November, 2012 |

My Dollar Store Mantle

November 30, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 38 Comments

It is hard to believe that it is almost December. In order to start to get my house decorated for the holidays, I made some decorations from items from the dollar store. These are three simple crafts that took less than an hour to make (combined). I visit my mother every week and sometimes we work on crafts. I cherish our time together, and lately we have been working on creating inexpensive holiday decor.

Today I wanted to share how I made some decorations for my fireplace mantle. By the way if you are wondering, I looked it up and mantle can be spelled either mantle or mantel, who knew? Ok, back to my topic. Here is how I put the items together. These are some of the supplies I purchased.

So for the first project, we took the berries and glued then to the dollar store candlesticks with hot glue.

Then we attached two bows to each one and put the dollar candles in the holder. This is the end result:

Next I took a glass container and a string of bells and attached the bottom string to a cardboard base I glued on the base (outside of the holder). Then I wrapped the bells around the holder in a spiral.

I tied a bow around the top, and attached the other end of the string of bells with hot glue. It is ready for a candle to go inside.

Then I made my little Christmas tree decoration. I put the ornament into a foam base (both from the dollar store),

then covered the sides with ribbon, the top with paper and put the little gift boxes around the base.

I put everything together on my mantle and this is how it looks.

Can I just say that I just love the dollar store? Be sure to check out my previous post on dollar store crafts for my buffet table. I am going to do something with the candy canes in a future post. What is your favorite type of craft?

I am sharing this project at Sand and Sisal, I Love My Disorganized life

and

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY, Entertaining & Celebrations, Winter · Tagged: cheap decorations, christmas decorations, craft ideas, crafts, crafts for teens, dollar crafts, dollar store crafts, simple crafts

Using Technology to Organize Life

November 29, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 17 Comments

Today is a special day! Ferly from Gifts We Use and I are trading places! I recently got the chance to meet Ferly IRL (in real life) and let me tell you, she is amazing! We discussed our reasons for blogging and our desire to help others through our blogs. We shared stories of our careers and roles as a wife and mom. So, I introduce to you, (drumroll….) Ferly!

I am a planner and organizer to my core, and calendars and Day Planners used to send my heart racing! Because of that, I have tried any and all systems of organization. I used academic calendars while in school, day planners once I got a job, Palm Pilots {remember those?}, and more. The responsibility I got, the more I realized that I needed a system of organization that could keep up with me.

It wasn’t until I got my smart phone that technology finally managed to bring my planning and organizing where I needed it. I will share my techy organizing must haves and hope to inspire you to take full advantage of your smart phone once and for all!

Calendars

This is an obvious must have, but I use my techy calendar to its full capacity by creating multiple calendars. I have a calendar for birthdays and holidays, one for each person in my family, our expenses and pay days, and even one for my daily “routine” at home, and each calendar has its own color code to set it apart.

Creating separate calendars allows me to filter what I want to see on a larger scale so I have a better idea of how busy we really are. Often in families, what goes on one person’s schedule likely affects at least one other person’s calendar as well. Seeing it all {or seeing only a few} makes for simpler planning.

Task List

Like my calendars, I create multiple task lists on my smart phone to keep track of things like shopping lists, chores, priority to dos for the day, and weekly goals. Having my shopping list on my phone is convenient because I can cross off and put items back onto my list with ease. Listing my weekly chores reminds me what needs to be done each day without cluttering my calendar.

Contacts

My hubby and I share most of the same contacts since we keep in touch with most of the same friends and family members, so I have been designated the contact keeper and have my own contact group {see a theme happening here?}, and the hubster keeps his own separate contact group for work associates and clients. The trick to keeping contacts is having one central hub of information and one keeper of information so that contacts are always up to date and never duplicated. Having them synchronized is what makes this possible.

Synchronization

We sync our information {calendars, reminders and contacts} using iCloud because we all have Apple devices. This is the techy magic that makes everything work. If I update my brother’s email on my phone, my hubby gets the update and can contact him without even realizing it ever changed. If the hubby makes a change to his schedule during the week on his phone, I can see the change as soon as it happens on my phone and can plan accordingly. If you haven’t taken advantage of sync or cloud technology, do it! It will change your life for the better!

If you don’t have a smart phone…

Many of the apps available on smart phones are also available through websites without the need for a smart phone. Some of the more popular ones are Google Calendar {calendar only} and Cozi Family Organizer {calendar, tasks, meals and more}. Each makes these important must haves available to every member of the family when they need it.

Are You Ready to Dive In?

Have you been timid in the technology department, but desperate to get your family life in order? Are you wondering what else you can do with that fancy new smart phone you just got? Ask around, dive in, and play with technology! Find out what you’ve been missing!

All the must haves above are no different than any other organizers must haves, it’s how I use them that makes the biggest difference. Taking the time to figure out our needs and finding creative solutions to meet those needs is what makes me and technology a winning organizing pair. Having the courage to play around and ask questions helps a ton too! Don’t be afraid to ask a techy person {me!} how they do what they do. I would be more than happy to share, in fact, it’s one of the reasons I blog! Visit Gifts We Use and ask me your techy questions!

Ferly is a wife, mom and blogger on a journey to a clutter free house and life. She blogs at Gifts We Use {to grow, love and serve} about organizing, technology, family life and blogging hoping to inspire you to use our gifts to grow, love and serve your loved ones.

Please join me in giving Ferly a warm, island welcome. Also, be sure to check out her blog, where I am hanging out today. Have a wonderful day!

Filed Under: Home Management, Planning Organization, Productivity, Time Management, Time Saver Tip · Tagged: calendar, managing family schedules, organization, schedule, smart phone, synchronizing schedules, task list, technology

An App That I am Not Over

November 28, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 12 Comments

While checking out some of the online specials for Cyber Monday, I came across a smartphone app that I want to share with you. I am all about applications and products that will save time and this is one of them.

The Over app is an application that takes your photos from your phone, allows you to put text to it, and share them on social networks. Now, there are lots of applications that will let you add text to photos and modify the photos, but I have not seen one that lets me do so this quickly.

I created this message in less than a minute on a photo I had taken of a skating rink a couple of days ago.

And then I played around with the different fonts available and added text to this photo:

You can modify the contrast and change the font, color, position and size of the text. There is a wheel that comes up on the right of your phone screen so you can do this all with one hand.

Keep in mind that these took seconds to create. What I like is that these make for quick sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and Instagram. You can email the photo as well. How cute would this be for holiday email greetings or Christmas cards or gift tags? Or you can use it to catalog items in your home.

Here is another one, created in a matter of seconds. If you follow me on Twitter, this photo will make sense to you. If you are not – why not?

This application is currently $1.99 and is available for the iPhone, iPad and most versions of the iPod Touch.

Do you use a photo editing app on your phone? Also, if you are enjoying this blog, please consider following it by email or social media. I have a lot of things planned for December!

Filed Under: Apps, Blogging, Time Saver Tip · Tagged: app, awesome iPhone apps, best iphone apps, cheap phone apps, i phone apps, photo app, social media, social media timesaver, text app, timesaver

My Leftover Recipe

November 26, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 21 Comments

So this weekend I had some leftover cranberries from the Thanksgiving dinner we had. I wanted to make muffins, but change it up a ittle bit. So I not only added orange juice, but added some mandarin oranges to the muffins.

They came out chock full of fruit flavor. Here is the recipe:

Orange – Cranberry Muffins

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup cranberries

3/4 cup manderine oranges

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter muffin pan.

Mix dry ingredients.

Add cranberries, oranges and wet ingredients.

Blend well and spoon into buttered muffin tin. Bake in for 17-19 minutes.

Did you make something with Thanksgiving leftovers?

Filed Under: Recipes · Tagged: breakfast breads, cranberries, Leftover cranberries, muffins, orange cranberry muffins, Thanksgiving leftovers

Dollar Store Christmas Decorations

November 22, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 90 Comments

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. We had a nice time hosting the family at our house. We spent the afternoon watching football and relaxing. Now that Thanksgiving is over it is time to gear up for Christmas. Recently my mother and I worked on some Christmas decoration crafts after a trip to the Dollar Tree.

These are some of the items we started with a napkin holder,

some tree ornaments,

ribbon, and a picture frame.

Each item shown cost one dollar. Isn’t that a great deal?

Using a glue gun, I glued a couple of the ornaments to the napkin holder and then wrapped a ribbon around it.

Then I wrapped some ribbon around the photo frame,

glued the ribbon at the back and attached an ornament to the front of the frame.

Then I took the bulb ornaments and put them in a bowl that I had, with a candle in the center.

This is what my decorations look like when put together on a surface. I am going to use them on my buffet table, but you can see here what they look like together.

What do you think? Do you like to shop at the dollar store? Be sure to check out my Dollar Store Mantle and Dollar Store Holiday Table.

Filed Under: Crafts, Entertaining, Entertaining & Celebrations, Frugal Fun, Winter · Tagged: christmas decorations, crafts, dollar store crafts, dollar tree, dollar tree crafts, ornaments, simple christmas crafts

A Message To You – Yes You!

November 21, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 10 Comments

With Thanksgiving almost here, I wanted to let the following people know that I am so grateful for the support they have given me in relation to this blog. So I am shouting out a big thank you to those of you on the following list.

I thank you if you have done any of the following:

read a post on my blog, yes this one counts
commented on a post
hosted a link party I attended
listed me on your blogroll
featured a post of mine on your blog
stumbled, tweeted, pinned, shared or G plused one of my posts
connected with me at a blogger event or conference or discussion forum
followed me on Facebook, Twitter, RSS, Pinterest or Instagram

I truly appreciate you for stopping by Organized Island and reading this blog. There are a lot of people on this list and I am truly grateful to each one of you. Even if you just read my blog and do not comment, I appreciate the visit.

Some of you are on this list several times and I am sending big giant hugs to you. I have made so many wonderful connections through this blog and feel truly blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends in the United States!

Filed Under: Blogging, Thank You! · Tagged: blog thank you, gratitude, Randy Pausch, Thank you, thank you message, thank you note

Organizing Food Spices

November 19, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 22 Comments

A few weeks ago I organized my kitchen spices in preparation for the cooking and baking I am going to be doing for the holidays. I wanted to share with you how I organized my spices in my kitchen.

The first thing I did was pull all of the spices together to see which ones were too old. Most spices last a couple of years, but let me tell you, two years goes by quick. I toss out the old spices and make a list of what I need to purchase the next time I am at the store. Then I clean off the spice jars with a damp cloth because sometimes a bit of grease gets on them when cooking. Now I keep my most used spices (salt, pepper, seasoning salt) separate from my other spices because I keep them handy on my range.

But the other spices are kept in a kitchen drawer that is near the area that I bake and prepare most often, my kitchen island. I use a spice drawer insert to hold the spices in the drawer.

I alphabetize them to make them easy to find. I like that I can see all the spices at once. (Notice that the Chili powder was not where it should have been…this was fixed.)

I also put the measuring spoons in the spice drawer since I often use that with them.

When I buy a spice jar, I note the month and year purchased on the bottom of the container with a permanent marker. The spices have it printed on there, but I find that over time with use, this can fade. I like keeping spices in a drawer because it prevents them from getting splattered when I am cooking and keeps them away from the heat.

Do you organize your spices?

Filed Under: Home Management, Home Organization, Time Saver Tip · Tagged: drawer organization, food spices, kitchen organizers, kitchen spices, organizing, organizing spices, organizing your kitchen, spice rack organization, spices

Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies

November 15, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 40 Comments

So it is already a week before Thanksgiving. I am in the process of my tasks that I mentioned in my countdown post. Today I want to share with you an easy cookie for your Thanksgiving. These are made with pre-made sugar cookie dough to save time.