Wednesday, December 30, 2015

2016 Goals & Resolutions Printable

I love the start of a new year. 

Maybe it's because I love having an excuse to reorganize my home and set up a new planner. Or maybe it's simply because I love having the opportunity to dream big and set new goals for the year. 

I'll admit…some of our goals for 2015 were big ones. We wanted to save money for two important projects on our home, I wanted to grow my business, we wanted to travel more as a family, I wanted to volunteer more in the kids' school (just to name a few) and all the while, I tried to focus on my Word of the Year, which was "No." I know that may seem like an odd word to choose, but it was because I found myself saying "Yes" to too many little things and I was losing sight of the bigger things that were more important.

I am still not very good at saying "No" (unless I'm speaking to my kids or a friend asks me if I feel like working out), but the times I did say "No" this year made it possible for me to say "Yes" to say many wonderful opportunities. We traveled more, we saved enough for our home projects AND ThePolkaDotPosie became a familiar name in the planner community. 2015 has been nothing short of spectacular and I can't wait to see what 2016 will bring :)

But before 2015 is over…we need to plan!! To help us out, I have a NEW free printable for your 2016 Goals & Resolutions.



Our printable looks a little different this year. We've added a section for the "Word of the Year," which is best described as a word that you want to focus on all 365 days (or 366 since it's leap year). My Word of the Year for 2016 is:

SIMPLIFY

Next, our printable has a space for you to write a goal for each category of your life. You can make these goals/resolutions as simple or specific as you want. For example, my Health goal is to run a 10K this year and my Friends goal is to have more coffee/lunch dates with my girls. We also have a blank space that you can use for something more personal or specific for you or your family. Perhaps you are saving for home improvement, or a vacation, or perhaps you have a personal goal of starting your own Etsy shop or meeting the love of your life :)

The purpose of writing out goals & resolutions isn't to make your life more stressful, but rather to encourage you to do more of what makes you happy!! Have fun with this list and use it as a guide for the next year. We may have some repeats on our list (I'm looking at you Health & Fitness. Ha!) but what's important is that we try. It's never too late to set a new goal…or achieve an old one.

Happy New Year, friends!!! Thank you for being a part of our lives and our dream. See you in 2016!

To download our FREE 2016 Goals & Resolutions page, click on one of the following links:


Wednesday, December 9, 2015

All Aboard The Christmas Lights Express!

One of our family's favorite Advent Activities is taking a ride on the Christmas Lights Express! 

Every year, after our kids are freshly bathed and in a new pair of Christmas jammies, we leave these Christmas Lights Express Tickets on their pillows. For the last few years, our Elf Toodles has been the one to deliver them so that he can go alone on the ride with us :)



We created a free Christmas Lights Express printable in 2013, and as of this december, it has been downloaded over 5,000 times! Seeing those downloads come through brings us so much joy knowing that so many families are using it to make memories with their own children, grandchildren and nieces & nephews. If you've used our tickets in the past, we would love to see a picture on our Facebook page or a story in the comments :)

This year, we wanted to give our Christmas Lights Express ticket a little makeover so that it coordinates with the rest of our Free Christmas Printables. We also made it a little easier to print with 4 to page :) We hope your family enjoys using these as much as ours does.

All aboard!!!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Our Favorite Thanksgiving FREEBIES!

With Turkey Day a little over a week away, it's time to start planning and prepping! We've got a bunch of great Thanksgiving Freebies to share with you today.

First up, we have our popular Thanksgiving planner pages to help you organize your menu, plan a shopping list, tackle cleaning and kitchen prep, journal your thanksgiving memories AND a coloring sheet for kids (or adults).



After we shared our super cute Thanksgiving Lunch Box Notes last year, a few friends told us that they actually used them for their Thanksgiving kids table! What a GREAT idea!


Download these Thanksgiving Lunch Notes {HERE}

Next up, we have a new "I am Thankful for You" sheet of 2" printables that you can use as treat bag tags, cupcake toppers, or plant sticks! All you need is some heavy card stock and a 2" paper punch!


Download these Thanksgiving Tags/Toppers {HERE}

And finally, our newest Thanksgiving Freebie is this printable word art!! It is sized 8x10 so you can print and frame it for your home or give it as a hostess or teacher gift!


Download this Thanksgiving word art {HERE}

We hope all of our great printable freebies will make your Thanksgiving holiday a little more organized and a lot more fun :)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our wonderful friends and customers! We are so thankful for all of you!

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A FRIENDLY REMINDER

Please feel free to share the link to our shop blog with all of our Thanksgiving goodies, but PLEASE do not link to the downloads directly. These printables are free to download and use for personal use, but they MAY NOT BE EDITED, SOLD OR PRINTED FOR RESALE in any way. If you have questions about these printables and how they may be used, please contact us in our shop. If you like the beautiful cliparts used in many of these printables, they can be purchased from one of our favorite Etsy shops, © Erin Bradley Designs | erinbradleydesigns.etsy.com

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Our 2 Year Planniversary GIVEAWAY!!!!

2 Years and 21,000 Printables later…our little shop has grown into something my Mom and I never DREAMED it could be. If you've been a friend of ThePolkaDotPosie from the beginning, you'd know that our first printables were invitations. I sold them alongside my Mom's fabulous handmade goodies and I was lucky if I sold one invitation a month. I was just learning graphic design {on digital scrapbooking software no less} and embarking on a project as big as a printable planner was no easy feat. 

But after 8 months, a TON of trial and error, countless all-nighters and lots & lots of encouragement from my friends and family…I finally finished my planner.

When our launch day came back in September of 2013, those same loyal friends and family were the first people to buy my planner. I only had one style and size available, and it was our Large Seasonal Planner. I remember when I had sold my 10th copy, my mom and I went out to dinner to celebrate :) I remember her saying to me at dinner, 

"Jenny…wouldn't it be a dream come true if we could make a real business out of planners? You could make the pages and I could make cute covers and accessories??"

And a dream come true it is. 

Since then, our Printables shop has grown to over 100 different planners, stationery, chore charts, invitations, stickers and more! Our handmade shop was successfully downsized so that my mom could focus specifically on planner covers and accessories, and still be able to enjoy her retirement quilting, knitting and sewing with friends. The two of us set this enormous goal 2 years ago and because of all the support and encouragement we get from our friends, family and customers…we aren't stopping there. We have even BIGGER plans for where we hope to go with the shop in next two years and we hope all of you will still be along for the journey :)

So let's celebrate, shall we?!!!

We thought long and hard about what we wanted to offer for our "Planniversary Giveaway" and we decided that it had to be something BRAND NEW. So we searched our piles of notes and scanned our "To Make" list, and the one overwhelming request we've had for the last year was a fully dated version of our Signature Planner. Customers asked for it to be similar in style to our Seasonal Planner, with dated monthlies, weeklies, journal and list pages, a vertical weekly layout with a meal planning option and consistent Signature colors throughout. 

It was the perfect choice.

But then, we also noticed another request popping up quite frequently. 

Two words: Planner Stickers. 

People are CRAZY FOR STICKERS and even though we added our fun printable stickers to the shop, people were also looking for pre-printed stickers that would fit and coordinate with our planner sets. Sadly, we had nowhere to send these sweet sticker-loving customers…until now. 

My friend Emily over at Three Little Birds Studio on Etsy is one of my FAVORITE planner sticker designers and I just knew she would be the perfect person for this project. She has designed the most PERFECT set of custom fit stickers for our new Signature Planner and she is letting me give a set away!!!

Feast your eyes on this beautiful sight...


These two are a match made in heaven :)

And since everything coordinates so perfectly, I figured we had better toss in a set of Signature Dividers too!!!

In addition to our Dated Signature Sets {in Large and Small}, we will also be listing a trial run of our Printable Dividers this week! They will only be offered in Size Small to start, but we hope to eventually add X-Small and Large as well.

So… WHO WANTS TO WIN THIS FABULOUS GIVEAWAY??!!!!

Here are a few things to know before you enter:

* You must be at least 18-years-old and a U.S. resident.

* This giveaway is for a PRINTED Signature Planner and Dividers from ThePolkaDotPosie, and Custom Sticker Sheets from Three Little Birds Studio. No digital/printable files of any kind will be sent.

* The Planner Pages and Dividers will be unpunched, so you can use them in any planner or binder that accommodates half-sheet pages sized 5.5 x 8.5". This includes ARC Junior Notebooks by Staples, Filofax A5 Planners, Kikki K, Daytimer Desk-Size Planners, mini binders and many more.

* Entries will be verified before announcing a winner, so please follow the rules carefully and let us know if you have questions :)

YOU HAVE 8 CHANCES TO WIN!

Good luck!!! A winner will be posted on Wednesday, October 7th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway






Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Christmas is 100 Days Away! Download your Christmas Planner today!

We've been in design-mode for the past month trying to get our 2016 planners listed for all of our fellow planner junkies (and they will be listed by next week!!). The whole time I was designing I kept thinking…2016 seems so far away! 

But then my Christmas Countdown clock chimed today and it said there are only 100 days left till Christmas!! This year has truly flown by. And since I anticipate the next 4 months to move just as quickly, I thought today was the perfect to share our fabulous Merry Christmas Planner!!



We redesigned this beauty last year and it was a HUGE hit. We now offer the planner in 3 sizes, so be sure to check out each one in our Printables shop! We promise it will help keep you more organized over the next 4 months…and for years to come :)

Monday, September 7, 2015

LABOR DAY GIVEAWAY #4!

HAPPY LABOR DAY!! We hope you are all enjoying your weekend with family & friends and getting some much needed, well-deserved relaxation. 

Today is the LAST DAY to get 10% off in our printables shop, and it is time for our final GIVEAWAY!! For those of you that have always wanted to try our Small (5.5" x 8.5") Seasonal Planner, this giveaway is for YOU! 

To enter to win a PRINTED copy of our 2015-2016 Seasonal Planner in size Small (which runs now - July 2016), just leave a comment on this blog post telling us why you need to win this planner. Maybe you are looking to get organized with a paper planner for the first time, maybe you just want to try a new size, or maybe you just want to find planner peace because nothing else has worked for you. In short…tell us your planner story :) 

ONE winner will be chosen tomorrow from all of the entries on our Facebook page, Instagram account and Blog. Please only enter once as we will be selecting one winner total :) Good luck and have a GREAT rest of your weekend!! {U.S. participants ONLY in this giveaway due to shipping costs. International customers can enter any of our other Printable giveaways this weekend :)}


Sunday, September 6, 2015

Labor Day Weekend SALE & Giveaways!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!! We are celebrating the holiday with a sale and some special giveaways Friday - Monday!


Each of our giveaways will be hosted on our various social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram & our Shop Blog {Use links in our sidebar}. 

Today, our Giveaway #3 is a

CUSTOM DOCKET PAGE!!

If you aren't familiar with our docket pages, consider it a very detailed & categorized To Do list. Dockets are a great alternative to your traditional Daily & Weekly planner layouts, especially if you find that you are not effectively using 2-pages per day or week. 

We have a bunch of fabulous dockets available in our Printbales Shop, but this giveaway will give you the chance to build a CUSTOM docket to meet your needs. Some things we love to see on a docket are:

Weekly Menu
Fitness Checklist
Water Log
Daily/Weekly To Do list
Shopping list
Errands list
To Call/Email list
Goals
Hourly Appointment schedule

Or you can customize your docket for something more specific like school, your job, your fitness journey, and more!

To enter for your chance to win this Custom Docket, please comment on this post with a list of things YOU would like to see on your custom docket. One winner will be chosen at the end of the weekend and posted HERE.

And don't forget to enter our other great giveaways happening all weekend long! You have until Monday night. 

Good luck! We hope you all have a fabulous, relaxing weekend with your friends and family :)

Friday, July 3, 2015

Enjoy 10% Off Your Entire Purchase in BOTH SHOPS this Holiday Weekend!

Happy 4th of July Weekend, friends! We hope you have some fun celebrations planned with your friends and family.

We have a special treat for all of you this weekend!! If you don't already follow us on Facebook or Instagram, just head over and "Like" or "Follow" our page for a 10% off your ENTIRE PURCHASE coupon code!! This code will be good in BOTH of our shops this weekend only.



This is a great time to stock up on planner pages for back-to-school or purchase a fabric planner cover that you've been eyeing :)

Please note that while our shops are open this weekend, we will have limited access to our computers. For our printables shop, only Instant Download items will be sent on time. All other orders, including our Seasonal Planners, Stationery, Personalized Covers, Chore Charts and Invitations, will not be processed until Monday. We thank you for your patience and we hope you all have a 

Happy 4th of July!!

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

FREE Printable Summer Planner Stickers

Happy Tuesday, Friends!! We hope you are all enjoying summer and gearing up for a fun-filled 4th of July weekend!! If you are in need of some fun patriotic printables and snack ideas, just click {HERE}. Our 4th of July cupcake toppers have been a big hit the last few summers :)

And speaking of freebies…do we have a special treat for you today!!!

We are just ONE WEEK AWAY from launching our BRAND NEW Printable Planner stickers and because we are just too excited to wait…we wanted to offer you one of the sheets for FREE!!



This is our "Summer" sheet and like the rest of our Printable Planner stickers, you will want to use Avery 5408 Labels. These can be found in any office supply store near the other specialty labels, or you can purchase them on Amazon for a great price.

For those of you that have never printed our stickers before, please know that all printers are NOT created equal. Our new images do have an extra bleed (meaning the color is stretched beyond the sticker edge) in order to compensate for any slight alignment issues that some printers may experience. Also, we have put together some quick printing instructions and tips:

1. Open your sticker file in Adobe Reader. We recommend this program over other PDF file readers.

2. On the print screen, be sure to select "Actual Size" and check the box for "Choose Paper Source by PDF File Size."

3. If your printer is still not recognizing the 4x6 paper size, you may have to change settings to "Photo Tray" or adjust your custom paper size to 4x6. 

4. The stickers are in high resolution and so there is no need to print the stickers in "best" or "photo quality" unless you would like your colors more saturated. 

5. If you are still experiencing alignment issues after following all of the steps above, we recommend realigning your printer (you can find steps for this on your printer driver or in the manual), or you can also Google your printer make and model to search for suggestions from other users on how to adjust specific settings.

We really hope you enjoy using these stickers in your planner this summer and we CAN'T WAIT to show you all of the other fabulous designs we will be offering. Stay tuned for the big launch!!!

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TERMS OF USE: Please note that all of our Free Printables are for PERSONAL USE ONLY. This means you are not allowed to sell, redistribute, edit or claim them as your own. We would love for you to share these stickers, but please make sure you link back to this blog post (and not the download link itself). Some graphics used in this set are designed by the incredibly talented Lilly Bimble on Etsy.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Last Day of School {Printable} Chalkboard Signs

It is so hard to believe that all of these cuties are almost done with school for the year!!



Where does the time go?? 

Seeing all of the adorable preschool graduation pictures on Facebook this week reminded me that we need some LAST DAY of school signs, too!!! I've just updated all grades and you can download each of them {HERE}.

We will be updating all signs for the 2015-2016 school year this summer, so be sure to follow along with us here or on our Facebook page.

We hope you and all of your kiddies have a FABULOUS SUMMER BREAK!!!

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Happy May Day Printable!

My dear friend April asked the other day if we had any "Happy May Day" printables available on our blog, and I embarrassingly had to ask her what May Day was all about! She said that many cultures around the world celebrate May Day as a way of saying goodbye to the long cold winter, and welcoming warmer weather by gathering flowers, singing and dancing.

Well, I can think of no better celebration after the winter we've had :) And so…we've created this sweet little printable chalkboard tag that you can print and attach to bouquets of flowers, use as a plant stick or even a treat bag tag!


You download this free Happy May Day printable {HERE}.

Happy May Day, friends!! Bring on the sunshine!!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Coffee Talk with ThePolkaDotPosie!

Happy Thursday, friends!! My mom and I are so excited to share a new weekly segment that we will be starting on our Facebook Page, Instagram account and right here on our Shop Blog!!


What we have come to realize is that we have SO MANY creative and inspiring friends & customers and we think it would be so much fun to share how we all "keep it together." Some weeks you may be able to contribute with an idea of your own, and some weeks you may come just to look at all the other ideas and Q&A for inspiration and motivation.

We look forward to getting to know all of you a little better and we hope that you are as excited as we are to start this fun new adventure. We would also LOVE to know what topics you would like to see featured on Coffee Talk, so leave a comment below and enter for your change to win a set of our Seasonal Bunting Notes & List pages!!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Introducing our New Garden Planner!

With planting season upon us, we decided it was the perfect time to debut our newest planner!! We have had numerous requests for a Garden Planner both in our shop and on our blog, and we wanted to make sure we came through for you all this year :)


Our new garden set has a variety of helpful printables to make planning and maintaining your garden a little easier this year. Like any good planner set, the Garden Planner comes with Monthly and Weekly calendars, as well as a project planner…


Some of the best gardeners I know swear by plot planning, so our set includes both a large planning grid, as well as a square foot planning grid. The Seasonal Planting Tracker is also a helpful tool to keep track of when seeds need to be planted throughout the year.


Each of the additional printables in the set offer various solutions for tracking your budget, seed growth and transplant, plant inventory, pests & problems and soil and fertilization.


And finally, for all of your journaling, note-taking and list-making needs, we have these three adorable add-ons to your set. The Garden Tasks & Maintenance checklist can be used daily, weekly, monthly or seasonally!


After creating this set, I was searching Pinterest for some inspiration on container gardening and I came across some BEAUTIFUL herb gardens. That's when I realized that we left out one important printable! So…we've decided to offer these fun Herb Garden Notes pages as a FREEBIE!! 


For those of us who do NOT have a green thumb, or the ability to plant and maintain a large garden, container herb gardening can be a great project. 

We hope that you enjoy this freebie and our fun new Garden Planner! Let us know what you think!

To purchase our Small Garden Planner {5.5 x 8.5} click HERE.
To purchase our Large Garden Planner {8.5 x 11} click HERE.
To download the Free Herb Garden Notes Pages click HERE.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Printable Easter Lunch Box Notes

We are so "hoppy" to FINALLY have our Easter Lunch Box notes available! We realize with Easter only a week and a half away, you may not have the opportunity to use all of them in your kid's lunches, so we made sure to include some springy blank tags that can be used after Easter. 

But because no holiday lunch box note set is complete without jokes, we have quite a few of those as well :) These little jokes would also work great on Easter treat bags, in easter baskets and even rolled up inside Easter eggs! 

Download all the cuteness {HERE} and stay tuned for a new set in April!


Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Printable Easter Planner Page!

It's that time of year! The tulips are starting to bloom, the sun is shining {except in Chicago} and with less than two weeks until Easter, it is time to start planning!! 

Whether you host Easter brunch or dinner at your home, or simply have a busy schedule with Church and family gatherings, our FREE Printable Easter Schedule will keep you organized! You can download this printable in 3 planner sizes, or print it in Large {8.5 x 11} and post it on your fridge or family bulletin board!


We hope you enjoy using it! You can download your copy {HERE}.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Printable St. Patrick's Day Lunch Box Notes

Top O' the Mornin' To Ya! With St. Patrick's Day just a few weeks away, we wanted to share some fun new Lunch Box notes! As always, we have a combination of silly jokes, a fun fact, a sweet note and blank cards for writing your own personal messages. 

We hope your kids love these new cards! You can download them {HERE}.

And stay tuned for our Easter Lunch box notes coming soon!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Our Favorite FREE Valentine's Day Printables

If you are new to our shop & blog, you may have missed some of the fabulous Valentine's Day printables we shared last year! We have everything from printable BINGO games, treat tags, school Valentine cards, planner printables and more! Check out all of our goodies below!

{perfect for preschool and elementary school} 










And don't forget about our fabulous Valentine's Day lunchbox notes!!

Monday, January 19, 2015

Two Lucky Winners!!

We just want to thank you all SO MUCH for entering our "We Love our Customers" giveaway!! 2 lucky winners have been selected to receive a $50 Shop Credit to ThePolkaDotPosie{Printables} to use  in 2015! 


Congrats to both ladies!!! You have 48 hours to email us at ThePolkaDotPosiePrintables{at}gmail{dot}com to claim your shop credit. 

Thank you all again for sharing your wonderful and inspiriting goals, resolutions and dreams for 2015! We wish you all a happy, healthy & organized new year!!

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Printable Valentine's Day Lunch Box Notes

We are so excited to share our newest Lunch Box notes!! We hope you don't mind that we skipped the jokes this time (don't worry…we have lots of great St. Patrick's Day sillies for our next set).

We just wanted to spend this month focusing on L.O.V.E. What we love about our Valentine's Day Lunch Box set is that these little notes can be used as miniature valentines, treat bag tags or stickers, planner note cards and more! Get creative and have fun!

You can download our FREE Valentines Day Lunch Box Notes HERE.


* If you love the adorable "Perfect Pair" cliparts used in this set, be sure to check out Jessica Weible Illustrations on Etsy.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

We LOVE Our Customers!

Hello, friends! It has been an incredibly busy start to 2015 for us, and we realize that our poor blog and Facebook page have been a little neglected. We thank you all for your patience as we got caught up from the holidays and New Year. 

But now the fun part can begin!! We have been working like busy little bees to come out with some fun new items in both of our shops and we can't WAIT to show them to you in the coming weeks. In addition to our new shop items, we are also going to be sharing a bunch of fun Valentine's Day treats, including new Lunch Box Notes, Printable Treat Boxes, Love Coupons, Planner printables and more!!! Be sure to follow along here and on our Facebook page for all of those goodies. 

And speaking of goodies…we have a VERY special goodie to share with all of you today. Over the holidays, we received so many wonderful messages, pictures and feedback from our fabulous customers and every time we read one of those messages, it filled our hearts with so much joy. And since so many of you took the time to share some love with us, we wanted to share some love with you. 


That's right friends…TWO lucky people will win a $50 shop credit to ThePolkaDotPosie{Printables}. The credit is good all year and it can be used on anything in our printables shop, including chore charts, party invitations, and more! You can spend it all at once to build the perfect planner, or you can save it for items as you need them throughout the year. The choice is yours!!

RULES OF ENTRY

Because not everyone has a Facebook account, and because not everyone makes it to our blog each day, we've deiced to choose one winner from our Facebook page, and one winner from our blog. The same rules/comments apply for both.

* To enter, you must leave a comment letting us know what your 2015 Goals and Resolutions are. Better yet…what are your dreams for 2015 :)

* You must have a valid email address to receive the prize and you must respond within 48 hours after winners are chosen, or a new winner will be selected.

* All the same policies and Terms of Use apply to printables purchased with the shop credit.

* You may enter this giveaway on Facebook AND our blog to double your chances of winning, but the same person cannot win twice :)

Good luck, everyone! You have until this Sunday night to enter {January 18th}. Winners will be selected and posted on Monday.