{Operation Organization} Meal Planning: A Free Printable

Posted by Nat on Apr 19, 2012 | 0 comments

Just a reminder to check out my post from Monday about Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day on April 26th!  Hope you can join us!

I have a love-hate relationship with meal planning.  When I do plan our meals, things go so much smoother during the week.  I don’t have to think when 4:30 rolls around and it’s time to start putting something together.  I can go into autopilot mode because I already know what’s happening in that department.  However, the process of picking what to make for the week can be tiresome, challenging, and sometimes annoying.

To that end, I decided to spruce up my menu planner.  My old one wasn’t working.  It was an old green frame (you’ll see it soon in an upcoming post), too small to write on, didn’t stay on the wall because the hanger on the back wasn’t that great- it needed to go.

I was at Michael’s Crafts getting a few things and saw a simple, flat glass frame and I knew it was what I needed.  It’s super cheap, too- only about $5.  I played around in Photoshop and came up with this.

(Clearly I have not mastered my new camera yet.  More about that later.)

A Whole Bunch of Hullabaloo {Giveaway!}

Posted by Nat on Apr 18, 2012 | 14 comments

Before I get into my post for today, just a quick reminder to mark your calendar for April 26th if you’re a Pinterest user- it’s going to be Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards day!  Click here for more info.

Have I told you about my new job?  I wish I could say that blogging brings in loads of cash (in a variety of bills for convenience) but alas, I am not a pro-blogger yet.  Someday.  A girl can dream.  But this new job I have is awfully great because I’m learning something new, I’m working with a totally awesome person, and I get to be partially responsible for something other than myself and my family- it’s keeping my brain “fresh” if you know what I mean.

My job is to organize sponsors and vendors for an awesome music festival- for KIDS!

It’s the brainchild of my friend, Steve, who is better known around San Diego as Hullabaloo.  On Sunday, May 6th, we will gather at the Bernardo Winery in Rancho Bernardo here in San Diego.  The Winery is such a cool place on its own, and having the festival there makes it even better!

Steve has brought together quite a collection of musicians, and we will also have some great vendors on site that are family-oriented businesses ranging from classes you can take like Sign4Baby and Stroller Strides, to family photographers, to handmade business and more.  With all the music, demos, and a musical petting zoo…. it’s going to be a fun-filled day that will wear out your kids (and probably you, too!).  You can get a load of details about the festival here.

And guess what?!

I’m giving away a family-pack of tickets to one Crafting Crazy reader!  How do you win?  Simply leave a comment in my comment section below.  The giveaway is open from the time of this posting until midnight April 20th.  I will select a comment at random and announce the winner on April 21st!

Please only enter one time, but feel free to tweet, share on Facebook, and whatever other methods you wish to promote the giveaway and the event.  If you can’t wait to see if you win tickets, you can also purchase tickets now by clicking here.

Good luck, and I hope to see you on May 6th!

Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards!

Posted by Nat on Apr 16, 2012 | 7 comments

The time has come.  Someone needs to say it.

As a Pinterest Population, we are getting sloppy, friends.  We’re pinning and repinning and we’re not doing right by each other.

You know what I’m talking about- I’m sure it’s happened to you:  You see something you like on Pinterest, and when you go to repin, the source is not direct.  Maybe it’s a Google image of a project you would be interested in, and there’s no link provided; just a lovely picture.  Maybe it’s an awesome top you’d love to buy, but you have no idea where to find it.  Regardless of the type of pin, the source is all out of whack.

Let’s talk about your boards, too.  Are they organized?  My boards have an organized facade, especially since Pinterest started letting us choose covers for our boards.  But underneath…. there’s a whole bunch of chaos going on.

The pinning party is over.

It’s time to get real.

On April 26th myself, Wendy at Wendy Will Blog, and Ashley at It’s Fitting, are dedicating the whole day to cleaning up our Pinterest boards.  We’re going to take a day to reorganize, refresh, and yes (gasp!) we may even delete a few pins.  We’re calling it Clean Up Your Pinterest Boards Day.

Want to join us?  Here are the details:

On April 26th, devote as much time as you can (within reason) to not pinning, but doing a digital clean up of your own Pinterest boards.  If you plan to participate you can grab the button in my sidebar and post it in your own sidebar to help spread the word.  You could even write a post about it!  We will also be using the hashtag #CUYPB2012 if you are a Twitter geek rockstar.  You could also pin the button onto a Pinterest board to spread the word on Pinterest itself!

“But what does it mean?”  This will be different for everyone.  Everyone uses Pinterest for their own greater good, so do what feels right.  Hopefully, in the end, we’ll help future pinners because they will repin legit pins, and we’ll save ourselves some headaches, too.

Some things to help you out if you’re not sure where to start:

{Check Sources}

Do your pins lead you to the correct place?  Do they lead you ANYwhere?  If you click on a pin and it takes you to Google or some other search engine, right back to Pinterest, or if you get an error message…  it’s not pinned correctly.  From here you have to decide if it’s worth your time- either find the original source and update your pin, or delete it.

{insert record scratching here} “Wait, you mean I have to go through all my pins and check them all?”

That’s up to you.  But think about how many times you’ve seen something on Pinterest and just pinned it instantly without checking the source. Not only is that not fair to other pinners, it’s horribly unfair to the person who created the content you are pinning.

If editing all of your boards is overwhelming, consider just working on your biggest board.  Then you could go back and work on smaller boards as time allows.

{Update Descriptions; Make Pins More Searchable}

Do you have any bad pinning habits?  Pins are not very searchable (and therefore not very useful) if you just write “Love this.”  Or “OMG!  So cute!”  Go back to those pins and write “Love this headboard for my bedroom” or “OMG this leather Coach purse is so cute!”  Also, if your pin comes from a blogger of any kind, consider adding the name of their blog to the description.  They worked hard on that post and are proud that you pinned or repinned it.  It would be nice to give them credit.  For example, when I write a description for a pin from a crafting blog, I will type, “I love this teacher appreciation gift @ Skip To My Lou.”

{Update Your Board Covers}

It’s easy to do, and it makes it easy to visually distinguish them from other boards.  If you haven’t done it yet, read this.

{Update Your Followers}

Take a few minutes and look through people who are following you.  You can see all of them by going to your main board page and clicking on your number of followers.  You’ll see everyone who is following you.  Is your aunt on there?  Maybe you should follow her back.  Your best friend from college?  I bet she’d like you to show her some love, too.   Take another few minutes and follow some new people.

When you’re done you will feel like you’ve completed a digital spring cleaning of your Pinterest boards.  You can pat yourself on the back, and then pin with more knowledge.  Be sure to keep up your good pinning habits so that we can keep Pinterest a great place to be!

If you’re going to participate and are a blogger, please copy the code for the button in my right side bar (towards the top).  You can add the button to your sidebar or post and help spread the word however you like- Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest itself, or any other venue you choose.  Not a blogger?  You’re still rad!  You could share this post on Facebook to let others know.

Remember, our Twitter hashtag is #CUYPB2012.  

Hope to hear from you on April 26th!  I’m looking into having a linky party and lots of tweeting!

A Blogging Post Break

Posted by Nat on Apr 9, 2012 | 2 comments

Have you ever needed a break?   It could be one of many varieties.

• A break from your kids.
• A break from your job.
• A break from your house {cleaning}.
• A break from your pets.
• A break from the rigamaroll of life.  Yeah.  Rigamaroll.
• A break from _____________.  What would you put in the blank?

This week I’m taking a break from posting.  If you have a blog, you know what I’m talking about- there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes action that goes into {what I think is a} good blog.  You have to keep things organized, cleaned up and accessible.  I have some virtual housekeeping to do.  I’d like to think I can do what I need/want to do AND give you lots of great posts, but hey- I’ve got three kids, a dog, a husband, and a WAH gig.  Something’s gotta give, right?

So this week, while I will be “blogging” a lot, I will not be posting a lot, if at all.  But be sure to check back next week- I have something big up my sleeve!  Especially if you are a Pinterest user!

Regardless of what holidays you do or don’t celebrate, I hope you had a great weekend, and that your week is fabulous.  See you next week!

Eat, Pray, Love {Crafting Crazy Style}

Posted by Nat on Apr 6, 2012 | 13 comments

As I blog more and more, there are definitely projects and posts that I am most proud of.  This is going to be one of them- mainly because this project took me for.  EVER.  I hope you enjoy and can use some of these printables!

Eat. Pray. Love.  It’s a book.  It’s a movie.  I saw the movie long after it came out and was prepared to hate it.  Really hate it.  I do love Julia Roberts…  I just found so much inspiration and encouragement in the book; I didn’t want to like the movie because it couldn’t possibly live up to the book.  But it did.  At least, it did for me. I love both.

A few weeks after seeing the movie I was still thinking about both the book and the movie, and had this idea.  When it came to me I went to my Facebook friends for ideas of languages to use (thanks, friends!).  Then, following the suggestion of a few more friends, I used Google Translator to finish things up.

I learned a lot in this process- a LOT.  Accents, Photoshop, framing, printing- you name it. I’ll share a bit below about a few things, but first, here they are!  You are welcome to download and print whatever you want, but please do not sell or manipulate these files.  While I have grouped them together in threes, maybe you just want one or two for different places in your house- it’s up to you! If you look below you’ll see that I printed one trio for our kitchen and I LOVE them- a nice pop of color.

Here they are grouped together.  I just had a few color combos, then I left the project for a while, and when I came back I wanted more options, so I added more.  (If you want to download, scroll waaaayyy down.)

Simple black and white

Pinks & a deep burgundy (good for Valentine’s next year?)

 Subtle blues and gray

My First Date {The Happiness Project}

Posted by Nat on Apr 5, 2012 | 10 comments

I’m linking up today with the ladies at Chronically Distracted and their Happiness Project.  I LOVE the prompt for this week!

{As I type this post my husband is reading bedtime stories to our children.  Love.}

This month we are looking at love.   Our prompt is to write about our first date with the love of our life.  Done!

Michael and I met online.  Catholicmatch.com to be precise.  Before meeting him, I had been doing the online-dating thing for at least 18 months, I think.  Match.com.  CatholicSingles.com.  eHarmony.  Now that we have three kids together it all seems so funny, but in the months before I met him I was so. Tired. Of. Dating.  I have some GREAT crappy date stories.

I told a friend of mine that I was done with online dating, and she encouraged me to continue just a bit longer because she met her husband online, and didn’t want me to give up just yet.  We have her to thank for our marriage, really, because just a few days later, Michael messaged me.

We emailed.  It was nice.  He seemed friendly, and his picture was intriguing (he has a Van Dyke, which I liked). He asked if he could call me, and I said yes.  We talked on the phone a few times, and finally, just before the holiday season started, he asked when he could see me.

Since we were both Catholic and I was playing in my church’s Sunday night choir at the time, I asked him if he’d meet me after mass and we could have dinner.  My memories of that evening are very blurry now.

I remember being so excited to meet him, and taking forever to decide what I was going to wear. I remember playing through mass and wondering where he was, if he could see me while I played .  I remember him coming over afterwards, helping the group tear down our sound equipment.  I liked his smile.  I remember walking to dinner, and him telling me that he didn’t feel well, but he wanted to meet me, so he was powering through.

What I can’t remember: anything we talked about at dinner.

I do remember that I smiled a lot, and we made each other laugh.  We walked the main drag of Pacific Beach after dinner and talked.  He walked me to my car.  I loved that he was so tall.  He seemed incredibly smart and sensitive, in a good way.  We hugged.

About four and a half months later we were engaged.  Six months after that?  Married.  On our honeymoon, which we took over the week of Thanksgiving, we marveled that we had just known each other a year and we were already hitched.

I love my man!

Children’s Music: A Review!

Posted by Nat on Apr 4, 2012 | 0 comments