Monday, February 9, 2009

The Birthday Book

I came up with this really cool idea yesterday. A Birthday Book. What, pray tell, do I mean by that? Let me explain...

So yesterday, the husband and I drove out to visit my inlaws for dinner. (Spaghetti...my weekness.) As we were sitting around chatting after dinner, Gram informed us that it was hubby's cousin's 7th birthday. My mother-in-law lamented that she had been meaning to take a calendar and fill in all the birthdays for the coming year, but had not gotten around to the task yet.

Light-bulb goes off in my head.

On the drive home, I was thinking about this. (It's a bit of a drive.) I suddenly had visions of a mini-book, with 1 page per month, filled with the birthdays for that month. My mother-in-law could flip through it at will, or hang it on the wall near her desk, and just change each month. Because it wouldn't be an actual calendar, it could be used year after year. It could also be set aside and pulled out only as the reference for filling an actual calendar each year. Honestly, how many times have you sat down to fill birthdays into a calendar and had to call another family member to be reminded when someone's birthday was? If you're like me....ok, if you're like me you have them saved to your palm pilot and YOU are the one everyone calls for the reminders. So maybe that's not a good example.

Anyways, this is an original idea...for me...because of the simple fact that I never wanted to do a mini-book before. I couldn't see a use for them. I prefer working in 12x12 size, so mini just doesn't fit that preference. But now that I've got an idea, I'm rarin' to go.

Where this leaves me now, is in a forced planning stage. I know my style. 70% of me is ready to go to the store and start buying month/holiday/themed paper and embellishments. Admittedly, I don't have much in the way of themes. However, the 30% of my logical side is reigning me in. First of all, I have no idea how I'd like to do each page. I'd hate myself afterwards, if I rushed out and bought all that product, only to realize once I did some planning, that I couldn't use half of it for the project. I also am well aware that I have used up most of my alotted fun money for this pay. That won't be replenished until I get paid this Friday.

And then there is the small problem of birthdays. I don't KNOW any of the birthdays for my husband's extended family. Heck, I can't seem to remember my inlaws' birthdays, as it is. So to fix that, I have a set of printed out "questionaires." They already know I am my family's "genealogist", and had expressed interest in the past, in having me do some of their research. So, I'll start. I'll get my birthdays, and then the project is ON baby!

Updates will come....as I figure out how to do this!

2 comments:

  1. Great idea :) We have all of ours on my dad's side of the family and my mom's side of the family typed in a spread sheet type document. One person keeps it to update with new births and wedding anniversaries and then mails (dad's side) or emails (mom's side) out the updated version once a year. The two lists have been life savers from time to time. I should probably do something like this for Jeff's family, but his family is not as big as mine so it's easier to keep up with.

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  2. I actually remember to write the birthdays in my planner but you have to actually consult the planner for it to matter. He. I am apparently only able to be organized to a point. I think you mil will love it! It's a great idea.

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