The Stitch Up

Keeping Time and Getting Organized

One of the things I like about the start of the New Year is seeing a fresh calendar with no entries.  Just blank pages with possibility.

The husband bought me the perfect date book to start 2013:

I can record my to-dos and appointments while getting important decorum advice from Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.  Delightful!

I'm also working on a 2013 calendar tea towel.  

This is the second year I've started off my New Year crafting with one of the adorable tea towel kits from curious doodles.  She has great patterns and I like having a little stitched up calendar in the kitchen.

January is also the time I start thinking about getting organized.  Again!  

I've been using Evernote to try and keep my paper to a minimum and it's been working pretty well.  I'm starting now to organize my patterns and some of the online tutorials I love in Evernote so they're easier to find.

Evernot has also come up with a new app - Evernote Food - that organizes restaurants, meals and recipes.  I was able to take the messy binder of recipes I've torn out of magazines and organize it into a a nice electronic recipe book!

It also lets me make a little entry for my "meals" which means the pics I'm taking of the stuff I eat is now somewhat useful.

Which is a good thing since I am kind of addicted to photographing the stuff I eat.  But now I can put notes about the restaurant, the location, the type of food and anything else I can think of into the entry - which helps when the husband and I are going back and forth about "what do you want to eat?" "no, what do you want to eat?" I can pull up some pictures and go with what makes my mouth water most.

I'm still using the Weave app and still really liking it - I just think I need to get a little better at projecting my completion date on things and sticking to it.

My big push is going to be making all of my pictures and photo albums digital this year.  I've done pretty well but there are still tons of pictures in the attic that need to get scanned and organized.  I've really liked a few of the photo gifts I've made in the past like calendars or collages and I think it's one of those things people always love.  Especially if you've had a nice picture of them or their kids tucked away somewher and you can share it with them.  I'd like to try making a few photo books for friends and family this year of special photos and memories and getting everything in one place is the first step!

I know everything can't get done in January but hopefully that New Year urge to get on track will put a big dent in a few of these projects.  Happy Organizing All!

Project Organization

In my quest to make organization my middle name, I've found a few tools to keep me on track this year.  

The Project Girl, who is becoming my go-to for organization ideas has a host of print-ables that I've been using.  This one is a Project Master List, which I'm using to jot down project/craft ideas as soon as I come up with them.  I'm then trying to think rationally about how long I'll need to complete each project and giving myself a deadline goal.

For my next step I am using an AWESOME app called Weave.

It lets you break each project down into individual tasks, set a date to complete each task and it then gives you reminders of when your completion date is coming up.  It also keeps track of how much you've spent on a project, which I think makes this a great app for people who are selling things on Etsy or other sites as it keeps you within budget.  It would also probably be a good idea for me to keep track of my budget, but at this point I'm pretty much working out of my fabric and embroidery thread stash, so I think I can postpone concerns about budget for a bit.

My plan is to list the projects I plan to complete each month here on the blog as an added incentive to get those things done.  I'm trying to be realistic about the time it will take to finish everything as I've learned that the reminder every day from the Weave app that I'm up against my own deadline is really guilt-inducing!

So an update here soon on my projects for February and their progress.  Hope everyone is keeping warm and enjoying 2012.