Birthday Blooms Again

It’s been several weeks since my birthday, but I thought this year’s birthday blooms were worthy of a post (similar to last year’s). When my husband brought home one very tall stem of orchards, I wondered how would I display such a thing. I needed a heavy vase to hold up them up and let them not topple over. Then I remembered my fun vase set!

The orchids cut up in the little vases along with a flea market tablecloth I had made a great new table setting!

The challenge of coming up with new table settings more often with the amount of guests we’ve had come through lately has been fun for me. {I’ve decided my table cloth stash isn’t just for occasional decor, and our placemats need to be used rather than stored for years!} When we’re eating on the table cloths and such, the need to wash them sooner is paramount. Thus a chance at a new table setting versus one per month or holiday like I used to do. I’m going to err on the side that our guests are blessed by a nice table set for them—and hopefully good food too!

We had Hawaiian chicken stack up for dinner this week with our guests so the flowers fit right in with that meal. This time I used my brown and pink floral melamine plates from Hobby Lobby. Last week I used our basic off-white Mikasa plates with my apple green napkins from the Pottery Barn outlet. {I forget to take photos in the midst of the preparation and meal.} So fun when things come together…enjoying it while these flowers last!

Happy New Year’s Planning

Happy New Year from Portugal!

Now that all the smoke has cleared from the holidays (pun intended!), I am excited about my new planner and hopefully--system! I loved my desk calendar from the Target dollar bins last year, but I’ve not found anything like that in Portugal. Most of the calendars I’ve seen here are hard bound weekly planners—very nice looking  but not so practical seeming. I’ve been eyeing some “binders” for a homemade calendar at an etsy shop called Crown Bindery. She has beautiful binders of all sizes and practical printables. I decided to give a try at making my own.

I took my favorite scrapbook paper out of my limited stash here, cut it to fit the laminating sheets I have and put them through our laminator. I used different pages front and back if the page was not double sided. I used our 3 hole punch and jump rings (from Staples here) so I can easily add more pages rather than using a binding machine.  There’s room for A LOT of pages! Currently I have one divider to separate my monthly and weekly calendars. I may add another to put other lists in the back.

For my calendars, I downloaded the 2 page monthly calendar and 2 page weekly calendars from Clean Mama’s etsy store. I think I’d like to try making my own next year, but this is a project I decided to wait on for now. She has amazing sets of organizational printables and some free ones on her blog, Clean Mama. 

Another blog I enjoy, Life as Mom, also sells a thorough set of printables in an e-book called Organizing Life as Mom. Looking at these and others have given me ideas for ways I can plan, like making future gift lists or things to remember for future holidays (before I forget!).  I’d also recommend a couple “guides” to help you plan and set goals for the new year that have been helpful to me:

Setting Reachable Goals by Simple Mom

Tell Your Time: How To Manage Your Schedule So You Can Live Fulfilled by Amy Andrews

Blessings on you and yours in this new year, and may all your planning be efficient and effective!

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