Thursday 28 August 2014

DIY Washi Stand

I made it a mission of mine to come up with my ideal washi tape display/storage stand. I wanted something fun, practical and that didn't take up too much room. I wanted to be able to display my pretty washi on my desk or be able to mount it on the wall... And guess what? With the help of my awesome carpenter hubby, Dave, I DID IT!!
I designed what I wanted and Dave and I created an awesome stand to use and display my washi collection.

I have made a video (HERE) showing a basic outline of what I did as well as the finished product in all its glory. But as it was all very detailed (and I had 2 kiddos under 2 to deal with), I left it to here (my blog) to show off the nitty gritty measurements and procedure.

HERE is the document that outlines step by step what materials were used, measurements and method.

I hope you enjoyed this project. It's something a little different for me and we had a BLAST creating it. Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more DIY projects from me in the future.

I hope this has inspired you to create your own washi stand or DIY project :-)

Speak to you soon!

Jen

Thursday 14 August 2014

Personal Inserts 2014

Wow, what a crazy few days!
I would just like to publicly thank everyone for all your comments and kind words regarding my inserts. I have drawn inspiration from DIYFish, Philofaxy and Life Is Crafted. Each are fantastic in their own right, but not 100% right for me, so I created my own. I am NOT a professional on the computer by any means but am really happy with the system I have come up with.
I love my A5 setup but I have a new baby on its way to me - a medium GILLIO MIA CARA! (excitement plus!) so I needed to make the personal inserts to fit 'her'.

This is the result...



My dailies are very similar to the A5, just a shrunk down version. I still have my 8am-8pm time slot with the time gaps in between each hour, as well as my To-Dos HOME and OUT sections, Notes and Washing check boxes. There is also a section to write the date, day and month.



The generic version I will have online looks like this:


The only difference between mine and the generic styles is that mine has my washing schedule on it and the generic is blank for you to fill in what you wish.



The Menu/Weekly is a little different as the 'Ingredients' section is missing in the personal size as I found there wasn't enough room for it here. (If you'd like to see my menu planning video click HERE). There is also a weekly section at a glance like the A5 version for writing a quick 'what's on' for during the week. The other side contains notes. I have also added grid boxes to use how you wish. The second picture below show how it looks printed from A4 paper



Flip the Weekly/Menu portion over and you will find the Weekly To-Dos/Tracker list. I love this section. It's everything you need to find at a glance. No flipping here, there and everywhere to find your lists.


As you can see, my page has an 'OrganisedLifestyle' tracker section. You obviously don't need that so I have simply removed that portion and added more to-dos instead.


Below you will see how the Weekly To-Do/Tracker prints on A4 paper. This side has a feint grey box outline to use as cutting lines to cut the page to size.



So, that's it in a nutshell! I LOVE my new system. Its compact and easy to use. Everything has a place while also appealing to look at.
If you would like to see the video on how I use the personal inserts , click HERE.
If you would like to see the video on the A5 inserts, click HERE

If you decide to give these inserts a try please let me know what you think of them :-)
And please remember, only use these inserts for personal use and do not sell them.

Enjoy!

GENERIC Day On One Page Personal Insert HERE

GENERIC Weekly Insert HERE

Wednesday 6 August 2014

My current setup and inserts in my A5 - August 2014

Hi guys!

This blog has been a while in the making...

I love my planner. I love being organised. I love decorating and I love pretty things. But recently I have spent so much time decorating, planning and organising that I ran out of time to actually DO any of the things IN my planner!! :-(

I have used Life is Crafted inserts and enjoyed them but I missed seeing my week at a glance in the one planner.
I loved my DIYfish inserts. I felt I had the best of both worlds. Detailed daily pages while still being able to see my weeklies. There was even a section for monthly/weekly To Dos and a place to put my menu planning system (see menu planning video HERE). I soon discovered I never used the monthly/weekly To Dos as I hated flipping back and forth (If it's not in my immediate view, I forget about it). And I was also using the DO2P which I LOVED at first. It looked so pretty decorated and inspired me to use my planner. I even journalled in there too! But all this took up so much time. I found that as I was time poor, I spent all my time planning and decorating and I ran out of time doing the tasks the planner demanded of me!


So I tried not decorating for a while to see if I could utilise my time this way. COMPLETE FAIL! It's funny but I didn't even look at my planner on those days as it wasn't pretty enough to write in!! (hang my head in shame) ;-) I can't explain it but if my pages weren't visually appealing at all then I wasn't motivated enough to write in it.


I also tried the free philofaxy DO1P inserts. They worked great and were the perfect amount of writing space. But that too was lacking 'something'...

So, I decided to go back to my old planner pages I created earlier but tweaked them with things I liked from other inserts I tried, tips I got from others or ideas I discovered for myself. And I am LOVING them!!

Day On 1 Page 


Here is my weekly DO1P (undated). I love the pop of colour it gives without having to add washi everywhere. I love the 8am-6pm schedule, the 'all day' section up the top and the ability to edit the time where appropriate.
I love my dinner section. This is a time saver. I was always cutting washi arrows to achieve the same decorative effect.
I always break my To Dos up into HOME and OUT categories as I find it much more organised and it helps me to plan out my day.

My favourite part is the washing section (not in the generic version).


I do mounds of washing as I have 2 kids under 2 both in cloth nappies, as well as kids clothes, adults and towels and sheets washing. This washing check list really helps me. The triangles get shaded in for what washing needs to get done that day. The square boxes are for ticking off when it's completed (and you all know I love a good check box!)

Week View / Menu Planning


I really love this section as it is such an asset to my planning system. I loved DIYfish's concept of flipping out the weekly section so you can view it all easily. I took this idea further by adding my menu planning also, so it's right there at my fingertips. No more flipping around. It's all there in front of me. It reminds me of what we are having for tea, what I need to de-frost, buy etc.
I also love the colour system. I'm a visual person so I need to see things in colour to make it stick in my brain.

Weekly To Dos / Tracker



This is an easy to access weekly check list of To Dos and Tracking. I LOVE this section as it has really helped me plan out my week and track things that are important to me. It also helps me to track my OrganisedLifestyle YT and Blog as it is right there and easy to read (again, very visual). The generic weekly inserts do not include the YT/blog tracker.

This whole system is really working for me as I no longer feel distracted by continual planning or decorating. I still enjoy decorating my pages but now I only add accents here and there which takes only minutes.

Now, I am by no means an expert on designing inserts but since they are working so well for me I'd love to share them with you.
These are FREE undated PDF templates for A5 (you need to print 2 to a page) The links are below. Please use and enjoy them and leave me some feedback on what you think.

* For personal use only. Do not sell these inserts.

Have a great week!

Jen :-)

PS. A YouTube video on how I use these inserts will be up soon!


Day On 1 Page inserts HERE - (Print: 2 per page to make A5 size)

Weekly To Dos/Tracker inserts HERE - (Print: 2 per page layout 2-1 (blank on left, insert on right)
* (NEW) WEEKLY TO DOS/TRACKER GRID VERSION HERE

Weekly View/Menu inserts HERE - (Print: 2 per page layoit 1-2 (insert on left. blank on right)
* (NEW) WEEKLY TO DOS/TRACKER GRID VERSION HERE