Busy, busy day

Yesterday was awesome and lots happening today. I will update on my normal weekend wrap up on Monday. So far my 3 day weekend is perfect.  Parade for the church this afternoon.  Weather is cold and we got snow last night, but it's not on the road so we should be good for the parade. My friend was hiking on one of the smaller trails and got some great pictures shortly after the snow started.

Let the baking begin...

I have some friends I want to give baked goods to this year. I was looking for a cute way to package cookies and saw this on Pinterest.

I also liked this because the boxes would keep them from getting smashed.

I have a ton of little loaf pans so I also like to make loaf cakes/breads as gifts. Simple wrapping but cute.

I found this new idea to try. Coconut loaf cake. 

And a milk chocolate loaf cake.

The gingerbread loaf looked good as well.

And I am always fond of lemon loaf.

But the new one I found that I want to try is cinnamon swirl donut bread.

Take a deep breath....

Take a deep breath, because when you read about my busy life it is going to exhaust you just thinking about it. You will also see why I need a planner to keep everything in my life on track. This is my week starting today.

Work a 12 hour day as a group greeter. We have a special show this morning with around 20 buses to greet and a bunch of individual small groups. That means we will be seating over 1000 school kids and their chaperones. Then we have our regular shows. 

Going to go finish my Christmas shopping. Need to go to Target, Walmart, JC Penny's, Michael's, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore, Kohl's and stop by Park West Hospital gift shop for my annual Brach's Malted Milk Ball bulk buy.

Birthday dinner with the family to celebrate the upcoming birthday of my children and myself. 

After dinner - bring the three youngest grandchildren home with me to spend the entire weekend. 

Take three of The Grands shopping to help me pick out presents for their Mom's. 

Organize the line up of the Kodak Community Christmas Parade and send it on its way. Then drive a different route to be where the parade ends to make sure all children get back with their parents and to thank all the participants of the parade. 

Movie night at Mamaw's Place where we will have pizza and popcorn and have a Christmas movie marathon. 

Sunday School followed by church where we will watch the Children's Christmas play. Then out to lunch at our favorite fast food place, Wendy's. From there we are going to the movies to watch The Star. 

After movie I'll drop the kids off at their respective homes and then hurry back to church for the final practice for our choir's Christmas Cantata next week.

Then two days of working anywhere from 8 - 10 hours depending on my schedule. 

Then off for my birthday which I plan to spend making orange cookies. This is a major all day project because it makes about 72 - 96 cookies depending on size. It is a "from scratch" recipe and includes lots of steps, such as grating the zest of 6 oranges, squeezing the juice of 6 oranges, putting the frosting on every single cookie after they cool. 

Last but not least, another day off but I will be running by work to submit some of the cookies above to the Cookie Contest at work. Then back home to wrap the Christmas presents I am finishing up tomorrow. 

See, told you that this would exhaust you. And it will all get accomplished. This is why I love my life. I may go, go, go but when the end of my time here comes I can honestly say I enjoyed life to the absolute fullest.

Planning ahead to plan ahead

A post about planning for 2018 is a little premature unless you consider that I want to purchase a new 2018 planner for my Christmas gift so I can plan before New Year's. I have spent the last several mornings researching planners and have decided the Happy Planner is the one for me. I liked this one better than most but it just isn't me. I'm more a glitz and glitter gal when it comes to planners for my Thirty-One business and busy life.

So I kept looking and found a gold one. I thought "Ah-ha". Nope, this is the 2016 model. They don't make it now.

Then by accident I found it. The perfect one for me. It has some gold, but it has the signature shades of Thirty-One, pinks & turquoise. And it is affordable and at Michael's where I am going on Friday. 

It comes with monthly calendar layout pages and weekly, which is what I am looking for. 

It also comes with dividers that I just love. DREAM is one of the big catch phrases in Thirty-One so I love that one divider has a quote about dreams above and the one below that says "Stars get tangled in her hair whenever she plays in the sky." That one makes me want to reach for the stars to make my dreams come true.

I love that Michael's and Hobby Lobby carry tons of sticker packages to decorate your planner days with instead of just having pages that are bland with nothing but ink in a white space. It appeals to my creative side to have all these colors. Planners nowadays are sometimes a cross between a planner, a journal and a scrapbook. Three things I love. 

 

Not only do they have cute sayings and things, but they have little stickers for appointments, to do, etc. You can tell at a glance what you have going on in your life for any day.

 Here is a sample of how one lady has her days laid out. In addition to what comes with the planner, you can purchase inserts, note pads, etc. Or design your own pages like menus, budgets, etc. and set up your own custom planner with the unique snap ring binder.

I saw where one lady actually takes cute cards she finds and punches the holes to put them in her binder as inspiration.

You can create your own or purchase card stock pages to use to separate your sections inside each tab. 

I need this one. It is one of the most famous saying among Thirty-One gals.

You can purchase sticky notes that fit right on the calendar squares so you can see what is what at a glance for your month.

While I was on the Hobby Lobby site looking at their products, I saw a tab that said projects. So I just had to click it and oh my word! You can make your own "bling" for your planner. They are called planner charms and you hook them to the ring of your planner. Do you think I would like charms? HELLO! Have you met me? More BLING! 

Here is one sample I saw on Pinterest (well, of course you know this was all going to eventually lead to Pinterest.)

So I started looking at some Hobby Lobby charm availability. You can purchase a claw hook and chain of your choice and then you are ready to add charms.

I like the one with the state of Tennessee.

I love light pink crystals so this one is going on my wish list. Matches the pink theme with my other stuff.

I also love keys and Thirty-One uses the key symbol a lot in regards to the key to success.

I like the simplicity of the one above, but I kind of like this one as well.

I will need a pink tassel since I like tassels as well.

And I am pretty sure I will getting a 3 and a 1 charm for it.

And since the main purpose of the planner is for my Thirty-One business for next year, I have got to have a pink purse charm. 

Well, I am thinking I have probably put you on brain overload with ideas or I have put you into a coma from boredom. Either way, thanks for stopping by and let me ramble on. I tend to do that when I get this super excited.

Christmas humor

Weekend Wrap Up

Saturday I went to work at 8:00 after only about 5 hours of sleep because I was up so late watch the deer frolicking in the field. But instead of working till 10:00 they let me go home at 6:15 because I went down and worked one of the shows at our other theater, Smoky Mountain Adventures. It felt weird but it sure felt good.

Since we had a busy group day and I'm a group greeter, I decided to take my pedometer. From 9:00 when groups started arriving at Dixie till 6:15 when I was done with the last group at the other show I walked 12,341 steps. That is over 6 miles. I worked for 4 of the shows so that means I average about 3,000+ steps for every show we have. That's a lot of walking. No wonder I crash when I get home. 

I did get time for lunch and since it was a little cold being out all day, I opted from chili from Wendy's. I love their chili.

Sunday at Children's Church we did some fun decorating the hallway for Christmas after our lesson on the birth of Jesus.

I had a couple of helpers in the hallway while the rest of the class made candy canes from pipe cleaners.

Then they lined up and hung their candy canes, snowmen and snowflakes on a line down the wall.

I forgot to get the picture of the finished project. After they were done, I had some Christmas photo props so we took some pics. 

I came home and had some hot chocolate and donuts before heading out to work.

It was a great weekend.