in an emergency you never know if you'll be calm enough to remember the simple everyday stuff...including your own phone number.


The first section is home management...

 This includes a master calender  for all our appointments and schedules, a cleaning schedule, and a birthdays and anniversary list.

Number 2 is important phone numbers...

 This section includes all of the necessary everyday phone numbers to utilities, cable etc,local repair men  and as morbid as it sounds all the people I would want notified in the event of an emergency.  I also included card holders to hold extra business cards in case anyone should be in need of one.

 Third is family. There are sub-dividers in that section for each family member . I wish I had done this earlier with my kids in elementary school to corral all the schedules and school papers. Happy now though because I have one starting high school and I know the amount of paper work that will be involved there. I also have a second family binder I made with all the important papers in there(birth cert., religious cert. etc) to be kept in a separate areas so hubs can find them just as easily as me.

 Number 4 is finances.  My dividers have pockets so I labeled the pockets so I could separate my bills by which payday they need to be paid.

This also includes my notebook I keep our budget in and a  master to do list.  This is a list that has every home improvement project we can come up with. 

Lastly we have health and fitness. I have put our insurance cards and our new tricare dental booklet in there for the time being. 

I am sure that over time this binder will be torn apart, added to and overhauled as time and family changes. 

I have seen binders that have many more sections. These were the ones that I felt needed most improvement in our household so started with them.

I am so excited to put it into practice and I may even do an update at the end of the next school year and let you guys know if it was worth the time and effort and put to good use.

Going in a new direction

 Yes sir once again I have rearranged the way my room goes. Well, in all honesty, I didn't really have a say in where the placement was. My son was visiting and he put "his " room the way he wanted, bed under the window as you see here (view from door)...

 

Which caused me to arrange my room with what was left like so...LOL the above picture has the new bedding as this picture has the old...

 The boy has been accepted to in state colleges in New York so he  is thinking he will be going there so he said mom do whatever you want to the room. OKAY! so here's the new view when you walk in....I love it. Yes I may have to get up and walk around more but it totally fits my creative style.There is room for a guest to come be crafty with me and if I want to sew all I have to do is move the pens holders and instant room to sew without taking up the dining room table plus I still have a full size bed for whatever guests may come visit. All that's really left is to decide what wall  I want to paint purple!

 

Ohh wait no then all I need is for Santa to get me a dvd  and tv even in combo style and I may never leave this room! 

 

Inspiration Station

So as always I am having a conversation with my pal Bridgett.

She shows me this awesome link to someone's "inspiration station".
What is an Inspiration station ?
Well to quote Michelle Wooderson(whom Bridgett got the idea from)...

So what's an Inspiration Station, you ask? This is the space that I have created in my craft room that I place all supplies that currently inspire me. This time I chose Valentine themed goodies. I gather up all of my Valentine themed papers, stamps, embellishments, ribbons, etc and place them all in one little spot. It's easily seen so I have a visual reminder of what I want to use. I go through all my drawers and baskets and piles (ick, I hate piles) and pick out things that fit the theme. Then the great part is, I can then go *shopping* in my own craft room. My Inspiration Station looks like a little boutique shelf and I just head over there when I want to create a project. I have told ALL of my friends about this and they just love the idea. It really helps to get out those already purchased and probably much neglected supplies that you've stashed away. Plus it just looks cute!! So my wish for you this year is to get organized, get inspired and get to stampin' and creating!!

Now if you followed that link you saw pictures of her lovely area.
Mine looks nothing like it , but I tried.
I do not overly do Valentine's lovey dovey stuff so this area is small, but it serves a purpose.
I only have a few valentine colored flowers, but I really do like them.

My bucket holds all my small paper, stickers, and some stamps.

AHHH paint ..what would I do without thee?

Then on my wall I have packaged embellishments, and in that small red spice holder on the dry erase/ magnet board are some embellishments I got from swaps in the past.
(In case you are wondering that envelope has a calender on it,on which I write peoples birthdays. I have one for every month.)

I like the IDEA though of having what you need out and at your fingertips.
No digging through separate areas for what you thought you had, and easy to clean up when you are done.
So now that you have seen my inspiration station. How about visiting the lady who inspired me to create one?
Bridgett has created one as well and I love it. She has such cute holders and such.
Hopefully we have inspired you to create an inspiration station yourself .
We would love to see it if you do , so leave us a link in our comments.

PS I just noticed I am ending 2009 with my 400th post!
How awesome is that?