January, 2013 |

Paper Organization

January 30, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 90 Comments

Every day papers and emails come into my life from various sources. It is a never ending cycle. It is difficult for me to be productive if I see papers all over the place, so I have established a system with a spot for all incoming items. It took a while to become a habit, but it really works for me.

When I am at home, I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen so this is where the paper organization center starts. I have a small command center on a counter. My goal is to keep all of the information that comes in organized and accessible for future action, while keeping a little paper as necessary.

When I open the mail, items are either filed immediately or read and thrown away. If I need to keep the paper for future action, I file it in a folder. My folders include the following: Food Ads, Coupons, Unpaid Bills, Events/Entertainment and Receipts, to name a few.

If I only need to glean bits of information from the incoming paper, I will take a photo with my phone and toss out the paper version. If the item is a document I will need for taxes or future use, it is filed in a filing cabinet in another room. If the item requires response or a payment, it is filed under unpaid bills so that I can respond later.

To the left of this file box are binders for the major projects in my life. The binders are great because these projects require more storage space than a file folder offers.

These binders include Household Information, Organized Island and My Parents. My parents are on in years and I keep medical and treatment records to help manage their health. I use other binders as well, but not as often, so I do not need to keep them in the kitchen. This is valuable kitchen property, so I try not to waste it.

Binders can be changed up to match decor and can be organized any way you like. I appreciate this flexibility because the user can determine how they categorize the information.

This system allows me to:

Keep information organized and accessible
Keep as little paper as possible
Keep my kitchen counters clear of clutter
Purge papers on a regular basis

What system do you use to organize your incoming papers?

Catalogue Copy Cat Challenge –

January 28, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 19 Comments

This past weekend I worked on a project as part of the magazine copy-cat challenge over at Debbie Doo’s. I needed some wall art and I found this cool print in the Crate and Barrel catalogue. This was my inspiration.

Now, I realize that the piece in the catalog is made from handcrafted paper made from boiled bark, but the $899 price was a bit more than I wanted to pay for my wall art, plus I wanted a smaller version.

I already had a frame that I could use to recreate the art on a smaller level.

So I headed to my local craft store and picked up some scrapbook paper and burlap.

I cut the scrapbook paper in smaller increments to duplicate the effect.

Then I added a piece of burlap and put it under the glass in the frame.

What do you think?

I am sharing this at Debbie Doo’s Copy Cat Challenge.

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY, Frugal Fun · Tagged: cheap decor, copycat challenge, craft, crate and barrel craft, DIY, diy wall art, frugal wall art, wall art

Organizing A Super Bowl Party

January 26, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 28 Comments

Hi Everyone! I am in the process of planning our Super Bowl Party. We have hosted Superbowl parties many times so I thought I would share my tips for organizing a Super Bowl Party with you. Even if you are not interested in the game, it is a nice excuse to get together with friends and family.

Guest List – You want to ensure that everyone that you invite can see the game, so you will want to consider that when you plan your guest list. You may want to move TV’s in your house (if your cable/network allows) so that there are additional viewing areas.

Decorations – There are tons of ideas online, but it is ok to keep it simple too. You can go with a green and white football theme or go with the colors of the teams playing this year. If you do not have a green tablecloth, you can make a runner out of some green felt and white tape. You can download football clip art and team logos from clip art websites and hang then up around your table.

Menu - This is the fun part. The Super Bowl is a great excuse for a potluck. Appetizers and finger food are great because grazing goes really well with a football game. A buffet set up works best and I usually like to include sandwiches and individual serving options. I also include raw vegetables, cheese and nuts to the menu as well. For recipe ideas, including the ones pictured here, check out the Recipe File.

If you put out nuts or small candies, be sure to put out serving cups or spoons so that people are not digging their hands into the bowls. I love my friends, but this is flu season after all, and germs are something we do not want to be sharing.

This is not the time to serve bright red fruit punch. Accidents are more likely to happen at these type of viewing parties. Put breakable items in arms reach away for the day.

Contests - You can make the day more fun with some games. You can hold a contest for the person who guesses the final score (without going over), wins a score-based football pool, or wins a Super Bowl trivia game that you developed before the party. A small prize can go to the winner.

Activities - For the kids, you may want to enlist the help of some older kids to help coordinate some activities for the children that may not be interested in the ball game for more than 5 minutes. Setting up some activities, movies or game centers will help to provide the younger crowd entertainment.

Are you hosting or going to a Super Bowl party this year?

Filed Under: Entertaining, Entertaining & Celebrations, Planning Organization, Winter · Tagged: organizing a superbowl party, party for the superbowl, planning, planning a superbowl party, Superbowl, Superbowl food, superbowl party food, superbowl party ideas

War Horse – Segerstrom Center for the Arts

January 25, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 6 Comments

The other evening I had the pleasure of attending the opening of War Horse at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

I was very excited as I know that the Tony®- award winning production was coming for a run here in Orange County.

Opening night event started with a special interactive exhibit in the hall with puppets and World War I artifacts and uniforms. Here I am with a group of blog friends with one of the puppets.

Once we sat down in the theater, we were taken back into history, Pre-WWI England, to be exact.

War Horse is a touching story about Albert, a young man and his horse, Joey. Albert and Joey have a wonderful relationship as Albert raises him from a young colt to a beautiful horse. The young man is forced to sell his beloved horse at an auction and his heartbroken.

The war continues to take lives and destroy land. As time passes, Albert is determined to find his Joey and enlists in the army to undertake a search like no other.

Albert and Joey. Andrew Veenstra (Albert) with John Riddleberger, Patrick Osteen, Jessica Krueger (Joey) © Brinkhoff and Mögenburg 2011

The scenes with Joey are incredible. The artistry of the puppeteers will have you believing that you are watching an actual horse and Joey comes to life as you watch what he endures.

The war scenes are very real and the story took me through many emotions including joy, laughter and tears.

Joey. Christopher Mai, Derek Stratton, Rob Laqui © Brinkhoff and Mögenburg

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. Due to the graphic nature of the war scenes, this play is not recommended for children under 12. War Horse is currently playing at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa from January 22 – February 3, 2012. Be sure to check out the interactive with WWI artifacts and puppet displays if you go.

They are offering military discounts here War Horse Military Advisory.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts
600 Town Center Drive
Costa Mesa, Californi

(714) 556-2787

For more info and tickets, please visit Segerstrom Center for the Arts here.

Disclosure: I was provided a ticket as a guest of a media member. Production images are copyrighted and used with permission.

Do you enjoy going to plays? What is the last play you saw?

Filed Under: Orange County Fun · Tagged: OC, Orange County, orange county theater, plays to see, recommended plays, Segerstrom Center, Things to do in the OC, Things to do this month, War Horse

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

January 24, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 30 Comments

Did you know that it is National Peanut Butter Day in the United States? Now, I do not need much of an excuse to bake, so this was a good one as any. In celebration of this day I am sharing a super easy Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe.

It is made from a cake mix, so it really is simple. This recipe is adapted from Allrecipes.

The cookies came out great and took very little time to make.

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup peanut butter (I used creamy)

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together ingredients until well combined. Roll dough into 1 inch balls onto a baking sheet.

Flatten cookies with fork. This is the best part isn’t it? I mean, how can you not make the cute criss cross design on it?

It is nostalgic for me and reminds me of baking as a little girl with my mom. But I digress.

Bake for 12-14 minutes. Let cool.

My favorite way to eat these is with a glass a milk (to drink and to dunk in).

How are you celebrating National Peanut Butter Day? What is your favorite peanut butter recipe?

Filed Under: Entertaining & Celebrations, Recipes · Tagged: cookies, cookies from cake mix, easy cookie recipe, easy peanut butter cookies, National Peanut Butter Day, peanut butter, peanut butter cookies

Green Chili Pork Tacos

January 22, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 16 Comments

It has been a busy weekend for us as we were getting stuff done around the house. Luckily my trusty slow cooker came through for me. I wanted to make some tacos for dinner, so I put a pork roast and some chili sauce to work. The results were delicious.

Green Chili Pork Tacos (from Pork Roast)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1 pork roast (about 3 lbs)

1 16 oz. bottle green chili (salas verde)

1 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded

1 dozen corn tortillas

Season pork roast with salt and pepper. Rinse off pork roast and put into slow cooker. Pour bottle of green chili on top of roast. Cook on low 8-10 hours.

When roast is done you can serve the roast as is,or shred meat and serve with warm corn tortillas. I like to serve with some monterey jack cheese, cilantro and onions. Makes about a dozen tacos.

Pinto beans make a great side dish with this dinner.

My family loves them!

How was your weekend? Did you use your slow cooker this week?

Filed Under: Recipes · Tagged: chili roast, crock pot, easy pork recipe, easy pork roast, green chili roast, green chili slow cooker recipe, pork roast, simple recipes, slow cooker pork

Next Book On My List: Return On Relationships #RonR

January 21, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 9 Comments

Do you follow your favorite companies on Twitter and Facebook? Have you interacted with these companies? I have exchanged several tweets with major companies on Twitter and when you think about it, we are truly in a relatively new territory and level of communication that did not exist even five years ago.

Ted Rubin has written a book regarding digital marketing in today’s social media age.

Ted Rubin is the Chief Social Marketing Officer of Collective Bias a Social Shopper Media Company. He is a leading social marketing strategist and in March 2009 started using and evangelizing the term ROR, Return on Relationship™.

Ted is the most followed CMO on Twitter according to Social Media Marketing Magazine. ROR is the basis of his philosophy…It’s All About Relationships! In the book Ted and his co-author, Kathryn Rose, discuss how social media contributes to your company or business’s Return on Investment (ROI).

Kathryn Rose is an award-winning, best-selling author, speaker and social media strategist and trainer with clients ranging from multi-million dollar corporations, to small business owners and entrepreneurs. Kathryn has a 20+ year career in sales and marketing that includes successful track record of using a collaborative mindset to increase sales.

Kathryn is the author of 9 books on social media marketing The Step by Step Guides to: Twitter, Facebook, SEO/Video Marketing and Linkedin for Business, The Parent’s and Grandparent’s Guides to Facebook, the Teen Safety Guide , the best-selling Solving the Social Media Puzzle and Return on Relationship.

In the book the idea of measuring return on relationships is discussed in terms of social media relationships, the loyalty the develops from this relationship and the result to the bottom line.

The book will be out January 29th and you can purchase it on Amazon here. You can learn more about Ted Rubin and Kathryn Rose below:

Social Media ….How Do You Measure Success?

Connect with Ted Rubin on Twitter here:

@TedRubin

http://www.Tedrubin.com

Connect with Kathryn Rose here:

@katkrose

http://katroseconsulting.com

http://socialbuzzclub.com

Disclosure: I am being provided with a copy of the book “Return on Relationships. As a blogger and a business owner, I am very interested to learn more about the measurement of Return on Relationships as it correlates to today’s social media channels.

Do you think there is value when a company engages with a customer on social media? What has been your experience?

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media · Tagged: estimating social media relationship value, Kaqthryn Rose, Return on Relationships, social media, Ted Rubin

Dollar Store Valentine’s Tablescape

January 17, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 36 Comments

As most of you know, I love to shop the dollar store. I wrote several posts about my dollar store crafts (look under the Frugal Fun tab), and the other day I purchased some items for Valentine’ sDay. I stopped into Dollar Tree and picked up some cute toppers,

as well as two bushes of fake roses,

this cute heart bowl,

and these these adorable heart vases.

Everything shown was $1 each.

First, I cut off the flowers,

and put a stem on each place setting

then I cut the tops off from the rest of the stems and put the buds into my glass heart bowl.

Then I put the picks into the vases and put then on a cake plate with some raffia.

This is how my table will look on Valentine’s Day:

The sweetheart candies were also from the dollar store. What do you do for Valentine’s Day?

I am sharing this at I Gotta Create and here:

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY, Entertaining, Frugal Fun, Winter · Tagged: cheap valentines decorations, dollar store, dollar tree, frugal valentine's decor, Valentine's table scape, Valentines Day, Valentines decorations, Valentines party, valentines table scape ideas

Things To Do in January

January 16, 2013 · by Organizedisland · 14 Comments

Well today is about the mid-point of the month already. Doesn’t it seem like we just turned the page on a new year the other day? I have several things I wanted to get done this month.

What I have done so far:

Cleaned out refrigerator
Put away holiday decorations
Shopped the white sales for linens
Reviewed home and auto insurance policies
Donated extra gifts received at Christmas
Started a savings account for this year’s holidays

Now, my biggest distraction (non-social media related) is the new season of TV shows. I love Property Brothers, Scandal, Nashville and now The Carrie Diaries. They are welcome distractions and I enjoy all of them. I usually record them so that I can skim through the commercials when I sit down to watch, which actually saves a lot of time.

What is still on my list:

Send a cookie care package to my son (I am baking right now)
Prepare tax records for accountant (sigh, not a favorite task)
Plan a Superbowl Party (I am more about the food and people than the game)
Reorganize home office (really more of a desk, I will be posting on this one later this month)

What is on your to do list this month? I hope that you have entering this giveaway on your list. I would love for one of my readers to win. To read more about how I strive to be productive, read my post on productivity.