Staying Organized with an Agenda

Happy August 1! If you’re like me, then you know that it’s also the first official day for the new Lilly Pulitzer academic agendas, which run August – July!

Since school is right around the corner, I wanted to spend some time talking about how I stay organized using my agenda. As a full-time student/part-time blogger, my time is really important to me. Because of my meticulous agenda skills, I’m able to make the most of it!

MY AGENDA

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s talk about what agenda I choose to use. For the past 4 years, I’ve been a Lilly Pulitzer agenda girl, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

This year, I’m using the Lilly Pulitzer Large Agenda in the print Multi Floridita.

Color-COding

Color coding is essential for me. With one glance, I can see everything on my list for the day, and where my priorities should be. I like to divide my colors up by class during the academic year. This is my color-coding system for fall 2019:

I’ve used the Paper Mate® Inkjoy ballpoint pens since I got to college, and those from the original pack are still going strong despite their heavy use. I don’t use black or brown in my agenda (the design is too bright for bland colors) and I don’t use orange. On principle.

Stickers

Stickers are the fun part! Beyond getting to make my space colorful with ballpoint pens, I also use bright stickers. I use stickers mainly on the monthly spread pages, since they’re able to give me a quick run-down of my most important events for the upcoming month.

I also try to make them related to the activity I’m scheduling- footballs for football games, music notes for band-related events, roses for sorority events, and little cameras for things I had to do as historian. For other important events without a specific set of stickers, I usually used stars!

My favorite sources for stickers are:

Scheduling

It used to be hard for me to easily distinguish between things that were on my schedule and things just on my to-do list. Now, I use triangles to designate things with a certain time (ex. “Brunch w/ Lexi @ Neighborhood Jam @ 10:30”) vs things I just have to do that day (ex. “Go grocery shopping”). Here’s an example week from September of last year that shows these symbols in action! (Bonus incentive to use symbols: checking them off is so satisfying!)

Extra tips!

  • Write it down. Write everything down. I don’t care if you think you’re going to remember something- write it down anyways.
  • Make sure your agenda has your name, phone number, and email inside! I’ve never lost mine- knock on wood– but if I did, I would want someone to be able to contact me and get it returned ASAP.
  • Use a paper clip at the top of your current week so you can easily flip what to what day it is. No more scrambling to find the correct day when your professor is giving out the homework instructions!

Questions?

Is there anything I didn’t cover? I would love to answer any of your unanswered, burning questions- leave a comment down below or shoot me an email!

-K

DIY Beaded Sunglasses Tutorial

I’ve always had a thing for sunglasses. From sixth to eighth grade, I wore sunglasses on my head like a headband every day. (No seriously. Every day.) While I eventually gave that look up, my love for a cute pair of shades has always remained.

Something else I’ve always liked is crafting. Getting to be creative and use my talents to create cute DIYs is something I’ve always loved. But despite years of love for both a sunnies and crafting, I’ve never thought to put them together until now. I’m in love with the outcome, and today I’m going to share my process with you (and give you some ideas to use instead!) All my supplies I used will be linked, but feel free to get creative and use other things!

Here’s a fun fact before we begin: It took me so long to decide what phrase to put on my glasses. At the very last possible second (AKA: as I was arranging the beads to spell out something else) “LA VIE EN ROSE” hit me. I thought it was so perfect, because it’s a French idiom that directly translates to “life in pink,” or indirectly to the English idiom “to see life through rose-colored glasses,” or “having a positive outlook on life.” So perfect for rose gold glasses!

DIY Beaded Sunglasses Tutorial

Supplies:

Tutorial:

  1. Preheat your hot glue gun. It will take about 5 minutes to heat up completely, so use that time to decide on what phrase you want to spell out. Depending on the size of your sunglasses, aim for no more than 7 letters on each side.
  2. Work from the outside in. I glued my flowers down first, and worked from there. When gluing down the letters on the right side, double check which letter you’re gluing down since you’ll be spelling backwards.
  3. When you get to a space in your phrase, put a single jewel or other embellishment in its place.
  4. When you run out of letters, continue putting jewels down until you get to the bridge of the nose.
  5. Once the inside is done, go back to the outside and finish putting jewels down either side.
  6. Let your new sunnies cool! Once the hot glue has totally dried, go back and get rid of all the hot glue “hairs.” (Don’t know what I’m referring to? You will once you get to this step.)
  7. Enjoy your newly decked out shades!

More Ideas:

Here’s the honorable mentions that didn’t make it to the shades this time around, but might on a future edition. Let me know if you end up using any of these, I would love to see them!

  • BARBIE GIRL
  • BBY GIRL
  • BIG DREAMS
  • CARPE DIEM
  • C’EST LA VIE
  • CHILL DUDE
  • GOOD VIBES
  • HASHTAG OOTD
  • NAMA SLAY
  • OH HONEY
  • RISE& GRIND
  • SELFIES &OOTDS

I seriously had so much fun designing and making these. If I started a business, would you be interested in purchasing some? If so, let me know!

-K