Well, it's September. And we all know that means back to school. But what many people may not realize is that for teachers, September is literally our new year. January is just another month in the middle of the year; September is the real 'new year'. So with a new year comes a need for a new planner: a lesson planner!

For 5 years now, I've designed and printed my own lesson planner. It has helped me to keep track of everything going on in my classroom through the year. I honestly don't know if I could function without it anymore.

For 3 years, I've also designed and sold personalized planners for my fellow teachers at school. They love them just as much as I do! Usually, I sit down with a teacher on one day (let's say Monday) and plan out what she wants her planner pages to look like. Then I go home that night, make the changes, and print the pages. Then the next day (Tuesday) after school, I drop off the planner at Staples or Office Depot to be bound. It used to be that binding a planner would take all of 20-30 minutes; just long enough for me to peruse the latest office supplies or run next door to Michaels. But now, it takes at least a day. So I drop it off on Tuesday after school and pick it up on Wednesday after school. Which means I don't give it to my colleague till Thursday. That's 4 days of turn-around! And that's when I don't have anything else going on that interferes with the drop off and pick up. And it assumes they get the binding right the first time (which they don't always - which adds another 3-4 days on).

I was getting frustrated with this long turn-around time and increasingly incompetent workmanship at the store, so I finally broke down and purchased my own binding machine!

I took this picture immediately after un-boxing it right in my living room. I didn't even bring it down to my workroom! As soon as the box was empty, my cat climbed right in. He loves boxes.

I have had my binding machine for 3 weeks and I've already used it 6 times! I've made several planners for teachers at school (with a less-than-24-hour turn-around!) and a few for online orders.

Speaking of online orders, I have added physical planners to my Etsy shop! Now that I am in charge of the process from start to finish, I feel confident offering physical planners on a regular basis, not only by special request. So if you are in need of a planner (or know someone who is), please check out my Etsy shop. If you don't see something there that works for your needs, please contact me and we can work out the details for a personalized, printed planner just for you!

Happy New Year to all you teachers!
Happy Planning to all you plannerds!
And Happy Crafting to all!

I picked up some cute little notebooks the other day to stick in my bag when I'm out and about (without my planner!!!) this summer. They are Moleskine notebooks with a kraft cover, they come in packs of 3, and they measure 3.5 x 5.5.

They are perfect for throwing in my pocket or bag and jotting down any ideas or notes that come to mind.

But they are boring.

So of course, I started playing...

The first one I stamped on with a cute little hedgehog stamp using a rainbow of distress inks.

I liked how it turned out (because hedgehogs!), but it wasn't quite my style, so I kept going with the distress inks and came up with this one.

I added a cute saying and some washi tape and I love it!

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the third one.

Any ideas?

Happy Crafting!

I've always been kind of a plannerd (planner nerd). In high school, I used a simple student planner I got from probably Target to keep track of my assignments. In college, I got the official planner for our college (it had the college logo on the front and important campus events already listed inside) and I used that religiously for years. In fact, that's where my color-coding planner system began and where I first fell in love with post-it notes. I used the highlighting post-its color-coded for classes. The assignment would get written down and 'highlighted' on it's due date, then when I completed it, I would take off the sticky so it didn't stand out anymore.

Once I graduated, I went back to a basic planner on and off for a few years, then switched over to electronic calendars (Google, color-coded, very pretty!), but I never really found a good system to keep track of everything I had to do. I had a place for appointments, sure, but what about my to do list? Where was I supposed to put the note that some time this week I needed to call my grandma or go to a certain store? And when I got to said store, how was I supposed to know what to buy? My list was most likely at home on a sticky note on my desk. 

*sigh* This was not working.

Then last summer, I started finding Facebook groups and blogs and You Tube videos about Filofax and other planners. I was intrigued. Could I function effectively in a filo-type planner?

I had already made my own lesson planner for my preschool teaching, why not make one for my home life as well? So I started putzing. And printing. And tweaking. And reading. And the more I worked and actually used my planner, the better I got at developing a system that worked for me. And I think I've finally achieved "planner peace"!

Here's what a typical week look like in my planner before anything goes in it. It's very minimal. I put a strip of washi tape down the middle to break each week into 2 parts - appointments and to-dos. 

(I just realized I used the same washi tape for both of these weeks - one is from May, one is not till October!)

I use the outside edge for appointments - things that happen at a specific time or only on a specific day. Things like holidays, birthdays, work schedules, appointments, and events go here. The inner edge of the pages are for to-dos. I use color-coded post-it flags for my to-dos. This lets me see at a glance what kind of week I'm going to have - heavy on personal stuff, work stuff, errands, craft, etc.

I keep all my post-its on a divider in my planner and I have a fly-leaf opposite so I can stick re-occurring events there (like going to the bank - I know I'll need to do that again, just not sure when. So I keep it back here).

The nice things about the post-it flags are; 

1) When I'm done with an activity, I can just take it off and throw it away - so satisfying!

2) If I don't get something done on  Monday, I can just move it to Tuesday, or Wednesday, or whenever I have time to finish it on another day. And I don't have to keep re-writing it every day.

3) If there is a repeating event (grocery shopping every Monday or paying the phone bill every month), I can move the post-it to the next instance of that event when I'm done with it this week/month.

I also use the slightly bigger notes for lists of things I need to buy or get from a certain store or person. Or things I need to bring to school the next day. Or any small list that isn't a to-do.

So that's the calendar portion of my planner. I've been using this version of it since April and it's worked really, really well so far. I've made a few minor tweaks, but it's pretty much as you see it here. I'm going to make a video soon walking you through my calendar so those of you who like more visuals can see everything!

And if you've read this far, thanks! I know I can be quite verbose at times. As a reward, here's a free download of my planner pages:

It's for half-size paper (8.5 x 5.5), so cut your paper in half before sending it through your printer.

You can decorate it any way you want! That's the beauty of blank planner pages!

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you want to see more of my planner or if you want clarification on anything. I hope to be sharing more of my planner in the future, so stay tuned!

Happy Crafting!