Pinterest in action! Functional Fan-folded Books

So are you using Pinterest yet?  I just joined recently and am already addicted.  I do wonder a bit about how their terms of service are worded, but that's for another post.

I have a whole list of craft projects "pinned" that I am eager to try out.  School has kept me extraordinarily busy this semester so I unfortunately haven't gotten around to many of them yet.  In January I took a CNA training class and I'm also taking Microbiology and Medical Terminology this semester as well.  I plan on taking a couple more prerequisite classes - A&P I and II so that I can apply to nursing school.

Anyway, back on topic.  I have tried out a few projects that I found on Pinterest so I wanted to share one of them with you guys today.

This is a project that I actually found through homemadesimple.com and wanted to try so I saved it to Pinterest so I wouldn't forget.  The original instructions can be found here:

http://www.homemadesimple.com/en-US/Crafts/Documents/fanFoldedOrganization.pdf

First you need a book.  Not one that you're going to want to read again - just one that you've finished with or bought at a second hand store.  I got mine from the local YWCA for $1.  They were having a book sale to benefit their children's programs so even better!

I got a hardback book because I thought it would look and work better.  I won't give the title just in case someone out there has read it and thinks that I've commited some kind of reading sacrilage.

Basically you fold each page in half and tuck it between the neighboring pages - and that's it!  Simplest craft project ever.  And I adore it.  I always have a multitude of paper scraps laying all over my desk - phone numbers, appointment cards, coupons, Post-it notes, etc.  Of course this isn't going to get rid of all of that, but it does give me a super cute way to keep it all in one semi-organized place.

Here's my finished product!  My book organizer sits to the left of my computer screen (I'm left-handed) so everything is within easy reach.  It's so cute that I'd love to do another, but I haven't thought of another place in the apartment where one would be useful yet.

That's all for today.  If you are on Pinterest feel free to add me -

http://pinterest.com/beyondbaffled/

Have a great Tuesday!

I am forever losing my keys...

I am always misplacing my keys.  Either I'm absent minded or easily distracted or maybe I am just trying to do too many things all at once when I get home every day.  But it never seems to fail, within seconds of crossing the threshhold of my front door my keys are no longer in my  hand.

So purely by accident I found a super cute place to store my keys.  I love the Glade Scented Oil decorative glass holders - they have so many styles and colors to choose from.  The replacement oil candles have a tiny piece of metal on the bottom so they stick to the holder.  What also sticks are the metal rings on my keychain.  I feel the magnetic pull and hear the little click when the ring touches the magnet and I'm hoping that it will also "click" in my mind exactly where I left my keys.

I am seriously trying everything I know in order to stop losing my keys.  Really I am far too old to be doing this.  I read somewhere that if where you put your keys is not in your short term memory then there is no way for you to recall their location.  Tricks to making sure that you do make that memory are as simple as putting your keys in the same place (your special storage spot) every single time.  The same place in your purse or the same place in your house.  If you think about it this way then there are only 5 possible places that my keys can ever be:

1.  In my car's ignition

2.  In my purse

3.  In my hands

4.  In my pocket

5.  In my Glade candle jar

Another trick that I read was to simply say aloud where you left your keys.  Like, "I'm leaving my keys on the corner of the dining room table."  That way the memory is there just waiting to be recalled two or three hours later when you're running around like crazy trying to get ready for work or school.

Anyway, I hope you like my idea for how not to lose your keys.  Happy Monday everyone!