I Love You, Papa

What an emotional few days.  I am truly exhausted. And while the circumstances of my return to upstate NY were not good, it was SO nice to spend some quality time with my entire extended family.  My dad is 1 of 6 kids so I grew up with a BIG, absolutely wonderful family. This has been the first time in years that everyone (except Papa of course) was gathered in one place at one time. I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive, loving family with which to have gone through this kind of grief.

That’s the silver lining, isn’t it? Losing someone close to you reminds you to appreciate the people you have in your life… especially family. I am so grateful for everyone that Nana and Papa have brought into my life. I feel so lucky that I have been surrounded by so many incredible people and so much unconditional love. And I am so glad that my Papa was surrounded by people he loved (and certainly loved him) in life and in death.

Rest in peace, Papa, and Happy Birthday. There is a hole in my heart that will never be filled.

P.S. I tried to order French Toast for dinner at the reception in your honor but the Glenville Queen made me get a Turkey Club. :)

Sponsorship Made Easy!

I am so grateful to have sponsor-swapped with some really awesome bloggers this month!  But let’s be honest… gathering blog code from different sources by the first of the month can be pretty stressful and time-consuming. So when I saw Shannon’s post on Bungalow 960 about Passionfruit Ads, I was instantly pumped (THANK YOU SHANNON!).

Passionfruit Ads is so easy.  You simply click on the type of ad you’d like for April and it will automatically add you to my sidebar for the month.  For fellow bloggers that would like to sponsor swap, you can enter the code “OCCSwap0412” at checkout to make April’s swap free (or take $2 off the large ad) in exchange for putting my button (located on the sidebar) on your blog.  You can find my ad shop in this post below or any time on my contact page.

If you have any questions regarding sponsorship, just shoot me an email at erika@ourcozycubbyhole.com.  I look forward to seeing what other great bloggers I will meet this month! :)

Planning Around Chaos

Life is full of twists and turns.  You can try and be as in control as possible but there will always be a curve-ball or two.

My grandfather passed away this morning (rest in peace Papa- I love you so much) and I am of course dropping everything to fly home to NY to be with my family. Besides the obvious disruption that traveling causes in life, my brain is completely elsewhere and I am emotionally devastated. So it is times like these I am so thankful I inherited my mother’s organizational genes to try to keep everything else in life afloat. I thought it would be an appropriate day to mention how I keep my blogging (and life) organized, especially when the curve-balls happen.

I don’t think there would still be a blog if I didn’t have an amazing planner/notebook to keep my scattered thoughts in one place.  I would have given up by now! I always feel great when I have my blog posts and projects planned out for the coming days/week. It makes the administrative and planning aspects of blogging a million times easier. And somehow my techie, nerdy brain still prefers an old fashioned written planner to using my iPhone or something.

When I first started looking for the perfect planner, I was disappointed in everything I saw.  Too big, not enough space to write, too structured, not structured enough. I thought about a DIY planner but thought I would make one last run to Staples before I gave up on existing planners (I wanted to jump right into blog planning!).  That’s when I saw the Staples Arc customizable notebooks that allowed me to create exactly what I wanted!  I got a small but sturdy pink leather exterior, colored tabs, weekly/monthly agenda paper, lined paper, and list making paper. I can keep a running collection of to-do lists and ideas as well as move, add, or remove things to my heart’s content.  I have been using it for months and I am still as in love with it as the day I bought it!

The best part?  The whole system with all of the paper packs was substantially cheaper then a mediocre planner in the agenda section thanks to a 50% leather notebooks sale.  I got everything for about $20. In case you were wondering, I wasn’t paid to write this article by Staples… I just genuinely love this notebook. It works for me and I would recommend it to anyone.

Good blogging requires good planning… especially when life pushes you out of your routine. It is nice to know I can focus on what’s important right now because my blogging has been preplanned and all of my ideas are in one place while my brain is scattered. The blog can just be a fun distraction when I need it for the next few days.

How do you all keep your blog organized? I am always looking for good organizational ideas! And as always, thanks for reading.

P.S. The backyard is back under control but we no longer have any grass. I guess we have some yard work to do next weekend.