So I Saw This Tutorial ...: Household Maintenance

Showing posts with label Household Maintenance. Show all posts

January 8, 2012

Greeting Cards for the YEAR

This week I was able to work on all of ONE project that was not Christmas Gift related. But it was a great project and very organizational :) I bought/found/accumulated all of the greeting cards I need for the year, and organized them in my card holder.

The first thing I did was MAKE the card holder, you can find my tutorial {more or less lol} here. Next step is to take a notebook and as you fill in your calendar for the year with all of the birthdays etc, write them down in your notebook.

I organized it by month, and then by occasion, and included other card-related holidays like Mother's Day.

Then I took my handy dandy notebook to the store. You can do this pretty inexpensively and still be totally thoughtful. I usually hit up the dollar store and am prepared to spend a little time there. I like to find cards that fit the person and situation, and LOVE only spending $0.50 - $1 at most on them :)

So now that you have all of your cards, sit down with your card holder, calendar/list.

In my card holder, I have one side with occasional dividers for blank cards that don't yet have a purpose or person to go to. This way, when an occasion arises that I wasn't prepared for, I can look through my stash and see if I have a card that will fit.

On the other side I have dividers for each month. I go through my stack of cards with my list and I put each card in the month of the person it's designated for. I don't fill them out yet, I just write the address on the envelope so I remember who I chose it for.

And I do that for the WHOLE YEAR. EASY PEASY, I'm DONE! It does take a little time to get it all done but once you do, you have the card thing HANDLED :) You are ON IT, GIRL! And then even if you don't remember the person's birthday until say, the day before, at least you have the card already and it'll only be a LITTLE late.

Not that I've ever done that ;)

And now that I've got the greeting card situation HANDLED I can stop procrastinating and get back to making Christmas gifts ;)

Linking up to these parties:

January 7, 2012

Greeting Card Holder

One of my goals this year is to get more organized and this is a simple way to be one step ahead of the game.

I don't know about you, but I like receiving cards in the mail! I love it when I see an envelope, handwritten address, and know it's NOT JUST A BILL! So I'm going to be more proactive about being one of the people who SEND those cards, to let my friends and family know they are loved :) So what I'm going to do, and will post about on Monday ;), is to gather ALL of the cards I'm going to need ... for the year!

First things first, I need a place to put all of the cards! A few years back I bought a big box of hand made cards at Costco. I still have a few of the cards left, but the BOX was the best part of the purchase! For this project, all you really need is a box similarly shaped maybe, and a divider in the middle if possible.

I took all of the Costco cards out, and collected all of the other kinds of cards I had around the house. I had note cards, thank you cards, hand made cards from an awesome friend :) and other random blank cards in all kinds of places around the house, so I brought them all together. This helps me to take inventory and know what I will still need to find.

Next I made monthly dividers. They are not pretty. In fact, in looking at them now I'm seriously fighting the urge to redo the whole thing cause it's just not as cute as it could be. But that will be a project/post for another day.

I measured the two spots and cut cardstock from my scrappy stash to fit.

Then, even UNcuter, I folded a small piece of paper in half, wrote the month on it, and stapled it to the divider. YEEESH that's not cute ... but it IS functional. For the purposes of this project, and post, it will do until I have time to cutify it :)

I did one for each month, in varying colors. I labeled the first 6 months going left to right, and then started back on the left with July.

Then I went through my calendar and wrote on the front (would look MUCH better typed :-/) the date of each event, who's it is, and what type it is (i.e. birthday, anniversary). For things like Mother's Day that don't have a static date, I just wrote them without so the list is applicable for every year.

I put the dividers that came with the box on one side for cards that don't have a recipient yet. Things like Thank You cards or cards I already had, can be separated and if a situation comes up, I can look through and see if I have a card already :)

On the left I have my monthly dividers ready! Now all I have to do is go get those cards!! Stay tuned for Monday's post on that!

January 2, 2012

Let's Call Them GOALS, Not Resolutions :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Last year was a good year in terms of getting my house and my life closer to where I want them.

I'm determined that this year will be even better.

I want to set some goals. I have issues with setting goals. I worry that it sets me up for failure if they're too big, and I don't fail, then the goal wasn't big enough.

So I'm just going to write some things down and we'll see how it goes.

1. I want to get a cleaning schedule in place for this ... place. I was looking around on here the other day and saw a post I did LAST January with ALL KINDS of awesome cleaning/organizing links that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about. I have a bunch of cleaning stuff pinned too and this is something I REALLY need to focus on this year.

2. I want to post more often. Whether it's here or there, I need to post more. I'd love to say that it's to hone my writing skills, but really it's because I have ABSOLUTELY no memory. In looking back at pictures from earlier in the year I realized that I remember less details than I would like, but when I read posts about events/pictures I remember WAY more. So I need to carve out time, hopefully on a daily basis, to write out anything and everything I want to remember.

3. I want to work on some projects around here. I have an ever growing list of things I want to do, thanks to Pinterest!, that I really want to get done. They range from organizational projects, to decor projects, craft projects to repurposing projects. And as soon as I finish up my Christmas gifts I'm jumping RIGHT IN!

4. I want to make better use of my time. I have really struggled with this. Sometimes it feels like the only thing I get done in a day is going to the gym. I get home and I basically don't get much else accomplished. I feel like HEY! I got my workout in! I'm doing something great for myself! I don't need to do much else! LOL and then I don't. SO I need to find a way to get my workouts in because they are EXTREMELY important to me, but not make it the only thing I do in a day.

5. I want to enjoy my family time more. I've noticed that I've enjoyed time with my older 2 girls SO much more lately and I LOVE it! I would like to work on things with my youngest. She's 6 and still pretty tough. I need to spend more time with her and more time working with her. I want to have as good a relationship with her as I do with my 2 older girls :)

So there it is. Nothing earth shattering, but a good place to go when I get distracted and need something to set me back on track :)

Hope you all are having a lovely New Year!!

December 31, 2011

My Favorite Posts of 2011

So the holidays came and went and I didn't post a THING.

I really meant to! I got busy with holiday events, making decorations and gifts, and just trying to enjoy being with my people, being present. That's one of my goals for the upcoming year, but that's another post.

So I started looking around on here and seeing what I have and what I haven't posted yet, and I thought it would be fun to post a recap of my favorite projects and look back on what all I've done.

Last January I posted a tutorial on a cute wreath made out of old T-Shirts! I love this wreath and can't wait to show you how I changed it up to make it part of my Valentine's decor! Check back soon for that post!

Back in May, I posted my most popular (AND most pinned!) tutorial is my Rosette Bracelet :) I STILL love these, love wearing them, and making them for gifts!

This was a quick little post on a sweet, cheap and easy photo gift idea! It's great for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparents, birthdays, it's great!

I also posted the CUTEST little tutu and painted pearl shirt outfit (with tutorials). I just LOVE this for little girl gifts :)

This was a quick little post about an adorable outfit I found on clearance and added some FLAIR to. SO cute! Still want to do this to a few things of mine!

In this post, I prettyfied some dishtowels for a housewarming gift for some friends.

One of my PERSONAL favorites :) A tutorial on my jewelry organizer! I still use it and I LOVE it!

Then in June, I did a 6 part series of posts about redecorating my teenage daughters bedroom:
Part 1: Prettifying a Lamp Shade
Part 2: Easy Throw Pillow Makeover
Part 3: Easy Inexpensive Curtains
Part 4: Freezer Paper Stenciled Pillow & Mod Podged Lamp
Part 5: Painting Furniture

In July, I posted about my daughters 6th birthday party, a Tiki Tiki Pool Party including a tutorial on how I made the banner!

I also posted about a white board weekly calendar I made for myself. I can't tell you how much I rely on this thing that cost me absolutely nothing to make :)

Then I took a break for the summer ;) But in October I came back and posted about the AWESOME tutu costumes I made for my girls in 2010, complete with a tutu-orial :)
Part 1: A Darling Devil
Part 2: Witchy Woman
Part 3: Zebra's ROCK

And my last post was about my super awesome Halloween Wreath :)

I haven't posted as much as I would've like to, not even HALF of the projects I've done, so I'm hoping to make more time in the day to post more regularly in the new year. Here's hopin ... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!