2013 Colors

I love living a color coded life. That said, I also enjoy the vibrance of the colors set by current trends. I love that there are people out there who tell me what colors are hot and what are not right now! I found a wonderful resource in Pantone for their color predictions. Here's what they have to predict about Spring 2013 colors...

When organizing in living color this year... these are my go-to colors for 2013!!

2013 is coming....

As I think about Thanksgiving preparations and Christmas preparations, I can't help but think about the fact that 2013 is coming, too! And with those thoughts come thoughts of what I'd like to accomplish in the coming year. Most years I have a word that summarizes the theme for my life that year. A few years ago it was CONSISTENCY. Then came OVERCOME. This year my word is...

I am looking forward to simplifying my life this year.

To that end, I am working on a 12 month approach to systematizing my home, and I'd like to invite people to join me! There are lots of areas in which our lives can benefit from systems, but our home is one that I feel benefits the most. When we create systems that help form habits, it makes putting things in their place out of habit easier than putting something in the "I'll do it later" pile. When it's easier to put something away than in a pile, our homes are tidier, freeing us up to do what is truly important in our lives. This is my primary goal for the year - a life in which I spend my time attending to that which is significant, while maintaining the basic provisions of my household.

Nothing worth doing is easy, so I don't think this will be a walk in the park, but it will be worth the effort when, at the turn of 2014, I am living a simpler, yet more fulfilled, life.

This is your official invitation... Will you join me on this journey? Step one is saying yes. Step two will be putting that yes into action, month in and month out, with projects and challenges leading to a systematic home!

December Calendar, take 2 (Freebie!)

Well, my December calendar got a makeover when I discovered I could do rounded corners tonight. Hooray! That was one of the things I wanted to change, and now I know how. So here's another version of December for you...

December Calendar (Freebie!)

So far I am liking my new November calendar, and decided to make a December one, too, to get me through the end of the year. I don't like that I can't fit the whole month in 5 weeks. That just seems silly. That said, I did have to do the whole "slash 31" block on this calendar. Oh well.

I am hoping to work with a graphic designer to come up with a 2013 calendar that I like with variations that will work for my clients and the custom binders I create for them. Ideally, they will have tabs, be printed on cardstock, and have a monthly birthday list on the front of the tab, with something else on the back of the month. Notes, perhaps? I don't know... Haven't thought that far into the future.

 In any event, here's the December calendar I came up with. Enjoy! As always, if you download it and use it, please let me know what you think of it! Thanks!

November Calendar (Freebie!)

I've been struggling with my calendar over the last few months. I know what I want, but it turns out that no one sells it. I am not a graphic designer, but I have been playing with making my own and experimenting with it on a month by month basis. Over the last couple days I have created a new calendar for November, one I think I am going to like using! Since I've already made it, I figure I might as well share it here and see if it is useful for anyone else, too!



If you download the calendar and use it, please leave me a comment to let me know what you think! Thanks!!

This is designed to be cut in half and punched to fit a 5.5 x 8.5 planner. I personally use the Arc system by Staples and LOVE it. It should fit in any binder that size, though, as long as you have the appropriate hole punch for it. I hope you enjoy it!!

I know more than the internet does!

Today I have discovered that I know more than the internet does, and it has me stoked! You see, I went to Staples yesterday and saw a Martha Stewart Discbound calendar insert. I was looking for a calendar insert, and I use a discbound system, so imagine my delight when I found one by MARTHA!! Alas, though, there was no information on the shelf about it and I couldn't figure out where it came from to see what else they had. So I asked a helpful gentleman, who seemed just as stumped as I was. He scanned the calendar with his handy-dandy scanner and discovered little information, save that is was $14 and the only one they had in stock. I decided to try my luck on staples.com and left the store without it.

So imagine my utter surprise when a search on staples.com yielded no results. Neither did the next 3 hours (hyperfocus much?) of searching and scouring the great wide web, all things Martha Stewart, Avery, or Staples. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

As I relayed this to my husband later that night, he mentioned that I should search using the product number. He is a software engineer, and has much more experience with such things, so I determined I would stop by and find the relevant information and search the next day.

Today I went to Staples again. My curiosity got the better of me, and I actually purchased a discbound book and the calendar insert. A search at home, using the upc code, the product number, the "find more products like these at..." url, and every other number I could find produced no result. Again.

So for today, I know more than the internet. AND I have one of these beauties in my possession. It's kind of awesome. =D

The Nest Effect

I have found a renewed interest in a blog called The Nest Effect. Right now I have a BAZILLION tabs open  from all the ideas I found on Pinterest that I want to look at. Among them was The Nest Effect, where I came across this post:

http://www.thenesteffect.com/2011/10/october-project-conquer-paper-clutter.html

She talks about conquering her paper clutter. As this is one of my BIGGEST areas of clutter, and the one I am currently trying to tackle, I was immediately interested. Then I started reading and decided that I might perhaps love her. Sadly, I don't have the time right this moment to implement everything she talks about, but I do want to start working through her ideas and conquering this clutter that takes my life by storm.

Why am I so attached to paper, anyway? That's a subject for another post - and perhaps some long therapy sessions - but a good question.

For now I will just say that I want to go read everything ever written on The Nest Effect and leave it at that. Now... where did I put that "stop time so I can spend as much of it as I want on the internet without getting behind on other things" gadget?...