DIY-Index Card Calender

If you're like me, you like to have an organized schedule and write down everything! Since middle school, my planner has been a place to write down homework, to-do's, and what happened that day. Sometimes it will be boring things like, "Stayed home and watched a movie," but other times it will be, "Went on a haunted hay ride with Billy, Sally, Suzie, and Tommy. Tommy was his usual crazy self and jumped off the wagon and ended up breaking his leg! The rest of the night was filled with a trip to the hospital and angry parents." Both of those are fictional stories, by the way. 

My point being, I like to write things down! I think it's fun to look back in time and see that "It was 85 degrees outside today in February and we had snow two days ago!" I just think that's really neat. I think I got this from my grandpa on my dad's side. He used to write little notes on the calendar or just stick them on the fridge. One of my favorite ones says, "Found mouse in dog food today" and then the date. It makes me smile to think of him writing these little notes and knowing I do it too. My dad has been doing it more over the years too. 

With this little project, I can look at multiple years at once which is really cool. I don't have to flip back and forth through different planners to find the right date. I originally found this on Pinterest of course. The original project can be found HERE but I just did my own version from the main picture. I adore these little farmer's market strawberry baskets and knew I saved them for a reason!

What you'll need:

• Markers or pens in the colors you want
• 366 lined index cards (Don't forget leap year!)
• Scissors
• Strawberry/fruit farm basket

Directions:

If your basket is a cardboard type one you're good to go. Mine was a clear plastic so I spray painted it this pretty green. 

Measure the width of the basket against an index card then cut them down to size so they fit properly. I cut maybe an inch or so off of mine. If you have a paper cutter this step will go quickly.

Now the time consuming part of the project is writing the month and day on each card. I tried to use a different color that sort of pertained to the month (red for February, yellow for April, green for December, etc.) but you can do it however you'd like. 

Stick the cards in the basket and toss a pen in the front. Now every day go write a quick line of what happened. 

I did this project late spring of 2012 so I grabbed my planner and filled in the cards from January 1st until the present day. January 1st was fun because it was the day we moved Brian (my husband) into our townhouse. 

Some days I forget and I have to fill in a week at a time and all too often there's nothing "exciting" to write. That's ok though because it will be fun to look back and see that on a specific day all we did was snuggle, watch movies and eat pizza. I've written other entries such as, "Tried Vinny's for dinner finally-really good!" or "Explored Peaks View Park" or "Started a blog!" or "About 4" of snow!" You can write whatever you want to remember about that day. I'm now into the second year with the index cards and I can hardly wait to look back at them 10 years from now! 

Do you like to write in a journal or planner as a memory keepsake? How do you record your life?

Till next time,
Catherine