House and Holidays

Photo from smashingbuzz.com

It's the end of week two of the H+H plan over at Magical Holiday Home. The focus: organizing activities and setting up a creativity area.

This week many of us have been decluttering our creative spaces to make room for craft projects, writing lists, planning holiday meals, signing and addressing Christmas cards, wrapping gifts, everything.  The two areas where I do most of my creating, planning and whatnot are at my dining room table or at my desk in the guest bedroom.  I tackled my desk area a few weeks ago. Let me tell you, my desk area was a job and a half.  PAPER!!!  That's all I'm going to say about that. I know you know what I'm talking about.  But it's all good now. I can actually see my desk lol.

I do have several craft projects I will be working on - all decorations, no homemade gifts this year.  However, I have not been to the stores to pick up supplies needed.  Mainly because I have been focusing on fall projects that I am currently working on. My goal is to have the supplies by the end of this month. By then all of my fall projects will be completed and I can begin focusing on my Christmas projects.  I have to have them done before Thanksgiving weekend, which is when I start putting up my Christmas decorations.

In addition to creating a nice work area, we're working on our seasonal calendars. There's parties, family photo sessions, travel arrangements, maintenance schedules, school plays/concerts coming up.  Having all of that on a seasonal calendar is perfect to avoid missing something very important or worst, double booking.  My seasonal calendar has been done for weeks.  I just update as needed.  And as for traveling, I never travel during any holiday and I don't have any family coming in town.  Besides the majority of my family members live nearby.

Lastly it's time to get that shopping list together.  My list is tucked in my purse and I've already started picking up stocking stuffers.  I've also started my holiday layaway at Walmart.  I have a three page list so the sooner I started the better.  My list has everything from craft supplies, to gift ideas, to baking supplies.  Some of the ladies at MHH are almost done all of their gift shopping.  They were lucky enough to find the perfect gifts for their loved ones throughout the year.  Very impressive. Wish I could be that good.

February Goals

Declutter:  This month's focus are the kitchen and my desk area. Gingerbug (creator of MHH) suggests we set the number of hours we will committ to decluttering this month.  I am dedicating 2 hours a week.  At the end of the month that will amount to 8 hours.  Not too shabby.  Yesterday (Monday) I threw out a bag of shredded paper that contained old paystubs and other things I no longer needed. Now my file cabinet is nice and neat.

Purchase two Christmas movies.  I didn't get a chance to buy one last month. 

Celebrate Me:  This month is about our beautiful faces.  I have never had a full fledge facial done before so this will be a really special treate for me. 

Locate Autumn/Halloween notebook.  Actually I have a small folder I use during the autumn season. I don't do too much for Halloween or Thanksgiving.  I have family and friends who go all out for those holidays.  I just love the season itself - the leaves turning to those vibrant colors, the smell of a fireplace being lit for the first time of the season, things like that.  To celebrate the season I invite a few friends over for a fun evening of  food, drinks, games, etc. 

Do you have things around your home you would like to get rid of?  Then why not follow my friends as they participate in Move it Out Monday.

January Goals

(An idea shared from member Chilli at MHH) Take a calendar for 2011 and enter as follows:

• Birthdays
• Vacations
• Already known family events
• All other important activities for you, family, friends, etc.

Work on Christmas notebook

• Make a new cover for my binder
• Print planner sheets from Organized Christmas
• Create and print pretty tab sheets

First part of "celebrate me", make the promise to spend some time on my word for 2011.  Second part is to do something special just for me.  I chose the 26th - which is my birth date - of each month to being nice to "me".  Things like treat myself to a pedicure, get my hair cut or colored, buy a new outfit, or just spend the day lounging around.  I would really like to go for a nice bike ride.  I have not been on a bike since I was a teenager. 

Pledge to declutter closets.  I'm working on getting rid of the ugly shoe boxes that clutter the floors of my bedroom closets.  While I'm at it, find a better way to organize my handbags on the shelves.

Purchase a holiday movie.  I really want to increase my collection as I don't have many of the favorites.

Answer debriefing questions about the holidays.

January

Starting January 3rd, everyone at MHH began decluttering their homes from the holidays. You can read about it here.   My decorations have been down for a couple of weeks now but I am still finding items here and there. Like last week I still had my gingerbread stockings hanging from the oven handle. I can't believe I overlooked them. Yesterday while sorting laundry I found more holiday linen that needs washing and put away.

Each month in preparation for Christmas 2010 I will make a list of goals and hopefully fulfill them.  For instance this month my goals are to:

Add a new Christmas dvd to my collection.
Declutter my holiday notebook.
Print new pages for notebook from OC.
Make a list of Rudy Day activities.
Go over last year's budget spending. I think I did a lot better in 2009 compared to previous years.
Complete holiday debriefing.
Celebrate Rudy Day.

Christmas In July Schedule

Here's a list of everything I plan to do this month:

1. Go through my Christmas decorations. See what I don't want or need to add. Create a decor plan.
2. Work on several holiday craft projects (homemade greeting cards, ornaments and post-it holders)
3. Purchase gifts for 4 of the people on my gift list.
4. Plan Christmas In July menu (date set for July 31st).
5. Try a new cookie recipe.
6. Do some of the housecleaning tasks from the Houseworks+Holiday plan.
   
7. Inventory holiday movies/music
8. Watch a few holiday movies. For the first week of July over at MHH we watched "Scrooged" with Bill Murray. Hilarious!
9. Put my holiday CD's in the car.
10. Create and print my Christmas Eve dinner invitations
11. Finalize holiday menus
12. Shop for stocking stuffers
13. Create grocery lists for baking/holiday menu
14. Update my blogs (started today)

Well that's all for now. I've just been over at MHH to see what everyone else is doing. Now I am going to create my July calendar with my '24 Days of Christmas' activities. Will write back soon.

I don't have much to report. I did get started on my Christmas cards but that's about it. The weather was too nice and I just had to be out in it after weeks of cold and/or rain. LOL The cards are coming out pretty nicely. I need to do about 10 and so far I have three done.

Now I'm focusing on June. Don't have much family/outdoor activities planned this month so maybe I will be able to focus more on Christmas planning.

For June I want to:

1. Make several more handmade Christmas cards
2. Buy gifts for four people on my list (I have to make up for May)
3. Start holiday handbag project
4. Update my address book
5. Gather holiday decorating ideas.
   

Rudy Day List

On the 25th of each month I will spend the day doing one or more of these things:

1. Create/modify holiday planner
2. Create/modify holiday budget
3. Update address book
4. Create/purchase greeting cards
5. Sign/address greeting cards
6. Plan holiday family dinner party
7. Create/buy party invitations
8. Plan holiday menus/grocery lists
9. Make trips to store for non-perishable foods
10. Gather Christmas decorating ideas
11. Inventory/purchase holiday decorations
12. Calendar-in activities with friends/family/myself
13. Plan easy-to-make weekly meals
14. Update holiday movies/music collection
15. Try a new holiday recipe
16. Create a list of homemade gift/decor ideas
17. Work on a homemade craft project
18. Create/update gift list
19. Shop from master shopping list
20. Set-up/inventory gift closet
21. Inventory/purchase gift wrap supplies
22. Decorate for the holidays
23. Chat with friends at Magical Holiday Home
24. Visit fellow Rudy Day bloggers
25. Make a 24 Days of Christmas activity list