Tax season special!

Tax returns are due on April 17, 2012. To celebrate the unique organizational opportunity that filing one's taxes creates for us every winter, I'm offering a special organizing rate to help you get ready to file on time.

Lelah's 4 Hour Paperwork Prep Special: $239

I can help you sort your paperwork, find your receipts and assemble the documents you need to file your taxes. This will make you and your accountant extremely happy, and save you time and money. Invest in your sanity. I can help you get this done!

Details: One 4-hour office organizing session with an emphasis on getting your tax documents together is normally $300. From now until March 1, this rate will be only $239! Applicable to new and returning clients in Glendale, Pasadena and surrounding areas. Applies to one 4-hour session. Additional sessions may be needed and regular rates may apply. I am not a tax professional, but I can get you organized before you see yours!

Call or email today for more information and to schedule your session. Don't wait until the last minute. Get this off your mind today!

www.lelahwithanh.com    818.269.6671    lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Ken Teegarden: www.seniorliving.org

Baking tips

I'm an avid baker and over the years I've developed some strategies that help me keep the guesswork out of baking and increase my enjoyment of it. Not surprisingly, these strategies keep me organized as I bake, so I feel in control and get better results from my recipes!

Here are a few tips from my kitchen, and a recipe that I love.

• I always get out all of the ingredients I will need at once before I start anything, that way I can see if I'm missing anything.
• Then, as I finish using an ingredient, I put the rest of the item away. This might seem like an extra step, but it helps me see if there is anything left on the counter when I think I am done, so I can tell if I've accidentally left an ingredient out.
• Using the correct temperature butter, eggs and other dairy products usually does affect the outcome of a recipe. I always try to plan ahead and pull those items out of the fridge early if they need to be warm, or leave them in fridge until the last minute if they need to be cold. If I forget, and need room temperature butter but have only just take it out of the fridge, then the microwave is a good alternative. Run eggs under water until they warm up a bit if you need room temp ones.
• Really know your oven. Oven temperatures can vary widely, and I never take the recommended baking times in recipes at face value, but compensate in accordance with how I think my oven will behave.

Oatcakes
a recipe handed down from my mom

2 cups finely ground oatmeal (About 3 cups whole oatmeal. I use a food processor.)

1 cup unbleached white flour or whole wheat flour

3/4 cup unsalted butter, very soft or mostly melted

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup boiling water

In a mixer or by hand mix butter and brown sugar until blended. Add dry ingredients and mix, adding the boiling water at the end to bind it all together. You should have a stiff dough. Shape dough into a log and slice into inch strips. Place strips two inches apart on a cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes at 400 degrees F until lightly browned. Let dry on a rack for a couple of hours. These should be crunchy on the on the outside, chewy inside. 

You really can't go wrong with this recipe - it doesn't matter what size the strips are...it always turns out!

Creative Commons photo of oatmeal posted to Flickr by S. Diddy

Get a professional organizer's expertise!

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

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What's so great about Evernote?

I just did a search of this blog and realized that I've never blogged about Evernote, except for this brief mention. That changes today.

I'm going to quote from their website in order to set the stage, then just outline why I think Evernote is an indespensible tool.

Our goal at Evernote is to give everyone the ability to easily capture any moment, idea, inspiration, or experience whenever they want using whichever device or platform they find most convenient, and then to make all of that information easy to find. 

I use Evernote on my desktop computer and my mobile tablet. I capture recipes, articles, craft ideas, photos, lists, gift ideas, maps, products, things I find funny and things I find inspiring. I capture anything I think I might want to remember or access when I'm out and about, like the name of that wine I got one time that I really liked or a list of the kinds of pears my husband likes and the kinds he doesn't like.

I now use it for all of my to-do lists and lists in general, instead of Stickies, because Evernote syncs seamlessly, instantly and without having to do anything between my desktop and mobile device. I keep it open all the time and use it daily and have never gone over my free monthly quota, but I'm thinking of upgrading to a Pro account just because I like it so much ($5/month).

I rarely use the tags feature because their search function works so well; it always finds what I am looking for even if I have the merest of keywords to go on. I can scan anything directly from my ScanSnap S1500 to Evernote without having to go through middleman software or save screens.

I will be honest--it took me a couple of years to really start using Evernote consistently. Before I'd use a combination of saving PDFS, scans, Delicious bookmarks, etc. But when I did, it was like a door opened to more productivity-and I was pretty productive before!

Anyway, that's enough gushing for now. Let me know if you have specific questions about how to make Evernote work for you!

Creative Commons photo of pears posted to Flickr by Emilian Robert Vicol

Want help setting up your Evernote account?

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

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Take the Paperless Plunge

Registration is now open for my 3-hour workshop Take the Paperless Plunge! The Professional Organizer's Learning Academy is hosting the event through the National Association of Professional Organizers Los Angeles chapter. I'm so excited to have this opportunity to share my knowledge about paperless organization. The workshop is geared toward professional organizers and how they can use paperless organizing techniques to streamline their own business and also how to cultivate their paperless organizing skills in order to be able to offer paperless organizing to their clients. Though professional organizers are the target audience, the workshop is open to the public.

This workshop is being offered in conjunction with Dolores Kaytes's amazing filing workshop which I have personally taken twice and think is a must-attend for any organizer. Attendees may register for one or both workshops.

In addition to the fabulous content, as an added incentive to register, all attendees of my workshop will be entered into a drawing to win one of several amazing prizes including a ScanSnap scanner!

WHEN:	Saturday, February 4, 2012
TAKE THE PAPERLESS PLUNGE:	1 PM to 4 PM
WHERE:	Leeza’s Place, 5000 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite #110, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
PARKING:	Parking is free.  Garage entrance is on Addison St.
COST:	Early Bird Fee: $79 (per session) for NAPO-LA Members $99 (per session) for Non-NAPO-LA Members
	OR … SPECIAL RATE FOR BOTH SESSIONS: $149 FOR NAPO-LA MEMBERS $189 FOR Non-NAPO-LA MEMBERS
	Note:  Add $15 to any registration fee received after January 25, 2012

Registration is available on the NAPO-LA website.

For more details, call or email me at 818-269-6671/lelah@lelahwithanh.com

New Year's To Do List

Over the last couple of years I've stopped making New Year's Resolutions and have focused more on creating a detailed to do list of things that I want to accomplish over the course of the year. My resolutions used to be pretty specific when I did make them, so it helps me to just call a spade a spade and list them as things to accomplish. Since I enjoy working from a to do list, this works for me. It also allows me to make a master list of everything in my head, from buying new mugs to taking a trip to San Francisco to doing yoga or pilates five times a week, without worrying about whether the item in question is resolution-worthy.

A bit of my board.

For more of a spiritual approach to the year ahead, I've also made a vision board. Last year I blogged about vision boards and how they can help attract new energy into our lives. This year's board is full of bright colors and is hanging on the wall just to the left behind my computer, where I can look at it every day.

How do you celebrate the clean slate the new year brings?

Get help creating or getting through your own to do list.

Call Lelah at 818.269.6671

or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Get Lelah's News