Staying the Course and a Crafty Project

Well, I've just been trekking along on my path to getting my life organized. Every day I find something small to do that helps and that sparks me to find something else small to do and so on and so forth. The really good news is that I've stuck with everything that I have initiated so far. I'm really excited about how well it has gone. What do they say? It takes 21 days to form a habit? Hubby rolls his eyes when I say that, but I think that after three weeks that new thing will be second nature. Don't get me wrong, good habits are extremely easy to break, but I have hope.

I'm here to share what today's results are. While perusing Pinterest, in the organizing section, I found a pin about "Seven Habits of Highly Organized People". I've read this article a time or two before, and I've even used this method before. However, I think I know where I went wrong last time and I have remedied the situation.

This is my "Brain Dump Book"! This is NOT a to-do list. This is not a place to put the things that I know I need to do but don't do anyhow. This is not where my routine chores go. This is a place to put the whatnots that I normally forget. Those fleeting thoughts of "you know what I need to do/buy/look up..." and then it's gone before it ever comes to pass.

This is a pretty leather, blue journal. I bought it years and years ago thinking that I would, you know, journal. I'm really not a journaling sort of gal. The only reason I've been consistent with my blogging lately is that I'm uber excited about the subject matter. Now, the problem with the last time I did this is that I used it as a to-do list and it ended up pages long. Also, I left it on my desk. This doesn't help me when most of my fleeting thoughts come at the store or in the car. This is the perfect size to transport easily and it's cute. Problem solved. 

Here is the first page. Everything gets indented and everything that is weighing me down, that I might forget, or that keeps me up at night trying to remember goes in this book. Things that need to be done on specific days gets a date in the indentation. When a task is complete it gets marked out with a highlighter. I love it. It goes with me everywhere. It is a stroke of genius. 

I also printed off this year's calendar for my Big Binder (I think this is how I shall refer to it from this day forth, lol.) I needed somewhere to keep important dates from last year, and so I searched the internet for the perfect solution. This is what I came up with. This is not for birthday reminders and such (my phone already does that). This is for keeping track of when the kids had their eye exams, check ups, dentist appts. You get the idea. It has the month and then a few lines to write on for each month. I found it here.

As for this year's calendar, I like a two page per month calendar. I want lots of room to keep track of all of the crazy in my life. Not only do I have to keep track of me, hubby, and five kids, but also my father in law who is very ill. He has many doctor's appointments as do the kids. Here I have enough room to write down several items per day with lots of wonderful boxes for things to remember and all that. 

I also had some wonderful crafty goodness go on today.  I am working on a Christmas project. I know it's late, but in my defense it's supposed to be. I decided to decorate a coffee cup with a picture of a knitting sheep. Being that I am NOT even kind of gifted in this area, I searched the internet, again. I studied a few pictures and then practiced and this is what I came up with. 

Not bad, huh? And it even transferred well. I drew it on my cup and baked it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I found a great tute here. A couple of important things about this project: use a sharpie, let your drawing dry completely before cooking, and let your cup cool completely before touching your drawing. Ask me how I know these things? No, I didn't read the tute completely. I had to learn this the hard way. 

My knitting sheep has a ball of yarn and the yarn goes all the way around the top of the cup and loops a few times and goes back to the start, which is the sheep. Pretty cute, huh? I love it and I hope the recipient does, too. 

That's all for today. Tomorrow is another day. I can't wait to see what it brings!