So I’ve been a bit busy. How about you? It was one of those weeks that just flew by leaving me to scratch my head and say “how did that happen?” Still not sure I can explain it. So in light of the speedy week, I needed a speedy challenge. So here it is. In the before picture you’ll notice a basic mini legal pad and a notebook from one of my favorite places on the planet: Target. Functional, yes. Fun, well, we might argue the one from Target is, but the mini legal pad, size aside, it’s not so fun.

Sleepy time notebook before

Before we see the after pictures, let’s talk about some uses for these functional friends shown above. One of the things I’ve noticed about time is that it goes faster when we’re distracted. You, too? It flits by and you get less done when you switch from topic to topic, thought to thought, or project to project. Yes? Me, too. A great way to tame this scattered-brain-tendency is to have what I call a distractions pad … a place to jot down all those little things that pop into your head at exactly the wrong time.

Here’s one … you’re sitting down to write journaling for your latest scrapbook project and poof! you remember you need cat food. Or you’re sitting down to post on your blog and you remember you have laundry in the washer that needs to go into the dryer. (Yes … this literally just happened to me.) Now … I could get up and go change over the clothes … but I’m in a groove. I’m writing. It’s flowing freely. (And hopefully I’m making some sense and entertaining just a little bit.) So rather than run up and switch over the clothes and ruin my little groove, I just jotted down “dryer” on my distractions pad and barely missed a beat. Pretty fun, right? Right. At least until you have to look at the plain, mini legal pad all day as you collect your disractions. So why not … do this?

Sleepy time notebook after

The great thing about the legal pad … this literally took me two minutes. I cut a strip of ribbon, wrapped it around the boring binding, fastened the ribbon to itself with adhesive (forming a band), and viola! a fun, little distractions pad, with polka dots, none-the-less. And if there’s one thing that says fun to me, it’s polka dots. Oh .. and best yet … when you run out of paper, you can slide the ribbon band onto your next boring little notepad.

The second little notebook, is for jotting down all those random things that pop into your head when you’re TRYING to fall asleep. Instead of thinking those thoughts and tossing and turning, jot it down  … and catch some Zs.

The second notebook took a little more time … but clearly, a simple project. It’s a fun way to use up some scraps, or in my case, some leftover BasicGrey ornament card-stock. I simply cut some squares and rectangles, adhered them, wrote my title (in my own handwriting thanks to Heidi Swapp’s great book) and used some rub-ons for the Zs. Then, because I’m just so addicted to decoupage, I decoupaged over the top. A fun little Friday project (OK … so maybe it’ll have to be Saturday for you since I’m blogging so late.)  If you’re looking for an easy win (and a way to catch more ZZZs) this could be just the challenge for you.

Have fun!

Now after I change over the dryer … I’m off to catch some ZZZs 😉