Weekly IRL Missions and Free Sidebar Printables!

As a follow up to my post last weekend about daily IRL (in real life) missions and how I am tracking them in my planner, I also created some weekly sidebar stickers for my Big Happy Planner for habits that I want to build daily. I have created a points system for each item I check off, and these points/money will get added to the earnings from my daily IRL missions each week and put into my fun money -- my fun(d).

Here is a preview of the what the sidebars look like (4 per page) -- scroll down to the bottom of this post for the download link!

The printables in this post were created using backgrounds/art from freepik. Specifically, the filenames in my google drive download link have the names of the backgrounds/art used and correspond to the list below:

• "Modern abstract background" designed by Kjpargeter / Freepik (pictured above). Used in full as a background
• "Ornamental elements collection" designed by Alvaro_Cabrera / Freepik. Parts used as ornaments for borders
• "Pastel color artistic watercolor background" designed by aviyabc / Freepik. Part used as a background
• "Soft blueabstract background" (sic) designed by balasoiu / Freepik. Part used as a background

I have included downloads for 4 different pretty versions with backgrounds or ornaments (ready to use) in .PDF format. I also included an undecorated version in .PNG format (with a transparent background) in case anyone wants to customize the missions for their own personal use. If you have suggestions for missions, let me know in the comments!

Download my weekly IRL mission free printable sidebar stickers here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1K62sdG_vAGiyp5O9xcTWlBFcH2hJH2Tk?usp=sharing

TERMS OF USE:

You are free to download for your PERSONAL USE ONLY. You may not resell, repackage, redistribute, or in anyway present any of my creations as your own. Please feel free to share these files by linking to this post directly. You may not make them available for download from another site, social platform or other media. If you use these in your planner, please link back to this post to give me credit for my work! I have tried to give credit where it is due in my printables -- if you think anything here belongs to you or was improperly attributed, please let me know.

Daily IRL Missions

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!! For the new year, I wanted to start rewarding myself for building little daily habits that are good for my physical or mental health. Lots of games that I play (or have played in the past) have daily missions that give little rewards that really incentivize working on things daily, so I thought I'd borrow that idea and create daily in-real-life (IRL) missions! For this first month, I just wrote out a list of things that I wanted to do and randomized the order, then wrote them into the January monthly spread on my Mini Happy Planner. Here's what it looks like:

I will check off daily missions as I complete them. At the end of the month, each completed daily mission is worth 50 cents toward my fun spending money (for planner stickers, washi, or gaming money). This way, I can try to keep my discretionary spending under control too!

Here are some examples of my daily missions:

• Walk 12k steps
• Read a book for 15 minutes
• Listen to music
• Read 1 academic paper (related to my work)
• Publish a blog post
• Throw away or donate 1 item
• Text an old friend to stay in touch
• Plan a happy surprise/caring thing for my husband

If this month goes well, I will make some printables for next month to make it look cuter! I could also move these into my Big Happy Planner, since my to-do list has moved out so I have the space... we will see how it works!

Free Printable Water and Mood Tracker for the Big Happy Planner

Something I learned from my bullet journal days and my planning days so far is that I really like checking off boxes -- I find it so satisfying that sometimes I will do things just to check them off (which is the desired effect of making the list). To get myself to drink more water, take my daily vitamin, and track my mood, I made some custom trackers for my Big Happy Planner that I'm loving so far and wanted to share with all of you! Here's a sample of what they look like -- scroll all the way to the bottom of this post for the download link! The 8 circles are for glasses of water, the single circle on the right is for my vitamin, and the bar along the top is for my mood (I shade in the bar differently for different emotions to represent the percentage of my day spent happy, sad, angry, etc.)

The width of these custom trackers is the same as the width of a Big Happy Planner box, and I usually just place them along the bottom/top of a row. For example, in my spread for the upcoming week I have the trackers along the bottom of the first row.

The decorations and checklists here are from the Merry Mulberry kit by Pink Pixel Graphics

To download these trackers in .PNG and .PDF format, click here. You can recolor the trackers to match your weekly spread by using the .PNG version, but make sure whatever program you are using doesn't change the sizing. I like to print to .PDF first and line it up on my screen with the provided .PDF file to make sure the sizes are the same before printing to a printer.

TERMS OF USE:

You are free to download for your PERSONAL USE ONLY. You may not resell, repackage, redistribute, or in anyway present any of my creations as your own. Please feel free to share these files by linking to this post directly. You may not make them available for download from another site, social platform or other media. If you use these in your planner, please link back to this post to give me credit for my work!

Ellen's Baby's Blanket - Knit Pattern

 
This square-shaped blanket is knitted diagonally using just knit stitches (K), yarn overs (YO), and knit 2 togethers (K2tog). Gauge is not that important, just keep measuring along the edge of the blanket as you knit until it reaches the length you want for one side, then start decreasing. For my blanket, I increased to a maximum of 161 stitches in the middle row.

Coloring can be all one color, or striped. The blanket shown has asymmetrical stripes of two colors - no real pattern, just freeform, though each stripe is worked over an odd number of rows so that consecutive color changes occur on different sides of the work.

Needle size: US 9 (5.5mm) - I used a circular needle to manage the large number of stitches in the middle rows.

Yarn: KnitPicks CotLin in Flamingo and Raindrop (2 50g skeins of each color)

Increasing side:
C/o 3 stitches.
Row 1: K1, YO, K2.
Row 2: K1, YO, K3.
On each row, continue in this pattern (K1, YO, knit until end of row) until the length of one edge is as long as you want one of the sides of the square blanket to be.

Decreasing side:
Row A: K1, K2tog, K to end of row.
Repeat row A until there are only three stitches left in the row.
Bind off.

New Knit Finished: Comic Artist Wristlet!

I finished my comic artist wristlet (finally!) this week, so I have something to wear to prevent my tablet from thinking my palm wants to make squiggly lines all over the bottom of my comics.

More project pics and yarn/needle details are listed on Ravelry here: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/vixxyn/comic-artist-wristlet. Leave a note in the comments or send me a message on Ravelry if you want the simple pattern to make a wristlet or two of your own!

Icicle Manicure

New York had its first major snow of the year over the weekend. The ground turned (very briefly) white, and though the snow is mostly melted by now, the inspiration for this manicure remains. The Icicle Manicure is an elegant white and silvery ombre style that is subtle enough to wear to work, but fun enough to enjoy, too.

Nail polish needed:
- Soft pearly white
- Silver or blue glittery color (sheer is best)
- Clear top coat

Optional materials:
- Acrylic nails and nail glue (I use fake nails because I have a bad habit of picking at my natural nails when they get longer, so they never grow out. Acrylics prevent me from reaching my real nails to pick!)

Directions:
Step 1: Apply acrylic nails (if desired, otherwise skip this step)

Step 2: Paint each nail completely with two coats of the soft white base. Let dry after each coat before applying the next.

Step 3: Using the sheer sparkly color, paint the top 2/3 of each nail with one coat. This looks better if you make a messy line at the bottom instead of going straight across. Let dry completely.

Step 4: Again using the sheer sparkles, paint the top approximately 1/3 of each nail with a second coat. Make the line messy again. Let dry.

Step 5: If the color gradation to the tips isn't very pronounced, you can do another coat of sparkles just at the very tips. Otherwise, proceed to the last step.

Step 6: Cover with two layers of clear top coat.

A closer look at the finished result. I love how the color fading is just enough to be seen, but not too overwhelming.