How Many Times Can I Lose My Planner in Three Days?

This isn't a very fun game. If there's a place this little book can slide to or a corner of a quilt it can vanish under, it's been there. (And I'm not even going to mention that this one is a replacement for the blank planner that I had all ready to go, the one that vanished the day before I was ready to start using it.) 

It's not the prettiest layout and doesn't have the straightest lines, but it'll serve my purposes. 

Looking back at my planner for 2016, it was much cuter. I was keeping notes and lists about more things. Last year's planner has lots of weeks where I didn't fill in anything at all. Remember how my year end totals were almost missing projects? That's how it happened.

The big important stuff is in there, but I want to do better this year. I want to keep better records and I want to have more fun while I'm doing it.


That's where I think Creative Journaling: A Guide to Over 100 Techniques and Ideas for Amazing Dot Grid, Junk, Mixed Media, and Travel Pages by Renee Day might come in. This is an amazing book!

The first section shows how to do lots of different planner layouts and trackers. I've seen tons of different trackers online, but these are simple and not so intimidating and there are a lot of ideas I hadn't seen anywhere else.

Other sections get into junk journaling and mixed media and travel journaling, all in a straight forward way.

I guess I needed someone to hold my hand and show me how to cut the ends of my washi tape to make it look cute and how to make a weekly layout with circles traced around canned goods instead of a special magic circle template. I needed something to spark my creativity and this book is definitely it.

Disclosure -- The publisher sent me an advance review copy. This post contains affiliate links. 

I Started the Year by Losing My Planner

These early days of 2018 are off to a good start. I've got lots of goals for the year, which include making better use of my time and maybe jumping from project to project a little less. I've been doing a lot of that over the past couple of years. Life gets hectic, then when I get some free time I start something new. Which isn't a bad thing, I just need to finish more of the big quilting projects.

Just before New Year's Day, I lost my planner. You know -- the one that's got the goals and UFO lists and everything else in it...something that I really kind of need right now. I've searched for it and waited for it to turn up, both with no luck.

I guess this settles my debate whether to start a new planner or to use the other one until it's filled up, but I really could use those lists that I was making during the last days of December.

On the bright side, the new one has a pretty pink cover and I've got a pen in the  same color that I'm using for page headers.

Do you keep a planner? Do you have any tips for keeping track of your planner?

Planner Update

A couple of months into the new year and I think I've finally come up with a planner system that fits my life. I don't think I can call this thing a bullet journal, since I'm not following the rules for  that. 

My husband works a rotating eight day schedule that defies explanation. Setting up my planner around those eight days makes the schedule so much more clearer than it would be if I tried to follow the actual calendar. 

I keep track of my blog post for the day, and what we had for dinner (after it's actually eaten -- it's not an advance plan, it's a way to figure out if we've already had spaghetti this week and how old those leftovers that just turned up in the fridge are) and whether we've got any classes or appointments that day. In the blank spot below the days, I keep track of stash bought/used and finished projects. 

I could have kept doing this with a composition book I pulled out of our school stuff and a random ball point pen, but I'm having too much fun with my pretty supplies.

The notebook I wound up buying is a Leuchtturm 1917. The link is just to help you find the specifics -- I only paid about twenty dollars for mine at Craft Warehouse, a local chain of craft stores. They had a huge display of them with samples to show different layouts and lettering styles, and how much different markers and pens would show through the back of the page. Now that I've fallen thoroughly in love, I'm wishing I'd bought a red one when they had the 40% off sale. I'm sure I'll want another one for next year.

The binding is sturdy and slim enough to slip into my purse or tote bag. Unlike those spiral bound planners I've been using for the past few years, I don't have pages tearing loose and falling out. The dots are just visible enough to keep my lines of righting sort of straight. (Neatness is not one of my obsessions, in case you hadn't noticed that already.)

My Paper Mate Flair felt tip pens make me smile. I don't know why I'm loving the felt tip pen idea so much, but it's a thing and I bought a big pack of them when they were on sale at Target...and my sons don't like them, which is another big plus.

It would be soooo easy to go overboard on pretty supplies. Michaels has aisles of stickers and washi tape and different planners. This box has forty different rolls for $10.00. They're only five yards each, instead of the usual ten, but they also only cost quarter each. There's a new collection out, but I haven't been able to find that one in our local stores.

The tapes on the lefter are from the Target Dollar Spot, the ones in the middle are from the new ms. sparkle & co. bins at Joann's ($1.99 for a package of two rolls...and 40% off when I bought mine), and the ones on the right are from the Dollar Tree.

Have you been bitten by the planner bug? What are your favorite pretty toys?

My 2017 Planner

When it was time to find a new planner for 2016, I couldn't  find the style I'd been using for the previous four years. The one I finally did settle on was awful, to the point that I was ready to ditch it mid-year and start over with almost anything else.

Then I started seeing things about planners and bullet journals. Remember how in last year's planner post I said that there was never going to be a planner with spaces for tracking everything I need to track? It turns out that the solution is making up my own trackers as I go along...and as a bonus, I can make the weekly pages fit my husband's eight-day work cycle and have exactly as many pages in between as I wind up needing for project notes and shopping lists.

A bit before Halloween, I grabbed an empty notebook and drew out the days for the next couple of weeks. This is working so much better than anything I've done in previous years! I'm not terribly consistent and my handwriting isn't pretty, but it's working well so far.

I've got a nicer journal to start using as soon as I work up the nerve, along with some washi tape I found on sale at Hobby Lobby and some I'd bought a few years back and then forgotten in a desk drawer.

When I write down what we had for dinner every night, it keeps me from cooking spaghetti twice in the same week and also keeps me from killing the kids by feeding them leftovers that are past their prime.

How about you? Do you have a fancy pre-printed planner? A cheap notebook like I'm currently using? Something in between? More importantly, does it work for you?

My Planner for 2016

I needed a new planner for 2016. For the past couple of years, I've wound up going to Walmart and buying one exactly like the one I had the year before, which I guess is fine but I wanted something a little different, even if that was only the color of the cover.  This year I tried a few different stores and couldn't even find the kind I used last year.

So I went online and WOW! I didn't realize that planners were such a big huge deal. I found some gorgeous ones that were way out of the price range for a gal who invariably loses her planner halfway through the year and winds up writing notes on the blank pages of last year's book until she  finds it again. I want a planner with a full page for each day, not because my days are all that busy, but I wind up using the space for lists and designing quilts and all sorts of stuff. Weird system, but it's mine and I like it.

The best one I found on Amazon was for moms and had "motherhood tips and checklists included throughout publication." The sample in the description was a page of safety tips for packed lunches. I don't pack many lunches -- that's one of the perks of homeschooling. And if I did pack lunches, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't need a page in my planner reminding me to clean my cutting board after using it for raw meat.   But that's the planner that was in my shopping cart until I took one last look at the grocery store and found a planner with a separate page for each day.

Last Sunday night, I pulled it out to transfer the important stuff from last year's calendar and realized  that it has a page for each day, but there are no actual calendars. How did I not see that? There's also no page for phone numbers -- but there's a list of all of the holidays for the next two years. I don't have the energy to take it back and I kind of want to have a planner right now, so I'm going to print out some calendar pages and glue them in on the pages for October thru December of 2015.

I have a feeling that I'll be designing my own planner pages for next year. There are pages to help you track absolutely everything ever, but I don't think there's one set that'll cover managing a house and blog, designing quilts, and also homeschool schedules for three kids. I'm sure I can come up with something that will work very well!

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric used this week: 1 3/4 yards
Fabric used year to date: 1 3/4 yards
Fabric added this week:  0 yards
Fabric added year  to date: 0 yards
Net used for 2015: 1 3/4 yards

Yarn used this Week: 0  yards
Yarn used year to Date: 0 yards
Yarn added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net added for 2015: 0 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

Synchronizing the Planners

Teenage Daughter walked in on this project and asked if I was synchronizing my planners. Yup, that's it exactly.  Ever year, I copy the important stuff from my old planner into my new one. 

Except this year I'm copying from 2013 because I can't find the planner for 2014. I spent more time last year looking for that one than actually using it. But I didn't start many new UFOs, so it'll probably turn out just fine.

It'll turn up, and when it does I'll compare the lists and add whatever got left out.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 0 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 34 yards
Net Added for 2014: 34 yards

Yarn Used this Week:  400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 800 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 0 yards
Net Added for 2014: 800 yards

This post is linked to Patchwork Times.

out with the old and in with the new

A couple of years ago, I got inspired by one of Denise's posts and bought myself a planner. That was one of the best ideas ever.

I don't have so many commitments that I need to write down when to be where, but the planners have been great for keeping grocery lists and meal plans and pattern notes. I've got all of the doctor's offices listed in the front, so there's no more digging around for a phone book or trying to find a business card for the one that isn't listed in any of the five different yellow pages for our area.  I also keep the magic code number that starts the van's built in GPS again when it goes out for no reason.(Or when someone leaves the dome light on and the battery dies.) I think I needed those twice last year.

I'd hoped to find a different color cover for 2014, but it went from "too early to think about a new planner" to "better buy one today or you're not gonna find one" in the blink of an eye, and I was happy just to find the right style. Wonder what I could do with some Mod Podge and fabric or scrapbooking paper....

WMFM - my planner

I think one of my biggest accomplishments of 2012 was not permanently losing my new planner.

When Denise posted last year about her pretty new planner, it convinced me that I needed one. Mine isn't nearly as cute as hers, probably because mine came from Walmart, but it's been a lifesaver this past year.

I've got all of the doctor's offices listed in the front, so there's no more digging around for a phone book or trying to find a business card for the one that isn't listed in any of the five different yellow pages for our area.  I write down appointments on the page that shows the whole month.

When I was getting estimates for the roof, I kept track of all of the different phone numbers and times.

I keep a running list of which dinners I've bought the ingredients for. And I try to keep a list of what we're out of, but I still haven't gotten very consistent at that and I forget to check it when I do go to the store.

I keep the measurements and calculations for quilts I'm planning. The planner doesn't look like the notebooks the kids use for their own projects, so my measurements don't disappear and I don't have to redo my math nearly as often.

I keep lists of UFOs and projects I want to start next and all sorts reminders to myself.

I also keep the magic code number that starts the van's built in GPS again when it goes out for no reason. (Losing your GPS when you're 100 miles from home and not sure how to get back to the Interstate is not a whole lot of fun. I know....I can ask for directions like we all used to do in the good old days.)  And I can easily find it for Hubby when he's done something with the battery and needs to put the number in again.

I've got a brand new planner for 2013 -- now I've just got to transfer over my lists and phone numbers...

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT family.