If you know me, you know three things about me: I like order and organization, I like simplicity and lack of clutter (although you wouldn’t know it to see my studio today!), and I like to set goals and get the job done!
I have found, over the years, that there are times when a pre-made, purchaseable calendar or to-do tablet just doesn’t cut it ~ when the needs of a mama/business owner fall outside of what Fred Meyers or Target has to offer.
above image: my personally designed Block Calendar, with space for priorities and notes (get it here if you’d like to try it out). I chose a pretty green ribbon to secure my pencil, and attached the Block Calendar (for me it is a Content Plan) to a stiff mailer, to create a portable tool. One that is useful and keeps me on track and pre-planning. Yet it is also kind of simple and pretty.
This month, I devised a content plan in the form of an At-A-Glance Calendar (left), inspired by my friend and fellow artist Liz Ness of Liz Ness Studio ~ but then a week later turned it into the above Block Calendar, to more perfectly fit my need for organizing business content in a simple & beautiful format.
For the first time, I have secured a pencil to this form, as a way to encourage me to use pencil, vs. black drawing pen (which gets messy). (get the At-A-Glance Calendar and/or get the Block Calendar)
above image: my personally designed (and illustrated for you!) At-A-Glance Calendar, a good clean way to see what the month brings ~ or a way to clearly outline daily plans (get it here).
I have devised a multitude of calendars and forms, including a Categorized Shopping List, below (get this), and a very well-categorized Weekly Goal Sheet, left (get this, too).
above image: my personally designed well-categorized Weekly Goal Sheet. I was always having a tough time deciding what was most important to accomplish on my ever-growing to-do lists. I have been using this form for well over a year and appreciate how my eyes have learned which section to land on first ~ which section holds the highest priorities, (get the Weekly Goal Sheet here).
A few years ago I designed a Meal Wheel (which didn’t turn out to work for me at the time, but I will be checking back in with it in the near future, and will share it with you then) ~ to inspire meal ideas and how to use the leftovers.
I have always enjoyed creating simple and useful tools/forms ~ and it wasn’t until recently that it occurred to me that the tools I’ve created, could actually come in handy for other mothers as well. So I’m happy to provide them here for you, on the Resources page of my website.
If you try them out, let me know what you think!
above image: a Categorized Shopping List for groceries.If there is anything that deserves our careful planning and scheming, it is the family food supply ~ (get the Categorized Shopping List here, it is created 4-up, so you can cut after printing). I have included the Categorized Shopping List as a Word document, so that you can, of course, update it to include your fave choices at your fave grocery stores. These are my go-to items, almost all of them organic
And today, I share something I’ve created just for YOU! (based on drawings I make in my journals to keep track of my ideas): an illustrated Idea Bubbler (get this).
left image: an Idea Bubbler for recording those bits of genius that pop into your head ~ remember ~ everyone has good ideas, it is those of us who write them down and do something that make amazing things happen in our lives! (get the Idea Bubbler here).
I hope you will find that these are fun and useful for you. And as I add more tools to my office/studio toolbelt, I will be including them on the Resources page for you.
Have a wonderful weekend, and happy tooling!
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It’s Free Cards Friday ~ Add a note or insight to this blog post (here at the blog or on the Facebook page) throughout the weekend and be in the running to win some cards ~ I’ll choose the winner on Monday. Come back on Tuesday to see if the winner is YOU!
Love & Sincerely, Katie