I was reading another blogger’s post and she listed things that worked for her in 2016 in a post and I thought that would be a great idea to help me reflect on my year. I linked to each product that is still available for more infomation or if you would like to purchase them. So here is a list of a few things that worked for me this year:
My Planner – This past year, I switched from a Lilly Pulitzer planner to an Inkwell Press planner and I have to admit it was a game changer. For starters, I moved to a smaller planner size and was able to tote it around if need be. I don’t write small so I couldn’t go tiny but I moved to a 7″x 9″ format. I love this planner. First of all the owner makes videos that she sends out to you with worksheets to help you to set up your planner. They are both fun and functional. I tracked all of my work and home planning inside of this planner. I love that it has the elastic strap to close it and it keeps it nice and neat. It worked well with my work planning so I ordered the 2017 planner for the new year. Well worth the investment.
My P-touch label maker – Last year, I bought one for the boys and one for myself for Christmas and I have to say, I still love the pink labels and that I can make them quick and move on to other things. I use it mostly for organizing at work.
Bose speaker – I moved from a Beats Pill to this Bose speaker and never looked back. I bring it all over the house even to the pool in the summer to listen to music while we swim. I enjoy the quality sound and I love listening to audio books on it at work!
Shelving and Reorganizing my office space – I purchased additional shelving for my office space recently to make room for my new Silhouette that will be arriving on Christmas. I also cleaned out my main work storage closet earlier this year and now I have quick access to all of my supplies without all the clutter that used to hang out in my room. My workspace has moved to a more sophisticated look that I was aiming for. I will continue to refine it in 2017.
Hanging rack with laundry sorter – I had to include this baby. Each Sunday, I select the clothes for both boys week (Nick wears uniforms so his is a breeze!) and then Leao irons them and we hang them up on the hanging rack above the 3 laundry sorters. I used to have 3 laundry sorters and would select the boy’s clothes each night. But now all they have to do is pick up their outfits from the rack each morning. I placed this in the laundry room and so it’s out of the way and I have quick access for laundry days. I picked this one up at Target in the year and happy I did.
Cup and Trash clip-on for my craft table – One of my recent purchases inspired by my friend Elaine at one of our craft dates. I love it. It clips onto my desk and I can ensure no spills on my workspace because I place my cup of tea in the holder and the trash bag that clips onto it, is so convenient. No bending to search for my trash can under my table anymore. Love this!!
Project Life Grid Journaling Cards – I have had these for years and used them in my scrapbook albums but since I haven’t been working on my albums lately I had these cards laying around when I realized I could write down my favorite color combinations I use on work projects on them. I then purchased a gorgeous Heidi Swapp storage case with tabs and place them in there. Now I can access all this information in one place. I love the grid lines so that I can write all the information on there neatly. I usually grab a pack each time I visit Joann’s.
That was fun. It’s the little things that make a big difference and reflecting on them in this post was pretty cool. What everyday item worked for you this year?
Belinda
Hello Everybody!! Happy Friday!!!This is a photo of my dashboard in my car this morning when I drove Nick to school today. Brrrr…..The little i you see is letting me know the cold is messing with my tire pressure. Wow is it cold. Yesterday we had a 10 minute snow squall and then major gusts of winds that stayed with us throughout the night. I drank lots of tea yesterday and I expect to snuggle up with my blanket and put the kettle on regularly today.
I can’t believe I still have cards to send out and Christmas is 9 days away. I sent most of them out but my cards to my crafty girlfriends requires more preparation so I haven’t been able to focus on them fully. I will work on them out this weekend so I can get them off by Monday. I hope you all are keeping warm if you are in a cold part of the country and have a blessed weekend. I will try to make a post next week but there is a chance it might not happen until after the holiday. If I don’t, I want to make sure you know that I am sending you holiday blessings and cheer from our home to yours.
Good morning everyone! Wow didn’t last week really fly by? I mean time goes faster or so it seems as we get older but last week was a blink! I hope you’re all doing well. Well it’s officially December and we are rocking around trying to get ourselves ready for the holidays. Last week I pulled out all of our lights and Leao checked them to make sure that no bulbs needed to be replaced. Then this weekend we hung them up and we also winterized our deck. We got the boys to help but let me tell you my boys are not interested in cleaning or putting things away. So it’s kind of like pulling teeth from time to time. But in the end we got it done so it was worth it.
I’m really glad that we winterized the deck this weekend because we woke up to the white stuff out there this morning. It’s just a coating right now but it’s just reminds me of what’s to come. As much as I complain about snow I secretly love days when it snows and we know it’s gonna be a snow day and I can sit in my craft room and just look out the window down the street at all the pretty snow as it falls down. Knowing that I don’t have to actually go anywhere always makes snow so much more acceptable. But the days that I have to shovel, run errands, do drop off and pick up, and shovel again, those are the days snow and I simply aren’t friends!
We had fun this weekend at my in-laws and watching our quarterback make history to become the all-time quarterback wins with his 201st win yesterday. That was a good way to end the weekend ok and maybe a little piece of pie that I ate helped too (don’t hate).
I also finished a book that I was reading that took me forever to read so I should be putting a book review up this week for it. So be on the lookout. I already started another book this weekend that is just a pleasure to read and it’s a real quick fast read so it’s just what I needed right after that heavy book I read for the past few weeks.
I’ve been busy with little projects here and there and trying to wrap up some things so I didn’t get to sit down yesterday to write. But let’s celebrate the New England Patriot’s winning the game yesterday. It was a real nail biter all the way down to the last minute I pretty much paced the floor and yelled at the TV for the last 30 minutes of the game.
Thanksgiving was wonderful and we spent it with my in-laws. My mother-in-law is one of the most amazing cooks that I know in both taste and presentation. As you know I had just come off of my cleanse so I was able to enjoy the meal fully. Even though I did indulge in a few glasses of wine and some pie I still approached it very mindfully and think that this time around a lot of my habits that I took from the cleanse will stick.
Of course we stayed over my in-laws for several days and played games and talked each night. Some of the games that we like to play is Skipbo which is a card game and we also like to play a dice game called Greed. Apollo introduced us all to Bananagrams. Which is a fantastic word game with letter tiles similar to Scrabble. I love Scrabble and word games in general so this was great. We also brought some DVDs and watch the classic Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. But the most important thing is that we were all together and I don’t take this time for granted.
We also played Old Maid and guess who was the Old Maid? Me!!!! Why do I always lose that game?
