I'm a Builder Part II

The Awesome Huge Family Calendar Project

Please ignore the shadow blob on all these pictures - camera defect - *sigh*

So, over the years I've tried to convince myself that my horrendous disorganization is simply the byproduct of an incredibly creative mind. *snort* Okay, but really...with four kids and some huge changes in our work/life schedule, my life was quickly devolving into no creativity and a lot of sheer panic for all the things I kept forgetting.

What I wanted was a huge calendar. I mean huge. And pretty because it was going in the main entryway. And reusable, like a white board. Wouldn't you know it though, every huge calendar I could find looked like it belonged in an office break room.  I'd seen some cute things done with chalk boards and chalk board paint, but it wasn't going to work in my space.

So, since I couldn't find anything I liked (how in the world wide web is that possible?), I decided to create my own.

This project is easy - no nails or screws involved.
Okay, I lied. There's one nail, to hang the calendar.

Materials:

Picture frame of your choice with glass
Paint (optional)
Wrapping paper - a subtle pattern helps
Sharpies
Letter stickers (if, like me, you are penmanship challenged and/or don't own a Cricut)
Glue
Tape
Spray adhesive (optional, but I bet you'd get better results with it)

Instructions:

The Picture Frame Part

1. Find a picture frame the size you wanted. We just happened to have this puppy in storage under our stairs. Not a bad picture, but it was outdated and hadn't seen the light of day for years. Best of all, it was 30x30 inches square. Nice and huge, just like I wanted.

2. Take the picture apart. Carefully remove the picture, backing and the glass from the frame. You'll use these later.

3. Paint the frame, if desired. I actually am a wimp with color, so I used leftover trim paint from the house in a nice, clean white. For the space our calendar is in, it blends in well.

The Calendar Part

1. Choose paper for your calendar. Ours was so big that wrapping paper worked out perfectly. It took me a while to find a pattern than I liked that was still subdued enough so that I'd be able to focus on the calendar and not the print. (I found mine at Target)

2. Use your awesome math skills to determine where your lines are going to go (this is dependent on the size of your picture frame and the amount of border you want around the calendar).

3. Draw your lines using a Sharpie and a straight edge. Another benefit to using wrapping paper was knowing I had a few 'do-overs' still in the roll if I messed up. And yes, I used them.

4. Add your days of the week. I used oh-so-stylish stick on letters from Wal-Mart. You, perhaps, don't have the penmanship of a neanderthal and can do something better. 

The Really Tricky Part

1. Place your calendar onto the picture backing you saved when your took your picture frame apart. In my case, the picture and the backing were just a single piece of cardboard, so I turned the picture over and placed the calendar on the blank side.

2. Center it. Yes, I know, for you it'll be easy. For non-crafty me, it was pull-your-hair-out, millimeter scrunching torture. I found that it helped to put the glass over the top and line it up with the cardboard backing. Then I could see if I really did have it even.

3. Secure it. I taped my paper to the back of the cardboard. But, I'm betting that if you had some of that adjustable spray adhesive, it would work a lot better. At the end of my attempt, I had a few puckers. But by that point, there was no way I was taking it all apart again to fix them.

4. Put it all back together again, frame, glass, calendar and backing.

That blob on the camera lens is really starting to bug me.

The Using It Part

1. Hang it on the wall.

2. Use wet erase markers so it won't smear. The glass acts just like a white board, so you can write and wipe off to your heart's content. 

I write the month on the left of each row. You can use it any way you want, but for me, this is a rotating calendar, so my months are not neat and orderly, always starting the month at the top. As soon as a week is done, I erase it and replace it with the next week so I always have five weeks running. I put a sticky note on the current day. So, for instance, my calendar right now is set up like this:

             Sun   Mon   Tue   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat

April         7     8     9     10    11    12    13

April         14    15    16    17    18    19    20

March         17    18    19    20    21    22    23

March         24    25    26    27    28    29    30

April         31    1     2     3     4     5     6

When this week is done, I'll erase it and add the fourth week of April. I know it looks odd, but it works well for us.

* Oh, and I think this project would work just as well for chore charts or weekly menus, etc.


In case you're wondering why I can never get a straight camera shot of the calendar or my nook desk, here's the answer:

The space I have to work with is a three foot wide hallway. There's my calendar hanging on the left and my desk on the right. It's the perfect spot for dropping stuff and checking the calendar on the run. It's not so great for trying to take head-on camera shots of your building projects.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this little diversion into something not writerly.

Now, get back to writing!

~Susan

The Real Nanowrimo Preparation Starts Now...And I'm Not Talking About Outlining

"Focus is a matter of deciding which things you're not going to do." 

--John Carmack

The first time I did Nanowrimo the only thing I remember giving up is sleep. At 2, 3, even 4 a.m. you could find me at my computer--writing, talking to people about writing, perusing the Nanowrimo forums...It took me well over a  year to recover from that piece of foolishness, but I suppose it was worth it, because by the time I was done, I was a novelist, and there's been no turning back. (I guess you could call it my residencyJ)

Since that first year, I've refused to let the lion's share of my sacrifice be sleep. However, nearly every year, exercise and healthy eating habits have fallen victim to my need to complete Nanowrimo while simultaneously keeping my kids alive. There will be more about that next week, but suffice it to say that I can't do that this year. This year, my health has got to supersede Nanowrimo on my scale of priorities.

Even if you're not doing Nanowrimo, you know that certain pieces of the writing process are labor intensive. What do you give up?

Eating? Of course not! Those creative juices burn tons of calories. We need to eat to keep our strength up! But, with a little preparation, you can give up Cooking!

At least that's one of the things I'm hoping to give up this year. My sister Mindy is a bionic superwoman who is raising a family, working full time and taking a full course load of classes so she can finish her degree THIS semester. The whole thing has been tough, but she knew this semester was going to be heinous, so one afternoon, before the semester started, she and her husband froze 27 meals. (Um...numbers have never been my thing. If she reads this she'll have to let us know how close I came to telling the truth.) She said it was cheaper, easier, more nutritious and yummier than what they ate the semester before.

From Six Sister's Stuff: 8 Slowcooker Meals in One Hour

Here are a couple of the websites she used: kojo-designs and Six Sister's Stuff. (Check them out! We writers are not the only creative people out there. It's amazing.)

Her particular favorite so far has been the Lime Salsa Chicken from kojo-designs.

What other things can you get done before Zero Hour? Here are a few of my thoughts:

I'm a preschool teacher. Obviously I can't get my teaching done ahead of schedule, but there are plenty of planning things I can get out of the way while it's still October. Luckily, my employer is very flexible with paying me for stuff like that.

I doubt my own kids are going to play along with this idea, but it would be great if they would eat hot lunches at school for the month of November. That would save me at least 20 minutes a day, maybe more. If not, they might be forced to make their own. (Oh, the inhumanity!)

Guest bloggers! Not for every week, because I'd like to keep you posted on my progress, but I've got one guest blogger lined up, and I'd like at least one more. I hate to even tell you how many hours that will free up on those weeks. It's almost crazy how long it takes me to pull together a post.

Christmas shopping! October seems like a crazy early time to Christmas shop, but Christmas looks a lot closer from the far side of November.

Speaking of shopping, if your budget permits, you could do one gargantuan grocery shopping trip in October, even if you don't choose to make freezer meals. Then you could return for perishables in an Amazing Race style shopping trip once a week.

Get up to date on doctor's appointments, hair appointments, any other appointments you can squeeze in that you might otherwise be tempted to do in November. I plan to dye my hair on Halloween. (Just brown. I'm boring like that.)

It's a true fact that your hair will be healthier if you only wash it every other day. That'll save a few minutes here and there. A minute saved is a minute earned.

If you get your house sparkling clean on October 31, you can probably get by without cleaning it again for a couple weeks. Right?

Apologize in advance to everyone on facebook. While I'll still be posting about Nanowrimo, I'm not going to get caught up in the vortex that is social media. Really, I'm not. Not this year. No sirree. It would be AWESOME if you could shut off your internet during writing time. Of course, as soon as you do, you'll need to double check whether or not an English bordar could own his own oxen in the year 1086. J Then you'll have to turn the internet back on, which is time consuming. Just leave the internet on, and exercise that willpower, my friends.

I have this semi-funny vision playing through my head of trick-or-treaters ringing my bell on Halloween and my saying, "Come in and grab some candy! My hands are covered in raw chicken," as I hurry to make freezer meals, clean, do laundry...yeah. The last week of October isn't looking like a lot of fun at my house.

What other time savers can you think of?