Finally! I can get my act together!

Well, no guarantees that it will help me be more organized but at least I finally found a 2011 calendar/planner that I like which fits easily into my purse!  I had been ISO a new calendar for some time but couldn't find one like my favorite from two years ago.  Apparently they quit making them and last year I re-purposed another planner and stuffed it inside the binder from my old favorite but  that poor binder was not going to make it through another year so I had to find a replacement. 

Of course, I had been looking since early September with no luck...everything was either too big to fit into my purse, had daily page entries too small to actually write on legibly (as if anything I write is legible!) or didn't allow me to decorate it up a bit to make it my own. Finally, I was browing around in the office supply section at Target this week and decided to sneak a peek into the Dollar Spot area at the front of the store. I have found that it's usually best for me to avoid the bargain bins because I find way too many bargains which then hibernate forever in my "I could stamp on that" stash in the closet of my stamp room. But this week was different, I found the perfect pocket calendar...it has a clear vinyl protector sleeve and BIG spaces inside for me to overschedule myself....and for only $1. As a bonus, I also found a large desktop calendar to hang on the wall in the kitchen for...you guessed it, only $1! That is much better than what I paid last year and now I can start planning my life!

Naturally, that clear plastic sleeve on my pocket planner was just begging to be decorated and since I do my best work in the wee hours of the morning (one of many reasons why I love being in the "Late Night Stampers" group) I went downstairs to play with it when I should have been heading for bed.

Anyway, this is what I came up and I love it! What do you think? I used a sheet of my favorite pattern from the tropical themed decorative paper from this past Summer Mini and stamped the "share what you love" image from the limited edition SU stamp I bought at convention to put on the front. I colored it in with markers to get the birds different colors then punched it out with a Decorative Label punch and backed it with a similar looking "punch"...a little trick I picked up from some demo friends. I'll try to practice until I can enlarge the punched piece a little bit and then maybe I can show you how to do the same.  This is that great punch that is in one of the Holiday Bundles for 20% off along with the cute tag set from the Holiday Mini.  Gotta love a new punch and a sale!  If you haven't checked out the sale yet, just click on the link at the very top of my blog and you can see all of the deals...the sale ends on December 18th.    Jan