On March 18 I received a letter in my inbox that started with these fateful words, “We are officially closing our doors after 14 wonderful years. :-(”  Yes, March 18. . . a day that will live in infamy. . . the day Dotmine Day Planners announced they were not going to sell my favorite planners anymore.

I will admit that I started looking around online for other choices and even pinned a couple possibilities on a Pinterest board.  When it came down to it, nothing seemed comparable in the space needed to write and the combination of “month-at-a-glance” and each week available for planning.

I was surprised at how many women create their own planners for the very reason I was facing. . . the inability to find an option that meets personal needs for planning and a cost one could swallow.  It was like a bulb went on. . . I like to create things that help with our personal organizing needs; I could design something to use next year.  It would be a mine.mine day planner.

I started with the monthly spread and decided (after a dozen different attempts) to leave the squares blank so they are easy to reuse each year and to go with chevron patterns on each month.

I created a couple different options for weekly planning but this format by artsyfartsymama.blogspot.com was just what I wanted and available for free download!!

The last necessity was a cute and trendy cover. . . so I made one.  I L.O.V.E it.

I went today and had a guy at FedEx/Kinkos bind the book together and I think he could tell how giddy I was about this little book.  He gave me a fatherly grin and wink.

I’m going to go put numbers in little circles. . . I’m so very excited.

I had a birthday in May.  There’s not much more to say about that, but I did want to share the gift my husband gave me.  Remember this post? Well, Honey gave me the right side.

It might be my favorite birthday gift from him ever.