oh brother, where art thou?

Over a month and no new blog post? Disgust-oid. How did I let this happen? This is how I let it happen. This.

This has been my homepage for the past month. This is the reason why all posting exploits have ceased. However, after much jumping through flaming hoops and placing of heads inside large lions' mouths, we are back online, folks! Turns out my wireless card decided it would rather not live a long and healthy life. But with a new wireless card in tow, we're full steam ahead!

On the upside, it turns out that having absolutely no internet access on my computer makes me an exceedingly productive person! Go figure! Project checklist completion at its finest. Here's a sneak peek at what I've been up to for the past month:

An update to the brass plates on our campaign hutch:

A more neutral color scheme in the den thanks to new shams and new artwork:

{hashtag deuce photobomb}

And a complete re-design of the master bedroom! We're talking new paint color, new headboard, new linens, the works! As we're still in the middle of this projecto, here's a small photog to tickle your intrigue.

As for the teaching world, I've actually begun developing my first set of curriculum units! From farms and shapes to matching and threading, I am so excited to share these preschool units with you!

So stay tuned, patriots, you'll be getting full deets on the projects mentioned above and plenty of preschool updates over the next few weeks!

Happy Sunday Funday to you and yours!

#august2august.

If you've been following me for any time at all, you know I am a bit of a calendar freak. I posted here, here, and here about my curriculum calendar for school, and here about my personal planner and calendar. It would be a bit of an understatement to say that I "like" to have things planned out - it's more like "obsessively". The upside of this disorder is that I rarely double-book or run tardy for the party; the downside is....is there one? Who wants to be the chick that's always late or always cancelling and re-scheduling? Not me, amiga.

Wanting everyone to join the planning party, I decided to create an August-to-August calendar and planner for the 2013-2014 school year! Even with my snobbishly persnickety taste in calendars, I think this one turned out pretty fabulous. Your August-to-August calendar and planner comes with a super chiq front and back cover:

...and yearly overviews of 2013 and 2014.

Each month (August 2013 through August 2014) has its own "monthly overview page" complete with a monthly "to-do" list, "notes" section, and previews of the months before and after the current month.

Behind each month's overview page, there is a weekly agenda spread out over two pages so that you have plenty of room to note all meetings, appointments, birthdays, parties, and even plan your evening's dinner!

Each of these weekly agendas are headed by a fabulously color-blocked month title:

Finally, there are several pages for various notes and lists you might be making throughout the day and week! You are free to print as many or as few of these pages as you would like to fit your specific planning needs!

So what does this butte look like all put together? I chose to go the Martha route and grabbed up some goodies from Staples for my calendar:

As you can tell, I grabbed a one-inch binder, tear drop stickers, a clear pouch, and a pack of bundling bands! Oh, Martha, the things you come up with! I chose to print my calendar pages on cardstock for extra durability and front/back so that it would have a nice layout. Once put together, my calendar looked positively peachy!

My pens, stickers, and a notepad went in the pouch while the binding bands and extra binder clips went in the binder's pocket. I also chose to make dividers for each month using these self-adhesive tabs from Office Depot:

Obvi, my planner opens with the cute cover page:

...and then continues with month views and weekly agendas throughout the school year!

The back of my binder has several copies of the lined note pages for me to begin filling out come August.

So, what do you think? Ready to get planning and be Punctual Polly? Yes, I thought so. Head on over to my TPT shop to grab your own copy of the August-to-August calendar! I promise you (and your friends and family) won't regret it! Go on, now. Get shopping!

oh, calendar, my calendar.

Ok, y'all. I tried. I really did. I tried to be all hip and with it and now, but I'm just not cut out for the paperless life. Tree huggers around the world are probably organizing a riot as we speak. Bring it.

Here's the deal: I have always been a devout member of the paper calendar cult. Like color-coded, thrice highlighted, quadruple checked, DayMinder calendar cult. Ya, that one. But then the iPhone came into my world and Mr. Spouse was all about the "iCal". "Do it!" he said. "It will change your life," he said. "We can sync up our calendars and then we'll never double-book," he said.

So I did it. I totally drank the kool-aid. I went digi-cal.

I gave it a good, solid year. A year of greyscale rather than rainbow. A year of only seeing one day at a time without giving my index finger the workout of a lifetime. A year of holding my breath every time I synced my phone hoping that everything wouldn't just apparate ("disappear" for the non-magical population). Did it change my life? No. Did Mr. Spouse and I sync our calendars and avoid embarrassing double-bookings? No. Did Mr. Spouse and I live in blissful oblivion in a perfectly synced, harmonious life? Yes...but not because of our calendars. So here we are, another year wrapping up, and I ABHOR my digi-cal. The language is strong, yes, but my feelings are stronger.

Whilst lamenting my lost digi-year, I saw these.

Oh, holy night. Printable calendar labels. If you haven't ever heard of kaylaaimee.com, go there now. Like ASAP now. That girl-genius created these labels for a magnetic calendar she purchased to keep her family organized, but you would think that woman created them specifically for this girl. It was like the DayMinder gods were kumbayaing me back into their waiting, open arms.

Not wanting these perfectly pristine labels to go on just any agenda, I decided to create my own printable calendar, and then to share it with you guys. Merry Christmas to all!

The calendar starts off with a merrily bright, customizable cover:

I customized mine to have my first name in bold print and then my last name (blurred out) layered over it in gold:

It has month views:

And week views:

You can also print off as many to-do lists, note pages, and blog post topic pages as you'd like!

Add in the God-sent labels from kayleeaimee.com, and you might as well be a popsicle on the 4th of July. Melt.

I clipped my extra labels to my front cover for future events!

I also added these clear, adhesive tabs from Office Depot to make it easy to flip to each month and my note section in the calendar:

Wrap it all up with a cherry on top and a matching back cover:

I have posted my calendar here on Teachers Pay Teachers! Let me walk you through step-by-step on how to create your own calendar.

1. Download the calendar here on Teachers Pay Teachers.
2. Print the calendar pages you would like front/back on a color printer. I used paper that is just a shade thinner than card stock that I found at Office Depot. It's a bit thicker than regular paper, but doesn't allow the colors to bleed through and gives you more durability.
3. Download the calendar's cover {for free!} here on Teachers Pay Teachers.
4. Using PowerPoint, click inside the navy blue box and format your name, your monogram, your school's name, anything you want in the box to make a unique cover just for y-o-u!
5. Print the cover on a color printer on card stock.
6. For extra durability, laminate your front and back covers.
7. The planner is intended to be a 7"x9" document so that it can fit inside your purse, bag, etc. without being too bulky. If you'd like, you can trim the pages on your own. If you're a perfectionist like me, FedEx Kinko's will cut your calendar for $1.50 per cut.
8. Take your calendar to FedEx Kinko's or an office supply store and have them bind your calendar together.
9. Enjoy!!!

Ah, blissful calendar oblivion. Adios, digi-cal. Happy planning, y'all!

marvelous may books.

Please tell me I am not the last one to the party. PLEASE. Raise your hand if you've ever heard of May Books. I hope that literally all of you are raising your hands, but if you're not, this is a May Book.

A customizable, monogrammable, hand-sewnable book of loveliness. For about twenty dollar bills, you get to choose a cover print (and they have no fewer than a gobzillion choices):

Then you select your monogram shape and color palette:

Finally, you choose what kind of pages you want in your book:

Now you might notice that they have quite the plethora of choices when it comes to inside pages. As I'm trying to go strictly digital with mis calendarios, my heart gave a little pitter patter when it saw the "Meal Planner" option.

Once upon a time, I told y'all about how I love to plan out Mr. Spouse's and my meals each week. I created our own little list to help me stay organized when planning and shopping:

But that little list was tragically rookie compared to the May Book version:

Be still, little heart, be still.  As you can see, the Meal Planner pages allow you to list the main and side dishes you plan to serve each night as well as select if you plan to cook it, pick it up, or go out. All of this loveliness is perfectly sewn together in a bundle no bigger than your wallet allowing you to refer back to previous weeks to see what you've already cooked. Genius.

Not wanting to wait a single moment, I was thrilled beyond measure to plan out our week of meals:

I also added a label on the inside cover listing healthy take-out options between Mr. Spouse and my's places of employment and home in case we get in a pickle one evening and need a good plan B option.

To say that I merrily retrieved it from my bag as I skipped into the grocery store today would be an understatement. I consider it pure joy, my friends, to plan a week full of healthy meals for me and the Mr. in my new May Book.

Scurry along now. Off to the May Books website you go!

love is in the air.

Summer is just around the corner (648 hours away, to be exact), and warmer weather makes for warmer hearts with the result that our warmer weekends will be spent doing this:

Raise your hand if you love yourself some weddings! The food, the flowers, the friends, the frolicking - I mean talk about a joyful noise. (I hope you all noticed that "food" trumped all there.)

Not wanting any friend to go un-celebrated, Mr. Spouse and I enjoy us some marital bliss as we head to the stores, print out the 48 page registry, and strive to find the softest monogrammed towels on the block. However, as we started counting down the seconds until we get to celebrate the next two lovebirds in a week, we found a little hitch in our giddy-up. I couldn't remember if I had felt extremely efficient, and purchased a gift for the bride and groom during our last registry-rampage or not! Talk about celebration fail. Luckily, a quick text to the gracious groom allowed us to get our records straight and back in celebration mode.

Rather than suffer the shame of being a terrible friend, I decided I needed a checklist (cue jaw drop). Now, I can record all of the love muffins' wedding, registry, and gift info on one document to make sure that everyone is taken care of! My "Organizational Freak" award has been reinstated.

If you, too, want to spread the love while maintaining your organizational prowess, click here to get your own copy of my "here comes the bride" checklist!

• No brides or grooms will go un-celebrated during their wedding frenzy.
• The checklist keeps Mr. Spouse and I on the same page so we both know who has received a gift and who still needs some lovin'.
• I can keep my checklist on my clipboard so that if I'm out and about, I know exactly who still needs a token of love!

How do y'all manage the summer of love?