Planners & Planning

DIY Paper Clips: Valentine Your Planner

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I won’t say that I can’t believe we are at the end of January and it’s almost February.

While time continues to move quickly I am really excited for Valentine’s Day. Not so much the day itself but I love pink and I love hearts so it’s so much fun to decorate and craft this month.

Today I am sharing some really simple paper clips you can make to decorate your planner, journal or Bible.

These are simple to make, use up scraps and would be a fun project to do with kids or to make as teacher or gifts for Galentines Day so let’s get started!

Supplies:  Cardstock (scraps are fine you just need it big enough to make your heart shape). Then you will want some scraps of fabric or paper, a glue stick-something strong and permanent. I would have used Tacky Glue if I had some. Then some embroidery floss, a needle and thread and lastly some fleece or felt and a marker and some stuffing.

Let’s get started!

I began by cutting a simple heart shape from my cardstock. When I was happy with it I made a second one by tracing the first. Then I started adding strips of my scrap fabric. You can use one whole piece of fabric, an image-whatever you like! I decorated both sides then I sewed around one with regular thread adding my paper clip and sewing it into place, and another I used embroidery floss. You could hot glue everything together as well but I didn’t feel like getting hot the glue gun.

The last style I made was a cute fleece heart. I cut out the heart shape the same way, duplicated it and stiched on the features with embroidery floss. I did 3 lines for each eye with a long one in the center and shorter ones on either side. I added eyebrows and a mouth as well. Just be aware if you are using thinner fabric that your embroidery floss might show behind the fabric so you may want to do each feature, knot if off and start again rather than stretching the floss from one part of the face to the other.

I used a blanket stitch to attach the two hearts and added some toy stuffing and the paper clip. The last addition was a cute bow-my daugther’s idea-with some more fabric scraps. You could make it out of ribbon too which would adorable too.

I made a quick paper clip with a piece of scrap ribbon tied into a little flag. I love making these and adding them to my Bible and journals-it is a really quick way to add color and you can make them to coordinate to any theme. A big plus is it’s a great way to use little bits of fabric.

And that’s it! These look so sweet and I am hoping to make a few more. If you make some please tag me on social media or put a link in the description below. Happy crafting!

 

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Checking in with My 2024 Goals: Weekly Plan with Me

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In this week’s plan with me I am re-visiting the goals I set at the beginning of January to see what’s working and what is not.

I started off with 3 priorities this month. The first one was to be awake at 7am and to be doing more movement and stretching. If you have been around here a bit you may know I am a night owl and being up and active at 7am isn’t a strength of mine. Still, it’s something I would like to move towards so I decided to keep it on my list for now.

My second goal was to post more consistently-day and time of posting-here on the blog and my channels. I have done pretty well this past week and it’s something I want to keep focusing on. Although as I am writing this blog post a tad bit later than what I would call “consistent” it’s also important to understand that life happens!

The third focus was daily writing and editing. This is meant for my fiction writing and not my blog writing and I am still struggling with forging this habit. It is important to me so I am going to keep focusing on building this habit.

I like to think of these priorities as my ideal and any step I take towards them is a win for me. I may not be writing consistently but I have cleared my desk that had become a mess and made a beautiful space to write.

In the end I kept my priorities the same and then I set about doing my decorating and adding the appointments and “to-do’s” for the week. Once I did that I went through and added my content for the week and also created my new tracker. I ended up abandoning my time blocking for this week since it wasn’t working and I will see if I want to bring it back next week.

So that is my planning for the week. I would love to hear how you check in with your plans so please feel free to comment below.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

 

Plan with Me: Habit Tracking & Time Blocking

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Last week I shared a plan with me video and then found myself sick by Tuesday which meant all of my pretty plans didn’t happen.

I am trying to be very conscious this year about what it is I am trying to accomplish and making sure it aligns with the things that matter to me most. Adding something to a list every week that I am just not doing isn’t going to help me reach any goals and not giving myself grace when things happen is also not going to support me and the goals I have.

We get sick, we have bad days and plans don’t work out. What I am trying to do this year is to really connect with my plans and re-visit with them each week to make sure they are still in alignment with what I am working towards.

Handwriting my Habit Tracker and Time Blocking schedule is really helping me with that. I am able to recognize that right now, focusing on my dissertation and course work isn’t best suited for the headspace I’m in right now. I don’t want it to fall to the wayside but I also need to be realistic about where I am right now.

So I removed a few things this week like my coursework, editing my writing and daily walks. Since I haven’t been writing daily-which is my highest priority, there is no sense in focusing on editing. With the weather right now and the fact that I am just starting to feel back to my normal energy level letting daily walks go for this week made sense so I can focus on stretching instead.

I really like this way of connecting with the habits I am trying to cultivate. It’s my hope I won’t be beating myself up for not doing something and rather looking at why it wasn’t done, do I still need to do it and if there is a better way to approach it. It also keeps me from having things on my list that I think I should be doing rather than the things I am meant to be doing.

With the time blocking I am basically splitting my day into 4 parts and deciding what activities are most like going to be done during these times. This isn’t for tasks like “laundry” but rather meant for the things that really matter to me and I want to make time for. I took in to account how I feel at different times of the day. Since I am not a natural morning person (much more a “noon” person) that wouldn’t be the best time to try and practice my flute or work on my French lessons. My brain is not nearly awake enough for that.

By plotting the general time I am planning to do certain goals it feels like I am leaving more space for things to happen spontaneously throughout the day which I also love. As much as I love the idea of planning out each minute of the day I am not that person. I love leaving lots of room for the unknown or to follow a burst of inspiration here and there.

So that is what I am working on today. I hope you enjoy this little look into my planning day. If you have any questions about what I am using please feel free to comment.

 

Until next time…

–Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Plan with Me: 2024 Edition

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Hi everyone! I hope your year is off to a great start. I am really excited for all the plans I have for the blog.

I will be using my Happy Planner to make plans for not only the content I will be uploading but also when I will film, edit etc. I noticed this past year that I would often think I would have a day to film only to realize that I won’t be able to go to the studio that day. Having it all in one planner is going to help, I hope, with that.

So I am using my Classic size Dashboard layout. I created some digitals go inside that I can use for tracking content ideas but also to plan out when I am sharing certain content and when it will be filmed, edited etc.

I usually start out my planning sessions by opening my Cozi Calendar app. We have used this app for probably about 15 years. I love that it has shopping lists because so often we will say, “hey next time we are at the hardware store we need ‘x'” only to find ourselves at the hardware store going, “what did we need?” Shopping lists help because we just add to them as we realize we need something and when one of us finds ourselves at the store we can see what’s needed. So helpful!

The best part is that the calendar feature is viewable by myself and my husband. So if he’s at the doctor and needs to schedule an appointment for 6 months from now he can pull up the calendar and see if there is anything on a certain day. I really recommend this app if you don’t already have a digital calendar that you love.

So when I open the app I take all the appointments for this week and add them to our paper calendar that I keep in the kitchen. The kitchen calendar is a quick overview for all of us to see what we have going on one week.

Then I usually start decorating my Happy Planner first. I add some washi, stickers and maybe some color with markers. I don’t go overboard just enough to make me look forward to opening my planner each day.

I then start off by adding the appointments from Cozi onto planner. This helps me get a feel for how busy my week is and then I can plan around that.

This week I also went and added all the content I planned to create on the insert I created. I do plan on adding this to my shop but I wanted to play around with it for a little first to see if there were any tweaks needed. Once I did that I was able to figure out when something needed to be filmed, edited, blogged, etc. I then added those items to my “to-do” section on the planner.

I also created my habit tracker for the week and my daily routine. Instead of my routine being time related like I had it last week I changed it to group things into the different sections of my day: morning, quiet hour and evening/dinner time. This feels a lot more manageable because most of what I do doesn’t need to be done at a certain time I just want to make sure I am making space for it.

I edited my habit tracker too from last week and tweaked things a bit. I am finding that my planning this year is so much more gentle and supportive than it has been in the past. Instead of feeling like “to-do’s” or things I missed it just feels like this space that’s holding what’s most important to me and that feels much more sustainable.

So that’s this week’s planning session. You can watch the video below of the full process. How about you? Do you have a planner picked out for this year? What’s your favorite way to plan? I would love to hear!

Until next time…

Plan with Me: Personal & Business Planning

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Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you had a lovely weekend and your week is off to a great start.

I thought it would be fun to do a little plan with me session. So many of you seemed to enjoy my Happy Planner Haul so I thought it would be nice to show you how I use my planner to organize my week.

It seems only fair to say I am not a super planner in that I don’t plan out every bit of my day and keep to those plans. I like to think of my planner as a container of possibilities where I write down the things that need to get done and the things I would like to get done and try and make space for both. I think it’s why I like the boxes of my Happy Planner-they are perfect little containers of ideas and things I want to do.

I am using my Classic Dashboard Layout in the video and my new sticker sheet that I shared in the haul video. I love to start out by adding color usually with washi tape but sometimes I use highlighters or markers around the boxes too. Then I add some stickers before writing down my to-do’s. I saw Elisa at the Scrappy Wife do this and I really liked it. I have found that decorating a bit first let’s me know how I am feeling about the upcoming week and helps me to gauge my expectations. Adding the color and stickers also gets me excited for perhaps some of the less interesting activities that fall within a week.

Once I have decorated a bit I add in any appointments. My husband I use a shared calendar to keep track of all our appointments which really helps so we don’t double schedule something. Once I add in the appointments I then write down any things that need to be done on a certain day in the next row of boxes-like returning library books or something like that.

I am trying something new this week and I am adding my business to-do’s relating to the content I create and share both here on the blog and my channel to the third row of boxes. I used post-it notes to show when something would air and then worked backwards to see (based on appointments) when I needed to record, edit etc. I really like how this worked out and I am excited to see how it goes.

Then I add any to-do’s that aren’t day specific to the far left corner, add some more stickers and call it a day. How about you? What planner do you use and how to you plan out your week?

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you have any questions or comments let me know!


Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

 

Happy Planner Haul/My 2024 Planner

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I hope you all had a wonderful October and a fun and spooky Halloween if that’s your thing. Our Halloween was spent…

Today I am sharing with you all a Happy Planner Haul. I have picked out my planner for 2024 and along with it some new sticker books and a notebook that was on sale. If you would like some Happy Planner goodies you can use my affiliate link here and receive $10 off an order of $50 or more.

First let’s talk sticker books! I love to decorate my weekly spreads. It’s a calming way to set up for my week and gives me something fun and inspiring to look at when I am checking off to-do’s. I have shared in the past that I am not someone who keeps a full calendar and runs around crazy with lots of “to-do’s” but of course life has a few have-to’s that are important to keep track of. I am also trying out adding a paper business planner to my planning system. I currently use a digital planner which has worked well for content creation but as I am launching my creativity shop this holiday season I think I might want to keep track of everything on paper. I am trying things out with an extra insert in my personal planner and will see how it works out before investing in another planner just for that.

The first sticker book I purchased was “Beautiful & Brave” which is really pretty with soft colors and inspiring quotations. There are 478 stickers sized perfectly for my Classic Sized Planner.

Next up is “Bookish” a sticker book dedicated entirely to all things reading. I had to get this one and you are a follower of my Book Club updates or my Booktube Channel you may know why 🙂 I always watch the video before I purchase sticker books. Usually I am pretty happy but once or twice I have received a sticker book that wasn’t at all what I thought so watching the flip through on the product page is helpful.  Seeing this one in person hasn’t disappointed and I am excited to come up with some fun ways to use these stickers.

I also had to pull in my love for all things gardening and plants so I picked up the “Don’t Stop Growing” and the “Garden Flowers” sticker books. Perfect for adding a little color to those grey days of winter but also to decorate the spring spreads when they come.

The last sticker book is “Woodland Seasons” which coordinates with the planner I purchased. I just love woodlands and mushrooms, foxes and all things that remind me of an enchanted wood. This one is going to be used a lot I am sure especially with the remaining month of fall.

That brings me to the planner I purchased-I picked up The Woodland Seasons 12 month Classic Planner. It has a vertical layout and metal discs. I was completely unaware it had metal discs until just now when writing this post and I have never had a planner with metal discs before. They are really nice! The planner is absolutely gorgeous and I am so excited to start it. If you are woodland lover this may just be the planner for you.

Lastly I picked up a Classic Size Dotted Lined Notebook called “Mail Call.” It has 3 dividers dotted lined pages and a really sweet cover. It was on sale so I picked it up figuring I could use it for filler paper for my planner or on it’s own.

So that is everything I picked up. I have a video below showing the items in detail if you are interested. If you have any questions about anything feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer. I would love the hear about your planning system too so feel free to comment that down below as well.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante