Monthly look at what wallpaper I'm decorating my iPhone/iPad with.

It's November and that brings reminders to be "thankful".  Of course we all really need to remember to be thankful at all times, but thankfulness is definitely the theme for November.

I turned to Pinterest to find what wallpaper I wanted to use for my devices this month.  I used to be a big fan of CocoPPA but I have found that Pinterest has just as much and it's easier to get.

This month's lockscreen wallpaper has an adorable turkey and the colors are beautiful.  I enjoyed the brighter pink paired with the fall colors in the graphic. 

For my home screen wallpaper, I chose another reminder to be thankful.  I loved the bright girly colors in this wallpaper.  I always match up wallpaper across my devices so my iPad and iPhone both have these wallpapers.

Usually I'll have links to where you can get these yourself, but unfortunately it looks like I didn't actually pin these wallpapers.  I must've just clicked on them and downloaded them from their website.  I did find them on Pinterest and probably searched "November wallpaper" or "Thanksgiving wallpaper".

I highly recommend updating your wallpaper monthly.  It's a quick easy way to refresh your devices and keep you in the spirit of whatever season or holiday is upcoming.

October in review || 2016

//October in review across social media, Etsy, and YouTube

We're closing in on the end of October!  Can you believe it?  Christmas will be here before we know it!  Ack, are you ready?  I'm not...  Okay I'm very ready for the colder weather and the jolly season.  I'm just prepared yet in my gift shopping.  That being said, I'm super ready for Thanksgiving!  Bring on the yummy holiday food!  October was an awesome month for Emilee Speaks and I'm so proud of my brand and I'm humbled daily by all of you.  Let's check out what happened in October.

||Etsy||

I released several new clips this month.  Stepped out of my norm and made a few amazing pieces (some not released yet).  I've added hoodies, a camera, and an adorable fall weather charm (below).

||YouTube||

Filming for September was very minimal.  I got a new puppy (yes, I'll blog about her soon) and she really took up a lot of my time.  She's a handful, she owns my heart, but she's a handful.  She has kept me crazy busy the last 2 months.  Halloween is my favorite holiday though so I made time for some awesome Halloween Planner Decoration videos.  I branched out and found a few different digital stamp shops on Etsy and used a few of those stamps.  I'm not finished with my Halloween filming yet.  I still have 1 more spread I want to do and I'll do a flip through of the completed month.  I'm amping myself up to do a talk through true Plan With Me style video.  So be looking forward to that soon!

October Videos:

October Monthly Pages

Halloween Week 1

Zombie Girl

Zombie Girl Digital Stamp Coloring

Zombie Girl 2

||Blog||

October, I brought a couple awesome DIY tutorials for you.  I made Halloween tutu treat bags, and a fall candle in a coffee mug.  If you haven't checked those out yet, you definitely need to.  I had so much fun making these tutorials and plan on bringing you more like them in the very near future.

Coffee Mug Candle DIY

Halloween Tutu Treat Bags

Looking ahead: For November I plan on bringing you more YouTube videos (hopefully some voice overs or talk through's).  I'll also be bringing you some posts about the new love of my life, the new puppy.  If you can't wait to see her, check out her Instagram "@calliope_speaks".  November's theme is going to be about being Thankful & Grateful.  I have several great posts lined up for some awesome inspiration.

As always, thank you all for everything.  I love each and every one of you!

Perfect Fall DIY: Coffee Mug Candle & Vanilla Cupcake Coffee

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CoffeeCreamerCombos #CollectiveBias

It's no secret I love coffee.  I literally cannot start my day without it.  I also love seasonal living and today I'm bringing the two together in this perfect Fall DIY.  I burn candles year round with seasonal inspired scents.  When the wick is done and your candle will no longer burn, there's always a good inch of wax left in the candle.  I hate wasting this wax, I always hoard save it.  One of my favorite fall candle scents is a fall leaves scent.  I had enough wax hoarded saved in this scent that I decided to make my own candle.  It was so easy and I was so pleased with my project, I decided to write a DIY for you.  Today I will be using a new unused jar candle that the glass was broken on.  Instead of throwing it away (and wasting that money) I'm making it usable again.

You'll want to get a large pot (preferably an older one that you don't care about just in case) and fill it with water and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to med/med high.  If you're using wax bits from old candles, add them to a glass dish or an old empty candle jar that you have.  Since I'm using a brand new candle with a broken jar, I just placed it directly into the water as is.  Now you'll just be patient and wait for the wax to fully melt.

Get your mug ready while your wax is melting.  I purposely picked up some inexpensive fall colored mugs for this project.

If you're melting old saved wax from past candles, you'll need wick.  You can pick up wick pretty cheap at your local craft store.  Since I was using a full unused candle, I just used the wick this candle already had.  You'll need to secure the wick in the center of your mug.  You can use anything for this.  Chop sticks, pencils, cake pop sticks, whatever you have on hand.  I chose colored pencils that I had on hand.  I secured the ends of the pencils with washi tape to hold them in place.

Once your wax is melted you will pour it into the mug.  This has the potential to be messy.  I luckily didn't make a mess at all which is very surprising because I'm pretty clumsy.  Be sure that you're doing the pouring over a covered surface in case there's a mess.

Let it sit until it cools!  By the way... your home is going to smell amazing while you make this project.  My home was filled with my fall leaves candle scent the entire day after I made this candle.  I'm not complaining!

Now you have an adorable coffee mug candle to get you in the fall spirit.  Curl up with a book, burn your candle, and enjoy your favorite cup of coffee.  I enjoy my morning coffee black or with a small amount of cream.  I look at my morning coffee as an enjoyable tool that gets my day started.  I also drink a lot of it.  However, for an evening comfort coffee I really like to experiment and make something fun and fancy.  Like a dessert!  Let me tell you what I have been indulging on...

This tasty little treat is perfect for a fall day.  It's easy and requires very little ingredients.  All you need is Dunkin Donuts® Bakery Series® in Vanilla Cupcake, Dunkin’ Donuts® Coffee Creamer in Extra Extra, some whipped topping, and sprinkles.  How CUTE are these fall pumpkin sprinkles I found at Dillons?!  Just brew up your Dunkin Donuts® Coffee, add however much Dunkin’ Donuts® Coffee Creamer you prefer, top it with the whipped topping and sprinkles.

Dunkin Donuts® Bakery Series® coffee is located at your local Kroger or Kroger banner store in the coffee isle.  I'm so excited about the Dunkin Donuts® Bakery Series® coffee and can't wait to create more decadent coffee treats with it!  

Have you tried the Dunkin Donuts® Bakery Series® coffee?  

Tell me what your favorite fall coffee is.  I'd love to know! 

Tutu Tote Bag BOO Kits for Kitties! [DIY]

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, Mars, Incorporated. All opinions are mine alone. #BOOItForward #PawfectBOO #CollectiveBias

I love October & Halloween!  It's one of my favorite months.  Fun fact: I have more home decor for Halloween than any other holiday.  Halloween is just so fun and festive.  It always puts me in the mood to create.  Today I'm bringing you this DIY for Tutu Bag BOO Kits!  

||SUPPLIES||

♥Small canvas tote bags

♥Elastic

♥Scissors

♥Hot Glue

♥Ribbon

♥Tulle

♥Stickers/Decals

First you're going to cut down your tulle and ribbon.  The length will vary depending on the size of your bag and your preference.  For my bags, I just wrapped tulle around my phone lengthwise, then cut the ends.  This cut my tulle into individual pieces all at the same time.  Then do the same with your ribbon.

Okay... So to make the tutu you're going to take a piece of tulle, fold it in half, then place the elastic over it (see picture 1).  Then you're going to pull the tails up through the loop over the elastic (see picture 2).  Once you have that, you'll pull it taught on your elastic (see picture 3).  You'll do this the entire length of your elastic.  After that do the same with your ribbon in between each piece of tulle on the tutu.  Then center your decal in the middle of the bag.  My decals were super sticky but if you're using something less sticky, feel free to glue that on as well. 

[Don't you just love working with glitter?  Haha!  I had it EVERYWHERE!  It even ended up on my puppy's nose!]

Once you have your super adorable tutu you're going to hot glue it onto your canvas bag.  Of course you could sew it if you prefer (I stink at sewing, so I used hot glue).  

Next we're going to hot glue ribbon around the top of the bag.  I found a few different ribbon patterns that I loved, so I doubled up and made two layers.

How. Cute. Are. These?!  They're ready for your Halloween BOO Kit goodies!  I'm making my BOO Kits for all the 4-legged friends I know & love. 

I took off to Walmart to find the perfect treats for my Pet BOO Kits.  Walmart was the perfect one stop shop for the entire BOO Kit project.  You can even shop walmart.com for your BOO'ing necessities!  I browsed around the Cat Food & Treat isle and picked up some yummies!

I purchased Temptations® treats in Savory Salmon & Tasty Chicken.  The Temptations® MEGA bags have 6.3oz of treats inside so these will go a long way.  I also picked up SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ in Savory Chicken Entree Paté.  These SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ are a great size to add to the bags and they're a nice fancy treat for the kitties.

Now we're ready to put our new Temptations® & SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ goodies into our BOO Kits!  I divvied up the Temptations® treats into individual portioned bags to put into my BOO Kit.  Of course while doing so, I gave a few to my own kitties who were very interested in what I was doing!

DOWNLOAD A FREE PRINTABLE CARD AND CHECK OUT MORE BOO KIT INSPIRATION HERE!

Who will you be BOO'ing It Forward to this Halloween?

Puppy Planning in the Happy Planner

Sweet Stamp Shop: I'm on the Sweet Stamp Shop blog sharing my Health & Fitness Planner!  You can view the post below, or go check out the SSS Blog!

Hello friends!  Emilee here and today I have something a little different for you animal lovers.  Let me give you a short backstory:  About 4 weeks ago, we adopted a puppy from the Humane Society.  Normally I wouldn't have chosen a puppy, but I fell in love with her and she honestly looked like an old dog!  Then we found out she was only 6 months old.  She has been the most amazing companion for the last month.  I have a very very busy daily schedule.  I am lucky enough to work mostly from home, but my day is still jam packed.  Having a puppy is like having a toddler... She puts everything in her mouth, she eats, sleeps, and potties.  I live in an loft apartment in the business district of my city and the closest grass is 2 city blocks away.  This requires a well thought out meticulous potty break and walk schedule.  So being the planner girl that I am, I created a planner just for baby dog!

I grabbed a spare Happy Planner (I have an addiction to purchasing these and having no use for them, they're just so cheap!) that I had on hand.  I got out some scrapbook paper and my Sticky Sweet stickers to create a cover.  I used Sticky Sweet "Dog & Cat" and "Lower Outline".  I colored the Sticky Sweet stickers in with colored pencils, then ran the cover through the laminator.

  I'll be using the month on two pages to notate appointments & when she needs flea medicine.  I'll also track other preventative medicine here like heart worming, then also notate little milestones and memories.

Now for the meat and potatoes of the planner... I sit down at the start of each week and plan our week.  I try really hard to keep our routine the same, but some days I have to alter bathroom walks around things I have to do that day.  This helps me stay organized and have our day scheduled so there's no surprises.  I put special appointments in just like you would your personal planner.  Like this week, Callie has a grooming appointment on Friday.  Each day I'll schedule walks, dinner times, training sessions, appointments, and designated play time.  I obviously play with her all throughout the day, but she's a puppy and very active.  She needs a good long play session to tire her out so she doesn't get bored and misbehave.

In my sidebar I use the "Notes" section for anything I need to write down and remember.  I also put a shopping list at the bottom of the sidebar to remember what I need to pick up specifically from the pet store.  I have cats too, so you'll see "cat food" on my shopping list.  They obviously don't need a planner, so their shopping list gets merged in with this one.

This is a quick and easy way to stay on top of your pet schedules if you have a lot going on like I do.  I love using my Sweet Stamp Shop stamps in this planner to make things cute.  I know I'll want to look back on her planner when she's older and remember her puppy days.  I'll even add in pictures along the way.  The primary purpose of this planner is to organize our day, but I'll treat it as a memory book as well.

You don't have to have a special planner for this if you don't want to. You can just use some of these ideas and stamps and incorporate them into your personal planner.  With planning, it's always most important to just do what makes sense for you and your day.

Stamps Used

♥ Basic Tabs

♥More Tabs

♥Plan Pet

♥Time For

♥Walk For Hope

Halloween Filofax Decor [2016]

I am so super excited to share with you the setup I've created for October in my Filofax.  I picked up the Recollections Ravenshead Paper Pad from Michael's this weekend and it's amazing.  I love Halloween.  Love it.  I was so stoked to see this paper pad with more mature "creepy" designs than what you normally see.  I love all things scary, creepy, crawly, and spooky.  This paper pad was meant for me and I took advantage of that!

When you first open the planner you'll see the dashboard I created and the embellishments on the left.  Everything you'll see here is paper from the Recollections Ravenshead Paper Pad.  The "cards" on the left are cut from a page that has lots of different adorable cards.  Within this post you'll see these cards I've added to patterned pages from the paper pad to spruce them up.

Divider #1

Divider #2

Divider #3

Divider #4

Divider #5

Divider #6

This final shot is of my Filofax sleeve that I keep stickers, color coding labels, etc.  I wanted to bring the designs of the dividers and decor all the way to the back of the planner.  So I just cut a sheet of the paper to fit in the front of the sleeve and the contents of the sleeve is behind it.

Stay tuned through all of October because you haven't seen the last of this paper pad.  I urge you to pick one up!  I filmed my October month on two pages for YouTube today and that video will be up later.  I also used this paper pad for this video.

It's my favorite time of year and I'm ready to bring you tons of seasonal planner content!

10 Step Morning Routine to Transform Your Life

I have been compensated by Sundown Naturals® and Pollinate Media Group for this post as part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Sundown Naturals® but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #GoodnessGiveaway #sharethegoodness http://my-disclosur.es/OBstV

My morning routine is such a huge part of my day.  I’m a firm believer in how you start your day sets the tone for the entire day.  I have perfected my routine over the years adding in and taking away tasks.  I’m completely satisfied with where I am now with my routine.  Today I’m going to share with you what I do in the first hour of waking up and why. 

||1} Wash my face and brush my teeth: As I’m nearing my mid-thirties (gasp) I make sure to take extra good care of my skin.  I haven’t always been nice to my face and honestly, it shows.  I can’t make up for it, but I can help it from here on out.  Now, because I wash my face at night before bed ridding it from makeup and impurities, I use a mild cleanser on my face.  In the winter I usually just splash water on it.  However, in the summer months I’m a bit greasy so I start the day by washing that off.

||2} Start my pot of coffee: I know… I know… But hear me out.  I am a coffee junkie, and I’m okay with that.  I drink my coffee black.  NO added sugars or flavoring.  I splurge on quality coffee for myself from a local coffee bean roaster.  Not only do I “need” coffee to get going in the morning, I just really really really enjoy it.
||3} Drink a full glass of warm water with lemon [while my coffee is brewing]: I don’t need to tell you the benefits of staying hydrated.  There’s a lot of health benefits to drinking lemon water in the morning.  I highly recommend you research that and see if it’s right for you.

||4} Take my vitamins: I prefer to take my vitamins after breakfast.  A few years ago my doctor found that I run low on B12.  So she recommended I take a B12 supplement every day. I take that every single day.  I also take a few other vitamins including Probiotics for my digestive health, and Biotin for my hair.  
I am LOVING Sundown Naturals® Adult Gummies.  Sundown Naturals® are gluten, dairy, and artificial flavor free◊. I found a HUGE selection of Sundown Naturals® Adult Gummies at Walmart (they have vitamins for the whole family that you can trust) including: Biotin, Calcium, Co Q-10, Cranberry, Fiber, Fish Oil, Melatonin, Multivitamins, Probiotic, Vitamin B, Vitamin C, and Vitamin D.
The Sundown Naturals® website has a fun short quiz you can take to help determine what gummies are right for you.  I took the quiz after I got home from purchasing my vitamins.  The quiz suggested “Fiber” gummies for me.  You also receive a coupon at the end of your quiz!  I’ll definitely be checking that out.  Enter the Goodness Giveaway Sweepstakes today. Head into Walmart and purchase at least 1 Sundown Naturals® vitamin product for a chance to win weekly prize packages and a grand prize! Every week, one winner will be selected to choose from 1 of 4 prize packs – Yogi Pack, Fitness Pack, Foodie Pack, or $100 Walmart Gift Card. Simply upload a picture of your receipt here and you are entered for a chance to win some incredible prizes now through 11/1.

||5} Yoga: I love starting my day with some stretching or a yoga routine.  I work out at the gym in the afternoon, but I do like to get my body moving in the morning.  YouTube has a lot of videos if you’re new to yoga.
||6} Turn on motivating music, an audio book, or a podcast: Nothing gets me going in the morning like some music.  My mood is very influenced by music.  I’ll also use this time to listen to inspiring business podcasts.
||7} Start a load of laundry: I like to kick off the laundry right away because it’s the easiest household chore and it starts me off feeling productive.  

||8} Make breakfast: I really struggle with this but it’s vital.  I know that I’m happier and more balanced when I start my day off with breakfast.  After a year or two of consciously having breakfast [almost] every day I still struggle.  I’m NEVER hungry first thing in the morning.  My breakfast usually consists of either oatmeal, a fruit plate and a hardboiled egg, or avocado toast.

||9} Create: After I’ve had my breakfast and taken my vitamins, I sit down at my desk with a cup of coffee and create something.  This can be a huge art project or a simple coloring session.  I have found that if I do something creative early in my day, it sets me up to be in the creative mindset all day.  Since creativity is a huge part of my job, this is incredibly beneficial to me.

||10} Look over my planner: Now it’s time to start the work day.  I will go over emails, social media, etc.  Glancing at my planner and planning out what I have to do today and what deadlines are coming up.  

That’s my 10 step morning routine to transform your life.  I’d LOVE to hear how you start your day!  Let me know in the comments what your morning routine is.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. ◊Applies to all products manufactured after 5/1/15. Please check back of label as manufacture dates may vary.

Health & Fitness Planner with Sweet stamps

Sweet Stamp Shop: I'm on the Sweet Stamp Shop blog today sharing my Health & Fitness Planner!  You can view the post below, or go check out the SSS Blog!

I'm on a pretty large journey to getting healthy.  I keep a separate planner for my healthy meal planning, tracking my weight watchers points, and exercises.  I could use a phone app, but I really like having something tangible that I can flip through.  Since this is something that is very important to me, I wanted to make sure it was fun and pretty.  Today I'm going to show you what stamps I use in my health & fitness planner.

In my sidebar I use stamps to notate what my allotted weight watchers points are for the week.  With weight watchers, as you lose weight your allotted points go down.  So I like to keep track of that at the start of the week so I know exactly how many points I can use.  For this, I use the large box from the Basic Tabs set.  If you're not on weight watchers and just interested in keeping a health/fitness planner, you could use this box for any reminder.  

I'm not a huge breakfast eater [I'm working on it...] so I usually have a protein smoothie.  How CUTE are these blender stamps with the sentiment "STOP Smoothie Time"?!  They are available in the new August Release set, Kitchen.

Next in my sidebar I have the matching dashed circle from Basic Tabs.  This is where I notate my weekly weigh-in loss [or gain...].  To show this, I use the scale icon from Plan Fitness.  Also, from Plan Fitness I use the running shoe to represent my Fitbit tracking.  Using the word "goal" from Like a Boss, and the weekly date tracker from Rupert Tracker.  I will put an X on the days I met my step goals or I'll color it in.  

I work from home week days so I don't really plan my lunches.  Usually I make a fruit & veggie snack plate, but I want to make sure I write down what I eat.  So I use the plate & utensil icon from Plan to Eat in this box.  I leave the rest of this box blank so I can fill in my lunch and any snacks I had.  

In the last box I use the super ADORABLE meal half box stamp from Half Box Decor for the dinners I've planned.  Under that I used more tracking stamps to track my hunger level for the day.  I find this has been incredibly helpful for me.  I can look and see what I ate each day that either had me feeling satisfied or not.  I can also cross reference this to see if I was hungry because I was hormonal or emotionally "hungry".  Finally, I have a section where I write down the total points I ate that day.  This week I used a stamp from the new set More Tabs.  Each morning when I sit down to look at my planners with my coffee, I fill in this box pulling the info from my weight watchers app.

I'm LOVING the new Whimsy Weekend set for Saturday and Sunday.  I use the long weekend stamp in this spot because I don't work out on the weekends.  Speaking of workouts, once again we're pulling from the Basic Tabs and Plan Fitness sets.  I use an activity icon from Plan Fitness to represent my workout for that day.  These are very general because I keep an actual detailed list of my workout on my phone since I'm not hauling my planner to the gym.

I've been using this planner for health & fitness for a little over a month now.  It has been amazing for motivation and documentation.  My Sweet Stamp Shop stamps help me personalize my layout to fit my needs each week!

Do you keep a health & fitness planner or journal?  What are your favorite Sweet Stamp Shop sets to use in yours?

*I made the paperclips in the first picture using stamps from the new sets Kitchen and More Tabs*