Menu Board

I always struggle with "What To Make For Dinner?!!!" and I found a solution!  I can not take credit for this beautiful idea because I first saw a menu board on Pinterest.  But I knew right away that I had to make one of my own and I'll tell you why : 

1. It gives me a weekly layout...which is great because I usually grocery shop weekly
2. The ingredients are on the back of each card, so when I've chosen my meals for the week, all I have to do is turn the card over for a shopping list
3. When the week is over, I can discard the meal cards into "Tasted Good" so I know those have been used recently and when I go to choose new meals I can grab from "Cook Me".  It will help me rotate what we eat without me even having to think about it!  And you can add and throw away meal cards as you please!
4. It sure is darn cute!
5. TOTAL COST was only $6.50 because I already had the frame lying around the house, already had the cardstock and the ribbon was on sale at Hobby Lobby. 

 Want to make your own?? SO cheap and easy! Here are the steps:

1. Gather your supplies
1. 11X14 picture frame ($3 or less walmart/dollar store)
2. 3-4 pieces of 12X12 scrapbook paper ($.59/each)
3. 2-3 pages 8 1/2 X 11 cardstock for meal cards ($.50/each?)
4. 7 clothespins (pack of 24 is $3.47)
5. 2 crayon boxes (mine are 24 ct, but 12 ct would work) ($.50-1.50/each)
6. Embellishments like ribbon, brads (optional)
7. Hot glue gun
2. Take the glass out of the frame and take out the back board.  Arrange your scrapbook paper however you like and glue it on the board
3. Turn the crayon boxes horizontal and cut out one side of the box.  Glue the ends together to keep the box from falling apart.  Cut out scrapbook paper to fit and cover the box
4. Glue scrapbook paper to your clothespins.  I used mod podge and also covered the top with mod podge...kind of made them look more like they came that way. ;) Then I wrote the days of the week with a fine tip sharpee
5. Before you glue the boxes and clothespins on, you might want to arrange it all with your meal cards to make sure everything is spaced correctly:

MEAL CARDS:

1. Open a Word document and set the page layout to "2 columns" with .5 margins on all sides.  
2. Type in the names all the meals you can think of that you make and that you'd be happy to make again. Include a couple that say EAT OUT, LEFTOVERS, SOMETHING NEW (in case you might want to try a new recipe that week) or I even put FROM THE FREEZER as one because I'll sometimes have a frozen meal from costco or something.  You should be able to fit 6 in each column, depending on your size and font
3. If you liked my font, it's called Pea So Lovely, which you can download for free and my font sizes were anywhere from 30-43, depending on how long of a word.  The font for my box titles is Girls Are Weird, also downloadable for free. (tasted great was size 45 and cook me was size 60)
4.  Once you have all your cards printed on cardstock and cut out, you need to write on the back of each one, the main ingredients and amounts...you do not have to write the entire recipe!  
5. You can make your own printout of "What's For Dinner!" or you can right click on mine and save it to your computer.  (Thanks to my friend, Brittney!)
6. Now you are ready to arrange everything on your board and then you can glue on your boxes and your clothespins with the hot glue gun!
7. As far as hanging it, I would suggest to hang it with a nail or two on your wall, BUT I have NO wall space in my kitchen area, so I bought a $2.99 over the door wreath hanger and I put a thick ribbon through the hanger on the back of the frame, tied a TIGHT knot at the top then added a bow and it hangs there nicely for me.  I don't like the idea of it bouncing around every time the door opens, so I am on the hunt for some kind of adhesive to help hold it there. 

Gift Wrapping

Gift wrapping materials have been my nemesis for quite some time now. Currently, I keep all of it in this hallway closet. Yes, this closet has other problems, but my main focus is all that tissue paper, gift bags, etc: 
And then I saw it...a beautiful way to organize it all :  BUT I could not find one of these anywhere!!!!
FINALLY I found one online at Bed, Bath and Beyond and it looks just like it, do you think? 
But I'm so sad it is $35!!!!!!!!!  That is so much!!  Help! Do any of you have better (cheaper) ways to organize your gift wrapping supplies??

A rule that I try hard to live by while I'm organizing:

1. Have a place for everything! If something you own doesn’t have a place to be stored, it will always be out of place and causing clutter. Everything needs a home that is easily accessible so you can find it when you need it.

  I love that the rule includes to make sure that what you put away should be "easily accessible".  I think we all keep our dishes in the kitchen and not in the garage, right? Why? because that is where we use them!  of course! haha  Well, I say that works for everything.  My kids do most of their coloring or crafts on the kitchen table, so it did not work for me to keep these things down the hallway because I am lazy and would not walk down the hall to put them away. Instead, they would sit out on the table or counter for days!  Solution? I made space for those things in one of the kitchen cabinets! Never had a problem since!  I went to take a picture of this cabinet and noticed it had become a little messy, so I cleaned it out and wha-la.That was my job for the week. haha
I learned : YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO PUT THINGS AWAY IF THEIR "HOME" IS CLOSE TO THE PLACE THAT YOU USE THEM.  


(hope that makes sense!)  So your challenge for this week :  #1 Find an area of your house that is cluttered most often.  Figure out a way you can store those items close to that spot (because that is obviously the easiest place to leave them). #2 Make room for them in a cabinet or find a cute basket, box or bin .  Let me know if you find a solution for your cluttered area! Good luck!

Blog Book

Do you keep a blog about your family?  I highly encourage you to get started on turning your blog into a book right away!!  OR, you might be inspired to start blogging today!  It's the beginning of a new year, a perfect time to start recording the memories of 2012 and look forward to turning into a book at the end of the year. Don't let another year go by without getting your photos organized!

Aren't they beautiful!? An entire year of family pictures and journaling packed into a cute hardcover book!  I thought that while I'm working on figuring out my next thing to organize, I would post about something that I've already done in the past.  I used to be an avid scrapbooker, but as I had more kids, I got WAY behind and it really stressed me out!  I started a family blog through www.blogger.com and when a year was through, I turned it into a book.  I've never been so excited....a way to ORGANIZE my photos that is easy for me!

There are 2 ways that I know of that are best for doing a book.  I used www.blurb.com where you are able to transfer your blog into book format and then customize it in a way that makes you happy.  There are many different sizes of books.  You can even transfer your 12X12 digital scrapbooking pages into a book. Easy!  My 8X10 book between 81-120 pages costed $47.95 plus shipping.  I will be honest though...it can take some time to customize your book.  The more you work on it, the faster you will get, but it can't be accomplished in one day. 

If you don't feel like you have the time to customize your book, there is another option : www.blog2print.com. This website also imports your blog into book format with only one size option, the 8X10.  And they lay it out just like your blog, with the captions in between pictures, etc. Super easy and it doesn't look too bad either.  My problem is that I couldn't figure out how to make pictures bigger if I wanted them to be...but again, if you are not too picky, then this is a great way to save some time! The 8X10 book of about 100 pages could be $52.95.

When you finish your book, you can delete all your pictures?! NO!  Pictures should be kept in 2 different places, if not 3 or 4.  You blog book is just ONE of these.  Once I've finished my blogging for the year, I put all of the pictures into a file labeled for that year.  These are kept on my computer, but then copies of these files are also on my external hard drive AND I burn them to a high quality dvd.

 I found the cutest box at Target for $14.99 to store my picture dvds! 

What do YOU do to organize your pictures??

Goal Jar

For me, this jar is not for the usual things on "my list". It's for those every day "LITTLE" things that I always mean to do, but don't. I seriously am not a playful mom. I do a lot of cleaning the house or working on the computer, but honestly don't get a lot of quality time in with the kids. I mean to, but don't get around to it as much as I'd like. Everyone's items will be different, but for me, I'm going to put in there the following:

1. Play a game with the kids
2. Sit down and talk with Annika by ourselves (even go out if we can)
3. Call both of my Grandmas
4. Learn a song on my guitar
5. Clean the master bathroom (this is the LAST part of the house to get fully cleaned, sad, but true. sorry for TMI)
6. Read a book to the kids
7. Write a letter to 2 friends I haven't talked to in a while. A real one! And mail it. ;)
8. No computer today until the kids go to bed! (I don't have internet access on my phone)
9. Blog about something deep. ;) not just the fluff on the surface, you know? (hopefully something quite profound haha)
10. Spend 30 minutes scanning old photos
11. Make sure every piece of laundry is put away!
12. Focus on Lance today (wake up early enough to make a lunch, write him a note, spend time together after kids go to bed)
13. Play the piano for 30 minutes
14. Make a treat with the kids (letting them help...patience) and take it to a neighbor
15. Make a play date for Luke (someone else calling me does not count)
16. Read 3 Ensign articles
17. Next time Lance is watching a game, sit down and watch it with him
18. Work on ABC's with Luke
19. Play my flute for 30 minutes
20. Clean off my desk and throw away old bills or scan papers that we want to keep

Some of these things are basic things that I wish I would do more of around the house, but I am excited because most of these things are things that mean a lot to me to spend time on, but I have a REALLY hard time doing them for some reason.

It was easiest to type them up all on one page and then I printed 10 pages. ;) That will give me about 200 days worth...so I'll just put them back in when they are gone. And then I was able to cut them easy with my scrapbook cutterThank you Melissa for letting me steal your idea!! But mine did not turn out half as cute as yours. ;) I'm excited to draw my first one tomorrow!

Week 1 Results

My goal this last week was to get a good "need to organize" list started and also to take some before pictures of some of the things. Do you all have one of these, or is it just me? A junk drawer! I also have a stash of old VHS tapes under my bed collecting dust. I need to get them on dvd! The hard part about this is I need to look up who can do this for me at a decent price. Any help?I have several other items on my list, but one that I need to do right away is this goal jar. I think I had better start my week 2 with this one. I will make another blog post about it on Monday!

Week ONE

Well, you have to start with a plan, SO my week one assignment is to make a list of things I already know I want to get done...each item will be something that can practically get done in 1 week (without me spending every minute of every day on it)...if it's a bigger project, I will write 'extra weeks' next to it. I've gotten started, even though my list is not done: But it's in a new notebook that I will keep near my desk so that I will be able to add to it all year through. I got myself a fancier notebook...notice the one clear page protector folder and then the inside of the cover also has a folder on it. I keep things there that I don't want to get lost.I will also take some BEFORE pictures of the things I already thought of for my list. Ok, I will report at the end of the week! Is anyone else getting started with me!!??