she and whim

The library is such a fun visit for the shorts and me. They all go straight to their favorite section – my boys love non-fiction books on animals and cars, and the girls head for the juvenile fiction. I’ve enjoyed reading the juvenile/young adult classics that I didn’t read as a kid and new literature too like The Penderwicks series! :) We also have a family tradition of stopping at local book stores when we’re out of town, and they each get to pick out a book. We write in the cover where we were and the date. Half Price Books is a family favorite too!

So, I have this goal to build our family library. We have a decent collection going, and I was inspired by the book The Library and the character’s own checkout system she devised for her personal books. I had to explain the old-school way of checking out books to the shorts – the paper pockets with cards and date stamps. I checked out The Borrowers over the summer and it had the paper pocket still in it! So they got to see a real, old, date-stamped pocket :) Then I set to work on making pockets and cards for the girls’ books.

We decided to make them for chapter books only, since it was a pretty big undertaking and they’re the only ones that are old enough to work the system. The pockets are blank so each girl can write their name on their own books, and our last name goes on the family books. The checkout cards have “Date Out” instead of “Date Due”. We wanted it to be a family history of when the books were read and not about dealing with returns – no late fees here! And when our future grandkids come over they can check out books their mom read at their age. :)

Here’s the Library System I made for you to print as well. There are many colors! We printed one of each and sorted the books that matched each pocket color so we had a count before printing.

You’ll need these supplies to make them:

a cutting mat, xacto, straight edge, #65 smooth white paper, and double stick tape. We also bought this date stamp at the craft store! It’s so fun to stamp the cards!!

After you trim the pocket, fold the two tabs to the back. The double stick tape is wide enough to secure the tabs and adhere to the book in one step (see above photo). We found it easier to write on the pockets before attaching them to the books, but you may want to attach first so you don’t loose track of which goes where. The last page of the PDF file is the cards. Just trim them out using the crop marks, being careful not to cut through to the neighboring cards. The two rows are pretty close together to save paper!

And now you have your own official home library system! Yippee skippy and happy reading :D

{design © claire sneau : for personal use only}

Maybe I’m alone, but when I want to remake a yum recipe, it’s a pain to go find it in all my cookbooks and cooking magazines. And sometimes I flip through my cookbooks and find one I completely forgot about. I’ve bookmarked, torn out, and copied recipes elsewhere, but that took loads of time and wasn’t very organized. Does that happen to you?

But then I had an idea for this recipe finder where I can scribble down the recipe name, location, page, and some notes! Now I have a quick reference to find those great recipes my family keeps wondering if I’ll ever make again ;)

The header is blank so you can categorize however you’d like. Maybe a “chocolate” category is better than just “desserts”!

I printed on bright white, smooth, 80# cover (card stock) and used my round corner punch after printing. You can also paperclip your various pages, or punch a hole and use a post screw to keep them all together.

I hope this helps you get those “nummies” (as my youngest calls it) whipped up and on the table!

Let me know how it works out for you, or if you have any suggestions. :)

{design © claire sneau : for personal use only}

I’ve created a FREE printable weekly planner just for you! I’ve been trying it out and hope it helps you stay as organized as it has me. I’m not naturally the most organized person, and am completely dependent on my list. They’re usually on a kid’s scrap scribbled-marker-art-reject paper. (I’ve printed this planner on those too and it’s sweet seeing their doodles – and yay for green!) But having my planner/grocery/errands list more structured with this design has been very nice.

The planner is 2-sided, so print one page, flip, feed back through and print the second page.

I carry mine everywhere – usually in my pocket, and it looks like a wrinkled wad by the end of the week… :) But having four kids (and one with lots of food allergies) means I shop at a zillion stores, and this planner saves me! I hope it does for you too – and I’d love to hear how you like it!

P.S. I’m working on a recipe organizer too, so check back soon!

{design © claire sneau : for personal use only}

As a thank you for reading this, I’ve attached a free “thank you” postcard! Since I’m half Swedish, there’s a little Swedish vocab for you too :) And who doesn’t want to learn a little Swedish?!

I’ve printed mine on a bright white, smooth, uncoated 80# cover weight (cardstock) paper. Just print page 1 of the PDF, flip over and re-feed, printing page 2. I’ve also included a few pics showing how to trim them. (Hint: Cut from crop mark to crop mark – not all the way to the edge of the paper, so you don’t cut off your marks when you rotate the paper.) You just need a self healing mat, xacto, ruler and corner punch.

Enjoy! And I’d love to hear how it works out for you!

{design © claire sneau : for personal use only}