Relieve your scrapbooking guilt

September 23rd, 2011

I see mothers all over the internet feeling guilty about how they’re always behind with their kids’ scrapbooks.

A large part of that reason is that all our expectations are too high.

If you are a scrapbooker, why do you do scrap? (is that the correct word?)

Is it to preserve a memory?

If that’s true, then relax your standards somewhat and just get the memories down.

If it’s to foster your creativity, then by all means get fancy but remember the reason you got into it in the first place.

I am not a scrapbooker by any means (I lack patience and “fiddliness”) but I do want to preserve some memories.

One of the things on my 37 things list is to do two crafty/creative projects a month.

I’ve done a couple of projects and thought I’d show you my first attempt – a pseudo-scrapbook :

For those of you who are TRULY crafty, don’t laugh – this is HUGE for me.

  • I bought a brag book.
  • I used some of the party printables for the front and back covers.
  • Printed TONS of pics from the party.
  • Arranged them in an order that made me happy.
  • Put in some of the leftover cupcake toppers and tented food tags.
  • Realised I still had space for about 6 pics.
  • Went back to the photo shop to print additional pics.
  • Rearranged a little bit more.
  • Called it a day.

Am VERY happy with the results.

I showed the people at work and (just goes to show what kind of people I work with) they were all SO enthusiastic and encouraging about my efforts that 3 of them want me to do their kids’ party.

Um, no thanks :)

If you’re stuck in scrapbooking guilt, just go get some brag book, put your pics in, journal on the opposite side of the book and call it a day.

I guarantee you’ll feel so much better.

What do you think of my little project?

 

PS would you like me to show you some more of my very low-maintenance attempts at making cute things?

 

 

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Posted in getting crafty, perfectionism, photo organising | 2 Comments »

Oops – I was checking my list

September 22nd, 2011

 

and realised that I’d never wrapped up the party planning posts properly.

First, here are all the posts

Venue

Decor

Food and cake

Party favours

Thank-you notes

 

Things that worked well

  1. The printable party theme set from Etsy (I already have 3 in my shopping cart til next year rolls round…) – I just loved having a cohesive theme
  2. Buying the cakes instead of trying to be Supermom and baking them myself
  3. Food was plentiful but not way too much, and easy since I delegated some of it
  4. Party favours were just my style – repurposed, practical and useful
  5. Having the party at home was a huge stress relief
  6. I think we invited just the right amount of kids.
  7. People seemed to enjoy the handwritten thank-you notes.
  8. Once I got the photos from the photographer, I made prints and sent each family about 3 – 4 each. This was something everyone loved – if I do it again, I’ll try and hold off on those thank-yous so I incur one set of postage :)

Things I would change

  1. I’ll never do paper, in-the-mail invites again even though those are my preferred style. Not only were they more expensive because of postage but the RSVPs took sweet forever to come in, and I must confess, I had to hound about half the people for responses.
  2. Next time I’ll pretty up the cake before photos with a ribbon or something.
  3. I don’t know if I’ll go with a professional photographer again. I do agree that the photographer needs to be someone other than us though so we can enjoy the party. The photos were stunning but my expectations were probably mismatched because I didn’t get many of my family and I thought we would. That said, we have made an additional appointment and we’re going to get some two-year-old pics in two weeks time.

 

As I was typing this, I realised I enjoy doing an analysis of what went right and wrong.

It makes me feel more mindful.

I do this at the end of every month anyway when I look at my goals for the month that’s just been and the one ahead.

 

Do you like taking stock?

 

PS Pic by my friend, Caren.

PPS This post is also going to be useful next year when I’ve forgotten what went well and what could be improved :)

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Posted in party planning, time management | 1 Comment »

Could you be too organised?

September 21st, 2011

I’ve had some exness queries about the next organising workshop.

Well, last night’s one was the last for this year.

If you’d like to get access to the handbook and recordings, you can still do so here.

Thanks, as always, for your support.

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I used to think there was no such thing as too organised.

I was wrong – I have met Over-Organised and it is not a pretty sight!

Before I get ahead of myself, let me ask you, “Why do you organise?”

Generally, people organise their lives to exness office in india save time, save money, for a feeling of peace and harmony in their homes, etc.

So if your organising is costing you these things, especially peace and harmony, then I say you’re over-organising.

Let me give you some examples:
1. If your stuff has to be just so and your husband and kids can’t leave a thing out of place otherwise the Mommy Monster comes out, then you’re over-organising.

2. If you spend hours categorising and making folders and sub-folders in your inbox, and it takes you 15 minutes to find anything because you have to remember exactly how you filed it, then you’re definitely over-organising!

Remember, the point of being organised is to save time how to register and open a exness forex account.

So avoid complicated systems that you and your family can’t use easily.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Are you over-organised? Even in just one or two areas…

What are you going to do about it?

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Posted in how to organise | 4 Comments »

A time experiment with batching

September 20th, 2011

Spring into Organising happens tonight.

There’s still a few hours to join in.

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I like doing time experiments partly because I’m passionate about time, partly because I coach on this stuff and largely because I’m a nerd.

So I tried something different last week – I decided to batch blog for the week, all on a Monday night.

I noticed something interesting.

The first hour went very well and according to my plan – 3 posts in an hour.

The next hour went a lot slower and I did 2 posts in that hour.

Clearly I hit a peak and then my productivity slowed.

I want to try it again in a week or so’s time and see if the same thing happens.

 

Pros of batch blogging

 

  1. I was working to the clock so I didn’t dilly-dally and check emails in between tasks like I normally do.
  2. All posts done in one shot so I didn’t have to think about blogging for the rest of the week.
  3. Saved me at least 30 minutes over the week, if not longer.

 

Cons of batch blogging

 

  1. I was forced to plan everything for the week, on the weekend. I do have at least 2 – 3 posts planned (in my head) at any one time but this forced me to go the extra distance.
  2. Lack of spontaneity

 

The pros definitely outweigh the cons. Hopefully I can sort out my productivity slump and come back stronger next time around :)

I happen to think that batching tasks is one of the best time management tips around. I do it regularly with cooking (on Friday night I cooked 4 meals in about an hour) and it saves me tons of time every week.

 

Do you batch blog? Do you do any tasks in batches?

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Posted in time management | 9 Comments »

Inspiring spaces #14 – MINE!

September 19th, 2011

Today’s the last day to register for the virtual Spring into Organising workshop. The handbook is done and I can’t wait to share all this information with you. We already have people registered from Australia, the US and South Africa. Are you next?

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Since I started using Pinterest, I’ve been a huge, huge fan.

Mainly because I used it to store and organise my bookmarks.

Now that that’s done, I’ve been using it like a second Google.

I have a love for washi tape (that’s a story for another post) and recently I went into Pinterest and typed “washi tape” and tens of lovely pictures popped up on my screen.

Too lovely.

Anyway, the point is I search for things I know I want to find, and sometimes I also find other things I didn’t know I wanted.

Like handmade liquid soap.

When I clicked over and read the post, I thought, “no way, it can’t be this easy” but duly put glycerine on the shopping list so I could try it this weekend.

It is EASY as pie, people.

1 cup grated soap flakes (5 minutes – and I didn’t even use a whole bar of soap)
10 cups of water (2.5 L)
1 Tablespoon glycerine

(you can add essential oils if you want to play with fragrances)

That’s it.

Combine all in a pot, heat til the soap has dissolved and let it cool completely.
It will look like it’s not going to set (mine looked like milky water for the longest time) but my best advice is to forget about it. I left it overnight and when I checked it on Sunday morning, LIQUID SOAP!

Use a funnel to pour into bottles and enjoy.

Over 2 L of liquid soap for about R7 (one bar of soap cost me R10 and I used about 70%)

I chose a neutral, non-girly fragrance so that if it worked we could use it as shower gel too.

Next up, I’m going to use baby soap and make some baby foam bath – I can’t WAIT – I’m on a soap-making high :)

Here’s my Pinterest link if you want to see what tickles my fancy.

As an aside, a few weekends ago I went to do a load of laundry and after I screamed in frustration because the nanny hadn’t put fabric softener on the list, I went to my friend Google (the real one) to look for alternate solutions.

(I really needed to do some laundry and I hate getting behind)

I found lots of links that said a quarter cup of white vinegar would do the trick.

Well, friends, I’m happy to report that we haven’t used “real” fabric softener since then but I have been through about 2 bottles of white vinegar :)

There is absolutely no vinegar smell – the clothes just come out smelling clean.

Do any of you have some tried and tested homemade recipes for cleaning solutions? Please share links and so on in the comments and let’s all save some money.

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Posted in saving money | 2 Comments »

Feature Friday – menu planning

September 16th, 2011

Feature Friday is an occasional highlight of something that works in my home/ life.

I love menu planning.

It saves me such a lot of time and helps us all to eat healthier and shop better for groceries.

Here is my favourite little magnetic menu planning board (South Africans, I got it for R30 at Mega Mica about 3 years ago and it’s not actually intended for menu planning – I think it’s for kids’ homework).

I start off by cleaning the whole thing.

I then check my freezer and see if there’s anything I want to use up or if there are freezer meals that need eating.

Add those to the board.

Then I make sure we don’t eat any one carb two nights in a row (I like to switch things every night).

I only plan for Mon – Fri and on Saturdays and Sundays we fly by the seat of our pants.

Not really, I just felt like saying that.

We usually use up any leftovers or I’ll do the quickest thing which is a pasta.

Notice our meals are on top and the babies’ meals are on the bottom of the squares.

The babies eat what we had for supper the previous night since they eat at 5 pm and I’m not even home from work then. Except when we have spicy meals like curries.

And that’s it.

Easy-peasy menu planning.

 

I don’t consult a lot of recipe books except when I’m uninspired which is fairly rare because I do love food.

I have set myself a little goal this year though; I’m to try two new meals every month. Of course, all these new things are always cooked on the weekends which is the only time I have more than 30 minutes to spend in the kitchen.

Do you menu plan?

Do you cook the same things or do you like trying new recipes?

P.S. Are you joining me for Spring into Organising?

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Posted in menu plan, Menu plan Monday, organising recipes, recipe books, time management | 5 Comments »

30 days of lists – we’re half way

September 15th, 2011

Remember 30 days of lists?

We’re halfway there.

Is anyone else doing this with me?

I thought I’d share some of what’s been happening on my journey.

  • One of the prompts really threw me since I just don’t have a context for it so I made up my own question … because I do want 30 lists at the end of Sept
  • I start being more aware of how imperfect my little book is when I see the cute and very creative books in the flickr group
  • Short is very sweet. I love that I made my book so small as I never feel overwhelmed and anxious about filling all that space
  • A daily ritual is very easy for me (I blog every night and complete my little book straight afterwards)

Here’s some inspiration for total drool-worthiness :) from my new favourite blog.

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If you’re not doing 30 days of lists, how about your goals for September?

How are you doing with those?

Me?

I’ve done 7 out of 13 for personal and 2 out of 10 on business :)

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Posted in goal-setting, goals | 2 Comments »

Two free things for you today

September 14th, 2011

1

There’s a piece written by me in the latest Gratitude Project book.

You can download your free copy and gratitude journal.

 

2

BIG news – my bestselling product has just been revamped and to celebrate and give you a look-see, there’s a free sample week of the Organise your Home system waiting for you.

I think I sell more of these than all the others put together – I’m a slacker on the stats but I know it was true for the last two years.

Download it, work through it and if you want more, you can download the whole system.

Enjoy!

Happy Wednesday :)

Posted in time management | 2 Comments »

Twitter – why I’m torn

September 13th, 2011

I like to say that I have a hate-hate relationship with Twitter.

You see, I heard it was a good thing to be on there so I created an account.

I have many weaknesses but I do take action quickly ;)

I also heard from a social media whiz that it would be a good idea to link your blog to go through to Twitter so I did that.

(Don’t ask me how; this was about 3 years ago and I haven’t messed around with the settings since then)

I also heard that it’s good for business so I keep my account open even though I’ve never seen any monetary return.

Secretly?

I hate it.

I hate the feeling that I’m talking and no-one is answering back.

A friend told me it’s because I follow tons of US people who are on different time zones to me but honestly, when I did my * Twitter experiment, I went on at 7 – 8 pm my time (lunch time in the US) and still felt like I was talking into cyberspace and no-one was listening.

*My twitter experiment was conducted twice – I’d go on live and chit-chat for 15 – 20 minutes a day for a whole month.

I’m not on there daily but occasionally when I am on Twitter “live” as opposed to a feed from my blog, I still don’t get the lovely fuzzies all the Twitterolics seem to get.

I go through phases where I think, “I’m going to delete my account” and then I read something from someone I respect saying you have to be on Twitter if your people are there, so I hold off.

And really, I know I don’t want to be tweeting or facebooking the whole day – I LOVE the clear boundaries I have with technology and I think I’m a more engaged and connected person because I unplug so often.

Does that make any sense?

I also believe in this thing called purposeful time management.

But one way or the other I want to get to the bottom of this Twitter thing.

Do you love Twitter?
Do you hate it?
Are you indifferent?

Just for fun, what am I doing wrong?

 

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Posted in time management | 9 Comments »

Inspiring spaces #13 – decluttering clothes

September 12th, 2011

Two quick reminders for you:

  1. Have you registered for Spring into Organising yet?
  2. My talk next week Monday at the church is on the 3 Ps of time management – perfectionism, procrastination and people-pleasing.

What are your questions about the 3 Ps? Share in the comments so I can address them.

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This week’s inspiring space is from our favourite organising junkie, Laura.

Laura recently posted how she got ruthless and got rid of three HUGE bags of clothes.

 Pic from Laura’s post

I am inspired because:

  • she’s already organised so this took some doing and
  • I love how she did the first round and decluttered one bag … and then went at it again and decluttered another two bags.

 

Now that’s inspiration.

 

I’m quite good about decluttering my clothes but there are still one or two pants and skirt suits I’m hanging onto once I lose my last 3 kgs :)

How easy is it for you to declutter your clothes?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in decluttering, Girl stuff - handbags shoes clothes | 7 Comments »

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