2022 - HHP - Week 2 - Calendar and Creativity

[Holiday_Mom]

House and Holiday Plan by Cynthia Ewer

Week 1 - Planning and Paperwork
Week 2 - Calendar and Creativity
Week 3 - Me & Mine
Week 4 - Close to Home
Week 5 - House Room
Week 6 - Wardrobe
Week 7 - Bed & Bath
Week 8 - Family Space
Week 9 - Public Space
Week 10 - Cooking Space
Week 11 - Food Storage
Week 12 - Dining Space
Week 13 - Entryway
Week 14 - Storage
Week 15 - Final Clean
Week 16 - Nearly There
Week 17 - Celebration
Week 18 - New Year’s

This Week's Focus: Calendars and Creative Spaces

It takes time and effort to come up with a realistic plan for the weeks ahead, and to do so, the calendar is critical! This week, we chart the course of the holiday season, planning travel, guests and celebrations.

Beginning Christmas planning early grants a bonus: time for handmade holidays! Will you craft gifts, decorations or paper crafts this year? If so, you'll need a well-organized workspace, so this week, we'll declutter, clean and organize the areas of our home used for crafting, sewing, or paper crafting.

This Week's Household Checklist

• Declutter and clean creative spaces. Whether it's a corner of the kitchen table or a dedicated crafts room, what's the state of your creative space? Is it efficient and easy to use, or bulging and bloated? This week, take the STOP clutter method to areas where you wrap gifts, sew, work on scrapbooks or make crafts. When the clutter's conquered, clean your space for happy seasonal crafting.
• Assess stored crafts materials. Time to head to the stash--fabric, paper or crafts--to take a look at household supplies. Will you need to replace crafts basics like tape, glue, paper or scissors? This week's school supply sales are a great time to stock up in the crafts closet.

This Week's Holiday Prep Checklist

• Create a seasonal calendar. Take control of your time with a simple family calendar for the holiday months ... or beyond! Whether you use a smartphone app or our printable calendars, start a holiday calendar to track events, celebrations and deadlines.
• Plan holiday travel. Start early to get the best--and cheapest--options for plane tickets, hotel reservations and event tickets.
• Hold a scheduling session. Little things mean a lot--and never more than during the holidays--so schedule furnace checks, carpet cleaning, a family photo session and chimney inspection now.
• Start a set of tear files. As you read holiday magazines or browse gift catalogs, tear our articles with recipes, décor ideas, gift suggestions or holiday traditions. Staple article pages together and place them in labeled file folders ("Décor", "Holiday Recipes", "Gift Ideas") or page protectors in the Christmas planner.
• Start--and use--a shopping list. Tracking "to-buy" items in one place saves time all year, but is crucial during the busy run-up to the holidays. Get the list habit now!
• Review gift lists. How is the Master Gift List coming along? If you need more gift idea inspiration, add a Gift Ideas Planner page to your House and Holidays Planner. It'll help you track interests, sizes and preferences of loved ones.
• Inventory unfinished crafts projects. Remember the Crafter's Rule of Four: if you have more than four unfinished crafts projects, or if any single project is more than four years old, don't schedule any new crafts! Finish the old ones this year--you've already got a head start on the process and the price is right! Rout out projects you've begun, and take advantage of the time already invested in them for happy crafting.
• Begin a "Gifts to Make" list. Christmas crafters benefit by starting early. Begin working on holiday gifts, décor items and crafts now, for a stress-free season.

What are your goals for this week?

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Here's what I hope to get done this week:

Household:

• Sort through the craft area. Assess what is needed and what can be decluttered.

Holiday Prep:

• Set up a holiday calendar with family events: tree cutting, tree decorating, cookie baking, movie watching, other holiday events.
• Review and update online ordering tracking database if needed.
• Review Craft project ideas and schedule dates to have them done by

Still to do:

• Office Declutter

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

Holiday Prep:

• Set up a holiday calendar with family events: tree cutting, tree decorating, cookie baking, movie watching, other holiday events.
• Review and update online ordering tracking database if needed.
• Review Craft project ideas and schedule dates to have them done by

I have to sit down with my kids at some stage and find out their plans. Then I can work around them.

 

[farmerswife]

This will be an extremely busy week for me. Thankfully since we just moved into this house a little less than a year ago my craft room is pretty neat and tidy just a few little things I have to work through but I culled everything out before the move. I’ll mostly be working on holiday prep, with my routine cleaning this week. We have quite a few functions going on and I’ll be out almost every night. And the weekend is booked. Looking forward to the following week which will be more relaxing.

 

[happy2bme]

I am wanting to make more handmade gifts this year, so a big part of my focus this week will be who will be receiving these gifts and what materials do I already have and what do I need to buy.

HOUSEHOLD CHECKLIST:
declutter creative spaces - done
assess stored craft materials - done

HOLIDAY PREP CHECKLIST:
create seasonal calendar - done
start shopping list - done
review gift lists - done
begin a Gifts to Make list - done

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Dh, dd and I talked about the things we'd like to do this fall and for Christmas. We have a list. Now I have to pencil it in. Dd is signed up with a high school singing group that tours but we don't have a full schedule yet. Everything will be tentative until the schedule comes out. I'm just thrilled that I actually got the three of us together for that discussion.

 

[sweetpumkinpye]

I'm just thrilled that I actually got the three of us together for that discussion.

I find it hard to get everyone together at the same time to be able to work things out. Well done to you.

 

[missjane]

Since all three of our children were together yesterday morning at the hotel, I told them to start thinking about when we'll get together for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. DDIL's brother re-married recently to a lady who has 4 children. The oldest is getting married next month. DDIL's brother works two weeks on and two weeks off. So, not only will his schedule have to be considered, but also his new wife's children's time with their dad and the in-laws of the one getting married. they aren't included in our get togethers, but it affects DDIL's time she can come. My, my! Maybe we'll just wait until January! I'll cook for Thanksgiving, and whoever comes, comes.

 

[Holiday_Mom]

Whew! Lots of decluttering and organizing got done this week. I was wondering if I was going to need another week. The office space is good enough. There are some things there that will remain until June when we have our next electronic recycling. I can live with that. The art supply shelves are surprisingly in good shape. I don't need to buy anything as far as I can tell.

 

[happy2bme]

I enjoyed going through my craft supplies, something I haven't done in a while. I'm going to make candles and soap for gifts and have everything I need. I will make a few test batches first, as I am out of practice. I'm looking forward to it!

 

[Holiday_Mom]

I enjoyed going through my craft supplies, something I haven't done in a while. I'm going to make candles and soap for gifts and have everything I need. I will make a few test batches first, as I am out of practice. I'm looking forward to it!

The candles and soaps sound like wonderful gifts!