Cara, your planner expert, here today! I live in Luxembourg and as my children’s school year winds down this week, I know that most of you around the world have been out of school for a least a little bit by now. I want to talk a little about planning your summer days, especially if the light at the end of Summer’s tunnel is starting to appear.

Those of you that are going into winter now, you can still take these tips and apply them to your day, just take out the words summer 😉

I’m not talking about the big trips and activities, but, I want to focus on the everyday, summer days. The ones that seem to go by all too quickly and before you know it you are scrambling around buying school supplies last minute, thinking ‘Where did the summer go?’ and regretting all the things you wanted to do but never got done.

So, plan it out! 

Start with a wish or bucket list. Then apply your ‘reality’ filter, what can you truly get done this summer? What will you honestly have the time and energy for? Then, schedule those little activities that make the cut, into your planner!!

You might be thinking, ‘but, Cara! Summer is the time to get away from schedules and have-tos!’ And yes, one of the best parts of summer is the carefree, no-schedule bit, but at the same time you don’t want to waste the opportunity to do the activities that you don’t have time for during busier seasons of the year. Take some time at the beginning of the summer to relax and recuperate if you need to, but I find that my children (and myself) do better on a loose schedule during the summer weeks.

Maybe you want to go to the new pool or the cool movie theatre to see a summer blockbuster, when it’s too freakin hot to move! Maybe a date night with hubby or a picnic in the backyard? Summer crafts, teaching your child to garden, etc.  What do you want to do this summer?

As summer’s end draws near, review what you’ve done and if you weren’t able to do everything you wanted, ask yourself why? What can you do next year to better plan the summer and if there’s still a bit of time, squeeze in some fun before those cool fall days creep in onto summer.

Lret’s see how I used the June 2016 Hip Kits to help plan my summer. I want to get the house ready for having the children home all the time and also have a baking day while I still have an empty house. So I chose ‘domestic’ as my word for the week. To help keep me on track for this last week of school, I chose soft, calm colours to remind myself to enjoy the stillness before the house is full of boys and noise. And I added ‘stay cool’ because one, I hate the heat (it literally makes me sick) and two, to remind myself to keep my cool as having children home all day can be tiring. You may be in a different season of life and/or year so pick words and images to add to your planner that remind you of the messages you want to tell yourself every time you open your planner.

The letter stickers and words, the enamel dots and bradz all come from Simple Stories Sunshine & Happiness line. My ‘plan tomorrow’ is cut from one of the exclusive PL cards designed by Kim Watson. the ‘cool’ die cut is one fo the Dear Lizzy die cut phrases from American Crafts and I punched boxes from her matching patterned papers from the ‘happy place line’ as well as one of Kim’s exclusive papers ‘Written from the Heart’.

Topping off my planner spread is a cute little clip made from buttons by Paige Evans from her Fancy Free line for Pink Paislee and a few of the Simple Stories enamel dots. I’m going to do a tutorial, live on periscope tomorrow on how to make these, so please come join the fun!! If you aren’t on periscope yet, come on over, it’s soooo much fun and there are tonnes of planner girls. Find me, I’m @CaraVincens and when that cute little whistle goes off telling you that I’m live you can comment and ask questions and put in your 2cents! I love hearing what you have to say and getting tips and ideas from you as much as I like teaching them!

I do a tutorial every Thursday (usually around 10am -ish EST) using fun goodies from my Hip Kit Club kits.

Last week I made some inserts for my Traveller’s notebooks. I not only had tips on how to cover an existing notebook, but I taught you how to make one from scratch. If you missed it, you can catch the replay!  I used more HKC PL cards by Kim Watson, more enamel dots and bradz, and more of that fab Paige Evans paper, as well as the exclusive HKC Skipping Through the Park paper. I also used a few clear stickers from Simple Stories’s Carpe Diem line, another  die cut phrase from the Dear Lizzy pack, an exclusive HKC puffy sticker and a die cut from the Project Life Currently Chipboard Ephemera pack from American Crafts.

Enjoy your summer and…

HAPPY PLANNING!!