Reuse Last Year's Planners and Calendars!

What do you do with your old planners, schedule books, and calendars? I have one wall calendar, hanging by my desk, where I write down all of our plans and milestones. I save that one in a file box. It's kind of like a record of all of the things we did that year. I also have a planner that I use to keep track of blog posts and gardening (like when I planted the peas and when I picked the first tomato.) My husband has a day planner that he keeps all of his scheduled doctor's appointments in. And my oldest, of course, has a student planner that he is supposed to use to keep all of his assignments straight in - he doesn't use it very often... We also receive a few free promo planners in the mail that I usually give to Little Guy to write his "lists" of things to do in - just like Mommy, Daddy, and Brubber do.

At the end of the year, we find that we have these planners and calenders just sitting here. We don't want to throw them out, but what good are they? I'll tell you! You can use them as idea books.

As I was cleaning out my very messy corner of craft supplies, I found the stack of magazines and catalogs that I've been hoarding. Each one had at least one great idea that I wanted to use - a kids' craft, recipe, or DIY project. I really didn't have anywhere to put all of these magazines and, heck, I didn't even know which idea I was saving each book for just by looking at the cover. So, Little Guy and I went through each one and cut out all of the good ideas that we wanted to make someday.
Most of the time, I could just cut out a photo from the magazine or catalog and that would be enough. I don't really like following step-by-step instructions for things that are creative. Instructions make me feel as if I'm doing it wrong if I veer from the "rules" that have been set down. Plus, I tend to read the "Supplies Needed" list and, if I don't have one, I'll skip the project until I do have everything. By just having a photo of what I want to make, I can use my own imagination to figure out how to go about creating the item and which supplies we can use.

So, we spent a couple of afternoons just flipping through those magazines and catalogs, cutting out pictures of things that looked like fun. Now we had a pile of clippings. How was I going to keep them in some kind of order without losing them? As I pondered, hubby came through with his old planner and asked if he could throw it away (See how I have him asking about throwing things out? He's learned not to toss anything into the trash can before asking if I need it for something. Even banana peels are saved here - they add LOTS of potassium to the garden soil!) His asking me at that particular time was perfect - I could use the planner for the clippings!

I arranged the clippings into piles for each month - snowy/winter crafts for January, hearts and lovey crafts for February, etc. When he awoke, we got working on our books. His job was to put a tiny dot of glue onto each cut-out and place it on the planner page for the corresponding month. My job was to hand him the clippings, suggest a good place to glue the clipping (overlap can happen in an instant with an excited little guy!), and help turn the pages of the planner. Now we have our "Idea Book" to look at whenever we're feeling crafty. We can just open it up to the current month and choose from the pictures.


I also used planners for recipes and DIY projects. The recipe book was made from a planner that had an entire page for each day. There are many more pages in that book so I could clip the entire recipe (no, I can't just look at a picture of food and figure it out! LOL) and have room for more. Stew, soups, and other hearty, stick-to-your ribs recipes are glued into the winter months' pages. Quick, warm dinner ideas are in the November and December pages for those days when we're busy with holiday-related activities and there just isn't time for big, complicated dinners. And, of course, I have light, cool dishes in August; and I've got picnic-type recipes stuck to the June and July pages. Birthday cake ideas are now easy to find by turning to the months for everyone's birthdays.

My DIY book is separated by the seasons, rather than months. I simply took a marker and drew a border around each page for each season - blue for winter, green for spring, red for summer (hey, it's hot out!), and orange for fall. The times of year that each project would best be done is where I glued those clippings. So, I have a really neat indoor seed starter idea pasted on a green page. And there is a pretty wind chime made with dried leaves in the orange section. See what I mean?

I have more ideas for making other books:

• I'm going to start looking for homeschooling ideas next, since Little Guy is getting to the right stage to start more learning activities. 
• My oldest keep magazines for drawing ideas that he has seen in them - I think I could persuade him to cut the ideas out and recycle the magazines.
• My husband takes a zillion different medications. He also collects old PDR's. I wonder if I could get him to cut the drug info and photos for each thing he takes and glue them into an old planner? It sure would take up less space than 6 old PDR's (have you seen how big they are?!). Plus, he'd have a little book to take to doctor's appointments, showing exactly what he takes. He could even pencil in the amounts and frequencies of each medication. I know that, if he ever keeled over, I'd have a list of meds to take to the ER with me for easy reference for the ER doctors.

I'd love to hear your ideas of books these used-up 

planners and calendars could be re-purposed into. 

What kind of clippings would YOU glue into an old planner???

Organizing My Blogging and Some Plans!

So, I've managed to clean up around the house a little. I am proud that I've been able to keep the kitchen in order for a whole week - that place gets out of hand within hours! I'm taking steps to give Little Guy the full attention he needs every day by doing projects, reading together, or just watching him play with my full attention. I haven't been blogging much or even thinking about it. Until last night, that is.

Photo by: danielmoyle

I have been blogging for about a year. At first, I had absolutely no idea what to write about. Slowly, I found some topics to write about that others actually wanted to read. I still don't feel as if I've found my real niche, but I have some ideas as to where I want to go with my blog and am going to give it the old college try. Here's how I'm doing it:

First, I wrote down all of the topics that I like to write about and ended up with six that I really would like to concentrate on: education, crafting, recipes, parenting, green/alternative topics, and cool shops/products that I'd like to share. Then, I made a list of the blog carnivals, etc. that I'd like to get involved in -  Carnival of Natural Parenting, Mindful Mama Carnival, Mamatography, Sunday Surf, etc. Finally, I listed the regular memes that I take part in - Wordless Wednesday, Mindful Parenting Collaboration, etc. I also perused the Web for hops and linkies that I'd like to take part in. For instance, I love to share my child-centered posts on the Sunday Showcase and my crafty posts and recipes on the Chic & Crafty Party. I matched up the six subjects I'd like to focus on with a few of these hops and linkies - I'm going to have to sort through them and choose one or two that take place per day to add my posts to.

Next, I got out my calendar. Each subject will (hopefully) be a weekly post. Right now, for example, I have my crafty posts scheduled to go up on Thursdays. I left space for me to write a brief title for each subject so I can just jot it down when inspiration for a subject hits me. Then, I penciled in the topics, due dates, and post dates for the carnivals that have schedules posted. Finally, I filled in the dates of the postings for the memes that I already take part in.

I am hoping to be able to have a weekly review or giveaway, tentatively set to post on Saturdays, if I can find the sponsors. I don't want to take any reviews that happen to come my way - I'd like to concentrate on items that are handmade, green, and/or related to parenting. (If you're a business owner or PR rep and would like to get in touch, I have a nice little "Contact Me" page and form you can fill out - Hint, hint!) I got way too overwhelmed with this type of thing in December and need to make sure that I space things out and plan better!

One more thing that I plan to do is make a point to visit other blogs more often. I tend to read posts via Facebook, Google reader, and my email subscriptions. I don't leave comments very often. I have a goal to leave at least two comments on other blogs per day, two comments on Facebook updates per day, and tweet or re-tweet two posts per day. None of these little tasks take much time, so it should be no problem. There are so many bloggers/writers who I admire, who make me laugh, and who teach me something new. I feel like I owe it to them to let them know that their posts have meant something to me and to share their words with others. So don't freak out and think I've suddenly become a stalker if you see more and more comments/shares/tweets from me!


So, I was checking out my page stats on Blogger last night, too. I've always used Google Analytics to see my stats, but it is geared more toward larger bloggers and other, business-like Web sites. The Blogger one is much easier for me to understand. I found out my top five posts for last year and was quite surprised. I also saw that I had many more people actually reading posts than I thought. I guess I was gauging how many were reading by the number of comments I received. Boy, I was way off! So, just like 90% of the blogger out there, here are my top five most-read posts of last year:

Bubbles! May 13, 2011, 5 comments 2,982 Pageviews

Ready for Spring? Make Seed Bombs with Your Kids! Feb 25, 2011, 8 comments 1,026 Pageviews

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This!!! {KY Intimacy Exp... Jun 28, 2011, 452 comments 963 Pageviews

StickerYou! {Review & GIVEAWAY!} Mar 4, 2011, 200 comments 723 Pageviews

Super-Easy Crafting with Kids {Plus a GIVEAWAY} Apr 13, 2011, 141 comments 647 Pageviews

I hope that you all have a great year and continue to stick with me. I really feel positive about the upcoming "organized" blog plan I have going. I am sure that I'll fall off of the horse once in a while, but I'll be sure to jump back on!

If anyone has any suggestions about hops, memes, carnivals, blog post topics, linkies... anything, please feel free to leave me a comment or get in touch via my Contact Me form. I'd love some suggestions!