Daily Plan Update

So, my daily plan didn't work out quite how I wanted.  Too much stuff on the to do list so it didn't all get accomplished.  Good thing is that the house is clean now that my MIL has been here to visit, not deep cleaned, but clean.

I was working on organizing the refrigerator so that we could fit cakepops into it when I realized how nasty grimy the shelves were, so I got about half of them cleaned out.  That definitely wasn't on the to do list.

Now that the house is clean, the hope is to maintain for the next 2.5-3 months until baby is born.  With that goal one of the maintain schedules is bound to be a great starting point for me.

Daily Plan: Day One

So, this week is a big one.  I pick up my MIL from the airport (the one that's 1.5 hours away) tomorrow morning, my FIL on Thursday or Friday, host Melodi's 2nd birthday party on Saturday, and drop my in-laws off on Sunday.  On top of the visitors and party, we're potty training which means lots of trips to the potty each and every day.  The house is mostly picked up, but that doesn't mean it's ready for guests or a party.  I've been finding all of these how to declutter then maintain processes on Pinterest in the last month or so.  I definitely do not have a working system- heck I don't have a system at all.  A few of my favorites have been a "year round cleaning checklist" like the one by Tip Junkie for maintaining, the "2012 Declutter Calendar" from MySimplerLife, and "JustMommy's Home Organization Plan" which does both, but with an out of commission printer I haven't been able to put it in to practice with a revised for me system.  I am a list person, always have been, so last night after Melodi when to bed I took out a couple index cards and wrote a list for Monday (today's) tasks and one for party prep to get done over the course of the week.  We'll see how this system works for now, and figure out what needs to be done daily versus weekly versus in this home in a way that works for my family.  Here's my list for today.

Monday, 13 February
Tidy
Vaccuum
Laundry
Kitchen
Calls
Bathrooms (DH- pregnancy and chemicals do not mix and not my favorite as it is)
Dog Room (DH- just making him do it)

Melodi is up so my day is really starting now.

Proactive Scrapbook Organization

When we got the new camera in 2010 I started using Windows Live Photo Gallery to organize my photos.  I've been flagging the pictures that I want to print and post, and that has been working great!  Unfortunately I'm so far behind in Melodi's book I'm not sure when I'll be able to catch up.  The pictures are all printed through December which only leaves 6 or 7 weeks left to print for the album.  The pictures have even been sorted the album pages.  Now I have to go through and pick layouts and papers and do the journalling.  This is going to take a while, hopefully I can have it done by the time the baby gets here in May.

Now that I have been on Pinterest for a while, I have come across a blog (I'll have to go back and figure out which one it is) that had a great month by month scrapbook organization timeline.  Ideally, this is how it would work:

• First week of the month: upload, journal and edit photos, plan pages (basic) from the previous month
• Second week: print pictures, pick out papers and embellishments
• Third and fourth week: complete layouts, catch up on prior layouts

I use Walgreens to print my photos and wait for them to have a sale with photos under or at 10cents then print so that I can pick up on a Tuesday for the military discount.  This is where the timeline is going to get me because sometimes I have to order 50 prints to get the sale, which will leave me waiting until I have enough pictures to order.  So I started on this timeline and this is where I am with January:

• Pictures star rated (not flagged) for Melodi's book
• Pictures flagged for the family album
• Pictures edited to print (cropped to 2x2 and 3x3)
• Family journalling done in Word
• Melodi's journalling done by caption in Windows Live Photo Gallery

Pinspired Project: Paper Bag CD Envelope

A year ago, between my mom, husband and myself, I bought three Mixbook $15 Groupons good for a total of $150.  I finally finished Melodi's first year book and got 6 copies made (me, my and my DH's parents, and three sets of our DD's great-grandparents) .  Since I couldn't fit all of the favorite pictures from her first year into the book I made CDs for everyone as well.  This project is pinspired from A Beautiful Mess Blog who did this for music CDs. 

Fold a normal size paper lunch bag (NOT jumbo) in half.

Add paper layers as desired.

Embellish as desired.

This is the sizing of the paper bag envelope to CD.

Tie with bakers twine, crochet thread, ribbon, etc.

As you can see I used a variety of embellishments, all from my stash.  The letters were all stickers, but I used stickers, felt buttons, buttons and chipboard for the decorative portion.  The original put them into clear bags but I was unable to find the right size the the local Hobby Lobby so left that step out.

Chain Maille

The latest project that I have picked up is chain maille jewelry.  It's a craft that I would never have picked up (most likely) if my husband hadn't decided to pick up some jump rings while we were at Joanns the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  He is working on costume pieces for the Renaissance Festival and since he ended up having some "wrong" size rings for what he was working on I decided to pull up some jewelry patterns.  I started a chain and it is going together nicely.