arts and crafts, house and home, How To, humor, self-help, Writing Stuff

People, Plots & Planners

Without organization…

I. AM. LOST.

I truly admire those who can wander around through life without plans, schedules, organizers, alerts, banners, and alarms to get them through the day. Now don’t get me wrong. My Sundays are pretty unplanned.

FiveStar
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However; I must confess, I’ve LITERALLY scheduled burrito Sundays, movie binging, and couch potato-ing into my google calendar. For Sundays.

So… you’re still scheduled.

Uhmmm…. yeah. Ya got me.

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It’s possible I do have a problem. You do. Because yes, that may still be in the realm of being scheduled. I guess. *shrugs and shuffles feet against the floor

BAM! BUSTED!

Right. Anyway, moving on to my currently “scheduled” post…

LET’S GET THE BOOKS (AND OUR LIVES) ORGANIZED!

Have you heard of bullet journaling? It’s an overview of your month, followed by a tracker for your daily tasks you want done, followed by a list of other things you may want to do; but may or may not have time to get to. Which, you can push to the next month God-willing. This may sound complicated. But I promise it’s not.

I’ve come up with a simplistic version that has proven to work well for me. I don’t spend too much time creating the BUJO (short acronym thats super cute for bullet journal!), I keep it’s design simple, page count to a few pages (never more than FOUR), and I color code each task and check mark for easy eye-catching satisfaction!

200.gifSo, grab your markers, crayons, and stickers!

Mine are all items I already have on-hand. I don’t buy anything new except maybe the stickers. Which, if you know my obsession with Dollar Tree, you’ll completely understand… I find all my cute stickers and die-cut designs from, YEP. You guessed it!

DOLLAR TREE!

*insert bells and whistles here. **with streamers, sound makers and celebratory cheers

If I can get it at Dollar Tree, I do. She totally does.

I do not feel the need to hit the stationary store or the big box retailers of

click image to shop now

office confectionary to over spend. NO THANKS. Additionally, with the over saturation of “how much can we buy” instead of saving what we have and using a limited financially ambitious creative resource to accomplish the same thing someone else wasted their money on…. Why would you want to over pay?!

Seriously. Anyone?

Of course not!

So, here we go! Let’s plan. Let’s get organized. Let’s save moula. Let’s BUJO.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial on planning your own bullet journal to plot your month.

Speaking of plotting. I’ve barely mentioned it. But, I imagine that with

need a journal to start your bujo? click image to shop!

planning comes plotting and therefore; plotting is planning…? Or planning is a plot?

What the hell are you saying?

Who knows.

And so, the plot thickens.

arts and crafts, baking, christmas, contests and giveaways, humor

SANTAAAA!

Merry Christmas!pexels-photo-688019

Santa has made it, he’s delivered all his presents (yay!) and it’s time to clean up. (boo!) Already? All this hubbub and it’s over. Done. Poof. Just like that!

No, just kidding…

We still have twenty-four hours of yule log to watch!

Christmas Eve was special this year to us as we decorated our tree, last minute,

Sneakily wrapped our presents for one another. Last minute.

…and ate Christmas Orange Cinnamon Rolls. Hot and fresh out of the oven!

Enjoyed EVERY minute!

As Santa flew threw the night, and I tried to listen for his sleigh bells, I was awakened by the seasonal sounds of car alarms going off in the city. Ah, Los Angeles in winter. Yep.

But, if you listened hard enough, past the Falcon 9 Rocket of last week, you’ll hear Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer hauling the fat man in red with all those goodies for all the children of the world. Cue song: Here Comes Santa Clause or Christmas

So cliche. Yup. Deal with it. I’m all  Yuletide cheer and a big glass of spiked Eggnog!
Splendid
I hope you all have somewhere to go this Christmas and plenty of love and laughter in your path! I’m slapping on my Christmas war paint as we speak and throwing on some leather pants!

I love dressing up for the holidays. Of course you do. Especially, when I don’t have to cook this year! Oh, you fancy, huh.

Except, for some reason, these fake lashes are trying to gouge my eyes out. And now that the glue is drying – I use a hairdryer to speed up this process – the damn flutter looks crooked. Oh well, Cruella DeVille, here I come! Wow.  That’s right, No shame in my eyelash fancy game.
Online Sheet Music
Oh yeah, and I gotta make sure I’m pulling out that keyboard for more singing. Oh Lord. Yup, I’m a one-woman traveling band and if you don’t watch out, I will run you over with my harmonica.

Who walks around with a harmonica? It’s in my pocket. Stop it.

And what happened to the keyboard? Oh! That’s strapped to my back. Seriously, no.

Oh, Yes!

And… more Christmas-themed Karaoke? Ohhhh yeah, definitely MORE of that! You can NEVER have too much of that!! Um, I think you can.

Neverrrrr!!!

Anyway, If you can take the time to volunteer today, do so. Those in need will appreciate it. Also, don’t forget to login to your GoodReads account today and Enter the Harbor Excursions Giveaway! Contest ends December 31st! Details below:

Ooops! I’m being told it’s time to open up the presents!

But first, I’ve gotta hit the holiday head and drop off my own Yule Log….

*wink

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  

arts and crafts, baking, christmas, humor

1 Day ‘Til Christmas

IMG_5052Cue “jingle bell rock” RED nail polish… Hussy.

Pictures with Santa… Oh geez. 

Christmas-themed karaoke… Oh no, not more singing. Oooh yes! There’s always gotta involve some chart-topping vocals… Kill me.

And you got yourself a bonafied -everybody’s having a good time-

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 “Ugly Sweater” Christmas Party!

FML *slaps forehead

Last night was the Ugly Sweater Christmas party – it was a BLAST! – and a HUGE thank you to my amazing friends for hosting such a fabulous holiday bash every year; but let’s back up into the day with the start of opening up the “Ugly Sweater” Christmas Cookie Kit. Uh-oh. 

that’s right, nary a mention the amount of cookies inside

This thing was just the most adorable “all included” kit ever and what a great idea for family time. Something’s coming. Except for the fact that for $8.99 it only occupied six freaking cookies inside the damn kit. Normally, we bake a ton, then decorate. I mean, dozens, of cookies. It makes for an evening. No phones, maybe some christmas movies, but mostly a christmas playlist with pandora, and we’re decorating away. We decorate Christmas cookies every year, by the way, it’s one of our annual holiday traditions.

Ugh, you’re killing me with all this sweetness. Yes, we are those people. Back to the deceptive box. Notice in the picture I took of the box it says it “includes” remade cookies. No cookie count mention. Really? Let me look, maybe you missed it.

Okay, go for it… I’ll wait.

Photo Dec 24, 1 44 17 PM
I could feed a whole Army…            of 6?

You didn’t find it. No, you didn’t. How do I know?  I know that because it, the box, never. Quantifies. A nibbles count. Oh, and those nicely separated snowflake and Christmas tree sprinkles? They were missing? Nope. They were in there. They were just in there organized in bags of a mixed, clusterf***  version of trees, mistletoe AND snowflakes confetti. And you’d be correct again if you noticed those teeny tiny tubes, labeled ICING, weren’t nearly filled with enough icing to frost even one of those pre-baked sweater wafer bites.

Bastard cookie factory from hell.

We get into the box and are dismayed by this entire epic holiday pre-made bakery fail that we feel it would’ve all been in vain if we didn’t document the celebration-heisting foolery. Follow me on Instagram @ritaslanina and check out the cookie box from hell on the Ugly Sweater Highlights!

So when we finished our twenty minute reenactment of holiday cookie decorating, we then moved onto our actual structuring of the Ugly Christmas sweaters. Woohoo!

Why buy when you can pull it together yourself, with frugalicious style, I say!

We get back from from Dollar Tree with all of our loot and after throwing it around the room…IMG_5039.jpg

fabrics…

tinsels…

glue sticks…

and cotton balls… flying around our heads… the sound of scissors snipping and glue guns a-glueing. Magic. Was. Being made…

And more importantly, quality time with family and friends was happening. OMG. I -heart – that – so – much. Like probably, literally, THE MOST! 

Unknown-2.jpegAs we haul our cabooses to the annual gala, and enter with only the grandest of entrances, we party the night away with tons of food, friends, and holiday cheer!

Oh yeah, and a mic in my hand.

IMG_1192No one was getting outta there without some karaoke tidings under their belts. Of course not.

And yes, once that mic was turned on, you could’t get me OR the other five of us away from it. Karaoke Jail. 

Eh, what can I say….

We just LOVEChristmas. *wink

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*from all of us here at http://www.ritaslanina.com, we wish you a fun filled Merry Christmas, full of laughter and may all your Christmas wishes come true!

**special thank you to 7 for all mankind, shop the winter sale for up to 40% off today! (exp. 01/22/2018)

***Dont forget to enter Rita’s Holiday Giveaway at www.goodreads.com (exp. 12/31/2017)