Helping you get organized- one week at a time!

The kids are back in school and all of their sports and activities are in full swing.  Add in parties and play-dates and soon the calendar is filled up for the week!  Sound familiar? 

My hubby and I were constantly asking each other about our schedule and trying to flip things around so that we could fit more into our days.  On top of that, we have been trying to take a good hard look at our finances to see how we could better spend our hard earned dollars.  It became a constant conversation with neither of us doing much about it – just saying we needed to talk about it.  We aren’t the only ones that do this right?

Well enough is enough – we decided we needed to get real about it.  Now every Sunday, we sit down together to talk about what is going on for the week, and talk about what expenses we expect to have. 

One of our biggest expenses every month is food.  Yes, I coupon – but I’m not extreme about it and we try to eat more whole foods vs. things that come in a box.  That makes it a little harder to get good deals.  Oh, and I’m super lazy about cutting, sorting and filing all of those coupons anyway! So having our meals planned out each week is one of the best ways I can save.  If I know that we are going to be running 3 nights that week, I can plan simple meals ahead of time.  I waste a lot less food this way.

So what exactly is my point here? Do I think that you should have a weekly meeting with your family?  Um.. only if it works for you, lol!

But since hubby and I were working so hard to communicate all of this each week, I needed to come up with a good way to keep us accountable for it.  I decided that I needed to keep our meal plan and our weekly schedule all in one place.  So I whipped up a little something in Photoshop to keep track of it.  I have a section for activities, meal plan, notes (I usually add our expected expenses here – think B-days, etc) a to do list and little section to remind me to be healthy (yes, I do need daily reminders, lol).

I wanted to make it pretty and I wanted to make it reusable.  So I grabbed an adorable little kit from Erica Zane called Bluebird.  I had it printed as an 11x14 and framed it.  Now I just use a dry erase marker on the glass and I can quickly change it each week. 

Take a look – isn’t it pretty?



Um.. OK, I totally cheated this pic, lol.  My photo skills were non existent the day I took this shot.  It cam out SUPER dark. So I fiddled with it in PS and typed in my meals and stuff.  Don’t hate me ok?  I promise I’ll make it up to you!

I turned my weekly planner into a template for you! 

I made 3 sizes… 11x14, 8.5x11 and 8x10

And lots of formats… layered psd and tiff files (for you Photoshop users to pretty up), and jpg printables (with white backgrounds – no blue or yellow areas) for anyone that wants a plain version or to be able to decorate it with paper scrapbooking supplies.  There are also individual png files included as well. 

Just click on the pic to get the download…  it’s free!

Please don’t share the downloaded files – send your friends here to my blog to let them grab it on their own!

Hope this helps you to stay a little bit more organized this week! 

Enjoy!

{CU} Freebie and Mega Grab Bag Collab Reveal!

I’ve put together a little {CU} freebie for you today – but first I wanted to remind you that there are only a few days left to purchase the Mega Grab Bag Collab!   Kim B I and packed this bag FULL of gorgeous, full sized, quality checked CU products and are selling it a crazy low price!

I know so many of you really want to see WHAT is in a GB before you purchase it – ya know what?  I’m that way too!  So while the preview gives you a little idea of what to expect, I thought I’d show you that whole sha-bang before you put your money where your mouse is!

 

Ready? 

 

 

 

Can you believe all the goodness we packed in?  I’ll bet you can think of at least a dozen creative ways you can use these in your next kit, right? 

Everything is quality checked so that you can be 100% confident in your purchase!

And now before I forget about this fun little freebie I made for you…   here is a little vintage frame, a paper pretty and a cardstock texture!

This is the first time I’m using Dropbox for my freebies. Please let me know if you have any issues with downloading it!

Enjoy your freebie and please let me know if there are any requests for things you are looking for!

The Mega Collab Grab Bag with Kim B!

Hello!!

It's been a bit since I've sent out a newsletter! Grab a cuppa and let's check out what's new!

Guesting at SHC has been so much fun! This week I had a chance to work with an amazingly talented designer and my friend Kim Broedelet (aka Kim B). She's also a fellow SM designer and we both happen to be at SHC this month.

We put together this HUGE (and I mean HUGE) Mega Collab Grab Bag!




Filled with 8 brand new Quality checked products.

Contains.
8 Full sized products in
PNG,Layered PSD, TIFF and JPG.

All @ 300ppi

It's packed with 8 CU products and it's just $7 (for a limited time only...). A HUGE bargain at less than $1 per product. You can buy it here, exclusively at Sugar Hill Co!

I've been seeing tons of button projects on Pinterest lately (see my pin obsessions... ) and dug through my button jars to find some pretty vintage buttons that would be an amazing addition to those beautiful kits you are creating! (btw - they are 20% off till Sunday...) They are available exclusively at SHC! Grab them here...



And last week, I was completely lazy (did I just admit that? ;P ) and forgot to send out my newsletter telling you about some new Krafty Papers I put in my SHC guest shop. So I'm adding them to this weeks 20% off new release sale too.

Don't you just love kraft paper? The texture just makes me swoon! And you know you don't have to keep them as "kraft style" brown papers - they look great in other colors or layered as the texture for your cardstocks or patterns too! Get 'em here...



Speaking of new releases being 20% off at SHC this weekend.... I loaded up some of my other favorite products and they are on sale too. Like ribbons and an action . You can check them all out here...