Forgetful

I have startling similarities to poor Dory in Finding Nemo. I forget...all the time.

Perfect example:

On the first of January, I gave a talk at church. I prepared my talk well in advance, and was feeling confident in its content. However, with it being the new year, my ward's start time went from 11:00 am (in 2011) to 9:00 am (in 2012). Me, being the forgetful person I am, FORGOT to set my alarm for the earlier start time. Oops. Luckily, I woke up about 20 minutes before I was supposed to be on the stand to speak, and I made it with a couple of minutes to spare. Saved.

But the story doesn't end there. 

As we were singing the opening hymn, I realized that I had forgotten the book from which a LARGE portion of my talk needed to be read. Crap.

I panicked...and then realized that wouldn't get me anywhere. So, I got up on the stand, and *somehow* managed to speak for the full 15 minutes without sputtering out sentence fragments. It was a close call.

But, do you see what I mean? Forgetful. I do stuff like this ALL THE TIME! So, I decided to do something about it...and made myself a calendar of sorts so that I can keep track of all of the little responsibilities that I too often let slip through the cracks.

Here's my list of "ingredients:"
- A calendar grid (for mine, I simply made a grid on the computer, printed it out onto four pieces of cardstock, and then "connected" them together)
- A cute header (Which I simply titled "The Russells")
- A place to write the month
- Labels (printed onto cardstock)
      *A "To do" list sheet
      *A "Notes" sheet
      *A "Don't Forget!" section
- Tape (I used the roll on stuff)
- Lots of card stock
- Fabric (for the backgound)
- Ribbon
- Spray adhesive
- A paper cutter
Optional
- A Cricut (to cut out the letters on the header, the header itself, and the labels)
- A corner rounder

Here's the process:
I used a "Trendsetter" poster frame from Michaels. Mine is 23x35...quite a bit bigger than the one pictured below. It usually runs for $30, but I snagged it for $7.99. Sweet.

Then, I used some spray adhesive to attach the fabric that I got at yardage town for $3.98. It looked like this.

 Then I started playing around with the "layout" of all of the pieces, and the ribbon. This was what I decided on, and simply taped the pieces onto the background using the "roll-on" tape.

Then, I treated like a "dry-erase" board, and filled it out for this month.

Now I can no longer use the excuse..."I forgot."