Thoughts

Hey Peeps!!!

I so much wanted to get myself back in the swing of posting regularly but I've been playing catch up and so today I finally have a few minutes to take it all in and breathe.  Mostly because I'm waiting for my neighbors FedEx delivery that requires a signature but that's not important.  Let's just see what we can talk about today without you falling asleep.


First up,  my wonderful husband got me a new Macbook for Christmas and seriously, I still am not using it regularly. I've mostly still been using my old one.

 I am currently using it and it is super dee duper  nice not to be getting that spinning pinwheel every 5 seconds.  I have been unsuccessful with the Apple migration until the other day but then I saw the grotesque amount of photos that were going to transfer so I stopped it.   I've been spending my evenings clearing off the DVR of the Christmas movies and deleting photos at the same time.  Seriously, one does not need 50 photos of the chicken I baked in the crockpot any longer.   It's taking some time people it's taking some time!!!









My old MacBook has been such a wonderful companion and he will be retiring up North soon.  This means he is going to move upstairs to my craft room/office and be the companion to my Silhouette Cameo machine.

The new one is slowly being accessorized if you will.

 You can see my fun StormTrooper decal that I got from a box of Cheerios.  Not kidding at all and yes they are gluten free now.  I made two big batches of gluten free Chex Mix this year!   Speaking of Star Wars, have you seen it yet? I have... twice actually.   Did I love it? Um, did you miss the part where I said I'd seen it twice!  I loved the nostalgia from the original movies and I love the new cast too.  I especially love Chewie! Coincidentally I found out that the actor who is behind Chewbacca lives very close to me.  How cool is that???   I'm sure I'll recognize him if I see a 7 foot tall man in the nearby area.

As you can tell by the new YETI sticker I got a lovely new cup for Christmas.  Monogrammed by my amazing neighbors!!  You can find their Etsy shop right here.   We actually got all the kids and their spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend engraved Yeti's for Christmas too.   Heck we even got the girls grandmother one!  We were Yeti crazy this year for sure.  

Let me tell you when you have 6 people in the house with cups everywhere it sure is nice that they are all engraved.    No one likes a surprise drink. 

Another reason to keep my old laptop around- some of my stickers on the bottom I love, especially the FarFromPuken- haha  

Let's venture back to the  Silhouette Cameo machine comment  shall we?  I seriously got this little jewel a few weeks before Christmas because there was a cray cray sale on them the week of Black Friday.  No lie, here it all sits STILL in the boxes.     Part of my goal this week was to get the files moved from the old laptop to the new laptop and then get the old laptop and the Silhouette going.  I'm thinking it's gonna have to happen next week.  Me thinks my goals were a bit lofty for the week.

Remember my Erin Condren planner I told you about here?  It is here and I love it.  My only regret, I think because I'm not really sure yet is that I went with the horizontal layout instead of the vertical layout like I had before.  We will see but I'm thinking the vertical might come back next year. 

This is how I feel about my planner now.  

No seriously, Hubster went to write something down on the calendar and he was all like "what's up with all the crap on the calendar"  Me and the Merebear just smiled because she shares my sticker love and also my Erin Condren Planner love. Remember if you want to jump in the EC planner pool I'd love for you to use my referral link.  This was last weeks pages and Yes!!! MORE STICKERS!!

I also need some pens, the ball point ones don't work when writing on the washi tape and sometimes they smudge.  Smudges = Bad in the planner world. 

Merebear and I had to go pick up a few things for back to college and we might have made a pit stop in the ole' HobLob.  We picked up some stickers and also this fun stamp.  Seriously you have no idea how true this could be at my house!!  There was another one that said something about bad days and dog slobber, let's just say the next time the stamps go on sale I'll be picking that one up for sure.

Speaking of planners I'm also doing a new routine called the Sunday basket.  Normally I found myself on payday Fridays balancing the check book and paying bills and Friday is just not the day to do that.  I mean Friday is a happy day not a bill paying day.  Somewhere in my planner decorating I stumbled across this website.  It's totally doable and I'm usually home alone on Sunday and have less distractions.  So now this little sewing basket that I found at a flea market has become the Sunday basket.  

When the bills come in the mail, I just toss them in the basket.  Hubster has receipts for me? In the basket they go.  Nothing is coming in that demands my attention before Sunday night and oddly I read that some folks don't even get their mail until Sunday!!  Shock and Awe I mean what if they get a good catalog, I mean don't you need to know right away how much better your house could look with unlimited funds from Ballard Designs or what cool new flower seeds you can order?    Sunday evening  I pull out my basket and the checkbook and my planner and sit down at the big table.  I pay the bills that need to be paid before the next Sunday (actually I pay whatever needs to be paid before the next payday), new bills that came in during the week get recorded in the planner for due dates and then I balance the checkbook.  Then I move on to the final jazzing up of the previous weeks planner pages and start looking at what's coming up for the week.   Set a few "goals" for myself for the week and I'm done.  The first week took some time but I think it'll be a breeze from now on with everything being in one place instead of just "somewhere on my desk" .

I've got a full load of cooking ahead of me tonight and tomorrow so we've got recipes a coming!!  My house is finally cleaned and un-decorated from the holidays and I'm ready to roll with this blog and crafting and cooking and a little bit more me time.   Heck I might blow everyone away and just start taking a shopping trip every now and again.

Because seriously that's me most of the time.  

I'm still working on that word of the year so hopefully I'll get that buttoned up soon too.  

Anyone else finally ready to kick off the New Year 20 days into it?   Word of the year for you? Have you given your dog a bath?  If so, want to come give mine one too? He smells a wee bit.

Peace, Love & Stickers!!

New Year, Time to Plan

Hi Dee Ho there Peeps and Happy Happy New Year to you!!!

We are still all "Christmasing" over here and honestly, I'm really not going nuts to take it down just yet.  Although the one real tree in the house has definitely got to go this week because it's just about to hit kindling status.   I wish I had tons and tons of pics for you but I just didn't take many at all.   I really tried to focus this year on being in the moment and enjoying the moments rather than in every one's face with a camera and seeing everything from behind the lens.   I tried to let the plans I made fall apart if the situations and time dictated.  I'm trying to learn planning is great but letting life happen is also pretty darn great.  BUT...since we are speaking of planning it's time to get back on the bandwagon of getting back on a schedule and writing it down on the calendar.   Now I'm a technology girl through and through but let me tell ya I've never jumped on the electronic planner train, I'm clearly old fashioned when it comes to calendars.  It serves two purposes for me 1) it keeps the schedule at a very visible level for me and everyone else and 2) the process of actually writing the item on the planner helps me remember it.

It seems that I'm not alone in the old fashioned ways of planning/scheduling as the traditional planner is once again gaining popularity.  I used the Franklin Covey system for years and years.

I loved it when I was working outside the home.  It was always affectionately referred to as "my brain" and it went everywhere with me and I was totally lost without it.  A single mom with an active son and a busy work, church and social life dictated the planner as a necessary expense every year.  Once I married and added two girls and a husband to my daily planning I moved more towards a very large wall calendar that was kept in plain view in the kitchen that kept the whole family's schedule in view. I was a big fan of this amazing Fly Lady calendar, it gave us plenty of room to keep up with everyone.

 After the kiddos graduated high school then college I realized that I didn't really need that big family calendar hogging up my space in the kitchen.   Not to mention it always was a "hotspot" for clutter (if you read the FlyLady then you know what I'm talking about) so I decided with only one of the three kiddos left in college that I could go back to my smaller planner.  I looked high and low and researched and studied and tried several that just didn't suit my needs.  By tried I mean bought, started using and stopped. I finally caved and bought my first Erin Condren planner for 2015 and I"M TOTALLY SMITTEN!!!   Yeah, they are a bit expensive but I'm telling you when you find a planner that works for you it's like the skies open and the angels sing!!   This is the new planner I have coming (yeah, I'm a little behind schedule), it's the Geodes version and it's going to have my name and the year on the front.

In case you wondered, I do in fact have all my calendars/planners.  I'm well aware that it's completely unnecessary but I have gone back to look things up from time to time but one day when I'm old and gray I can pull out my calendars and relive my entire life.  haha

So let's move on to something that just makes my heart sing!!!   

via: catherina.amor

I mean seriously don't you want your planner to be that bright and fun!!!

And wouldn't we all be in Christmas spirit with these pages??!!!

via lexie_plans

And the final one I'll bore you with because seriously I could go on for days!!!

via yespleaseplanning

Did you know there are all kinds of planner decorating communities out there? No seriously, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.  just search on planner decorating and prepare to do nothing else for the next few hours. I've even run across like planner groups, I suppose they get together and plan their planners??? I don't know but I want in!

I'm definitely excited (even more so than usual) for my new planner to arrive and start accessorizing it like crazy!  I did notice lots of planner type people are using multiple planners.  I'm trying to keep everything on one planner but it may have to happen that the Condo business gets pulled to a separate planner and maybe hopefully next year I'll have to add a blog planner to the mix.  I'm really trying to make 2016 the return of this blog so hang with me and let's see what we can make out of 2016!!

What about you guys?  Are you old fashioned like me or a techno girl?  Which one is your favorite, either written or techy?

See you soon and always remember....Peace, Love & Plans!