DIY Planner Stickers

I'm know I've discussed my love for planners on my blog before, but in case you weren't already aware, I'm a paper planner kind of girl. Yes, I'm basically still back in the dinosaur ages with my paper planner that you actually have to write in. The thought of not having a real tangible planner to physically write in, color code and cover in stickers makes me sad. I simply cannot make the switch to the electronic calendar. I'm sure it's much more convenient and efficient, but it's the same reason I can't switch from real books to a tablet or Kindle. I just like paper. There's something about having real paper I can touch that makes me enjoy it more. I basically look at my planner as a year-long project, almost like a scrapbook. I spend all year long decorating it, doodling in it, making lists, writing goals and accomplishments, planning meals and exercise, keeping up with events and special occasions...that planner is like my entire year in one little book. And at the end of the year, I can look back at this little masterpiece that I spent all year creating.

Not only does my planner keep me organized, but it's a fun project that I seem to really enjoy for some reason. I get super excited when someone gives me a date for something because then I get to write it in my planner! And if it's a really special occasion (like a wedding for instance) then I decorate the whole day with different colored pens and stickers. I just love it. I'm basically an overgrown kindergartner. And don't even get me started on my to-do lists. I make to-do lists for myself every single day in my planner and then check each item off as a do it throughout the day. It makes me feel so accomplished getting to check the little box in my planner next to each item. Even if it's something that I will probably remember to do whether I put it on my list or not, I write it down anyways. For example, I could look back in my planner from last year and tell you exactly how many times I went to Publix throughout the entire year. Because every time I needed to go to the grocery store, I would put it on my to do list for that day. I realize that this may sound insane to some of you, but if you are a list person or a planner person like me, you get it. 

I know what you're thinking...someone as crazy and obsessed with planners as me probably knows what the best planner out there is right? Well, I've tried a lot of different ones and it just depends on what you are looking for in a planner. My personal favorite is the Life Planner by Erin Condren. The name itself is exactly what makes this one the best for me. It truly is a life planner, not just a calendar. I don't need "just a calendar". I need something that I can record my entire life in everyday. This planner offers me that and I love it. I am currently on my 3rd Erin Condren Life Planner and it is still my favorite thing ever. My sister-in-law and I buy them for each other every year as a tradition and its always my favorite gift of the year. I get mine on Christmas morning every year and when I go to start opening my presents, my planner is always the one that I look forward to opening the most. 

These past couple of days have been so fun for me because I have been setting up my new planner for this upcoming year. My dining room table has been covered in stickers and pens and highlighters and markers. I've been having way too much fun. Which brings me to the actual purpose of this post...my DIY Planner Stickers. 

The EC Life Planner comes with stickers in it and in the past I've always just used those and that's it. Well those stickers are kind of small for my big handwriting (and they are just basic rectangles) so I wanted some bigger stickers possibly in fun shapes. Well, I didn't want to spend a bunch of money and it was hard to find exactly what I wanted, so I decided to make my own! 

My stickers obviously work best with an Erin Condren Life Planner, but you could always alter the size and shape of the sticker to fit whatever space you have available in your planner. Here are step-by-step instructions as to how I made them!

Here is what you will need...

2x4 inch White Mailing Labels

Craft Punch (any size less than 2") 

Computer and Printer

Your Planner!

Step 1: Design the background for your stickers on your computer. I used a template on Microsoft Word for 2x4 inch mailing labels. All I did was color the background of each label a solid color. You could use patterns too if you want, but I just did solid colors so that it would be easy to read whatever I end up writing on the sticker.

Step 2: Print out your labels and cut the pages in half so that it's easier to reach both sides of each label with your craft punch.

Step 3: Use a craft punch to cut out your stickers. You can use any shape that you would like, as long as you get a size that will fit on the label. I used the 1 1/2 inch scalloped circle and the 1 3/4 inch quatrefoil shapes. I wanted to use as big of a shape as possible (because I have large handwriting) without being too big for the spaces in my planner. I happened to already own these craft punches, but if you are going to the craft store to buy one just for this purpose you might want to measure the spaces available in your planner before you choose a size.

Step 4: Use a sharpie pen to write on your sticker, peel the back off and stick it into your planner!

If you turn using your planner into a fun, craft project, then you will enjoy it much more. I find that the more effort I put into making my planner fun, the more I want to use it and the better organized I stay all year long! If you are looking for a great planner to get you organized this year, check out Erin Condren's Life Planner. 

Here is my new Life Planner for 2015...

Hope you have fun getting organized for 2015!

Nursery Tour

Hey, so remember back when I was pregnant and I told y'all that I would take you on a virtual tour of Peyton's nursery? Ok well, she's almost 12 weeks old so let's go ahead and do that now, mmm-kay? Presenting, Peyton's beautiful (in my biased opinion) baby girl nursery...

Peyton's nursery is basically my pride and joy. My mom and I worked really hard for months to make this the perfect space for our little girl. I absolutely love how everything turned out and this is by far my favorite room in our home...as it should be since it's the most well decorated and has the nicest furniture. Mommy obviously has priorities.

My mom and I went to this amazing baby furniture store in Atlanta called Georgia Baby to order the majority of the furniture. This store is so much better than any other baby store or furniture store I went to because it is basically a giant warehouse full of baby furniture. Most baby stores and furniture stores only have a few models actually out on the floor and everything else you can only see in a catalog. Let me tell you, buying furniture without actually ever seeing it in person is way too difficult. I loved going to Georgia Baby because they had hundreds of cribs, changing tables, etc. all out on the showroom floor where I could see and touch them all. Mom and I spent 8 hours in there trying to make decisions, but by the time we left all of the nursery furniture was ordered and on it's way!

This convertible crib is from the Enchanted collection made by Baby's Dream Furniture. 

These ruffle blackout curtains are from Pottery Barn Kids. The crib skirt is also made of this same ruffle material from PB Kids too. The floor lamp is from Jubilee lighting, and we ordered it through Georgia Baby. The cross on the wall was made by me. I searched and searched for the perfect cross for the wall, but I couldn't find one that was exactly what I wanted so I decided to make one myself. I bought two unfinished wooden crosses from Hobby Lobby. I used the white trim paint from the room to paint the big cross and the pink wall paint to paint the smaller cross. Then I layered the two crosses and hot glued them together. Voila! A custom wall cross that matches the nursery perfectly.

My awesome mother-in-law also happens to be really talented at painting walls. Therefore, I enlisted her skills in painting Peyton's nursery. I must say, the paint job in this room is far better than the paint job in the rest of our house which was done by the professionals. Go figure. It took quite a few paint samples for us to find the perfect shade of pink, but I could not be happier with the color we chose. It is the perfect hint of pink. The color is Diminutive Pink by Sherwin-Williams.

Wooden shelves handmade by Jared's dad. I love the little carved out hearts on the brackets. 

Peyton is so fancy, she gets her own private gate. This is basically the most important piece of furniture in the nursery. It's my "Sadie-you-better-stay-the-eff-out-of-here-or-die" gate. Needless to say, Peyton's room is the cleanest and most dog-hair-free room in our entire house. Thank you baby gate. I highly recommend this gate. If it can keep Sadie out, trust me, it will keep the creatures in your house out too. 

The glider is made by Little Castle, and we ordered it through Georgia Baby. I love this glider because it has a much higher back than most of the gliders out there. That makes it super comfortable for tall people like Jared and I which is why I chose this model. The pink ruffle pillow sitting on the glider is from Pottery Barn Kids. I had it monogrammed myself by a local shop. The floor rug is from The Rug Company, which we also ordered through Georgia Baby.

The little wooden bench is from Lowe's and made by good ole' Martha Stewart. The pink canvas baskets inside are from the same collection as well and come in a bunch of colors. Thanks Martha.

Peyton's crib bedding set is from Pottery Barn Kids: {Maya Floral Nursery Bedding} However, it is no longer available so good thing we bought it when we did. 

This adorable ABC print came from the Etsy shop, LucyDarlingPrints. That girl also makes the super cute little monthly stickers that I put on Peyton for her monthly photos.

This personalized toy chest came from Pottery Barn Kids: {Sabrina Toy Chest}

I am obsessed with Peyton's wall monogram. I really am super jealous and seriously want to order one for my room too. The monogram and the quatrefoil shaped frame both came from this amazing little Etsy shop, SouthernNest.

The lamp on the changing table matches the floor lamp behind the glider and is from Jubilee lighting, which we ordered through Georgia Baby.

This custom canvas wall art was hand-painted to match Peyton's bedding. It came from this Etsy shop, addilyneli. This girl will custom paint canvas to match anything you want. Just send her a picture of a fabric or decorative piece that you want her to match it to and she can paint it! She did an amazing job and I absolutely love this piece of art for the nursery!

Peyton's changing table was hand-crafted in Romania. I know, this kid has nicer furniture than I do. Ridiculous. It came from the manufacturer Romina, which makes super high quality baby furniture all made from solid wood. I love this piece and for some reason it reminds me of the enchanted chest from Beauty and the Beast which makes me love it even more.

Basically my favorite little nook for snuggling with my baby girl :)

Hope you enjoyed our tour of little Miss P's nursery!

Back to School

Another school year is upon us. I can't believe how fast summer went by. But now it is time for fall and football season, which totally makes having to go back to school worth it. Today, I begin my 5th year of teaching. Woah. It seems like only yesterday I was spending these August days in the Phi Mu house at Recruitment, not teaching 6th graders. I have a lot of goals for myself this school year and I just want to take things one day at a time.

I am still teaching 6th graders for reading and language arts. However, our curriculum has changed a lot so I am going to get to try some cool new things with my kids this year. I am also going to be coaching volleyball again this year which I am really excited about. Unfortunately, my co-worker who was the head coach last year has left our school which means I am officially the head coach this year. While this is an exciting opportunity, I am mildly terrified of being head coach because that means I have to actually figure out how to do all the paperwork and make important decisions during the game. Scary. Luckily, I have a rockin' assistant coach who is going to help make my life a lot easier :)

My favorite part of starting a new school year is getting to decorate my classroom. I put so much time and effort into decorating my classroom. I am so OCD about it and I have to make sure it is 100% perfect before the first day of school. Yes, I am a little insane about my classroom but I spend 8 hours a day trapped in there so I want it to be a place that I actually don't mind spending so much time in. Plus, I get to put fun, crazy stuff in my classroom that I would never actually put in my real house.

I present my classroom for the 2013-2014 school year...

 In my classroom, not a single window or ounce of wall space is without decoration. 

Since my school is an IB school, every year each team has to choose a country to represent. 

My team is representing Germany this year and I am pretty excited about it since I've been there. 

Best wishes to all the students and teachers going back to school today!

Spring Cleaning

Ok, so maybe I'm a little late around here but I think it is time for me to do some spring cleaning. This all started Saturday night when Jared and I were trapped in our closet for about 20 minutes. We were having a hard time fitting the two of us and the two fur babies in our walk-in closet. This led me to realize that I really need to clean out my closet. Before I get to the spring cleaning, allow me to explain why we were in the closet in the first place...

All last week, we had terrible weather here in Jacksonville. I mean seriously horrible. Monsoon like. Saturday was probably the worst thunderstorm I have seen in a long time. I am talking hurricane conditions out there. We went to a graduation party for one of our friends during the day. Photo proof below...yeah, there was no way I was going to attempt straight hair in those weather conditions.

When we got home from the party, our area was under a flash flood warning, tornado warning and severe thunderstorm warning. Awesome. Once we were in the house, we noticed that our lights kept flickering and our cable was not working. (When your cable lines run underground and they still aren't working during a storm, that is a really bad sign) Without cable, we had no idea what was going on out there. Our internet wasn't working and the 4G on our phones was running really slow. Luckily, both of our moms were tuned into the news and started calling to check on us. The heavy rain, 50 mph winds and hail were pounding our poor little house. Finally, Jared's mom called us to tell us that the weather man had just said the name of our neighborhood on TV and he was saying that there was a tornado forming in the clouds above our neighborhood that it could potentially touch down. Oh goodie.

Now, Jared and I have both been through enough hurricanes to know exactly what to do when the tornadoes start coming. Into the closet we went, fur babies in tow. While we were trying to find a spot on the floor of our closet to get comfortable, I noticed that we have a lot of crap in our closet. Unnecessary crap that we don't need. After about 20 minutes, we could hear that the wind and rain was starting to die down so we decided to come out of the closet. There was no damage to our house or neighborhood and we never lost electricity, even though the entire front half of our neighborhood did. There are a lot of down trees and debris in the area along with standing water and flooding still, but everything here ended up being fine. Not exactly my favorite way to spend a Saturday night, but I'm glad everyone was ok.

After this experience, I decided that I have got to get into that closet and clean it out. While I'm at it, there are some other things in my life that I feel could use a little spring cleaning. My desk, my classroom, my refrigerator and pantry, and my Facebook friends. I seriously feel the need for some de-clutter in my life. Take Facebook for example. Why on Earth do I have over 700 Facebook friends? I don't know 700 people well enough to call them my friends. So those friend of a friend people who I never talk to are going to have to go. Bye bye unnecessary Facebook friends.

Next up, that closet. Goodwill is about to get a special delivery from the Roche household. I'll let you know how it goes. Have a great week!

Life Planner

I finally broke down and bought an Erin Condren Life Planner. I have been admiring these beauties from a far for about two years now, but the $50 price tag has kept them just beyond my reach. Earlier this month, I stumbled upon a coupon code for $20 off any purchase from Erin Condren, so I jumped at the opportunity to fulfill my organization fantasy. Presenting my new planner...

There are a bunch of different covers to choose from. I chose this one because it has my name on it and I like having my name on things. Remember: you are dealing with a monogram addict here. 

It's safe to say that I'm pretty obsessed with my planner. I have always been very picky about my planners, but this one is perfect. It's cute, durable, has the perfect amount of writing space and stickers! 

And inspirational quotes throughout...for when you are feeling deep. 

The monthly calendar...

The weekly calendar...complete with a ruler/page-marker to keep your place.  

Did I mention there were stickers?!!! In fact, there are 4 pages worth of stickers. Please notice the purple stickers that say "Vegas" on them...does this mean I have to go to Vegas this year? I mean, if there is a sticker in the planner for it, then I guess I better do it. Darn. 

In the back, there are pockets and pouches for storage...perfect to hold these cute personalized labels!

Oh and guess what?! Because I love you guys so much, I am going to share the wealth (and by wealth, I mean discounts). Use the coupon code below to treat yourself to a little bit of the Erin Condren Life Planner awesomeness. Not mention, when you receive your first order in the mail from her, she throws in a $10 off coupon for your next purchase. Just to keep your addiction going. Sneaky. 

Now, go out and get yourself some Erin Condren goodies. Brace yourself, visiting her website will only end badly for your credit cards. You're welcome :)