Mama's Notebooks-an Interview with Heather Wood

Today I bring you a little interview with Heather Wood, creator of the Mama's Notebooks line of planners and organizers. I've wanted one for myself for awhile so in a "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained" sort of attitude I asked Heather if she would be willing to trade a couple of months of advertising space and a blog review for one of her notebooks. I was thrilled when she agreed and I've really enjoyed using this book. I like having a big space to plan my week that includes room for menu planning plus the facing page to make notes and to-do lists on. It's a brilliantly simply system. I love to hear the story behind things and I'd like you to know about Heather and how the notebooks came to be. So without further ado:

Tell me, how did Mama's Notebooks come into being? Did you begin by designing one for yourself and then find that other moms wanted one too? Tell me about the progression of the product to the point it's at right now?
Yes, I made Mama's Notebooks for myself at first. The first one that I created was the weekly planner. I had just had my third child and moved across the country for my husband's job. It was a joyful but organizationally challenging time for our family.

I had been using a simple calendar to organize our lives but I knew that I needed something more extensive. But I didn't want to have a calendar, a meal planner, and a list pad. So, I used my scientific background to create a weekly landscape chart where it all fit. I started stapling the charts into a notebook so that I could write lists on the bottom page, trying to ignore the fact that the lines were going in the wrong direction.

The stapling week by week allowed me to tweak the chart until I had exactly what I wanted. But it was a sloppy system and began to frustrate me. My husband suggested that I make my own bound planner and offered his help with the technical side of things. He also suggested that I put it up for sale. He was seeing how much it helped our family, and had confidence that it would help others too.

So I prettied the notebook up and got it ready for print. It was fun to work with him on it and to brainstorm the most useful back pages and layout. The charts and pages in the back are further organizational tools that I find really useful for food shopping, meal planning, cleaning, and daily routine.

The main page with calendar above and a whole page below for Lists and Goals

(One of the extra pages-this one for Go To Meal Ideas. I add to it everytime there's a meal my family loves with reference to which cookbook and page it's found on.)

After I made the weekly planner, I started to look for other areas of our family life that could use some organizational help. I had been frustrated with budgeting on the computer for a long time, my data kept getting lost, spreadsheets were good for planning but not tracking, and sitting down at the computer and focusing was not a reality with three small children. So I started a similar process with monthly budget sheets and the budget notebook developed.

I am an avid knitter and crocheter so I made a design notebook/ project tracker for that. I used graph paper for the design aspect and put in reference and measurement charts, as well as places to plan out goals in the back.

I have three children, so I made a little planner for new Mamas, just to get them through those first few months caring for themselves and baby.

And, I was just starting to get serious about preschool with my children so I developed a notebook for that too. One notebook for unit/monthly planning and one for weekly planning. This allowed me to track all of my resources and plans in one neat space as well as tracking all of our goals, accomplishments, and fun trips.

I chose notebooks instead of binders because they fall apart less, are compact, and are easy to carry around. I can't stand losing sheets and having to try to tape them back into a binder. And I love to take pictures of flowers so I used them as my theme for the covers. Except, of course, the knit & crochet notebook, that one had to have beautiful yarn!

(I colour-code mine with highlighters and wool)

What challenges did you face? What surprised you in your journey?
The most challenging thing was the usual technical difficulties that come with designing something and setting it up for print. Layout issues can cause a lot of stress! But I had my husband's support, ingenuity, and endless patience for all of that.

I was surprised that everyone that I gave one of my notebooks to loved them and found them useful. Every time that I was feeling frustrated with the whole process, some one would tell me how much one of my notebooks had made their lives better, and it helped me get through whatever difficulty I was currently facing. I just love that I'm helping other moms!

What do you see waiting in the future for Mama's Notebooks?
I have a new notebook in the very beginnings of development but this one is going to take a little while to get just right. It has to do with helping start our little homestead here. I am very particular about my products being finished and useful before they are sold.
Other than that, I hope to just keep helping families by taking some of the stress out of their lives. The notebooks certainly are a blessing to me and I hope that they will continue to be to others as well.
To check out the full line up of Mama's Notebooks you can click the link below:
http://www.mamasnotebooks.com/p/all-products.html