Cheap-O Planner Portfolio

After using my iPhone as my main calendar for a few years, I've decided to go back to a paper planner with hopes to use it to be more organized and productive in general.  I didn't really want to pay loads of money for a nice one in case I didn't use it and had actually thought a lot about diy-ing one. Then I found one for $2.50 at the Family Dollar, and the cheapskate in me grabbed it up! Its pink, which is fine, but I wanted to have pockets to tuck in bills to pay, and other paperwork I want to have on-hand. So, I designed myself a little portfolio!  Prettier and more functional! 

I have a lot of scraps leftover from sewing all my diaper clutches that I sell, so I scrapped some coordinating ones together, and added an elastic and a button to keep it closed and hold everything in there.  

I actually like this planner a lot; it has a clear plastic over the front so I've stuck some post-its in there with my top five sewing to dos, and household to dos ( you can see where my priorities are... nothing is crossed off the household list, lol) and some extra post-its as well.  I plan to use one on my weekly page to do some weekly to-dos that can be easily moved to the next day.  I wanted a few pockets, so there are 2 to tuck things into and a pencil pocket.  

Well, there she is.... I'm off to spray it with some Scotch Guard and see if that keeps it cleaner than my white and blue diaper clutch... :)

Oh and by the way... if you need a great site for free, cheap and EDUCATIONAL apps for kids, check out http://www.smartappsforkids.com/ !! I love this site, and right now they have an ipad mini giveaway going on!

Recipe Organization

I have been (attempting to) follow along with the 52 Weeks of An Organized Home Challenge. I won't say I've done every challenge, but I have done most; the one I was most excited about was this one: Organize Recipes and Cookbooks. What I really like about this challenge is that every week, she send you an email with the challenge, and suggestions of different ways to complete it.  I had been planning to make up a recipe binder for all my paper recipes- I have magazine pullouts, recipe cards, cookbooks, ideas on the computer, Taste of Home magazines... so confusing when I know i have a recipe and can't remember where it is!  I'd always seen recipe binders and thought it was the best option.  But in the challenge, she included a section on digital organization and mentioned Evernote. 

I LOVE IT.  I'd heard of it before but for some reason had decided against using it (just in general, not even thinking of recipes). When she suggested it as an option, I went back and revisited. It is an amazing program and it is FREE!  


You can get an Evernote app for almost anything- I have it on my computer, Nook, and I-Pod Touch. So you can access it anywhere.  


The sidebar is where you can see your "notebooks"

As you can see, I'm not only using it for recipes, and haven't even begun to really use it as I hope to.  But you can see above that you can create sub-groups of notebooks, such as my "RECIPES" group above. Below I have all my categories.  And within each notebook, it looks like this.

On the far left, is the sidebar I have already shown you. The next row is all the Notes within the chosen Notebook. You can see I have chosen the "Main" notebook to show you.  So the second row has all the recipes I have collected so far within the Main category.  As you choose it, it shows up in the view box.  You can edit, add tags, comments etc.  This recipe was taken from the web using the Evernote clipper, which is amazing!  You can snip out any part of a webpage you want and put it in evernote! The program automatically records the URL in case you need to easily find it again.  This all is made even easier by the Evernote Clearly tool, which gives you a screen with just the article, no buttons, ads, etc. This makes for non-distracted reading, but also is a super easy way to clip just what you want from the page. The purple lettering above is  my note after making this for dinner!


Now to menu plan, I've begun to use the "recipes to try" notebook.  There are several super easy ways to change the notebook of an item; you can grab the item from the second row, where the notes are listed, and pull it to the notebook you want, or you can click on the upper right of the note and change it from a drop down menu. So I pull recipes I want to try into the notebook, and put them back as I'm finished.  

Recipes I have already typed out on the computer (I had been attempting to do nice recipe cards) can just be copied and pasted into a note. You can pull in pictures if you have them, add pdfs, links to other recipes and tons of other things I've not even discovered.  


I have been loving that I can pull things up on my ipod or nook (since we only have one computer, its nice to not need it for a recipe). And since our internet is spotty, it is amazing to have all these on the computer, but also backed up to Evernote's site. I don't have to worry about losing them if our computer crashes! And I've found on my ipod that if I connect to the internet and open a note, its then available there as I need it, internet or no!


Another amazing thing about Evernote is the search function. It can search within things you've typed, things you've clipped from the internet, pdfs, almost anything!  So if I have some avocados I need to use up, all I need to do is search for "avocado".

Obviously, I need some more avocado recipes, but get the picture?  I'm not even positive I need all the separate category notebooks with the search and also the tags (categories, like you can do with your pictures). But they are there for now...


According to the Evernote site and blog, people are using evernote to organize their entire lives.  Financial information, tax preparation, trip planning. Its amazing.  


My goal is to be able to get rid of all the paper recipes I have floating around.  I plan to scan in all my magazine pages (apparently there is a "scan to evernote" app for some printers that I haven't been able to set up yet that makes it so easy), copy and paste all my typed recipes, and clip ones I find on the internet.  For now, I've been using Pinterest for meal inspiration and ideas.

and moving them into Evernote as I use them, either from Pinterest, my computer, or a paper recipe.


I also created notes like this:

Here, I plan to write my favorite recipes from my cookbooks. I'm not quite ready to get rid of those yet, though the recipes from books I use less frequently may end up being scanned into evernote...


The possibilities are almost endless.I am so glad I discovered this and really excited about seeing the potential in organizing the rest of my life!  


UPDATE!!!
I remembered seeing something on the evernote blog about linking notes... I went searching (found it on the first try!) and ... AHA!  The perfect menu planning system. So ignore what I wrote above, this will save time and I won't have to put recipes "away"!

It might be hard to see... but I made myself a table with the days of the week.  See the letters on the left side?  That's the link to the recipe I'll use that day!  By right clicking on a recipe (on that middle bar with the pictures) and choosing "copy note link", you copy the URL and can then past it into your chart (control + v). I still will write them out on my notepad (I got a days of the week notepad in the dollar section at walmart that I've been using) for quick peeks at the menu when I'm not at my computer, but this way I'll have it here too! And it will be easier to find the recipes for each day. 

My Christmas Gift!!! Storage Coffee Table

My amazing husband attempted his first furniture build in order to give me exactly what I asked for this Christmas: this awesome coffee table with 10 drawers!  

We are hoping to finally have a little more order in the living room as we can designate certain drawers for certain items.  He used this plan from Ana-white.com. It did need a few tweaks- the price was way off as half our wood was given to us. The author of the plan (not Ana White by the way!) state it would be about $50-100- the drawer slides alone cost $40. He also found a problem with the drawer size, fixed with shims to help the drawers and slides fit correctly.

Unwrapping!

All those drawers!  the other side looks the same: TEN drawers in all!  

LOVE my gift and can't wait to see what's next as we add to and upgrade our furniture!

Make your own Diswasher Detergent!

I recently found this recipe for dishwasher detergent from Flitterbugs. Now usually, I find a craft or a recipe online and it gets saved and stuck in a file til I finally find it a month or so later (many I've not even touched yet!). This one stayed front and center til I quickly got the stuff to try it out!  I LOVE saving money, so I was all for this one! It is super simple too and you can find everything at your local supermarket.  I don't have a picture but really wanted to share it!

I mixed all the following ingredients in a glass jar!  You'll need some white vinegar too, as a rinse agent.

1 cup Borax (this is a teal box called Mule Team Borax in the laundry soap aisle, I think)

1 cup washing soda (laundry aisle) or baking soda (I used baking soda since I couldn't seem to find the other)

1/2 cup Kosher salt

1/2 cup citric acid (she recommended "Fresh Fruit" Produce Protector in the canning aisle, I used 15 packets of lemon kool aid, also mostly citric acid!)

This makes about 3 cups of detergent and you only need 1 TABLESPOON per load!  Put a little vinegar in your rinse compartment to help dishes from looking cloudy. 

She also suggests washing once a month with a bought detergent to keep your pipes from getting clogged- apparently Borax can do that. It is also in store bought detergents but according to her, they include an ingredient to prevent the clogging.

I've been using this for over a week now and my dishes are just as clean as before! Give it a try and save some money too!