How the plan turned out.

I had blogged about making my sister a planner/colouring book at the beginning of September.  Planning 

 And of course, procrastinator that I am, I needed some help to meet the deadline.   DD#1 and I had spent the day in the bookstore and now we needed to pack up for the trip to see my sister.  One advantage of working quickly for me is that I don't overthink everything. The general plan was already laid out.  So we just added all the finishing touches.  The fun part actually!   Working with what I had for papers and keeping in mind some of her favourite things resulted in a fun planner with corresponding colouring pages.  I came up with an idea and Laura searched for the appropriate sticker or paper.  And to give her all credit- two heads are better than one!

Music and movies!  Now I wish I'd considered whether Sunday or Monday should come first on the planner pages.  :}  But it is only to the end of the year and changes can be made.

The theme paper is baby blue with coloured butterflys.  September shows off purple and favourite tv shows.  The colouring pages were simple to get her stared.

October welcomes fall and I was glad to see orange butterflys included.  How cool that her favourite movie stars were in the same movie.  :)  These colouring pages were country themed.

I chose patriotic colours as Remembrance day happens in November.  Our Dad was a veteran and she talks about him lots.  The butterflys are getting chilly but there was some bits of red.  The colouring pages pick up on poppies and other flowers.

I had some plastic page protectors that I refolded to make fit.  There is one for each month with ideas for adding photos or filling with memorabilia.  I did include extras in her zippered pouch.

And December leaned toward blue and snowmen because we already had red.  Laura was surprised that I didn't have lots of Christmas paper but I tend to avoid the seasonal stuff.

I do think it is going to be fun for her.  She laughed at the idea of colouring but I did notice that although she is a talker, she got kinda quiet as she considered her options.  I really do hope she plans on having fun!

KISSing the Finish

I've weathered the grey showers.  Sunshine and flowers are just ahead.

The grand kiddies art journals/planners are as done as an ongoing project can be.

The smash books are up to date except for one omission from Elaina's book.  Actually she is most excited by the zippered blank binder.  note to self- KISS!

I resisted bringing child #3 home because it would have meant scooping up all my half sorted piles and dumping them into baskets and onto chairs, tables, floor corners , etc.    PHEW!  Narrow escape but now I just have to deal with the scraps on the floor!

The unfortunate thing is that the first week of the month's art 101 class deals with these books.  eek!  But actually it is fresh in my mind to limit options and keep things simple.

Now to figure out the next thing.  hmmmm.   I do not feel that I wasted my money on the Unplanner class.  Lots of inspiration and tons of tutorials.  I like hard copies so I am printing out my favourites and putting them into an old binder which has all the old page protectors I saved when I 'edited' the magazine pages I had saved from all my old hobbies.  :)  When I need a project for those first of the month art 101  journal techniques I won't get sucked into the world wide web but let my fingers do the walking!  :)  I can also have the grand kiddies pick projects.  I may just need to round up some Gelli plate techniques and make another binder.  ;^)  I do luv the gelli plate and have small ones for the kiddies as they like them, too!

The yard is ready for its spring spruce up.  We did lots last fall but now it needs a bit of fine tuning to see what is what.  I'm beginning to sense the grey spring may have really passed.

But the wisdom of old age is to vary any activity so I do need inside studio projects.  ???  Shall I mess about with paints, stitching or...    Hopefully May 1st will have me gathering a bouquet of ideas that will have bloomed.