3.19.12

Sharing the love….

I’ve been loving my Erin Condren life planner so much that I went on the hunt for another giveaway and……

I found one!

Go to http://www.inthiswonderfullife.com/2012/03/erin-condren-giveaway.html to have a chance to win a $25 gift card. Even though I just got my 2012 planner, if I win I’m putting it towards a 2013 planner. I'm hooked!

Good luck!

Obsessions can be life changing…..

It’s been about a week and half since my new bestie arrived. Of course, I mean my Erin Condren life planner. I’ve used her every day and it’s been such a pleasure! I even feel much more productive now and efficient with my time and I get so much more done now! I went grocery shopping for the 1^st time with a menu plan and I can’t express how nice it felt to shop with a purpose and not wonder down the aisles hoping for inspiration. My husband and I used to have the same "fight" everyday….”what’s for dinner? I don’t know….what do ya feel like?” every day. Not this week! And every Saturday morning we'll sit as a family and come up with a dinner menu for the week. It’s another nice way for us to get together and clown around. Also since she’s arrived, I use her to jot down blog ideas and I’ve even gained my 1^st follower! Thanx Jonnique!

I use my planner to keep track of everything, from our dinners to when it’s trash day. My hubby even teases me “do you need to check with your girl?” Still silly, gotta love him! I’ve even added a few things to her if you could believe it. Directly on the back of the on*the*go page (it’s a nice and thick page) I put 4 different color sticky tabs to mark my notes and my current week, some lined sticky paper for my quick lists, and a symbol key for my tasks so I remember what I’m “talking” about when I annotate my many lists. I got the personalized notepads, but I’m not wasting those for a Walmart list…..nope! J On the folder I put 2 big paper clips to hold the papers in the folder. I use the circle clips Erin included to hold my labels and cards together. I don’t like the way they bend my planner pages. I also used a pretty green binder clip to hold my notepad in place. I opened up my planner one time and the notepad went flying across the room….no more of that! I also put a couple of bright sticky pads in the plastic pouch for quick notes to leave for my kids or my hubby. They love the new me!

TAB FIX!

I also borrowed a tab fix from another blogger and used Avery 1.5” self-adhesive tabs. Tear them all the way open and they fit perfectly over the month tabs. Just peel off the adhesive strips and stick it to the page. They fit like a charm and you can hardly tell they are there. The adhesive part does cover about half a calendar day, but that’s an easy sacrifice when I’m saving my tabs. That was one of the reasons why I got the planner in the first place! I thought about using packing tape, but I wanted a more permanent solution and the Avery tabs do the trick. A little birdy told me that the 2013 life planners will come with laminated tabs…..yay! I can’t wait to see what other features will be included and I’ll be one of the first in line when she releases them in June.

Here's what it looks like......

my green, blue, yellow, and red tabs, lined sticky pad & symbol key

 I color code all my entries…..

 See how nice the tab fix is? Can hardly tell its there!

One of my paperclips holding in my weekly grocery list in the folder…

Pretty green binder clip holding in my pretty notepad…..

I use the circle pins for the cards and labels and those are the sticky notes I leave for my kids or my hubby….

So that’s how I’ve used my Erin Condren Life Planner. It’s been an investment that is becoming a staple in my life, for my life. Has your new planner helped you make positive changes in your life too? I’d love to hear about it!

Newest Obsession Realized!

Newest obsession is now a reality!

She’s here! My Erin Condren Life Planner finally arrived this afternoon! I didn’t even hear the fedex guy either. My and the kids where walking out the door for me to drop them off at the movies and there she was sitting on the porch waiting for me to claim her! I grabbed the box and ran my errands after I dropped the kids off. I couldn’t wait to get home! At every stop light and stop sign on the way I would look over at the box and think “I bet it’s as pretty as I hope it’ll be”. When I got home I was singing “look what came for me today!” I opened up the box and there was this gorgeous orange wrapping paper….well, here’s some pics so you can see for yourself.

I decided on the pool & mocha candy lace with my favorite pic of my hubby and babies. He took them to Sea World (in 2005) when we lived in San Diego and they took this and another pic I love. It was a half day for the kids and I had to work so Daddy worked it out!

I’m only showing 1 notepad here but I got 2 of them. I went to my local Walmart to get the Avery tabs for the tab-fix but they only had the color ones. Boo! I guess I’ll order them from amazon because I refuse to pay $20 bucks for tabs. Nope! Not gonna do it! Maybe the color ones won’t be so bad. The pack does include 5 clear ones as well. Anyway…..

As I was opening the box, all my gasps kept my husband looking at me all strange and finally he said “ok, lemme see this thing” and when I handed it to him, he smiled so big! Then he took out the labels and said “wowww!” and when I showed him the notepads, he dropped his voice a few octaves and said “from the desk of Monnique Arnold”. He’s so silly.

I’ve spent the last several hours putting in my important dates and phone numbers, upcoming appointments and commitments….my daughter talked me into doing a fashion show with her. Me? A fashion show? What are you talking about? Fashion show? What? Are you crazy? Fashion show?

Yeah, fashion show!

So I put that in my planner as well. It just makes me happy to look at it and now I’m so motivated to get completely organized, I’m organizing a mission to get organized! I stumbled upon an awesome blog a bowl full of lemons, and let me tell you, this woman is an organizing genius! Check her out. Part of my commitment to myself to be less stressed is to get more organized and i think she can help. Her name is Toni and her blog is amazing!

So that’s my schpeel on my new planner. New I get to use all my pretty new pens! Newest obsession realized!

Happy planning!

Yay!!!

Yay!!! She finally shipped!!!

My Life Planner is on her way home!!! I’ve been stalking checking Erin’s website all day periodically (ahem) and I raised my arms like my Chargers scored a touchdown and hollered “yes!” when I saw my order status changed from ‘printed’ to ‘shipped’ with a fedex tracking number! (hehehe)

Now….

The next hardest part…..waiting patiently for the next 3 days to see that fedex truck pull up in front of my house. I hope I don’t tackle the poor guy! I hope the drivers make it all the way here (TN) from CA safely with all this crazy weather. Be careful!! You have my new bestie in there….precious cargo! J

Luv peace & hair grease!

Patience....

Patience IS a virtue!

Ugh!! It’s been exactly one week since I ordered my Erin Condren Life Planner. I’ve stalked the website every day since then and I’ve watched my order go from ‘pending’ to ‘invoice to print’ to ‘printed’ (omg!) But my order seems to be stuck on ‘printed’!

Ugh!!

I’m so anxious for my planner that I dreamt I was sitting at my dining room table drinking a steaming cup of French vanilla coffee and writing in my planner! Silly huh? I’ve always been the voice of reason in my house “Patience! Patience!” and now when it’s my turn all that ‘patience’ goes right out the window!  :-D

Ding! Dong!

Oh that’s my email alert…..wonder if it’s about my order….be right back…….

Nope! Dang! Patience right?????????

My Latest Obsession

Erin Condren Life Planners!!!

Candy Lace in Multi design

Since I was a little girl I've loved loved loved loved organizing. I always made lists and took notes and I loved anything to do with an office. I was that kid you could take to any appointment. Adults thought I was well behaved, but I was really just enthralled with all the lingo and the paper manipulation. Back in those days the closest things to computers were calculators and typewriters (typewriters....what are those :-D). Now that I'm all grown up and smack in this digital era, I am still obsessed with organizing. I love planners and I own many of them from basic to really expensive, and I have both paper and electronic planners. As much as I try to go digital I still find myself going back to paper. I can't get the gratification of physically checking a box or crossing an item off a list on something electronic. It just doesn't work. So I've been on the hunt for a new planner and stumbled across these Erin Condren Life Planners. I've watched lots of videos and read countless reviews and have decided......(drum roll) I MUST HAVE ONE!!! I've spent I don't know how long on her website and created my perfect planner. I haven't ordered because right now, I just can't swing $50 bucks on a planner when it could go towards something bigger. So.....I stumbled upon this blog called Live in my Heart and she's giving a away a 50 dollar voucher!!! Check it out here at Live in my Heart.. 

I figure if I'm gonna get one I'll probably have to win it so I entered. Good luck!!