Bloggiesta Day 1: In the Thick of It

The first day of Bloggiesta is halfway over and I'm trucking along with the goals I've set for myself. I've been a little slower this afternoon as I managed to get a little distracted by things like my iPad, YouTube, and Facebook. Oops. The good news is, success is still being had - just in smaller quantities.

I made a really dumb mistake earlier today that totally worked out in my favor. I was just sitting here tooling along on a few items when I realized that it was 1:45pm...3:45pm EST. In a quick panic, I pulled up TweetDeck, certain that I was missing the Twitter chat. But...it turns out I just don't know how to read. The chat is tomorrow, not today. I'll get a second attempt at showing up on time. Phew.

The good news is that I have managed to finish one more item on my list and I'm in the midst of four (yes...four) others. Okay, really I guess it's five if you count reading other Bloggiesta posts and commenting, because I've been doing a little of that too.

Here's where I'm at right now...

1. Update reading challenge pages.

2. Update bucket list challenge pages.

3. Participate in Sunday's Twitter Chat at 3pm EST.

4. Redesign blog planner.

5. Sort through Goodreads emails and update TBR. (in progress)

6. Create TBR jar. (in progress)

7. Create project jar. (in progress)

8. Create blog post idea jar. (in progress)

9. Write Top Ten Tuesday posts for June/July/August (at least some...).

10. Visit other Bloggiesta bloggers and comment. Be social!! (TOTALLY happening!)

I'm quite thrilled that I completed #4. I really did love my blog planner when I put it together a little over a year ago, but it was too big and too bulky and wound up just sitting in a drawer instead of getting properly used. Then I started writing things down in other notebooks and on scraps of paper and it all just turned into a chaotic mess. It was time for a streamlined change.

Here's what I started with:

Excuse the horribly grainy picture. The iPad can't be trusted...

The large original planner binder, the smaller green planner, miscellaneous printer papers, a legal pad, the blue project design notebook, and a steno notebook. Meanwhile, the binder was stuffed with all kinds of weird, loose papers.

And here's what I ended up with:

Ahh. One nice and tidy, portable-sized green planner.

I compiled everything into this cute little planner that I got at Staples. I use one of these for my regular daily planner as well (it's the ARC system in case you're curious...and no, this isn't a sponsored post - I just like my planners). 

I have things divided by tabs to keep track of my "to do" list, the upcoming topics for Top Ten Tuesday, my read-a-thon schedule, plans for the year's pumpkin display, plans for holiday gift projects, and the plan for next year's A to Z Challenge (among other things). I'd show you the individual pages but...blog secrets and all of that. I can't be just showing you everything! (You do have a bit of a sneak peek of a wall collage I have planned. Does that help?)

I'm sooooo much happier. This cutesy little planner measures about 9" high and 6" wide. It's about 1 1/2" thick and has to be held closed by a band since I stuffed it with pages (the system does have the option of larger rings, but I didn't have enough of them left). Still...it's about 1000 times better than the gigantic 3" 3-ring binder (and other assorted accouterments) I was using before. This is much more portable and accessible. It also helps that Bloggiesta projects 6-8 are allowing me to remove some items from the planner that were previously taking up a lot of real estate.

What do you think? Do you use a blog planner? What are the essential pieces of your planner that you can't live without?

Reorganization Phase II - Schedule

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that it was time to reorganize a few things in my life. I've let myself get completely off track the past couple of months. I blame the heat. And summer vacation. And I finally got fed up with it. In May, things were running nice and smooth around here: chores were getting finished, blog posts were getting posted, projects were being made; it was like a well oiled machine. Now? Total chaos.

When the kid is in school, things have to be organized or we're just a mess. With no homework to get done and no strict bedtime to enforce, it's like Lord of the Flies over here. Messes everywhere, nothing gets accomplished. My nightly schedule has gone to hell in a handbasket. I do nearly nothing for hours after work. And that was fine for a while. It started mid-June. It's been six weeks now and I think maybe it's time to finally get off my can.

If you've been around here for very long, then you know that I have a lot of hobbies. I spread myself a little thin sometimes. But it's also easy for some crafts to get occasionally neglected. I have a scrapbook room people. A room. Just for scrapbook stuff. The last time I scrapbooked? I'm pretty sure it's been at least eighteen months. That's freaking ridiculous. And it's not because I don't like scrapbooking anymore. I just can't get myself in the mood.

It's this kind of crap that has made me decide that getting myself "in the mood" for specific hobbies or tasks is bologna. I need to make myself a schedule. With little goals. Because I may have all the grandiose plans in the world, but the whole train will fall apart if I make my goals too big.

I am being bluntly realistic with the project. Are you ready for this? There is. no. plan. Yup. No hard plan. I'm not exactly sure what I want the final picture to look like. I'm going to go in small phases until I get my schedule the way that I want it. The first step for that? I'm giving myself a ten step program.

Ten rules. Some of them are more fun than others. I'm going to stick to them and do my best and then reevaluate in three months to see if I need to push myself harder or create new and better habits. Day one for this first phase is August 1st. Reevaluation day is November 1st. Here's the plan...

1. Make progress on one item each from my 101 in 1001 and my 50 x 50 lists each week. Progress. That's all I'm asking for. If I complete something, fan-freaking-tastic. This is low pressure.

2. Read at least two nights a week for a minimum of an hour. This should be easy for me. I love to read. But I've totally let life, and laziness, and iPad apps get in the way lately. This minimum might increase, but for right now...this is what I want.

3. Continue to exercise at least three times a week. I've been doing this since June 1st and so far it's going okay. I say okay because, while I've lost some fat and converted it to muscle, I have yet to lose more than two pounds. And even that isn't consistent. If you average, I'm probably at the same weight. Annoying. But I do feel better and there's less cottage cheese glued to my thighs and butt. So that's nice. Plus, I'm quite enjoying my Wii Zumba game. I don't care what exercise I do, as long as it's a minimum of 15-20 minutes three times a week. That's all I'm asking of myself. I don't need to train for a marathon, I just need to move. I'm an adult. I should be able to handle this.

4. Participate in at least two of my hobbies (other than reading) at least once a week. Let me be clear that the word "participate" was a very conscious choice. I was going to say "work on", but decided that anything with the word "work" being used will make me want to run screaming. So it's low pressure again. LOW. I just have to make an effort. It's like kindergarten. Baby steps. I could sew; I can scrapbook; maybe I'll cook something, or write. Don't care what it is...just do something. Well...actually, do two somethings. Mix it up a little.

5. While we're on the topic of hobbies, actively do something in each of my chosen hobbies once a month. Because it's ridiculous to have hobbies if you're just going to ignore them. This one is going to push me for a smidge bit more commitment. I'm going to make a list here. For each hobby I list, I will produce something to do with that hobby within a month's time. Every month. But again, it doesn't have to be anything major. Just progress. Ready?

Blogging - this should be easy or I'm really screwing up

Cooking - again...once a month should totally be possible

Crafts - DIY, paper, etc.; actually use Pinterest for something

Creative Writing - the blog doesn't count here

Gaming - any...board, computer, video

Photography - preferably with something other than my iPhone

Reading - another easy one. I need small wins.

Quilting - for fun or for profit; either way

Scrapbooking - I need to use my mountains of product

Sewing - clothes, toys, presents, doesn't matter

6. Do at least two loads of laundry a week. This is a totally low goal. According to my household chore schedule, I'm supposed to do a load a day. I'm totally out of practice on that. So I'm going to have to wean myself back into it. I'm starting with two loads. Eventually I may find my way back to at least four loads a week. If I manage that, we're totally cool. No one will go naked and everyone will have towels and socks. Win-win.

7. Cook dinner at least two nights a week. This means actual cooking. Not putting something in the microwave or deeming it a leftovers night. Real, honest-to-goodness cooking. I should be able to handle that, but I'm putting it down here anyway. I have to keep myself accountable.

8. Complete a household chore at least three days a week. Laundry isn't included here. This is cleaning stuff. Again, I have a household chore schedule that gives me stuff to do daily. That hasn't been happening, but it used to. And it was a good schedule. And things stayed clean. So I'm working my way back to it. Doesn't matter which chores on the list I choose, as long as they get done. Oh...and making the bed doesn't count either.

9. Have a family night at least once a week. We're highly independent over here. We all have our own hobbies and we do a lot by ourselves. But we need to find our way to each other at least once a week. So we need to convene together in some form of activity for a minimum of two hours each week. That's the goal. Doesn't need to be anything fancy...just time together. Darian spends the majority of his weekends with his mom, so I'm specifically meaning this goal for weekdays. Stuff done as a family on weekends doesn't count.

10. Have a couple's night at least twice a month. See #9. We're independent. We're also busy. Sometimes my schedule and Collin's don't line up very well. But we need to spend more time together. This one can be a weekend one, but I want us to spend at least two hours doing something together at least twice a month. This can be an actual out of the house date or it can just be spending time together at home. But it needs to be just him and me with uninterrupted time. This isn't family time or time with friends. It's just us. We need it.

And there you have it. Phase two. Hopefully I've made the steps small enough that I can reach them, but big enough that I feel I've accomplished something when I hit the three month check in mark. Time will tell.

What kind of things do you set as goals to keep yourself on track?

Reorganization Phase I - Feedly Purge

Every once in a while, it comes time to do a little reorganizing. Some purging, some realignment. It's about that time. In oh so many ways.

I have had the week off for a little bit of a staycation. Really that's just a fancy word that people use to say that they couldn't afford to go anywhere awesome for their time off from work. Yup. That's the case. But while Collin continued to be stuck at work for the Monday through Friday grind (and Saturday and Sunday in his particular case), Darian and I had a nice week of doing nearly nothing. It was grand.

But along the week, I came to realize that I'm totally getting behind on just about everything and I have messes nearly everywhere. So it's time for some reorganization of me. Yup...me. I kind of go willy nilly with my time and have difficulty keeping focus on tasks at hand with regularity. So I need to buckle myself down a bit.

I'll be breaking it up into a few posts, starting with this one. After today's post, I'll also be reorganizing my weekly schedule (including chores and hobby time), reorganizing some pieces of the house, and doing some purging. Right now I'm planning on at least four posts, but that could grow. We shall see. The posts won't necessarily be back-to-back, but the reorganization bug has hit...so plan on reorganizing posts in some capacity for the remainder of the month.

Ready to join me?


Feedly Purge

A little over a month ago, I mentioned that my blog feed had grown unbearably large and it was time to thin the herd. I just can't manage reading through 200 blog posts a day. It's not really feasible without totally losing all of my free time or not really paying attention to the posts at hand. And so, even though some pieces of me hurt to do it, it's time to rip of the band-aid and toss some blogs.

When I started the endeavor, I had 207 blogs in my reading list. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that during this purge time, I actually added two blogs to my Feedly. I just. can't. help. myself.

The goal was to remove the blogs that I just don't read or those that have become inactive (because some haven't really posted for 6 months or more). Before the final purge began, I had already marked 64 blogs for saving (not including the 2 new blogs). These were not only the blogs that I read during the thirty days with regularity, but also that had posts that caught my interest in some way. There are no free rides in this stage of the game.

Now there were 143 blogs to evaluate.

Phase One...

Evaluate those who haven't posted in more than thirty days and determine which are likely dead and those who have moved on to another site that doesn't dump to my Feedly (i.e. broken links...because they totally happen). Save or eliminate the rest based on interest.

This is a pretty easy task. I simply click down my blog list in Feedly and it brings up each blog with the most recent post. If it's older than 30 days, visit the page, see if there's any notification of a move and then either delete or add the correct feed. If the blog is still active, evaluate if it's something I still want to read.

Stats after this phase:

79 blogs saved

4 blog links corrected

43 blogs eliminated

It's progress.

Phase Two...

This is where things start to get difficult. Now that I've taken care of those who haven't posted in over 30 days, it's time to evaluate those blogs who did post within the 30 days that I've been evaluating.

It's time to get brutal. Now it's "cake or death" time. I need to start being honest about the situation. If a blog really isn't jiving for me and isn't really catching my interests, then it has to go. It doesn't mean it's a bad blog, it just means that it's not my style anymore. This is the final gauntlet. After this, the trauma is all over and the final count is ready to roll forward.

To do this, I visited the blog pages for all blogs that haven't yet been saved or eliminated. This means 89 blogs to evaluate, one at a time. Let me tell you, that's a long time. It can be easy to get distracted (not that that would ever happen with me...). Thank goodness I only do this every year or so. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's a long one, but it will be worth it. The feed will be cleaned up, streamlined, and hopefully less daunting.

Final stats:

136 blogs saved (including 2 new blogs added during this process)

73 blogs eliminated

About the Eliminated Blogs...

I will admit that I am a little bit of a hoarder with some things. Blogs apparently is one of them. Out of the 73 blogs that I eliminated, there were a handful of blogs (5-7) that I really had a hard time letting go. So why did I eliminate them? These were blogs that have obviously died. The writers haven't posted for at least a year (in some cases nearly two years) and show no signs of returning. But I loved those blogs so much that it hurt to say goodbye...even though they had disappeared long ago.

Of the remaining 73 blogs, there were a few traits that I found made me lower the blade a little quicker. This became a nice little lesson for me in things I want to make sure I don't do with my own blog. First off...truncated posts in the Feedly feed. I get it, you want to protect your content, blah, blah, blah, but there are other ways to help this and this honestly really irritates me. 

You want to truncate your posts on your homepage? Sure. Fine. I'm totally cool with that. It makes sense to me that you want potential readers to be able to see a lot of samples when they pop over to your page browsing. But when you have regular readers who also have a large handful of other blogs they read, clicking over to another page everytime they want to read one of your posts is totally annoying. This frustration is increased in the case where the post does not have a photo header for the item it is about. Picky? Yes. Honest? Of course. I'm being somewhat brutal here, but I hope that this will serve to help other blogger see what things can turn off a reader.

That being said, there are a few blogs that I have been reading for a long time that I adore and don't mind clicking over for once in a while. I left them in my Feedly because their content is totally worth it, but I still do find myself mildly irritated.

The next thing that turned me off on a blog most often was very inconsistent posting. Now I'm not talking about the case where you took a week off on vacation and didn't post for ten days. I'm talking about those blogs that did a post in October, another couple in January, and then maybe showed up again in March and May. That's too infrequent for me to stay interested. I need to see you posting at least a couple of times each month. I'd probably even give you a free pass if you only made it onto the blog once a month if I love your content. I get that people have lives (I sometimes have one too), but if you want readers, there has to be a little consistency...and frequency.

Because I use Feedly, blog design, hosting choice, font choice, color of page/text, and all that design stuff didn't matter. That evened the playing field pretty well. If you're a frequent blog reader and don't already do so, you need to find a reader for yourself. I like Feedly, but I've heard that Bloglovin' is pretty good as well. There are other choices out there, I just know literally nothing about them. Whatever works for you. Just find something that will help streamline the job for you. 

Additionally, since you're going to be using a reader, give bloggers a break. Some like more color on their pages than others, some have overly crowded sidebars or their menus are in odd places. Whatever. This really shouldn't matter. Look for the content. This is what will be seen in your reader anyway. If you like the content, read them. Don't let silly design choices take you away from someone who has a real talent.

Reflection...

Now that it's all said and done, I'm really glad I took the time to do this. It took a LOT longer than I thought it would, but I think it will save me a lot of time when it comes to reading blogs and I won't feel so overwhelmed or start to feel burnt out (which was a real possibility there for a bit). The other nice thing is that it will allow me to feel like I have the time to pop over and comment more often. As a blogger who loves comments, this will be a good thing. A little spring (or summer) blog cleaning can be good for the soul.

I'm a Penelope

Alright, it's time to come clean. I am a Penelope.

And now you're scratching your head. What in the world is a Penelope? Well...basically it's a code word created by Meredith over at Penelope Loves Lists (and her sister) that reflects a certain type of personality.

A Penelope is a lister, an organizer, a storage freak. Oh my...it's so me. I am an addict. That's right. I'm saying it. I am addicted to lists and challenges and being able to check things off those lists and challenges. I can't help myself.

I Hate Chores: Family Home Cleaning Plan

Don't mind the photos...apparently I have next to none of our house. It's a sad situation. So you get these few from about 5 years ago. I'll work on getting pictures sometime this year since I have a project in the fall that will require them.

Guess what? I'm going to do an actual post relating to the March topic of cleaning & organization. Go me!

So here's the deal...I hate cleaning my house. Seriously. I despise it. After Collin and I have been working all day and Darian has been at school, the last thing we want to do is to come home and clean and do chores. We certainly don't like to use up our weekend time to take care of it.

But...we don't enjoy living in squalor either, so there has to be a compromise.

About three years ago, I tried to get us on a new system to keep the house clean. It was one that I found over at FlyLady. It was super helpful at getting us going, but there were a couple of flaws. We could handle the basics, but the daily reminders for specific tasks went to my email. At the time, I didn't have a smart phone that handled email well, so they often went unread. I didn't check them at home...I checked them at the office. And by the time I got home, I forgot what the task was or I just gave up on it. The other issue was that her system is based on a much simpler home layout. It just didn't work for us. We needed something more detailed to our needs.

We ended up ditching the system and just going to a "clean as needed" cycle. That has been obnoxious. Things often don't get done when they should and laundry in particular became a headache. I can't tell you how many times loads got left in the washer for a few days and then had to be rewashed or they made it to the dryer but then wound up being "fluffed" several times before they actually got folded. Most recently, our laundry seems to stay in the laundry room once it's been folded rather than making its way back to our closets. I was about ready to pull my hair out.

It was time for something new.

So...using some of the FlyLady's basics, I decided to build my own cleaning schedule for the three of us. Darian is old enough to pitch in fairly well, so it makes divvying up the chores much more simple.

The basic principle to follow is KISS...Keep It Simple, Stupid. In the world of FlyLady, this means keeping things divided into tasks that can usually be handled in 15 minutes or less. Anyone can do something for 15 minutes. By keeping tasks small and divided throughout the week, we should be able to keep from getting overly burnt out. That's the hope.

There were a few other considerations for us.

First of all, not everything is on the schedule. Most notably, you'll notice that there isn't any mention of feeding any of the pets. That's because this isn't specifically assigned to anyone. Darian usually feeds the cats in the morning, but if he's not going to school or Collin or I leave earlier than he needs to be up, then one of us do it. And when he's at his mom's house on the weekends, Collin and I share the responsibility. The dogs are kind of a similar situation, it varies. I didn't want to deal with too many variables when putting this together, so I just steered clear of that stuff.

Secondly, Collin's schedule can be a bit crazy. There are nights that he isn't home until 11pm. Sometimes he's gone for 2-3 days at a time. So I needed to keep his chores to things that were simple, quiet, and easily flexible. I didn't want him to be responsible for something that couldn't wait a couple of days. So...you'll notice that my cleaning schedule is a little heavier handed than his. This isn't because I'm the wife...it's just the way our time at home works out.

We started using the schedule on Monday, so it's still quite new. But I've already noticed a wonderful difference. I'm hoping it sticks.

Let me show you how it's broken down right now. (I'm expecting that there will be some adjustments as we work the system...I'm already on my third revision and we haven't made it through a full week.)

Each family member has their own schedule, divided by day and time of day (i.e. Morning, Afternoon/Evening, Bedtime). The morning tasks are short and simple because we're usually running out the door.

In Darian's case, he is responsible for unloading/loading the dishwasher and taking out the kitchen trash. In order to keep this rolling smoothly, I have him checking them both morning and evening. That way if he starts the dishwasher in the morning, it gets unloaded in the evening or it gets started after dinner if we fill it up at night. It's a more flexible system.

You'll notice that we each have a "swish & swipe" in the mornings. This is a carryover from FlyLady. The swish and swipe refers to a quick brush and flush of the toilet (without cleaner) and a quick rinse and wipe down of the sink/countertop. It keeps the bathroom a little cleaner in between deep cleanings each week. Darian has his bathroom, I have the master, and Collin has the main bathroom. Those are the three that get the most usage. The other two just get their weekly cleanings.

Since Darian is often at his mom's house on the weekends, I kept his weekend schedule pretty basic. (I'll explain the "month task" later.) If he's not with us, it's no big deal to skip everything other than the Sunday before bed stuff. In the case of the week to strip his bed and he's not home, I'll just do that part for him. Easy enough.

Don't mind the devil cat on the bed. Pet eye is RIDICULOUS to try and edit out.

Collin's big trouble area is the den...his "office". So you'll notice that a lot of his time is focused on there. I tend to gag when cleaning out overdue food in the kitchen, so I pawned off that duty to him. We also love to let our grandfather clock die, so I've put him in charge of winding it twice a week. 

We each have a daily "5 minute room rescue" or a "15 minute room declutter". These are timed sessions in a specific room to pick up things that are on the floors, counter or otherwise not put away where they should be. They also allow us to keep the paper clutter under control and trashed as needed. They're short enough sessions to get something done without feeling overwhelmed. The room isn't expected to be pristine when you're done, but once we get it under control, then it should be pretty easy to tidy up each day.

For the weekends, I put Collin in charge of the basement. It doesn't see a lot of action, so it doesn't get that dirty. That way it's no big deal if he's not home to get it done one Saturday.

My schedule is the heaviest. The one nice thing is that I don't have any vacuuming. I HATE vacuuming...you can ask my mother. She still gives me a hard time about the one time I got busted telling my friends that I just ran the vacuum over the carpet a couple of times (without turning it on) to put the lines in the carpet so she'd think I'd done my chores. Yep...I hated it that much. So, I took the liberty of putting the boys in charge of all of the vacuuming. Unfortunately, in return I wound up with three bathrooms. Bummer.

You'll also notice that I'm in charge of all of the laundry. I'm fine with this. The few times I've put Collin in charge, bad things tend to happen. I've ended up with shrunken shirts and jeans or it just sits in the washer or dryer. It typically doesn't go well, so I took it over.

I do like that I've broken it up so I only have to do one load a day. I hate spending my entire day flipping laundry. This should also help keep the loads smaller so that folding isn't so much of a bear. And everyone is responsible for putting away their own laundry...the part I hate the most.

My "hot spot" is my scrapbooking and crop rooms. When I'm doing projects, they tend to start to look like a bomb went off. So, I've made sure I have plenty of room rescues and declutters devoted to this location. Collin and I share responsibility for our bedroom and the kitchen, the other two crazy areas in the house.

Since I like to break things up and not spend a huge time cleaning every weekend, you've probably figured out that spring cleaning is not my forte. There are big tasks that need done every year. And we'll do them. I just don't want to do them all at once. So I spread them out throughout the year.

Each one of us has a "month task" that shows up each week on Saturday. This task can be done (and will typically be done) on Saturday, but the only rule is that it has to be done by the end of the week. Each week has a new task, so our monthly break downs have four tasks each. Yes...I'm aware that some months have five weeks. Lucky us, we'll actually end up with four "month task free" weeks each year.

I do a trade for my lawn work, so we don't have any mowing and snow around here is sporadic, so we'll just deal with shoveling as it comes. I hate pulling weeds though...almost as much as vacuuming. So I gave that all to Darian. I'm nice like that. I figure it's only fair that he enjoys the torture of weed pulling like I did as a kid.

I've made the month tasks somewhat cyclical, so that the more needed items get done every 2-3 months. You'll also notice that I have my meal planning and grocery shopping in there. I typically work off of a 3 month meal plan cycle (which I have neglected since last fall and will be redesigning before the end of the month). When I do the meal plan, we do one large shopping trip for most of the necessary items. This is a long trip and takes lots of preparation, so I've spared myself extra chores on planning weeks and freed up both myself and Collin on shopping weeks so that I have the help to attack the store and put things away.

You'll also see that I've devoted one week in October to Halloween decor and one in December to Christmas decor. It's needed...trust me. Halloween means pumpkins and that task usually takes me a full week to tackle. I need the boys' help, so they're excused from major chores as well. Christmas is a similar situation. We spend an entire weekend day putting up the tree and decorations, so everyone gets a free pass that week as well. Too bad I didn't give us one for take down for each holiday...I guess that eats up two of our four freebie weeks. Drat.

And there you have it. It's a work in progress, but I think it will go well. I don't expect any major changes, just some minor shifting around. I'm actually kind of excited for the possibilities based on what I've seen so far this week.

What type of cleaning arrangement works for your family?

Month in Review: January 2014

It's February! January went so fast. As part of the changes to the blog, I'm going to be posting a month-in-review on either the last day of each month or the first day of the following month. So...this is the first one. And there is no blueprint for this; I'm just winging it.

Before I really got things rolling for 2014, both Darian and I completed our 2013 Book of the Year brackets and decided on our 2013 Books of the Year. It's one of my favorite projects every year and I love finding good books to suggest to others. I already found a good one to start off this year.

After that, I invited my sister-in-law, Victoria to share her creative side by writing a guest post on the blog about her custom wood puzzles. She currently has some super cute Valentine's Day puzzles for sale on her site.

How adorable are these?!

January's theme was Organization and Planning. The scrapbook room got cleaned. It's still so nice to walk into the room and be able to see desk tops. Amazing. I love it. Now...if only the rest of my house looked that way.

I organized my plan for the blog and created a blog planner that will allow me to hopefully stay more organized and on track. I'm still loving it and learning new possibilities from it. It's fantastic and SOOO helpful.

I also made plans for organizing, repairing and cleaning other areas of the house. It will be a year-long process to get all of those things completed, but it's nice to know that they will get done.

Outside of the blog, January was good as well. We celebrated my little brother's wedding anniversary, my sister-in-law's birthday and my mother's birthday.

I watched the entire season of Freaks and Geeks (yes, I'm late to the show) and got terribly addicted and discovered why so many were disappointed when it was cancelled.

We took a trip as a family up to the McCall Winter Carnival and had a great time eating delicious food at the Pancake House and walking around looking at ice sculptures.

I spent a nice relaxing weekend day doing nothing but hanging out with my family and playing contract rummy while we ate pretzels. It was fantastic.

Oh! And after nearly three weeks of an inversion and cloudy, crummy skies, we finally SAW THE SUN!! Best end of the month present ever.

All in all, January's was a good start to 2014.

And now we're moving on to February.

February's theme is love. It's a month of posts about love...love crafts, wedding posts, wedding craft posts... It should be fun. As we speak (well...as I write and you read), I have a paint drying on a project in process. Yay! An actual project.

The timing of this post is mildly unfortunate since I'll be posting a Summary Sunday tomorrow, but the days of the week can't really be helped, right? If you have any ideas of how I can oomph up the Month in Review and make it more fun, let me know. I'm totally up for suggestions of anything you'd like to see on the blog.

With that...I'll be back tomorrow!

2014 House Honey Do List

The house is now 18 years old and we've lived here for almost 8 years. When a home gets that old, there are bound to be things that need redoing or repairing, right?

Well...I've decided that we're going to start attacking things room by room.

In order to get that done, I included a room by room break down of projects in this year's blog planner.

To keep us working on the projects I've laid out, I've decided to put a truncated version in blog form. I've prioritized what we can realistically complete (and afford to complete) this year. I'll be checking the items off on this post as we go and posting our progress along the way. (Keep in mind, some projects need warmer weather than others and some require budgeting...so, we won't necessarily be finishing them in order.)

Here's the plan:

Master Suite :

1. Purge clothing
2. Hang closet mirror
3. Reorganize closet shelving
4. Hang closet door
5. Sand and repaint bathroom window wells


Den :

1. Clean desk
2. Purge bookshelf
3. Fix desk chair


Stairs/Foyer/Main Hallway :

1. Wedding photo gallery
2. Stairway photo collage
3. "Established" placard
4. Main hallway photo collage


Kitchen :

1. Chalkboard measuring conversion board
2. Lazy Susans in pantry shelving
3. Can dispensers in pantry
4. Spice jars in convertible pantry


Family Room/Living Room :

1. Photo frames on living room tables
2. Redecorate mantel
3. Redecorate entertainment unit


Utility :

1. Repair pocket door
2. Repair broken hallway baseboard


Crop Room/Closet

1. Purge closet dresser
2. Purge closet shelving
3. Design bin system for closet shelving
4. Mod podge dresser
5. Fabric bin table


Scrapbook Room/Closet

1. Sort closet memorabilia
2. Reorganize photo storage
3. Scan closet stored photos


Darian's Room

1. Purge clothing
2. Purge toy box
3. Bin/shelving system for desk


Upstairs Hallway

1. Hallway photo collages
2. Replace photos in existing frame


Basement

1. Reorganize storage room/add totes
2. Purge and organize bunker


Garage/Yard/Shed

1. Replace front walk post lights
2. Motion sensor sprinkler for courtyard
3. Remove rock from garden area


That makes it official...we will accomplish some clean up and repair items this year and I will get some of my planned decorating changes off the ground. I'm particularly excited about the changes coming to our entryway and staircase!

Scrapbook Room Clean Up

Between the end of October and Christmas Eve, I pretty much live in the two room suite that serves as my crafting home. The scrapbook room and crop room receive a ton of abuse during this short sixty days. Over the years, I have overhauled the scrapbook room a couple of times in order to make myself more organized space for my crafting.

As January is Organization and Planning month, I took the time to clean up the scrapbook room and do a makeover of the scrapbook closet. I also moved scrapbooking supplies out of the crop room in preparation for this year's planned crop room redo. I plan on officially changing the crop room into my sewing room and redoing both the room and the closet in order to better organize my fabric and supplies. That means that completely separating out the two rooms is the first step I needed to take.

For as organized as my scrapbook room usually is, the end of the year always makes it look like a bomb went off. It was a pretty good disaster when I started working on the clean up last week. I promised to show off the ugly yesterday. So...here's what I started with.

Isn't it pretty?

I like an open concept since I work with the theory that I won't use my supplies unless I can see them. This means that any organizing I do has to either leave things out in the open or put them in labeled containers. Most of this has already been completed in prior reorganizations, but things needed put back in their homes.

I was almost too overwhelmed to get started. But...I fired up the Spotify and started mentally dividing the room.

My first stop was paper organization. I found a link to I Love My Three Sons a while back for organizing paper scraps into magazine holders. I loved the idea since it seemed a lot more manageable than  my scrap drawer.

Cramped drawer that was too small for any 12" scraps.

I had previously sorted my unbound patterned paper into Cropper Hoppers on a rolling cart. I decided that I could condense some of the colors together and use excess Cropper Hoppers to reorganize my scrap storage. Patterned paper was moved to the lower shelf and scraps took up a new home on the top shelf. 

Much better access to scrap paper.

Once I had the paper wrangled, it was time to start working one desk at a time.

With the computer desk, I used a previously empty plastic storage box to make a home for my loose vinyl. I also cleaned out the out of control photo paper drawer and stack my 4x6" photo paper above the printer for easier access.

The west side desk didn't need a lot of overhaul, mostly just a clean up. I did ditch my old homemade light box and instead moved all of my Project Life materials to the top of the plastic drawers. I plan on making a new, sturdier lightbox some time this year. I also emptied and put away my rolling cart, and purged some products that I know I won't use from the desk basket.

The east side desk was the easiest out of the whole room. I just had to clean up the detritus on the counter top. Most of it was projects in progress that got reorganized and relocated to the newly organized closet. I also hung my magnetic strip between the desk and the hanging cabinet for easier storage of some of the metal tins.

Just for fun...a low resolution panoramic photo of the finished scrap room.

The closet was a bit more work. In all honesty, it's still not quite done. I have some shopping to do during the year to streamline a few ideas.

By the way, nothing sucks more than trying to take pictures of a closet...except for maybe working in that closet. I got a bit claustrophobic a couple of times.

The closet has been full of odds and ends for the last few years. A lot of the things are pieces and parts from previous scrap room remodels. I have more plastic tackle boxes than any one person would know what to do with and a nearly equal number of stacking plastic shelves. I relocated all of that to the two top side shelves to get it out of my way.

My primary goal was to reorganize the closet to make storing photos and memorabilia easier. I needed to get it all out of the crop room so that I will have an easier time with that remodel down the line. 

I moved the boxes of my own personal memorabilia to the upper shelf at the west side wall (pictured above). I still need to go through my memorabilia boxes and get things organized within them, but this is a good start.

The east wall (pictured above) will still need some work, but it's on the right track. I plan on using the main shelf for memorabilia storage. I'll be getting more containers to stack in this area, but for now it's holding photo albums that need photos scanned. Once scanning is complete, these go back to my parents' house and the room on the shelf will be freed up for my memorabilia boxes.

The boxes and totes on the ground below the shelf are full of memorabilia. Those will get reorganized into the new boxes later this year as well. I'm excited for it to all look neat and tidy and matching.

The center shelving units took the most work. I cleaned out several random boxes and organized the user's manuals that remained. I relocated all of my empty albums to the right side shelving unit in order free up the left for photo storage. I plan to get more of the black boxes to unify the look. Photos will then be stored on the second through fourth shelves of the right side unit.

The memorabilia currently stored in the baskets on the left side will be moved to the east wall shelf once I get the boxes for that area. The bottom shelf will be used to hold projects in progress. Right now they're kind of in a piled mess, but they too will be stored in memorabilia boxes while I'm putting them together.

Currently I have cards for the date night box that need cut, pet photo albums that need completing and three in progress Project Life albums.

In addition to the empty albums and album kits I'm storing on the right side, I relocated all of my magazines to this area. These are all of my back issues of Creating Keepsakes and other magazines that I use for layout ideas.

And there you have it. A much cleaner scrapbook room and closet. I'll be even happier when I get the storage boxes I need to organize and store the photos and memorabilia. That will be yet another fun organizing project. But...I have some good ideas on how to get started there.

How do you keep your craft supplies organized?

Summary Sunday: Winter Carnival Edition

We just got back home from a trip up to McCall Winter Carnival so I'm getting this post in right under the wire to still make it count as a Summary Sunday and not a Summary Monday. We went up with Collin's sister and her family and had a wonderful time. We ate a very filling breakfast up at The Pancake House and then walked around town looking at sculptures. We had originally planned on eating at my Uncle and Aunt's pizza restaurant (Growler's), but we were far too full from our late breakfast (in fact, I haven't eaten anything else and I probably won't before bedtime...so much French toast...).

Wow...it's been a LONG time since I've done a Summary Sunday. The last one was clear back in 2012. For those of you who are new to reading the blog (or for those of you who have forgotten what the heck a Summary Sunday is because I haven't done one in so long), each Sunday I wrap up what I did for the week. This includes the posts I posted, the recipes I tried, the books I read, the projects I worked on and/or finished, and sometimes some fun stuff I found on the web.

When I was making the blog plans for this year I decided to revive Summary Sundays. I kind of missed them. I think I just like the organization of it all. It just seems nice and tidy, doesn't it? Speaking of organization...the plan for the month still continues. January is Organization and Planning month and I am moving right along.

This year, I'm also going to add in my favorite pin of the week (because I still love Pinterest even though some bloggers have gotten angry about people saying they found something on Pinterest instead of saying specifically what blog they found it on) and maybe a few other surprises here and there...we'll see how it plays out.

So...what did I do last week?

Posts I Posted : On Monday, I made my return to the blog since selecting and announcing the 2014 Book of the Year and having an awesome guest post from my sister-in-law, Victoria. I came up with the 2014 grand plan for the blog and made myself some semi-resolutions. I'm actually kind of excited about this because the plan may help me do what I would like to do with the blog without feeling lost or overwhelmed. Well...I take that back. I'll probably still feel overwhelmed now and then. But I have a road map. And that is awesome.

On Wednesday, I started up the real activity of January's Organization and Planning theme. I put my blog planner together and shared the printables to make your own. I have to say, so far I'm loving the planner and it's making me feel in control. I'm still working on getting it fully up to speed (though I'm getting there), but it's already helped me quite a bit.

And then on Friday, I made the first 2014 BOTY review post. Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik was the first book I read this year to earn above 3 stars.

Not too shabby!

Books I Read : Goodreads currently shows me 2 books behind for my 2014 reading goals. I should catch up by one this week because the book I'm reading right now is gooood and moving fast. This week I finished Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik and it was pretty darned good. Good enough to earn itself a blog review and a spot in the bracket for the 2014 Book of the Year.

Projects I Worked On/Finished : I finished designing and assembling the blog planner and have been working to get it all filled in and ready to roll. I'll be sharing this tomorrow, but (in keeping with January's theme) I finished some serious cleaning and reorganization of the scrapbook room and closet. It was a disaster. That's what happens when I tackle Christmas projects. Things get ugly people. I shall share the ugly tomorrow.

Recipes I Tried : I tried two new things this week! I made this Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana (with a few modifications) and put together a citrus salad of my own design (I'll share this sometime, it's easy). We also ate some delicious pumpkin pie pancakes that I'll be sharing in the future (I've made these before) and had ourselves some fantabulous crack bacon.

This Week's Favorite Pin : I wasn't on Pinterest much this week, but I did find myself something that got the wheels a turnin' in my head. I'm totally in organization mode right now, so this idea for organizing fabric from Rhinestone Beagle was right up my alley. The crop room (the room with all of my sewing and random crafting stuff) is a mess and I have fabric everywhere. It's in the works for a total overhaul. Fabric is definitely an issue, so this cute little storage station is something that I'm totally coveting. (The redo is scheduled to be completed by the end of March and will be featured on the blog.)

And there you have it...the first Summary Sunday post of 2014. I even finished it on a Sunday! Things are looking up. According to the planner, I'll be back plenty this week. You're stuck hearing from me tomorrow for the reveal of the scrapbook room clean up. I'll also have a couple of other posts before Friday's month-in-review, a new feature to the blog for 2014.

How did your week go?

Blog Planner (with Free Printables)

Organization makes me happy. I love having everything all tidied up and pretty. So I knew that if I wanted to make my blog plans for 2014 happen, the first thing I'd have to do is get myself organized.

I started using the Blog Planner a little bit last year, but it didn't quite work the way I wanted it to. I hopped back into Publisher and busted out a new Month-at-a-Glance Sheet and redesigned the way the binder will be used. Let me take you for a tour. Along the way, I'll give you a few freebie files so you can make your own blog planning binder.

The first page in the binder is my To Do List. (We'll come back to the stuff in the pocket later.) I'm using my To Do List to keep track of my progress on blog projects that have been planned, but not scheduled to a specific day. That way I make sure I don't forget about them. Right now, I have designing a new cleaning schedule for our family and reorganizing my meal planning process among the items on that list.

After the to do list is a spiral notebook. I love me a spiral notebook. To be honest, I just love office supplies. Binders, folders, spirals, pens, paper...oh my. My two favorite stores in the world (other than scrapbook supply and fabric stores)? Staples and The Container Store. 

I know I'll end up using this spiral for quite a few plans, but right now it's my planning organizer for the items I want to get done in the house, sorted by room. These are projects that I want to complete and use for blog items. For instance, my list for the scrapbook room includes purging supplies, reorganizing my paper scraps, and sorting my memorabilia. This way I make sure to attack each specific item and document them while I get things completed.

After the spiral comes my favorite part of the binder, my new Month-at-a-Glance Planner.

Month-at-a-Glance Planner

The Month-at-a-Glance has the names of all the planned posts so that I don't forget anything I have specifically in mind for a particular month. It will also help me remember what day I'm planning on having a particular post published. This way I can start getting ahead on blog posts instead of feeling like I have to sit down and write them the day I am planning on putting them up. Much better, because right now I still have a small handful of drafts that have been forgotten along the way.

When I finish a post, I can mark it as scheduled in the bottom check box for that day. On the day of publishing, the planner reminds me to post to all of my social media sites in order to get the most traffic directed to each post as possible.

The Blog Post Planner is the meat of the Blog Planner. Without it, the rest wouldn't work nearly as well.

Blog Post Planner

The Blog Post Planner is a more detailed and individualized version of the Month-at-a-Glance. This is where I can make notes to myself about what I want to specifically include in each post, as well as where I got each idea (in case I used a project I pinned to Pinterest as inspiration).

I used this part of the binder last year, but without the Month-at-a-Glance to keep things organized by the month, all of my posts were jumbled and it made it difficult to find each one easily. Now they're kept in order by date that they will be published. I'll show you how I'm adding in unplanned posts a little later...

A lot of posts have a project and those projects take individual planning. The next item in the binder - the Project Planner - keeps me on track.

Project Planner

I can use the Project Planner to keep track of all the supplies I need to buy and what pictures I should be taking as I make each item. I've had a tendency to get finished with a craft project just to realize that the only picture I have is the end. That makes creating a blog tutorial a LOT more difficult. This way, I can track the fabrication of each project by individualized steps and check them off as I go. Again, I have a spot to note the source of my inspiration. I think it's very important to note your sources. Original creativity is great, but a lot of times the best products come from ideas that grew out of projects made by others. It's only fair to give them a little credit along the way.

Remember that stuff in the front pocket of the binder? Along with scrap paper I add when I write down project ideas without the binder handy, I have a series of pre-printed labels stored up front. These are for my unscheduled posts. Most of the time, these unscheduled posts fall into some particular categories, so I've made up labels to be ready to go for them.

BOTY Labels

I never know when I'll finish a good book that warrants a review. This way, I just write the book and the author down on the label along with the date the post is planned and then stick it into the Blog Post Planner portion of the binder in between the posts that proceed and follow. It helps me remember to schedule the publishing as well as track my social media.

Same goes for posts about food...

Recipe Labels

And scrapbooking posts...

Project Life Labels

Speaking of scrapbooking posts, I use a planner for my Project Life as well. It's stored in the same binder and helps me track what we did on specific days and aids me in pre-planning my layouts.

Want to see more of this and get a free printable to use yourself? Head on over to my post about my Project Life Planner and get yourself a little more organized.

And there you have it! All nice and tidy and ready to roll. I have my Month-at-a-Glance planners all filled out and ready to tackle the monthly themes for 2014. Now it's time to dive in and start planning those individual posts. It should be a good year.

All of the planners I've shown you on this page (with the exception of the Project Life Planner - which is featured on another post) can be printed for free by clicking the links by each corresponding picture. Enjoy!

The planning and organizing for January continues in a few days. I'll be working over the next couple of weeks to reorganize my craft supplies after the mess that came from December's crafting. I'll be sharing my progress with you soon. Happy planning!