2016 Goals....3 month reflections

Flicking through my planner yesterday I cannot believe it is nearly April, wasn't it just Christmas last week? I've had a bit of time to sit and reflect on everything that has happened over the past 6 months, how I as a person, friend, mother and wife have grown and changed and how I'd like to focus my energy to meet my goals.... 

I've wanted to build my blog for a long time now but as my life is a bit crazy I have found it hard keep to a single blog with current content.. so I have decided that I am combining all of my blogs to come under the "Ugly Bug" ...Brand????? not quite sure I'm a brand yet but I'm dreaming big and hoping to get there one day.. SO everything after this post will be over on my wordpress blog 

www.uglybugdoes.wordpress.com

I have added pages for Project Life, Planning, Life and Crafts so that whatever I am upto I can have under one blog and everything will be kept updated. 

Please come over and join me, I'd love a few "subbies" its going to be the place I share my give aways and any freebies with you so please stop by and say Hello.

Take care
Michelle
aka Ugly Bug

New planner set up

I've been "happy" in my MAMBI Happy Planner for quite a while now, so much so that I got rid of all my ring bound planners, including my beautiful Kikki K. It was such a shame for them to be sat collecting dust in the shelf when they could be being used and loved by someone else. 

I also stopped making and using "pretty" stickers, I didn't feel the need to decorate my planner, instead I needed to use functional stickers every week to add sections to track fitness, bills and To Do lists. Now, don't get me wrong, I love to see a heavily decorated planner with cute stickers and lots of "page candy", just not in my planner haha. 

A few days ago I was watching a YouTube tutorial on making your own planner when inspiration hit and I decided to design my own! I spent most of last night designing them in excel and then today decided to try in an adobe program I have but never got round to learning. I'm so happy with how they turned out, it may have taken me all day (when I had a to do list as long as my arm) but I'm so happy with the end results. 

There are a few tweaks I need to make but I've already printed Aprils inserts and I love them :)

Let me know what you think :)

A comparison of my happy planner, with custom stickers (top) and my new inserts in my A5 ring bound.

I quickly made myself some dividers as I was on my way out the door and I wanted her set up.

Project Life #3 - Week 11, 2016

I didn't love this layout straight away but now its complete its "okay" Its different to the normal "pretty" pretty cards and papers that I use and I think that's why I lacked creativity so much!



Going through this weeks layout I did realise that its so much easier to have all your supplies to hand before you start, trying to pull embellishments out once I had chosen the cards was a real chore and what I struggled the most with, once I had the embellishments to hand everything else came together.

Project Life Baby Book

My most recent page in my eldest daughters baby book…

For each of my children I have brought (or been brought) the normal baby books that you fill out details of when they first crawl and their first steps,  but I always forget to fill them in and have never really been inspired by them. So when I first found out about Project Life and they baby kits they offer I really wanted to start them but had no idea how or where to start.

I initially started, with my eldest, in a normal  A4 ring binder and clear poly pockets as I couldn’t justify spending so much on the albums and accessories that I would need. I kind of mixed up Project Life and Smash Book/scrapbooking and I loved the way some of the pages turned out. Then I started on my middle daughters album and I purchased the Becky Higgins Blush album from Craftie Charlie with some birthday money I had received, I loved how easy it was and decided that I wanted to do all my albums like that.

Luckily the A4 poly pockets fit the  12×12 album I purchased for my son so I’ve slotted them in the front. I’ll record a flick through of each album and upload them over the next week. I was going to use a core kit for each child but there are so many out there that I’ve decided to mix it up, I’m sure my style will change a lot over the next year.

If you’re thinking of starting a baby book and have no papercraft “stash” then all you need to start off with is an album (12×12 or 6×8), some cards (I suggest the Stampin’ Up! baby cards, not just because I am a demonstrator for them but because I genuinely love these cards, they have thought of everything and if I hadn’t already started all their books I’d buy the baby kit and just use them) and some page protectors. That’s literally all you need, then print your pictures and arrange them in the album, it really is that simple and its something to keep forever, my kids love looking at “their books” and one day I hope their kids enjoy looking through them just as much.

A planners life - in my Happy Planner

For a long time I thought I was unique with my stationary and diary obsession until I learnt about the online "planner community" there are many Facebook groups, blogs and YouTube channels dedicated to planners and stationary and it's where I spend most of my "online time" socialising.

At the time I found my first planner group, I had only my personal purple domino Filofax which was plain and boring but functional. My eyes were opened to stickers, stamps, washi, pretty inserts, unicorns (a "unicorn planner" is your most desired but usually unobtainable planner, mostly the expensive Filofaxes and Kikki K planners) and a whole load of other brands of planner. 

One of the common phrases you'll hear across the planner community is "Planner Peace" a thing we all search for when we chop and change our planners, its a magical thing where you set up your new planner and it works exactly how you want it to, the inserts are exactly how you need them to be, your dashboard looks amazing, your dividers and beautiful and each section is just how and where you want them to be. For me i usually have planner peace for about a week before I start lusting after something different.

I had planner peace in my Create 365 Happy Planner, I went for the good things edition but there are several available, there are some video flick through on the MAMBI website HERE. Its a disk bound planner with monthly divider sections, a month to view at the beginning of each section and then week to view pages (week on 2 pages).

I love everything about my happy planner except the disks and the fact that they have printed Morning, Afternoon and Evening at the start of each box on a Monday. I use the top box for my daily to do's, bills, birthdays and reminders and then I use the bottom 2 boxes for appointments etc so I find I have to tippex the words out which bugs me more than it should.

My happy planner sits open on a shelf on my desk so I can see it at all times, I'm not sure it would survive being chucked about it my bag, I'm heavy handed to say the least lol.

Weekly Catch Up

I've been working hard to complete all orders this week to ease the pressure in the run up to Christmas, I closed my order book on Thursday and was able to reopen for a few slots by Saturday.

Lots of people have been requesting family tree's like this

Which I completed last week (customers own photo as she purchased it unframed from me and framed it herself).

I have 2 more to do this week and a few acrylic baubles, which are my second favourite thing to make at the minute.

My new tripod arrived so I'll be vlogging a lot more in 2016, I'll try to film my flick through of the shining year workbook this week. My favourite delivery this week had to be "The Cinch" which arrived from Create and Craft that I had a bargain on! I love it and have so many projects I'd like to do (don't we always).

I've made a 100 things I love about you jar for a friend, she wants to write, on the 100 paper hearts I've cut, what she loves about her husband. It's a really lovely idea but I'm not 100% happy with the design yet.

We all love happy mail and I was delighted to hear from one of my pen pals this week, she's been a great support whilst my mum has been going through treatment for lung cancer, it was so nice to hear from her. I saved her letter for Sunday morning when I had a bit of me time, I like to read my letters and respond right away (or I forget to reply at all, a bit like text and emails).

I love snail mail, in this digital age a catch up is never really a proper catch up and there is something therapeutic about actually writing things down.

I also made her a Christmas bookmark as I hadn't made anything sparkly for a long time :) 

I have a new twitter account to keep alongside this blog @uglybugcrafts and of course you can still follow me on Instagram, youtube and Facebook

My Shining Year 2016 - Leonie Dawson

So here I am, happily plodding along in the world, all minding my own business, raising the kids (and feeling like I'm failing at it). I have those sudden panic moments where I worry about the future and what I want to do when for a career when they are at school, I've had a few "I'd like to" moments but put nothing into place as of yet.

Any who, I noticed, in one of the Facebook planner groups  (thanks Mrs Brimble), that there seemed to be a few mentions of this workbook Create Your Shining Year by Leonie Dawson and there seemed to be a "but of a buzz" about it, so I enquired and the lovely Kelly at A Beautiful Plan filled me in. 

Now anyone who knows me will know I don't easily buy into fads or trends, I like things to be tried and tested before I sink my, hubbies, hard earned cash into it. But this book really had me intrigued. So I brought the digital version (I'm super inpatient and like things yesterday), there are 2 books, the life and the biz versions and it's cheaper to buy them both as a package. 

I printed the life version on my home printer which is a Cannon MG5600, my printer allows double side printing so it was super easy to do. Then I cut down and used my arc punch and disks to bind it together. I also laminated the front and back covers. I'm super happy with it, I've just printed and trimmed the biz version but I'm waiting (impatiently) for my Cinch to arrive so I can bind it with that. I'll then do a video walk through for that :).

This book really ticks my boxes, I love to "fill in" and although I've only semi completed the first section (releasing 2015) I'm in love and I've already been reflecting on my life. One question is about goals you set and accomplished in 2015!!! Accomplished goals?!? I didn't know I was meant to set any.... Wait, what? WHY did I not set goals?! Just because I am currently a "work at home mum" it doesn't mean I can't have dreams and start working to achieve them!! 

I already can't wait to take up where I left off with it. It's so colourful and fun to read through.... 

There is no right or wrong way to complete the workbooks/planners but I think I'll have a flick through first and complete any sections that stand out to me, then I'll go back and complete each chapter in detail, I will let you know how I get on. 

Take care

Michelle xx