Alright, people, you know how my last Menu Plan Monday post was in August? (You probably don't, because I didn't know many of you back then!) Well, it was, and since then dinners have been really all over the place. Sandwiches or pasta every night for a week, or eating out a lot (especially when Jeff was in India in March, and several weeks after), we just need to get this under control.

Enter Liz, The Food Nanny! I met her at Breathing Space (told you I'd tell you more about her!) and she was so inspiring! She talked about how meal plans help your family eat healthier and more cheaply (particularly when cooking almost everything from scratch) and how she regularly cuts families' grocery budgets in half! That sounded fantastic, so I was definitely all ears.

She has recently started a blog in association with her site and her TV show, and I told her I would be happy to work with her to spread the news about her blog and the two week plans she's started releasing! (How great is that—she does the hard part for you!) She sent me her meal planning and recipe book, and though it's mid/endweek and we're all sick here at Chez Eclectic, I figured now is as good a time as any to get going! I'm going to go grocery shopping when I have a spare hour and energy at the same time—but hey, tonight is pizza!

We are going to do our best to follow Liz's plan fairly closely, but we're going to going to switch Grill Night to Sunday, and then make Saturday Asian Night—this will encompass our love for Chinese, Thai, Indian, and sushi! Monday night will be Comfort/Tradition food, where I'll choose one of the meals she lists between the two. I'm posting my own version of the plan because of the small changes I've made, and because I love prettying things up in my own style! (It's almost a sickness/obsession…)

So there it is! My slightly altered version of Liz's plan, color-coordinated to my kitchen! I will also be inputting her recipes into Food Planner on my phone (can be synched to multiple phones, so we can always have a current list!) and using that for pantry inventory/grocery list.

So, are you a meal planner, or a whatever's-in-the-fridge-er? If you're the latter, do you want to learn how to be the former with me? Follow me along, follow The Food Nanny on Facebook and her brand new blog, and lets jump into this adventure together!

Disclosure: Liz sent me her book so I could try out her plan and her recipes. She makes her base plans available for free on her blog and Facebook, and all opinions are my own.

I have so many excuses for the last month I don't even know where to start! So, I'm not going to start at all. I have so many things in my head that I want to get out on the blog, and I know I'm going to forget something… So I'm just going to shove everything out there, and hope I get a few decent posts out of it!

Color Me Rad

As a member of the Breathing Space council (and an attendee of Breathing Space) I was given an entree into Color Me Rad in Orem on April 28th. It was the first time I had done a 5K (which I completed in an hour—ha! Walking all the way…) and it was pretty fun! I was a little disappointed by the wet colors—I would have dressed differently if I had known about that—and by the fact that people were throwing their color packets on the ground along the course, but I guess that's what the volunteers were there for. I made a tshirt especially for race day by tracing the Breathing Space logo with blue puff paint, and it was a hit! Of course, it's stained and the paint is peeling… Ah well! I barely had any pictures of my own from the race, so check out the collage below of before and after pics I stole from peoples' Facebook pages.

All told, I'll probably do it again next year, if I can! I'll just dress better for the wet color jets…

Necklaces

I made some awesome necklaces for the planning council for Breathing Space.

Aren't they lovely?? I had so much fun making them that I did a crystal birthstone one for my MIL (forgot to take pictures!) and I've been making a bunch more to have stock at the craft booth this summer.

Breathing Space

Was awesome, and completely deserves its own post, but I'm incredibly lame. And by lame, I mean that I have a ton and a half of pictures that I took, but I lost my memory card! I don't even know how that happened. (Correction: I just found my memory card. Loose in my purse. What the heck, brain??)

This is the house that Sarah and I stayed in, with about a dozen other girls. It was practically a double house—the basement was a MIL-apartment type space with a full kitchen, master suite, two other bedrooms, additional laundry room… You could just make your teenage kids live down there, and then they wouldn't be messing up your kitchen!

This is the "main house," where we had check-in and breakfast, among other things. It was so huge, and the basement was like a wonderland… Theater room, giant storage closet with built-in shelves, a couple bedrooms… Wow! (What is my obsession with basements?)

Anyway, the houses were amazing. Seriously. So many details and built-in awesomeness. I texted Jeff that I wanted to quit my job, move to Daybreak, and spend my days dusting and baking muffins in heels and pearls. The sponsors were so generous (Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and Cafe Rio for dinner? Yes please! Super soft t-shirt from The Dirty Dash, even though I don't think I'm going to run it? Already worn it twice. Vitamin water at almost every meal? I found a few more favorite flavors. New powdered caffeine drink to try? ZipFizz is now one of my non-soda energy sources. A whole box of Thin Mints? Already hidden away so nobody else can find it. I could go on and on—and I think I will, in another post!) and the classes I went to were pretty cool! I learned a ton about family meal planning from The Food Nanny (and you'll hear more about her later, too), I learned some cool things you can do with doTerra essential oils, and completely changed up my makeup colors—I feel so trendy with my copper-ish eyeshadow!

No, there's not really blue on there. That's just the light of the computer monitor reflecting off my rather oily skin, as taken by the front-facing camera on my cell phone… I think I'm planning on doing a separate post on the makeup class and subsequent changes, too!

Other Stuff

Man, I've been doing so much lately, and not finishing any of it! I'm working on a wood growth chart, but I have to figure out how I'm going to go about painting and finishing it. I'm working on a gallery wall type thing for the front room, but I still need a few more frames and to get pictures printed. I'm working on refinishing a small table for the craft booth, but even after priming the thing soaks up spray paint like nothing, so I have to get more. I have three tutorials that I have all the pictures for, but I haven't edited the pictures or written anything. I honestly can't believe it's May 2012… My brain kindof got stuck last summer between the pregnancies and everything, and isn't processing the passage of time properly. Here's a sneak peak into a though train this afternoon: "Man, it's hot…It's going to be a rough summer…Wait, isn't summer almost over? This isn't too bad…No, it's not. What month is it? July?…Idiot, it's only May. Your anniversary is this weekend, remember??"

So sorry this has taken forever! I'm in the midst of planning for Breathing Space, and major stuff at work, and cutting back caffeine… Blech! I have 3 partially finished project posts, two more Snap posts, a Color Me Rad post, a freaking cute family pictures post… You'd think that with all these topics, life would be easier! Sigh. So, let's continue the Snap class wrapup, and I'll try to get the Social Snap post up before Breathing Space and I meet even more awesome bloggers.

Basic SEO

This class was taught by Dennis Geodegebuure (The Next Corner is his personal site; he's also got his fingers in many other pies). I got there about 15 minutes into the class, and I was really glad that he focused on general SEO stuff instead of things that were specific to Wordpress or Blogger. I left this class so inspired to make changes on my blog and the way I organize things!

• Linking: link to your stuff internally, as part of the site structure (?? I need to look up what that really means). External links are best when they are natural language.
• Be remarkable: you wouldn't stop to take pictures by a cow, but you'd take pictures by a purple cow.
• Do guest posts!
• URL structure: only have your post name, not the date, unless your content is time-sensitive
• Customize your meta tags!
• Your titles should be short and snappy: 70 characters is optimum for Twitter sharing. Thing magazine headlines.
• Set up Google Webmaster Central
• Page content: Structure your page. Make your most interesting content in the title, images, and first few sentences. People skim!
• Observe seasonal trends in your hits and content, try to get ahead of those trends (post Christmas stuff in early Nov, Valentines Day in January, etc)
• Add alt text to your images!! Also, make file names readable, not "IMG_3021"
• Get the Google Plus button set up!

Trend Spotting: What's new, What's next?

This is one of the classes I was most looking forward to, and the one I felt like I needed the most! I've mentioned before that I'm always several years late, and that this year I want to try and change that… This panel was headed by Jeanee of Dirty Laundry, Lara of Less Cake More Frosting, Mandi of Vintage Revivals, and Jen of Tater Tots and Jello. So much amazingness in one place! These notes I divided into who-said-it sections.

Jeanee

• Look for colors/shapes/pattern/lettering/graphic design in fashion/home decor/advertisements/blogs{ampersand design}/e-magazines{Rue, Paper Runway}/Pinterest{cargoh}/trendwatching.com newsletter
• Get offline! Wallpaper stores, antique stores
• Figure out why you like something, what exactly you like about it
• Compare trends online and off
• Don't get overwhelmed! Do you trend-research in 20-minute chunks
• Organize your pinboards/inspiration book/whatever every few months
• Make trends your own: Combine trends, do your own spin on things

Lara

• Look at color in a new way—how does it affect your mood?
• Decide why combinations appeal to you
• You never know what will inspire you: Tampon box
• Mix trend and timelessness, so that you won't be too off trend in 6 months
• Be the "tre"

Mandi

• Do what makes you happy
• Be respectful of other people's happiness, even if you don't like it. They do!

Jen

• Go somewhere unexpected to find things you like
• Put your own spin on things
• Figure out how to name your style

Discovering and Defining Style

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting from this panel, but what I got out of it was great! This panel had some more rockstars: Ana White of Knock Off Wood, Shelley Smith of House of Smiths, Emily of Decor Chick, and Kate of Remodelaholic

Ana

• Style is how you present yourself
• Decide what I'm about
• Be consistent and passionate
• Remind yourself of the things that are important to you

Shelley

• Just do it→be confident in yourself!
• Define your writing style and stick to it
• Your favorites will always be your own stuff—put it somewhere you can be inspired by
• Take risks and step out of your comfort zone. You'll be glad you did!

Emily

• Mixing styles all over is OK, as long as it's all you!
• Remember the details! (molding doesn't have to be the same all over, it just has to flow)
• Decorate for YOU (and your family). It can always be changed if you need to sell!

Kate

• Wear your style with confidence, and share it!
• Map out your vision of what you want and love
• Note to self: learn better photography tricks!

Epic Guide to DIY Survival

Whew! Last panel (I went to the Poppyseed Projects make and take in the afternoon) and honestly, I was exhausted… I can only take so much socializing and noise before I start to shut down, and I was getting to that point! Luckily, I was able to pay attention to Stacy of Not Just A Housewife, Britney of Pretty Handy Girl, and Sausha of Sweet Pickins during this panel, because I learned a lot about what you can do with various power tools, and I even got the confidence to use a belt sander last week (more on that later, mostly because the project is half-finished in my garage).

Stacy

• Basic safety: common sense, inspect your tools, KNOW your tools, don't wear loose clothing/jewelry
• Nails, levels, screws, etc: use the right one for the job
• Get a jigsaw! $20 black and decker.

Britney

• Have confidence in yourself—you can do it!
• Compound miter saws are cool (make sure blade is full speed whenever it's touching wood)
• Get as many safety features as possible!
• B's preferred brands: DeWalt, Craftsman, Nakita, Rigid, Ryobi, Bosch, Porter Cable, Dremel
• Resources: familyhandyman, thisoldhouse, 5min

Sausha

• Painting laminate: gloss off, greased lightning. Tinted primer!
• Water base everything!

(There was more, but Jeff and Nathan came for a visit, so I left to give my boys a hug!)

Whew. That was a lot! I hope that these notes are not just helpful for me, but helpful for all of you, too! Whether you were in the same classes as me, went to different classes, or weren't at the conference, there should be something to learn in there! Going through and typing out all my notes was great, because not only did I get reinspired my things I may have forgotten, but I really saw the theme of the conference: Just Be You. I wish I had a good picture of my lovely Amy Cornwall necklace, but it's home hanging with my other jewelry… I have one more Snap recap post in the works—that one about all the awesome people I met, and the wonderful swag and other things provided by the sponsors! Should we place bets to see if that happens before Breathing Space…?

Snap, in a word, was amazing. I met so many people and made so many connections that I wasn't even planning on, and I'm so happy I had the opportunity! But, since I'm still trying to sort through my pictures, I'll write about the class parts first… You're cool if I basically copy and expand on my notes, right? (Warning: this is going to be an EPIC post.)

Blogging Basics

This was a panel with Amy (Mod Podge Rocks), Cheri (I Am Momma Hear Me Roar), Kari (Ucreate), and Cindy (Skip To My Lou). I was psyched to go to this one, mainly because I love Cheri and her blog, and it was one of the first crafty mommy blogs I found.

Here are the things I felt were important enough to write down—and keep in mind that these notes were for me, so I didn't write anything related to Blogger/Wordpress, or stuff I already knew.

• Find a niche: Think about your strengths, what you want to think about daily, and write a mission statement.
• My mission statement: Easy, YOU can do it, miscellaneous…?
• Consistency: You don't have to post every day, but be consistent in both your frequency and content.
• Community: Comment, engage your readers (if they're not responding, ask friends to break the ice). Crafterminds and Problogger are good places to find a community. Get feedback from your readers. Community Pinterest board?
• Brands: Only work with relevant brands. VALUE yourself and your time. Just go for it.
• When proposing a guest post, propose with a picture!
• When posting on FB, upload a picture and then put your post link in the caption!
• Hootsuite can schedule FB and Twitter posts
• Make your style be YOU
• Define your own success: personal goals, not comparing to others.

You're So Invited

This was a Friday morning gathering, and I just barely made it but I'm glad I did! Cheryl Najafi has a book out about entertaining, and told us some of the best things she's learned in the process of learning to entertain and writing her book.

• Don't worry about mistakes—they'll just end up being part of the experience.
• Think about "what experience will make this special?"
• Always be yourself
• Break your content down into sharable chunks
• Embrace what you do best, and outsource the rest.

Dimension, Pattern and Texture = Style

Don't remember who did this panel, and I forgot to write it down… Oops! I went to this class to learn how to use pattern, because almost everything I have is solid!

• Do what makes you happy—trust your eye
• Vary the scale of patterns
• Pair a floral pattern with a geometric pattern—don't overuse any single pattern
• Splurge on pillows and fabric! (Not sure if that applies in a house with a toddler boy…) The fabric "double-rub" indicates durability
• Order a sample if you're ordering online! (premierprints.com, fabric.com)
• When looking for fake flowers, look for gradations of color in the petals

Media/Feature. How to Get Noticed in a Crowded Field

I was pretty excited for this panel, particularly to hear from Brooke, because I've caught Studio 5 a few times and one of my lofty dreams is to be featured on one of their show! (There, I've put it out there… Universe, make it happen!) I took a lot of notes in this panel, and reading over them they're somewhat disjointed… So hopefully I can organize them somewhat for you!

• Focus on your site: performance, style, navigation. Tutorial page?
• Lots of good visuals. Staged photography. Google Sketch-up for plans. Shoot Fly (?) for photography classes.
• Have goals, and write them down. Focus on your goals. (Mine: be on TV, be in BHG or MS magazine, work with some favorite brands, work with some favorite bloggers)
• Getting featured/guest posts by other bloggers: original ideas, short & friendly emails, post proposal (I want to do this rather than I want to do something), don't submit the same project everywhere
• Brooke's 3 Os: Originality (your own style), opinion (have your own opinion about whatever), own it (own your brand and your style)
• Magazines need bloggers for content. Write a note to the editor and person with the byline, including some links
• Even small features/media give you credibility, and you can get bigger ones!

OK, this is getting really long, so I think I'll wrap things up here (middle of Friday) and finish the class posts tomorrow

I've been struggling with keeping track of ideas for the blog, and so when I came across Beckie at Infarrantly Creative's blog planner, I loved it! (Actually, I had to watch the video before I understood how awesome it was. But once I watched it, I had to have one!)

Here is a closer shot of the weekly page:

(I've really got to figure out the depth of focus thing…)

Of course, I had to do my own everything for it. I didn't want the black and blue, or her font, or the full size... So I downloaded her PDFs shrank it to 5x7-ish, and traced over all the lines with navy blue, added my own fonts and background. I've included my PDf files for you, in case you'd like a smaller and navy version of Beckie's planner.

Now, I did mess up some parts… Somewhere in the midst of printing the weekly pages, I added a black dot without noticing. Also, I wish I could have done the tear-off monthly part better… And I forgot to have the guy at Office Max cut the bound pages smaller—I included all the extra space because I didn't know how much bleed I'd need for binding. But c'est la vie.

Also, it's somewhat obvious that I, uh, haven't been keep up with things. I'm very aware of that. I still need to come up with some more "Lazy Mom Tips" because I really want to have a unique and valuable post, rather than a Pinterest roundup… Though, I've been thinking of doing a Pinterest roundup anyway. Just not with my awesome lazy tips.

Here are the links for the PDFs of the pink and navy version: Monthly Calendar | Weekly Planner | Notes Page

And here are the links for the PDFs of a black and white version, where you can add your own background: B&W Monthly Calendar | B&W Weekly Planner | B&W Notes Page

Nyer, I just realized I forgot to take pictures of the notes page.

If you want the PSD files so you can easily change the colors and fonts, just email me at themamma @ eclecticmamma . com. If you want to distribute your version on your site, please include a link back to me and Infarrantly Creative.