Keep what you wish...

 

I am considering closing my sites at the end of 2024, so please do copy and keep everything you wish from them. I am moving on to other pursuits, more in line with my original literary degrees. I also have felt a huge reticence to add even a bit to the ridiculous din in much of the world. 

Nonetheless I would leave the sites up for everyone except I discovered to my horror that if a site is left RUSSIAN HACKERS seem to get into it, yuck! I don't want you to be at any bit of risk from any of my sites!

Wishing you all the very best in all your planned and unplanned pursuits!

Just in case...

 

Um, it seems RUSSIA has started hacking my very harmless sites! So you might want to save what you wish (it's free to you) and if you ever find any of my sites look off (it's ridiculously obvious), just quit your browser immediately and erase any bookmarker so you don't accidentally return. So sorry! I thought Blogger took care of its bloggers! I will be checking and will simply delete any site that gets affected. Anyway I've been busy living a lovely life and have been so reticent to add to any online din I have seldom posted for a while.

The most fun ever calendar house

I'm very literal and linear! so this has really helped me keep track of days as well as just relax! It's a calendar dollhouse actually utilizing dollhouses and their paraphernalia! It's best just for covering 2 weeks in my Sunday to Saturday calendar (it would be perfect as a Monday to Sunday too, it's just I'm used to the visual of a Sunday start in a monthly calendar). There are 7 rooms across, 1 for each day (at the moment I can also configure for a 1- to 4-day first "week")....In each, as I've mentioned for my older paper setup, I put reminders of what's happening that day, like you perhaps can see I'm getting some produce and milk deliveries mid-week. 

Here's another view of the week:

Here's today in my calendar dollhouse -- it's of course planny-at-the-desk today, and Gifting Day in my calendar, the first day of the year as well (note Looking Back is not completely safe!):

Of course looking from another angle is darling:

-- and that picture brings up something that saves me a lot of $ -- if I really yearn for something but can't really fit it into my budget, I look for it in my dollhouse options! So, I would swoon to have an upstairs sitout/terrace/big balcony, but can't right now, so voila here is one! There was also a darling bed cum desk cum storage I saw somewhere, but I saved oh $1,300 by getting a similar feel dollhouse sized! (I slide a desk where the wardrobe is.) https://www.target.com/p/calico-critters-sister-s-loft-bed/-/A-51349519

Technical-ish-ities: I use 1:12 dollhouse items for the most part; Target's L'il Woodzeez and their and elsewhere's Calico Critters work, plus of course real dollhouse items which usually (not always) cost more but really elevate the look. You can see some stored in the background near Ms Kitty.

I've been experimenting with this for a while; here's a cozy day I loved from last month:

The LAST of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 12th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors. 

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-last-of-12-installments-of.html

The 11th of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 11th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors. 

 

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-11th-of-12-installments-of.html

The 10th of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 10th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors.

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-10th-of-12-installments-of.html

The 9th of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 9th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors. 

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-9th-of-12-installments-of-wonderful.html

The 8th of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 8th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors.

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-8th-of-12-installments-of-wonderful.html

The 7th of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 7th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors.

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-7th-of-12-installments-of-wonderful.html

A wonderful perennial calendar!

 I want this set! It's not just dates but ideas of your plans! Plus it's in the shape of one of my obsessions (houses!)! From Instagram:

The 6th of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 6th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors. 

 http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/05/the-6th-of-12-installments-of-wonderful.html

The 5th of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 5th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors.

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-5th-of-12-installments-of-wonderful.html

The 4th of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 4th of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors. 

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-4th-of-12-installments.html

No pressure!

In case anyone else is unnecessarily feeling these pressures...

How silly it was of me, but I for some while felt pressured (by social media I guess) to create a lot of goals and to act as if I own a business etc etc. I worked hard at brainstorming those things...

...Then I realized, duh, I already own a business -- more than one, actually. It's just that they all are charities.

I also realized I already have and am meeting approximately 1,317 :-) goals. I think that's enough. No wonder I was finding it hard to think of more!

A lot of planners I saw were geared toward the above businesses and goals, but I had of course already designed my own best planners for all of my projects.

But I enjoy having a general planner as well. I saw a horrible lot that assumed one was lazy and procrastinated everything. Not a problem here, thank you; I actually overdo -- so I found such planners insulting and the opposite of encouraging. I needed something calm and also attractive. I think I finally found one; it arrived yesterday and I'm starting to play with it....I won't mention names because this is such a very personal choice, we're all different!

The 3rd of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 3rd of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors. 

 http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-3rd-of-12-installments-of-wonderful.html

The 2nd of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

Go over to my food blog to see the 2nd of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors.

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-2nd-of-12-installments-of-wonderful.html

A DIY "Automatic Scheduler"

I was intrigued by the wonderful convenience of a software, at usemotion.com , that takes all your priorities and deadlines and automatically creates a schedule for you. However, its price is beyond my own prioritities, especially since it's really aimed at business use, not that of a semi-retired person who needs to relax!

But I came up with my own -- this is extremely preliminary, just to get you started; I have yet to brainstorm and add fun things to do for years to come this new year time! It's just a chart in MS Word, with my wished-for relaxation times first, then absolutely-sometimes-requireds, then projects in order of priority including their steps. Please note that any specific deadlines would need to be added!

The 1st of 12 installments of a book of food ideas including LOTS of holidays!

 

Go over to my food blog to see the 1st of 12 installments of a menu cum cook book with lots and lots of holidays! Including many food holidays, but also holidays like the birthdays of my favorite authors.

http://favoritefoodthisweek.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-1st-of-12-installments-of-wonderful.html

Ancient make-up-as-nature-goes "calendars"

Today's "post" in Edwin Way Teale's A Walk Through the Year speaks of how humans long ago based their plans on natural events that would vary some each strict (and later invented) calendar year. He says the Iroquois felt the best time to plant corn is "when oak leaves [have] become as large as a mouse's ear," and the Greek poet Hesiod remarked that summer arrives when the thistle blooms. 

This wonderful naturalist Dr. Teale, married to another wonderful naturalist, speaks of how even now we may feel say "autumn has arrived" not on the autumnal equinox necessarily but when, in the Teales' case, a flock of evening grosbeak birds alights in the grounds of their lovely farm, or "winter has come" with the first snowstorm...

the Teales' autumnal bird, from a google search:

A yearly type of book

I like to read a very seasonal book each year or so. I've often done one Gladys Taber in past years -- last year was Stillmeadow Calendar; even though I don't always agree with her she's usually very peaceful as well as interesting. This year I'm trying a new-to-me author and have really enjoyed it already: Edwin Way Teale's A Walk Through the Year. I can see why he won a Pulitzer for some seasonal books I just ordered through Abebooks. (All these books are out of print!) For several years I really enjoyed Nigel Slater (in print, yay!), especially his Kitchen Diaries 1, which had fun food shopping notes.

Free creative prompts

 For the days you want a creative prompt for your creativity, here are some lovely ones, one for writing, one for drawing -- though surely you could draw the writing ones and vice-versa! I'm thinking I'd love to try these in the new year on the days when I don't already have a project in mind! Btw, these are better than the ones I've seen for sale! So often there are beautiful, generous artists who share their wonderful ideas!

https://monalisaliveshere.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/365-days-of-every-day-drawing-challenge-prompts.pdf from the artist's blog at https://monalisaliveshere.me/

https://thinkwritten.com/365-creative-writing-prompts/

The first, partial week of December this year

 As explained in the free booklet you can get at https://ofholidayscalendarsandplanners.blogspot.com/2020/04/calendar-houses.html , I've developed a very fun way to keep track of my days. Here's an example of the first (short) week of December 2020:

A calendar dollhouse in October...

 

A Quest Storytelling/Planning Game

This is very evolving, but I wanted to share it with you asap to get you started on your own version...

1.   This is for when you wish some ideas or inspirations for your project work, though really it can totally just be a storytelling game too.

2.   Components:

a.    a stack of cards from which to draw that have artwork you like that could fit in with the below categories; these can be art cards etc, or just pictures you cut out from magazines etc; they can be whatever flavor you want (fantasy for which I would use a sweet art deck, science fiction for which I would use my Star Trek card game cards!, etc)

b.   plus if you wish to write down ideas, a suitable style of planner pages would be lovely; I've found that many on the DenisseColoringArt Etsy store are perfect for me for this.

 

 

3.   I would consult my calendar for current holidays (as you know, I celebrate a zillion and they are not all in my head by any means), in case I want them to be part of my story.

4.   Choose a card for each of the below categories; it's fine if they don't come up in order, though if a card really doesn't fit any of them for you today, choose another.

a.    The Basic Situation/Circumstances eg holiday, quandary

b.   Your Chosen Quest (this could be a big overall aim or project)

c.    Specific Quest Steps for which you want reminders or ideas

d.   Challenges

e.    Characters either specific persons or general professions eg an artist, a writer; you can have as many as you like; include as you wish

                                              i.     yourself

                                            ii.     your allies to help with the challenges

                                          iii.     just interesting people you meet along the way

f.     Setting(s)/Place(s)

g.    (if you wish: Supplies for whatever you've decided is the quest eg arranging a house, learning a certain thing)

h.   Action cards to move the game along; be sure to include Haven(s) (Starbases if you're going with a science fiction theme!) where you reset, plan, rest in the story

5.   Start making up a story based on these.

6.   Then keep choosing cards at least for the Action category to let the story proceed, until it's reached a good conclusion (only good/encouraging is allowed in this game please! :-) ) or you've reached a good pausing point, to continue the game later.

7.   As you wish, fill in a suitable planner with ideas you got for your day/week/whatever from the game. These can be premade pages, like Denisse's mentioned above, or you could write and illustrate them as you go on your computer, or you could make a combination of a fill-in planner on your computer that you then fill in by hand (I have made a sample and posted it at https://ofholidayscalendarsandplanners.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-quest-planner-for-you.html ).

 

A Quest Planner for you

A fun way to look at your week's plans! 

 

Soon I'll be posting a fun game way in which to use this, but I wanted to get it to you asap so here it is. You have my permission to share it as you wish, though don't sell it, keep it free! Um, I would add a picture or two to make it more interesting!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_OXI5OyP109NsM_1xqZw27tI9nk41YRq/view?usp=sharing

Another idea: Zillions of seasons

I'm probably the last person on the planet to hear of the lovely idea of 72 or so microseasons a year! It seems to be from China then Japan. A lot has to do with a beautiful appreciation of the nuances of nature through the year. There are some lovely writings and artwork about this; you could search for microseasons china japan for examples.

...But of course I would love zillions of microseasons to do with my holidays, not only because I love my holidays but because I live in one of those places where people say "You don't like the weather we're having? Wait 15 minutes, it'll change" so microseasons defined in advance would tend to be rarely anything but misleading.

......As an example of a possible microseason to do with holidays, right now I'm in the middle of a two-day celebration of reason (very appropriate given the delivery from oppression and from rejection of science in my country recently) -- that could also be a microseason to do with reason....

A week in early September

 ...in a calendar dollhouse, along with a calendar notebook and recycled page-a-day calendar. I thought it was fun how the windows worked out, in this the first week of a month.

 

A week in late July in a calendar dollhouse

including Maxfield Parrish's birthday!! and you may or may not be able to decipher the phone on the bed on a day when I needed to call a dear one...

 

 

A DIY Journal / Diary / Logbook

 On the days when I'm in the mood, I like to write down what I did that day, or at least what I enjoyed that day. I used ruled notebooks for a year or so, but found that I got bored with them or that they were too expensive or were going to take ages to arrive (I'm writing this pretty much in hibernation).

So I tried a little "junk journaling," what a dreadful name. But um it looked junky and wasn't fun for me and I didn't want a permanent binding so of course it fell apart. (As always, you should do what you like!! I've seen amazing, wonderful "junk journals," and you may be able to do that wonderfully.)

Then I realized I could make notebooks like I had found in the past, pretty simple lay-flat notebooks, decorated as I wished. I just fold 8.5x11 (a lot like A4) paper in half and when I got the order and look I wanted I stapled it in the middle / on the "spine" with a huge stapler I got ages ago when I started making my own booklets. I chose a few decorative papers to intersperse (I don't even like the look of very ink-intense pages page after page). You could use some colored paper and/or some printable lined paper like I found at https://www.etsy.com/listing/790992113/botanical-blank-lined-journal-pages , and/or a lovely seasonal cover like I found at  https://www.etsy.com/listing/766100336/printable-nautical-collage-sheets-85-x . I only make mine long enough for a month or so; the stapler wouldn't go through zillions of pages anyway. I also use a few stickers that have been lying around (I'm not super into stickers).

...Here are some pictures finally; as you can see I experimented with that poor cover before using it this way, as I just so dislike wasting ink and paper...and you can easily see my calendar notebook and part of my calendar dollhouse for that time.

Most people have super great ideas for this sort of thing, share if you'd like!

Another calendar idea!

I love perennial calendars, though actually not many of those I see. I also love little houses, which my darling husband always got for me when he found fabulously priced pre-loved ones. I thought I might deconstruct the perennial block-type calendar I have and try combining the blocks with little houses, planning to change them each month per its seasonal aspects. So far I'm using the idea pictured with my bad-weather radio! Adding the day of the week in these odd times has been quite useful!

A week in a calendar dollhouse

As explained in the free booklet you can get at https://ofholidayscalendarsandplanners.blogspot.com/2020/04/calendar-houses.html , I've developed a very fun way to keep track of my days. Here's an example from the week in mid-June, including a glimpse of my calendar notebook.