Setting Up a Home Management Binder

A New Year always gets me excited about a fresh start and new possibilities. Although, as I am getting older, I am realizing you can start again every day or even multiple times per day if need be. You don't have to wait for the "new year".

One of the things I have been using for years is a Home Management Binder. You have probably seen these before. Basically it is a place to dump your brain to keep you organized. I first read about a control journal on Flylady.net. I have since adapted my own home management binder to better suit the needs of me and my family. That is the best part about this binder - it is completely customizable for what works for you!

I am going to break down how I set my binder up over several posts. Today's post I am going to share some basic supplies that will be helpful to have to set up your binder. Many of these items you may already have on hand at home.

Home Management Binder

Supplies Needed:

• 3 ring binder (preferably 1 1/2 - 2 inch)
• Divider tabs
• Plastic page protectors
• Wet or dry erase markers

The first step to creating a household management binder is to think about what you will need to put in it. This will be customized to your family's needs. I have compiled a list of categories you may want to consider to get you thinking about what you will want to include. The best part, is since this is a three ring binder you can change it around as you figure out what works for you or as your family changes.

Some categories you may want to include in your home management binder (The ones I use are in bold):

Calendar/Planning/Schedules
Household
Finance
Children
Pets
Family
Healthcare/Medical
Contacts
Project/To Do lists
Automobile
Menu/Meal Planning
School information
Coupons
Events/Entertaining

You can include as many or as few categories as you think you need. And again, since we are using a three ring binder, you can easily change the categories. I have tweaked my binder over the years. I used to try to include a section for my blog, but I never used it. I have a different system for my blog now. Also, I don't include any financial information in my binder. I have a completely separate bill paying system. 

I would start by including all the categories you think you 'might' use in the binder. Live with it for a few weeks and see if it is working for you.

I prefer to use a binder tabs that include folders. This way, if I don't have time to hole punch everything right away, I can place it in the folder for later. Also, if you are going to use page protectors in your binder, be sure to double check that your tabs will stick out beyond your page protectors. 

During this series I will be including some free printables for you to use with your binder. You can use these or create your own. Today's downloads include a cover page and a side spine for your binder. I like purchasing a binder with the plastic sleeve on the outside that I can insert paper with. I am much more likely to use something if it is pretty!

Home Management Binder Cover

Home Management Binder Spine

Download Home Management Binder Printables:

• Home Management Binder Cover Page (one says 'Home Management Binder' and the other is blank)
• Home Management Binder Spine (print on regular printer paper and cut to fit in your binder spine)

These downloads are for personal use only. Please feel free to share, but link back to the original post.

Do you use a home management binder? Do you have any categories in your binder that I didn't include on my list?

     
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to my Amazon affiliate store. 
Sharing with these great blogs: Project Inspire, Sew Many Ways, Sugar Bee Crafts, Tip Junkie, The Kurtz Corner, A Bowl Full of Lemons, That's Che Said, Clean and Scentsible, Delightful Order, The 36th Avenue, Clean and Scentsible: Organization Link Party!, Tatertots and Jello

Friday Freebie: My Memories Chapstick Purses {1/25}

My Memories has some really fun free craftables for you - little chapstick purses! These would be so fun for shower favors, or to include with a birthday party. The second one is also great for doing homemade Valentines. I have three chapstick purses for you to download and customize. The download includes the purses plus all the elements and papers used to create them. 

You will need to create a My Memories account to receive your free downloads. While you are there, you can also download a trial version of My Memories on the website! If you would like to purchase the My Memories software, see my special discount code at the end of this post. And as always, you can download these craftables for use with any photo editing software (Photoshop, etc.).

This week's kits:

Freebie Kit 1

Freebie Kit 2

Freebie Kit 3

Download your Freebie Kit 1, Freebie Kit 2 and Freebie Kit 3. Be sure to download these kits right away. They change every few weeks and after that, these particular downloads will no longer be available for free. (These are available until January 28.)

Here is what the finished purses look like (from My Memories). Aren't they cute?

Free online tutorial can be found athttp://www.mymemories.com/craftables/chapstick

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DISCOUNT:

Enter code STMMMS30543 at checkout to receive $10 off the My Memories Suite v4 Software. You will also receive a $10 coupon to use in the My Memories store. (A $20 value!) 

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Enjoy your downloads. If you create anything with your My Memories software or these free downloads, I would love to see it. Please share a link in the comments!

     
Disclosure: I am able to offer these free craftables to you as a Share the Memories affiliate. Enjoy!

Dear Olivia . . .

Dear Olivia,

Three years ago we welcomed your sweet face into this world. I was so thrilled to have a little girl. I couldn't wait for the day when we could play dress up, dolls and Barbies. Those days have finally arrived!

You are such a little girly girl! You love to dress up like a princess. It is a daily occurrence that you will put on a princess dress, fancy shoes, a tiara, bracelets, rings and your wand. Then, you will come to me and say, "Will you dance with me, Mama?" Yes. You say, "Mama." Just a few months ago you started calling me Mama instead of Mommy. It is so sweet and melts my heart every time.

Even though you are so into dress up, Barbies and dolls, you love to rough and tumble, too! You work so hard to keep up with your big brother. One of my favorite things to watch is when you two play together. You fight monsters, hunt bugs and play in the mud! You are not afraid to get dirty and you are certainly not afraid of bugs. This summer it was common for me to find bugs all over the house that you had brought in from outside - even picking up the grasshoppers with your bare hands!

You are a stubborn little girl. If you don't get your way, everyone in the whole house is going to hear about it. You are so persistent in whatever it is you want. I was like that as a little girl, too. So now I have a little insight into what my parents went through. (Sorry, by the way!)

You have such an infectious laugh. Especially when you find something funny to do out of the blue. Like the time you asked everyone at the dinner to table to "watch this" and crossed your eyes at us. One of the funniest moments we have had at the table!

You have a heart of gold. You are always willing to share with your brother and all of us anything you have. You take care of us when we are not feeling well. You are the first one to pass out hugs if someone gets hurt.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl! Mommy loves you so much.

Love,
Mom

Thank you to Kristy at Life-n-Reflection for the great Parisian storyboard and wallets I enhanced my photos with for this post! To create the first photo collage, I used the Life-n-Reflection Dreamer Storyboard. For all of the other photos I used the Parisian Photo Wallets. Aren't they beautiful?

Click the following tutorial to learn how to create a storyboard like the one above in Photoshop: Quick Page Video Tutorial

     
Disclosure: I am an affiliate for Life-n-Reflection. I receive products to try out and review. All opinions are 100% my own.

The Hip Hop Dance Experience #UbiHipHop

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this post. Please visit Ubi.com to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. #UbiChamps

I recently had the opportunity to try out The Hip Hop Dance Experience. I was really excited to try out this game. In college, at least two to three nights a week, my girl friends and I would go out dancing. Being a stay at home mom of two kids, I don't get many chances to go out dancing anymore. This seemed like such a fun way to still be able to do it (even if it is just in my living room on a Tuesday afternoon)!

This game is different from other dance games you may have seen or tried. There are 40 different songs and they are all hip hop music. Each of the dances have been designed by the best choreographers in the business. There are four different modes of play - 'dance party', 'dance battle', 'dance marathon' and 'power skooling'.

I first tried out the dance party. You choose a song and then follow along with the dancers on the screen.

The great thing is you can practice any of the moves before you actually play. There are tutorials for all the moves in the game in the 'Power Skooling Mode'. This was helpful because some of the dances were a little tricky!

My word for 2013 is 'focus'. One of the things I have been trying to focus on is myself and taking better care of myself. I am not very good about exercising. But, if I can find something fun that doesn't feel like working out, I am much more likely to stick with it. One of the options for this game is a 'Dance Marathon Mode'. Basically you dance to an endless stream of music to keep your score up. This is a great workout to get your heart rate up!

You can purchase Hip Hop Dance Experience on Amazon.com.

The only complaint I have about the game is when you are trying to scroll through the songs, it will sometimes scroll through too quickly and skip over songs. I am not sure if it is just our Wii set up or not, but it can be a little frustrating to try to choose a specific song to play.

Also, as a side note, this game is definitely not for small kids. Most of the dance games we have played we do as a family. This game is only for the grown ups! Many of the dance moves are not appropriate for small kids and some of the lyrics are explicit. The game does have a "T" rating for the above reasons.

Have you played this game? If you did, what did you think?

     
Disclosure: I received a copy of the game to review for the UbiChamps program. All opinions are 100% my own. I only choose to review or recommend products I think my users will be interested in. 

Ninjago Cake

This is the last post for my son's Ninjago party before I do a total party wrap up showing how all the details came together. I found inspiration for the cake I wanted to make at Pint Sized Baker. This cake was perfect because it wasn't huge and it already had the green Ninja colors!

I have made one other cake using fondant when I created a face for the Thomas the Train cake I made several years ago. I have always been a little intimated by fondant, but it really isn't too hard to work with. The two hardest parts were kneading the fondant and moving it once it is rolled out.

For my first attempt at a full fondant cake, I think this one turned out pretty cute! I covered the entire cake in a thin layer of buttercream. I then rolled out a layer of yellow fondant to create the 'eyes'. I cut out the shape using a sharp knife. I rolled out some black fondant to create the details of the eyes and again cut those out using a sharp knife. I applied them to the yellow piece. I rolled out tiny pieces of white for the center of the eyes.

I put the yellow piece with the eye details onto the cake towards the top. I then rolled out all of the green fondant. I eyeballed the opening for how big the eye space needed to be. I rolled up the green fondant onto my rolling pin and transferred it to the cake. The great part about this cake was it didn't have to be completely smooth. I was able to have some wrinkles around the base to look like his mask.

Have you ever used fondant before? Any tips for me?

More Ninjago party posts:

Ninjago Invitations, Ninjago Lollipops. Ninjago Favor Bags, Ninjago Water Bottle Labels, Ninjago Cupcake Liners, Ninjago Cake

     
Sharing here: The Kurtz Corner, A Bowl Full of Lemons, That's What Che Said, Sugar Bee Crafts, Project Inspire, Tip Junkie, Clean and Scentsible, The 36th Avenue, Seven Thirty Three, Delightful Order, Tatertots and Jello