I think I sat here for five minutes trying to figure out how to write what I want to tell all of you. I don’t have any tragic news to share, it’s just that I’m overwhelmed and a bit foggy. I’m the type of gal who likes to stay busy and who is constantly doing something or another. Since I’m a SAHM with two little ones, you can imagine I am quiet busy. The hours tick on through, and the days turn into weeks and the weeks is now approaching 1 month since I’ve become a SAHM. I sit here and think to my self and say “Self, what have you accomplished? What needs to be accomplished?” Then I’m reminded that I haven’t accomplished a lot, but it’s enough to make my days easy breasy and very challenging!

My first month I don’t think I had any set goals. I wanted to get the girls on a better schedule, but I also wanted to sit down with them and educate them. I wanted to be the typical 1950′s mother who could do it all. Wouldn’t that be interesting. I told myself and my husband that life was going to be so much better and easy if I was going to be a SAHM. I had an idea of what was going to improve, and what was going to be great. Come to find out, it’s not all peas and carrots!

This is an idea of what I thought I could do, and am still trying;

Dinner made, more home cooked meals.
Switch the girls from disposable to cloth diapers
Get fit, lose weight
Get the girls on a schedule (play, nap, lunch, read/play) etc.
Cancel Dish TV
Coupon
Playdates for the girls
More time with the Lord</li

On top of what I’m trying to accomplish above on a daily task, I’ve added the following to my to-do list;

Organize Closet
Tag all old clothing & baby items for the Springfield JBF Sale
Start a Graphic Design Business
DIY Laundry room shelves
Paint Closet
Organize Linen Closet

Each time I have sat down to write my business plan, the boxes of baby clothes were calling my name and saying “Sale me! Get rid of me! Make money from me!”

For the past three weeks I’ve pinned, sorted and ironed while so I can get these clothes out of my office. It’s hard to start a business when you don’t have a work space that is functional and motivating.

I’m glad to say that today, I finally have all of my girls 0-6 month clothes pinned and hung. I even have a huge box of clothes that will be going to our garage sale pile with a big “free” sign in front. Remember this post about the gigantic boxes of baby clothes? Here’s a visual reminder.

I ended up with a total of four of those gigantic big boxes. Here they are. All hung and pinned.

It doesn’t seem like a lot of clothes that can take up four gigantic boxes. However I grouped the clothes together. Each hanger has at least two complete outfits (shirt/pants/shorts/sweater). And the onesies have anywhere from 3-5 on each hanger.

All I have left to do is to price and tag them. I am soo glad that I will be getting rid of them, and I’m ready to move to the next organizing project!

PS. I know the pink seat and all the brown in the first picture is ugly. This photo is in our office/spare bedroom that we will soon be doing a make-over! I’m so excited I have a lot of fabulous ideas. For now, that will be a secret soon to be revealed. :)

Pst – We made over $65.00 from selling the clothes at our local JBF sale in Springfield. Not bad!

Great News! I recently entered a design competition and the contest holder said they liked my design! I was one of the few that he immediately selected and did not eliminate. Unfortunately, my design sent a spiral of other graphic designers to produce my design but in a sharper contrast that I didn’t even think of. Rats! I hate copycats. And I’m starting to not like submitting my designs in the design competitions just for that reason!

However, here’s my last design I submitted for the project;

The client wanted a design that was professional and young. They were going to be educating 11-15 year olds about drugs and prescription drugs (and how they shouldn’t do them). I honestly think I hit the spot with this design. The designer is currently picking his last contestants.

I also entered another competition for East Ave Community Church. The contest holder did not want any symbol that made it stand out as a church. No cross, no sun, nothing that resembled a church. They wanted a design with water. I used my abstract art abilities to create the design, but unfortunately I was eliminated. They wanted either something very close to looking realistic or they wanted a real picture of water in their logo. We can’t use stock images or clip art in our design so it’s hard to make something realistic when all you have to rely on is your own drawings. You have to be really good. This is what I submitted;

There was another designer that submitted a drawing that was as close to realistic as possible. The contest holder wasn’t 100% pleased, but he was more pleased then the rest of the designs that were submitted. I decided that competition was certainly note a competition I had a chance at winning. I did not enter another design. I believe you’re a great graphic designer if you are honest with a client and let them know that you cannot create what they seek. With this realization, it made me want to take my business down into a more direct path of what specific things I can design for. Right now I’m teetering more towards abstract art then realistic images.

In regards to business news, I started the rough draft for a Design Brief questionnaire. The design brief is a list of questions that I will be sending to interested clients. It will enable me to get a better feel of what logo they would like me to design for them. I believe at the moment I’m going to start out by designing logo’s, and then I will venture into web design. I will probably venture into blog design, or designing templates for wordpress.

Let’s Discuss!

What do you think about my designs? Is there anything I should design different? Is there anything you would change?

You’re reading this page because you’re trying to learn how to manage your time, aren’t you? One would think that you’re wasting your time on the computer googling time management when you could be doing other things. That’s what I thought too, until I saw this fabulous idea for time management. It’s a good reminder that we need to unplug and move onto the next task.

{ VIA }

It was so encouraging that I created my own infographic of my current daily schedule. This is how I manage to be a stay at home mom, trying to start a business, and to take care of two babies at the same time.

After seeing my schedule for myself, I am really disappointed! I realized that I don’t fit the time in for the Lord like I originally planned. I also need to somehow split up my time for production, bill paying and chores. It needs to be more dedicated then spread out. I have to do dishes and laundry once a day and clean the house every single hour it seems like. My babies are too young to learn how to clean themselves, but my oldest daughter does try. She’ll “play” sweep the kitchen, and she’ll grab items out of the laundry basket to clean up spills (she’s 19 months old).

For the next few weeks/months, I’m going to try to perfect my schedule more. My husband doesn’t work on Sunday or Monday, so those two days are spent for family activities, projects or shopping. To help me learn how to manage my time with being a stay at home mom, I found some really interesting information out there. Here’s what I found;

This article is called “I Can’t Do It All.” It discusses to limit TV watching and internet searching. I agree 100%. The TV does zap you in and before you know it 3 hours have passed. The same thing with the internet too. However our TV is a last resort when we have out of control children who are running wild in the house. We turn on the TV before I start pulling my hair out. My husband and I talked about cancelling our dish program, but in certain times it can relieve stress. I also can’t relinquish the DVR due to my favorite TV show, Vampire Diaries. :)

Did you know each time I write a blog post, I spend more time of searching the internet for pictures/ideas to go along with what I want to talk about? Ouch right?

{ VIA }

How about rewarding yourself for dedicating time to certain items? Try this book.

{ VIA }

My first month of being a SAHM I had to work on getting my oldest daughter to wake up around 7-7:30AM and not 6-6:30AM. I know she likes to take a nap three hours after she wakes, so I will make sure that her sister wakes up an hour after Chloe does. Emme will want to go to sleep after two hours from waking up. During the three hours I will either work on the website, blog, design, or nap. I sometimes nap pending on if I wake up before 6AM. I usually make it to bed about 11PM. I have a long way to go, but I plan on getting there soon. I can’t wait until the girls get older to start helping me with more chores other than sweeping, cleaning spills, and taking the plates out of the dish washer.

LETS DISCUSS!

How do you manage your time? What’s your favorite resource to use to manage your time?