January in Review

The first month of 2015 is in the history books and while it ended with 3 out of 4 in the family getting the flu, there were still some highlights.

Beginning with, ER making it to the ball drop on New Year's Eve for the second year in a row.  This time, the annual Lego building while waiting, centered around putting together a Friends set and not one of Daddy's.  ER watched a little of the Countdown, and thought Taylor Swift must have been very cold!

At our monthly Brownie meeting we completed the requirements for the Home Scientist Badge, and most of the girls selected making "Dinosaur Sn*t" as their favorite activity.  We were supposed to do this badge at a Council event planned through the Source but it got canceled from low registration, and while it wasn't that hard to do at home - wow was the kitchen a mess!  We also made ice cream in a bag, made raisins dance, made salt and pepper dance, and blew up a balloon without using our mouth.

I'm still getting monthly subscriptions, even though I haven't made the time to share & review them lately.  Here is my January Ipsy.  I'm enjoying the Pacifica eye shadow & the Velvet 59 lip gloss but I'll probably never use the eyeliner as I've decided liquid is too big of a hassle at this stage of my life.

ER went ice skating twice this month, a record considering how she'd only ever been once before in her entire life!  We went on a Friday off with a friend & then to lunch afterward.  Then later in the month our Brownie troop went ice skating together.

The meal of the month had to be Brad's Chicken Parmesan, it was so yummy that both kids asked for seconds!  Unheard of!!!  He based it off of a Betty Crocker recipe from a cookbook we got when we got married - that will be 15 years ago this summer.

As I mentioned, we did get hit pretty badly with the flu.  My little guy was the first to get it.  He was sick over the last weekend and then it lingered into the following week too.  He missed both his days of PreK-3 and was pretty sad about missing his friends and playing outside in the snow with them.

Then I came down with the flu the Thursday after he got it.  ER on Saturday, a few days after me and one week after her little brother.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that Brad doesn't get it too.

December in Review

Hello!  It's been awhile, hasn't it?  I meant to take a little break from blogging over the holidays and a week turned into, well you know...  Things were busy, a bit stressful, but also lots of fun.  In December our Elves on the Shelf came back.  That's Holly above, all tucked into her gift wrapping sleeping bag for a well deserved nap.  The magic continues to be real for both our eight and three year old.  ER even wrote out little signs for each one and had a welcome back note waiting for both.

My alumnae chapter of Kappa Delta Sorority had a Pinterest party for our December event.  We made cute ornaments out of clear bulbs, and it was fun to be surrounded by so much creativity!  I was really impressed by the Santa and Rudolph ones made by filling them with glitter and then adding paint details.

I also had farro for the first time, in a dish also made with butternut squash.  Now normally, I stay away from any form of winter squash and "weird" new grains aren't too high on my to try list, yes at times I am as adventurous as a toddler when it comes to eating!  Maybe it's true and bacon really does make everything better, but this was delicious and a big hit at the party.  I would never in a million years have predicted that!

One of the biggest things to happen at home, was that our basement project is finally finished!  Or at least close enough to begin moving our stuff in, organizing, and setting up my new crafting and office area.  I'm currently writing up this blog post in the new space.  I think the last cosmetic things to be done are adding the last of the flooring to the stairs and touch up painting on the stairway.

This was how it looked before we moved in all the furniture and bought a new sofa.  It's set up for the Christmas Craft Brownie meeting, that was scheduled to happen that night.

I'm the last remaining leader out of the original three of our troop.  I plan on stepping down this year, and our size has dwindled so now it's possible to do more elaborate things with the girls.  We decorated cupcakes, that's ER's wreath above, and also made waterless snowglobes, 5X7 handprint snowmen canvases, and plastic spoon snowmen pots.  It was a lot to fit in our two hours but the girls really loved the variety of projects.

I linked the projects we did to the pins on Pinterest that inspired them.

We also did our own crafting, ER made the mini wreath, she got to go crazy picking out glittery floral decor for it and had a grand ol' time.  LB made the craft stick glittered snowflake in preschool and was very proud of his surprise gift.  He also made trees, like these, but never quite finished them. Both of them made the annual gingerbread house with Daddy.

We spent a lot of quality time with family and friends: holiday parties, special outings, play dates over break, and out of town visitors.  The kids were glad one special guy in red came by, and as usual between Santa, the Grandparents, and us...the kids had no shortage of presents.

I hope your Christmas and holiday season was a full of happy memories, as ours was!

Sugar Paper Planner Comparison & Thank You to SweetSimplifiedLife

First, I wanted to quickly thank the really lovely YouTuber SweetSimplifedLife.  I recently began following her and was even fortunate enough to win one of her giveaways! She sent me this pretty pink and gold 15"x12" wall calendar (similar).  It's got nice big spaces to write all our activities in and plenty of room for notes too.  I love the pretty script font used for the months! Thank you so much!

The then new planner & calendar line by Sugar Paper at Target was how I found her channel, as I was looking for reviews.  Her video gave me a sneak peek at the new products for 2015, even though technically they had been released, they were late in arriving at my local Targets.  At first I felt 1) odd that I was the weird planner stalker lady and 2) somewhat relieved by the YouTubers sharing their Sugar Paper hauls.  I wasn't the only person anxiously awaiting these planners!

I used their pink 8.5"X11" planner last year and I really liked the size, basically it's like a spiral notebook.  I get so many schedules and notes from my kids' schools that it's easiest to clip them to the back cover for quick reference.  The plastic covers are sturdy enough to hold everything securely. I like having everything all in one place without having to cut down or fold any of the notes they bring home from their teachers.  While it is bigger than many other planners, since it's spiral bound I'd just fold it in half and still be able to see my entire week at a glance.

I also liked last year's format, shown above, which had the week all on one side and then a full page for notes on the other.  This was great for making lists and planning.  All in all, it was an inexpensive but well laid out planner that wasn't plain jane like other planners in the same price range.  For me, that's what made the Sugar Paper products such an anticipated buy for 2015.

I'm not as happy with the new planner layout.  Now the days of the week are spread out over both sides and the weekend days only get half as much space as the weekdays.  There is only one full page for notes at the very end of the planner.  I think Sugar Paper might have switched over to this format for it's weekly layout because it does seem to be more of a standard layout and is similar to the one Kate Spade uses. Also, I preferred the dates to be extra large, like in 2014,  That works a lot better for the visually challenged, like me!  

After taking a look at the offerings this year I did select this design, because it came with a pink interior, but am not sure if I'll keep it.  I won't want to use it if the front gets all gunked up and the front piece is white with gold polka dots.  It's just cardstock weight and not laminated like the 2014 front page was, so I anticipate the white page getting bent up and stained.  Yes it's certainly beautiful, but will it stay that way even with the plastic over protectors?

The main points in favor of the 2015 planner are:

• Sturdy plastic covers - these are now a frosted & semi transparent versus the full opaque pink color so I'm already worried about them getting dirty looking.
• Laminated month tabs - same as last year
• Full month at a glance - nice large format that covers both sides of the page
• Daily entries now have lines to write on
• Size - slightly larger than 8.5X11, still perfect for adding notes and schedules that come from school etc without having to cut down or fold.
• More aesthetically pleasing but perhaps at the detriment of durability & extra reference sheets, see below for more on this
• Pink is the main interior design color - this is my personal preference versus navy blue or gold.  Glad they provided color choices!
• Inexpensive cost, $9.99

Drawbacks to the 2015 planner:

• Thin pages - bleed through and ghosting possible, this is the same as last year
• Front piece is no longer laminated - by this I mean the first page you see when you turn the thick plastic cover.
• White front piece - is likely to be easily damaged, bent, etc. mine came with a very slight blemish already on it and the other two at the store were already significantly marked up
• No "Yearly Overview" page - in the 2014 version an over view page of 2014 & 2015 was provided on the back of the front piece.
• No "Quick Reference" sheet for important addresses - I liked to add doctor & school information here, to make calling for appointments easier
• No "States, Capitals & Time Zones" page - I don't really need this but wanted to note that versus last year this feature is missing, without any thing really replacing it.
• No weekly full page for notes - only one full blank lined page in the entire planner
• Weekend daily entries are half the size of weekday entries
• Dates - printed in a significantly smaller size
• Font - again this is personal, but I wish they'd have used the same pretty cursive font as on the calendar I won, for the months instead of the all capital font they selected.  

All that being said, overall, the 2015 8.5"X11" Sugar Paper planner still delivers an on trend and attractive planner for a very reasonable price.  There is a lot to love, while still some drawbacks.  Not my perfect dream planner and I don't like it nearly as much as last year, but still a nice fit for just $10!