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Monday, November 19, 2012

Inside My Home Management Binder- All the printables that help keep me organized! (Christmas included!)- Part 2 of 2

In a previous post, I had shown how i created some different home management binders using regular black binders, some homemade print-outs and some mod podge! Now I will show you what I put on the INSIDE of my binder!

This binder can be edited as things at my home or with my family change, which is the beauty of this project. You can change, add, or take away things that apply/don't apply to your life or family. Tons of different sites out there offer many different and free printables to make home organizing easy! Depending on what printable you need, they can also be super easy to make! Let's get right into it!


Morning and Evening Checklists can help structure your day and ensure a good scheduling
 A quick cheat-sheet for birthdays and anniversaries can make it easier to "remember" everyone's birthday and anniversaries, great for growing families!
 Master checklist allows you to keep track of any home or family projects you intend to accomplish
Organizedhome.com has some great printables for overall home organizing! The 3 printables above were ones I retrieved from here and there are a ton more for all different wants or needs!




The above monthly bill organizer is one that I made. I wanted something simple and with just the right amount of info and I found it hard to find one that was fitting my idea. I made this one very easily by creating a table in Word, then adding my labels to the top of each column. If you are interested in THIS monthly bill printable, simply comment below (preferably with an email) and I will be happy to email you it!


Christmas printables are equally awesome! Having 3 kids, I try to do up the holidays as much as possible and these printables are going to make every year from now on easier.


A baking planner to organize recipes used every Christmas! I make homemade hot cocoa AND homemade orange shortbread every Christmas, so those recipes went in here :-)

Specific family traditions can be also neatly organized with this printable, allowing you to never forget about certain things that are important to you and prepare for them a little easier

Keeping track of Christmas decor can be a snap with this checklist. It enables you to check off things you have and jot down things you need. I also plan on using the lines next to each item to specific which bin it's in, to make it easier to organize and find all my Christmas decorations!

A very simple Christmas gift checklist. Write down who you are buying for, a gift idea or what you bought, and then you can either give yourself a budget or write down what you spent to keep track of spending!


All of the above printables are incredibly useful and were all retrieved from this site, which has many more printables to offer (Holiday and Home) and all are for free. A great and efficient way to get everything organized!



I decided to include a few other sites that have some great printables. Depending what you're looking for, these sites, as well as the other mentioned, should be a huge help!

Useful websites for other home organizing printables:
Tip Nut- Make a Household Notebook
Lovely Little Snippets- Cute and Simple Holiday Printables



December will be dedicated entirely to Christmas and the planning of. I told my fiance' that this year, i am not doing anything home or project related in the month of December unless it is related to Christmas. I am going to spend the whole month finishing decorating, making yummy sweet treats, sending out cards, and coming up with great gifts!

This means that all my posts for the next month will be solely related to the holiday and preparing for it! check back to see the recipe for my homemade hot cocoa, a cute idea for hanging Christmas cards, holiday basket idea for the hard-to-buy people, and any sweet treats and holiday awesomness I do along the way! Hope everyone has a HAPPY THANKSGIVING and I will be back soon with the start of my month of Christmas!!


Friday, November 16, 2012

Fast and Easy Thanksgiving Tablescape! Enjoy a beautiful table with little effort for the holiday!

Thanksgiving seems to come and go very quick around my house! We do so much preparing and decorating for Halloween and then just as Thanksgiving is approaching, we are trying to the same preparing and decorating for Christmas!

This year, Thanksgiving will NOT be lost among the other holiday hustle and bustle. We are making sure to keep our holidays separate and celebrating Thanksgiving solely by itself.... (But, don't get me wrong, the day after Thanksgiving, up goes our tree!).

 To help keep our house festive specifically for Thanksgiving, I decided to do a very simple and pretty autumn inspired tablescape!

 This tablescape was put together easily and without much time at all! Most of these things I had from various occasions or previous years.

Mostly, these items were used in my Halloween tablescape (click here for Halloween tablescape). I just removed the spooky or gross items, and added in a few autumn or Thanksgiving extras!

This above view shows you what this tablescape basically consists of. I used an dull orange "placemat" that I folded in half, so it would only be in the middle of the table and not stretching across. I have a small silver platter (not real, $1 at dollar store) that I covered with a leaf plate(on clearance at Walmart- $3!) and several small foam gourds that I also found at the dollar store. it was a small pack of 5 for $1. I added a string of fall colored leaves around the outside of the platter (fall leaves- $1 at dollar store)
 I finished it off with a turkey "bowl" (the label says bowl but I used it as a candle holder) in the center, which was on clearance at Walmart for $3 and I also had 4 pumpkin candles from previous years and I used one in each corner of the placemat.
 The added bonus was that I also found this really cute leaf napkin holder on clearance at Walmart for $3! We actually needed a napkin holder and until I find a more general use one that I like, this works great for the season!


 This tall bird's eye view shows that even a gorgeous tablescape can look amazing without taking up too much space. I have a big family and we all sit at the table to eat, so we clearly have enough room, even with enjoying the beautiful decor!
As you can see, my son loves sitting at the table (and jumping in my pictures with his smiles!). This festive table is perfect for something small with a lot of pop. It's perfect for the season, easy to put together(and take down), and very affordable! Feel free to try this tablescape for your Thanksgiving dinner or maybe get cre8tive and toss some other things in there too! Enjoy your holiday and have a Happy Thanksgiving!! Gobble gobble!!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Gorgeous Fall Nail Art- Easy to do!





This time of year is so beautiful for so many reasons- the cooler weather, the falling and color changing leaves, and holidays! Well, here is gorgeous fall/autumn inspired mani with gold leaves! I will show you how I created this adorable design and I hope you love it as much as I do for this season!



Items Used:
Deep Gray polish
Gold Glitter top coat
Deep Beige/Natural polish
Bright Gold Glitter striper or polish
Cuticle stick/Toothpick

I started with a deep gray base color. The specific color I chose was SLATE by Sinful Colors


 Then I used a holographic gold glitter to add some sparkle to the gray. I used SHINING STAR by Orly


 I wanted a slight gradient so then I used a holographic polish of a deep natural color. I used ALL HAIL THE QUEEN by Butter London (P.S. I LOVE this polish! The holographic finish in it is amazing and truly it is a gorgeous color with tons of sparkle!)

 Next, I used a gold striper to create the leaf shape and used my cuticle stick to make little indents, to simulate the veins of the leaf!


 After a healthy coat of top coat to seal in the design, I was finished! Simple right?! And I love this fall look! I really enjoy the different colors on the base and how the leaf pulls it all together for a great autumn look. Perfect for the season and fall holidays! May be a good choice for Thanksgiving nails, without being difficult or time-consuming!

 I hope you like this design and please let me know what you think! If you have any requests or ideas, be sure to comment below or post them to my Facebook and I will try my best to fill requests! What's your favorite fall mani? :-)


Thursday, November 8, 2012

DIY Home Organizing Binder/Home Management Binder! Part 1 of 2

The more time I spend on house projects and crafts with the kids, the less time I have for all the other little stuff. Home management binder, to the rescue!! The idea for this is to keep all my little stuff, ideas, dates, and little stuff I need in  one place and completely organized for easy access and efficiency.

So, to show you how I created my binder, I am doing a 2 part post and this first post is part 1. Part 1 is the outside of the binder and part 2 will be the inside! Keep a lookout fora  future post on part 2, where I show you all the printables and goodies I stuffed inside!

This binder is super easy and affordable to make, and to personalize! Now, you can get a basic black, 1" binder at Walmart for .97 cents, as pictured here. I made a few binders for other people so I decided to make them a bit more fun and personal.
 The roll of Quick Cover is simply a self-adhesive "shelf liner" or basically a patterned contact paper. It has a coat paper that your remove and you can stick the print where you want it. I got this roll at Dollar Tree for $1!

I cut a rectangle shaped piece for the front of the binder....
 And a smaller strip piece for the side...and then stuck both to the binder using adhesive side.
 I printed out title pages for the front of the binders and small labeling strips for the sides. I just did this whole thing in word, and picked out clip art that I liked, base don who the binder was for and what I thought they would like. You can personalize this in ANY way... use any colors, objects, pictures, whatever you like!
 Notice the right side title says "task & reward book".... Yes, you can make a binder for the little ones if you want and they can stay organized too! (This one is for my 12 yr old sister, and the binder offers chore sheet, reward system, consequence page AND boredom bursting activities!)
 I used Mod Podge (matte) and a foam brush to glue and seal the title page onto the shelf liner. I did only the back and then waited 5 full minutes. Then I coated the front of the title page 5 times, allowing a 20 minute drying in between each coat. (VERY important to let the coats drying in between, and a full 15-20 mins!)

 I did use the first 2 coats over the title page and the last 3 I did over the entire front cover, to help seal the liner in as well. Because I used the matte finish, it gave the front a wood, almost grainy type finish. But not in a bad way! It has a nice texture when you touch it and it definitely feels solid and sealed. I don't feel seams, and so I know it will last and everything will stay stuck on! :-)

*Note* I used regular printer paper for my title pages and it did create a few small bumps because the paper is thin, but the bumps were mostly able to be smoothed out. Another alternative, which I should have done, would be to print on cardstock!
So in all, these binders came out really cool, they are personalized for the people they are going to AND the cover is solid. You can stick this in a bookcase without worry of the front coming off, and the side labels help to find it fast!

What do you think of this binder? Would you make something like this for yourself? Keep a look out for my next post on all the stuff I put in the binder to help organize my house and life and things I found to help with these binders I made for family that may be useful! That post will be SUPER informative!!

Until next time! :-)
Cre8tiveKtina

Monday, November 5, 2012

Queen of Hearts Mani and Julep's November Box!!


 So Halloween just passed and this year, my entire family dressed up. We have been trying to get everyone involved the past few years. The hubby and I went as Alice in Wonderland Characters. He was the Mad Hatter and I was the Queen of Hearts. I did my mani with red french tips, lined the smile line with gold. I used black to create whimsical black stripes then hearts on my accent nails (thumb and ring). Topped it all off with a healthy coat of glitter, for extra sparkle! I liked how there turned out because they definitely matched my costume but without being too specific. I was able to enjoy this mani a few days before and after! Warning! Super cute family photo from Halloween coming!! :-)



BUT now that Halloween passed for the year... Julep's November box came! If you are not familiar or signed up with Julep, check the info I provide at the end to learn how to sign up and whats involved! But for now, let me show you what I got for this month!

First off, they always send a cute little package that is wrapped beautifully and they also send extra little goodies with each box. Sometimes they are nail goodies, as you can see from November's box, I got nail polish remover pads. But other times they have sent candy or glitter, even a lip balm! It's always a nice surprise! :-) 

 They also include a cute, usually inspirational, quote that is fitting for the time. Thanksgiving is coming and this quote discusses being thankful, makes sense right?
 Two of the products I received were polishes. Nora, which is a deep metallic-style purple, and Hailee, which is a deep metallic-style green. Both boast on being "Matte Suede Finish" meaning that once they dry, the polish has a dull, lusterless finish with no gloss to it. For some polishes and colors, this is an awesome thing because the texture of the polish can really change how the color looks. In this month's box was also a Matte top coat, which is also awesome because it give ANY polish a matte finish! This is cool because if you don't know whether you will like matte polishes, you can get a matte top coat, and use any polish!
 RIGHT TO LEFT(Hailee with glossy top coat, Hailee without topcoat, Nora with glossy top coat, Nora without top coat)
 Putting them side by side like this shows how you can clearly see the difference when adding a glossy top coat as opposed to a matter finish.
 Honestly, I think both finished for these polishes are gorgeous! Matte or glossy, these colors are a great addition for fall and winter manis!
 Which color do you like better? Which finish do you like better? I usually go glossy but some colors matte are just amazing!

 Julep is pretty amazing! To become a Julep Maven, it's only $19.99 every month and they send you a box, like the one pictured above. These polishes sell for $14 EACH but you get 2-3 polishes in each box for $20 a month! Plus, let's not forget those little extras and goodies I mentioned earlier (candy, makeup products, extra nail goodies). You can skip a month, and not get a box or get billed, or you can even send it to a friend one month! That is really cool because that means there is no obligation. Don't like the polishes for next month? No problem! Skip that month! :-)   They really make it easy to attain great polish at an affordable price!



To cash in now, become a Julep Maven and get your first Julep box for only 1 penny, yes 1 penny! Click THIS LINK here to sign up and start enjoying the wonderful world of Julep! Use the Promo code COLOR2012 to get your first box for only 1 cent, 1 single penny and free shipping!! :-)