Friday, April 27, 2012

Friday Five and a freebie!

It's Friday and we are linking up with Lauren with from my grey desk.

1. we have an exciting project at creative life designs! We are creating scrapbooks for a family friend's daughter. Woo-hoo!
She had lots of stuff! I am so excited to get this finished up for her!
2. Prom is tomorrow!

3. Inkjoy pens! ACK! Shannon and I both love them and fully support your purchase of them.
source
4. I ordered thirty one bags a while back….and got this baby. which conveniently matches my organizer bag and my lunch bag.
how nerdy am I? a thirty-one pencil bag!

5. and now it matches this bag, that I had to get to replace my handmade bag (made by my brother's girlfriend's mom) because it got a rip in it that needs to be repaired.
I scored this one at Target for $9.00 on clearance. It was a color match made in bag heaven.
$9.00 target bag

a perfect match…notice the inside of the bag matches too!

And here is a quick freebie for you….more labels! I don't know about everyone else, but I see nothing wrong with having an arsenal of different sized labels at the ready at all times. maybe I'm a little out of control, but I'm sure there's some out there who support my obsession, right?
{download your free copy here}
Make sure you change the name, one letter at at time so you do not lose the formatting.
Google Docs is hating me today, so if the link doesn't work just leave us a comment and we will send you the document via email. I'm not blog savvy enough to know how to share a document another way.
Have a great weekend, wish me luck at prom!



Thursday, April 26, 2012

a little inspiration

We love a good organizing or planning printable, and we love them even more when they are free.
I was doing a little browsing of keepinglifecreative, after my sister posted about it and found this cutie.



Check out her post here. She offers a color and black and white printable.


Please forgive my short post, we are officially in Prom Panic Mode! Today is chemo day for Niki, and she may or may not be sending her husband to fetch last minute prom supplies for me :) 3 days until prom, then 7 days until my classes are finished for my coaching endorsement, and THEN think of all the spare time I will have to devote to the blog! {and cleaning, laundry, and everything else I have been neglecting}


a little inspiration

Keeping Life Creative is one of my favorite blogs! She had a fantastic post last summer about creating a super fun seed package. When I was looking for a fun summer project for my kids I thought of her!
She explains how she created this super cute gift and even gives you a free printable! Check out her post here. She has tons of other fun printables, scrapbooking things and awesome mommy ideas on her blog. Check her out!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Teacher Time

Both Shannon and I are trained as elementary teachers, even though neither of us are currently teaching. However, we are both looking! And with my three kids, fun teaching ideas are always on my radar.
While browsing Pintrest today I found this great idea!
She uses a digital picture frame to flash the sight words her students have learned. Then they can read it, spell it or write it. This gives the students lots of practice in different forms of the sight word.
I have a digital picture frame already, so I am definitely going to implement this in my own house and quite possibly in my classroom (if I ever get one)!
It looks like she has tons of other fun ideas and freebies, so be sure to check out Kindergarten Monkey Business!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Coming Soon: fifteen minutes of {crafting}

Shannon and I have big plans to roll out a new feature on our blog: fifteen minutes of {crafting}.
found here
Between her two jobs and my three kids, we don't have a ton of time to devote to projects. We can usually round up fifteen minutes though.
We have found oodles of inspiration on other blogs and Pintrest. We want to put that inspiration to good use!
found here
So, keep your eyes on this space for some quick crafts!! If you have any suggestions, please share! We are always up for more inspiration!
found here

Monday, April 23, 2012

fifteen minutes of {organization}

So today's project was more like five minutes, but it still counts, right?
Today I tackled my cancer bag. It goes with me to every appointment. It had been a while since I cleaned it, since I have chemo Thursday, I decided this was a perfect project.
My mom got me this thirty-one bag for Christmas and it became my cancer bag!
I took everything out and sorted it. There was not as much in it as I thought, but 8 magazines was too many, even for a chemo day!
That small pile in the back is garbage. Yes, those are the blue vomit bags. I have two. You never know when you will need one, so I always travel with them. The CDs are genealogy podcasts my mom made for me to listen to. (My laptop comes to, but I clearly will not make it until Thursday without it.)
I also have fruit snack, a marker, a dollar for the vending machine, and a worry stone I got from my Aunt Laurie. I usually have way more snacks and hard candy. I need to replace those.
Then I pared down my magazines to three and one book. I also take my Kindle and throw in whatever book I am reading at the time right before I leave. When I am done with the magazines, I leave them at the Cancer Center.
My Uncle Bob (not to be confused with my brother Bob) got me the "Words for the Cure" book. It is full o beautiful pictures and inspiration.
I put my papers in my cancer binder so it is nice and neat now. The cancer binder holds all of my blood work papers I have gotten along with anything else they give me that I might need later. It is very important!
I put my marker, worry stone, fruit snacks, CDs and barf bags back in the little front pockets of my bag
Then I put the magazines and binder back in. My bag is now ready to go Thursday with just the addition of my Kindle, book and some snacks I need to pick up this week at the grocery store!
So that is my cancer bag! what organization project did you work on? Share with us in the comments!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Friday Five and a freebie

We are linking up with Lauren, at from my grey desk again today.
Here's our Friday five!
1. A Flower for Shannon's office :) Even though its not really an office ever, it tries to be only it is currently prom palooza.  I like flowers, I just fail epicly at keeping them alive. My wonderful mother let my last one die--see if I ever let her plant sit again.

2. Super cute scrapbook paper from the Dollar Spot at Target.

3. Linking up with Jen from Iheart organizing and getting some new readers! Welcome to all our new readers! We hope you keep coming and are inspired.

4. I found these babies yesterday when I was getting coupons ready to go grocery shopping!


So combine those coupons with these:
And that means this girl is so going make a coupon binder! I will post on that when I get all of my things together! Super excited!

5. doing homework and working on the blog with this little friend :)
please ignore the laundry basket on the floor...

And a freebie for you :) more labels!
I just made these in Word, they aren't designed to print on any specific size of label. I just wanted a cute label that I could tape, glue, or mod podge onto things. I am providing a download for the pdf if you want to handwrite in your labels, and the word document if you want to type in your labels before you print them. We would love for you to leave a comment if you download. {enjoy}
Have a great weekend!




Thursday, April 19, 2012

a little inspiration

With the school year coming to an end, I thought I would share some fun (and not coffee mug) end of the year teacher gifts.
This website has some awesome ideas.
A plant is a gift that keeps giving.

I plan on giving my kids teachers a Summer Fun Pack! My friend Jayme makes lots of really neat things, but what I am going to give are these big plastic cups with the kids teachers' names on them.
 I'm also going to throw some individual drink mixes, some fun summer candy and a great magazing in a fun summer beach tote.
If you want to see more of Jayme's work check out her Facebook page or her Etsy shop.
What fun things are you planning for your kids' teachers? Share with us in the comments section!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

beautify your budget



Are you working on building a budget for your household? Do you already have a budget and would like to "beautify" it?
We offer a "budget package" in our etsy shop. Check out all of the wonderful budget forms and products that we have to offer….

We have forms to fit any budget style. We even use several of them ourselves.

bill payment checklist





Keep track of all of your bills in one place. Record all of your bills and check them off when you pay them each month.

debt repayment plan
Are you working on paying off debt? Student loans, auto loans, credit cards?? Keep track of all your debts on one form.
monthly budget form option1 {page 1}

monthly budget form option 1 {page 2}
This is the first option of our budget worksheet. This form is left mainly blank for you to fill in the expenses that you have. There are a few general items filled in for you to start with. Print a new one each month or laminate and reuse.


monthly budget form option 2 {page 1}

monthly budget form option 2 {page 2}

monthly budget form option 2 {page 3}


This budget worksheet has many more monthly expenses filled in for you. Very simple to use each month, just fill in your amounts. You can print a new copy each month or laminate and reuse this one.
monthly spending tracker



Do you just need to track your monthly spending? Use this form to record what you spend each day and which category it goes to. Add them all up at the end of the month. This form may make a great first step in creating a budget if you do not already have one.
Accounts and Passwords Log
Do you pay all your bills online? Use this log to keep track of your login and password for each company. 
single company payment log



Do you want to track a little more information for your online bill payments? Use this form to keep track of detailed account information. Use one sheet for each bill or company.

monthly receipt tracker
Use this receipt tracker to tally where and how much money you are spending throughout the month. Figure where you need to make adjustments or know that you are right on track.
household budget


Are you still trying to work out your household budget? Do you have an atypical living arrangement? (like mine) Use this to work out how all the bills will get paid. This would also be great for a roommate/housemate situation!
cash ledger option 1

cash ledger option 2



Are you on a cash budget? Use our cash ledgers to track how much money you start with and how much you spend during each trip. Each category has its own envelope and ledger. The envelopes are made from scrapbook paper and laminated and labeled with your categories. 






Weekly bill log

I made this one for my sister, they pay their bills weekly. It works for payments by mail and online.

We have budget forms to fit into any new or existing budget! Check out our etsy shop to place your order. Don't forget that we are offering our daily agenda free with any etsy shop purchase in the month of April.
Share any budget tips you have with us!