Notice me

Scrappy bits of paper used to rule my life. There were lists here and there and everywhere and you never knew where the one you wanted was. Need to write down broccoli on the shopping list? Sorry--this scrappy bit of paper is a list of things to buy at the hardware store. So you start a new shopping list only for someone else to unearth the original one after you spent ages trying to remember and recreate the first list. Then the swearing commences. Do you live like this?

Well, live like this no longer. You, my friend, need a handy-dandy adorable notice board.  I am a bargain shopper at heart. We shop at several different shops all about town, 3 supermarkets, 2 health food shops, the Tuesday/Saturday market and the greengrocers. I know who sells what and who has the best prices on things. I watch for sales and then stock up on certain items I know we use. My recent best buy was boxes of Merchant Gourmet vacuum sealed chestnuts for £1 a box--normally around £2.50. Mmmm…chestnuts.

Because we shop at so many places there were always umpteen lists floating around and you could never quite lay your hand on the one you wanted. So I had a bit of a think and came up with a notice board to hang on the kitchen door. Something to organise our lives. Take a squinty at this.

click to see me up close

I used scrap booking paper and my tried and true “ransom note” font of cut out magazine letters to make several spots for designated lists. I even laminated them to keep them protected. There are places for Waitrose and  Sainsburys (our biggest supermarkets where we buy the most stuff) a space for the market/greengrocers and the Health Food Shop. An etc for anywhere else we need to shop (ASDA or Wilkinsons) There’s even a space for the weekly menu. Let’s see what we’re having this week:

There’s also a space for when my library books are due back (they don’t stamp your book anymore--they give you a fiddly bit of paper to keep up with)

I made a handy receptacle  for recycled paper cut into quarters  and sewed a little felt holder for a pen and pencil.

I also put a monthly calendar space called What’s On so we can see at a glance things we have coming up to do and nothing gets forgotten. 

I think we paid less than a tenner for the board and Spiderman figured out a way to hang it on the kitchen door. I made all the rest out of bits and bobs I had lying about in my craft room. It has made a HUGE difference in our lives as far as organisation. If you suffer from scrapophobia (that’s fear of scrappy lists taking over your house not fear of Scrappy Doo--although I can completely understand the latter--that annoying dog with a the huge head gives me the shivers) then what you need is a Notice Board.