ORGANIZATION R US (SHE HOPES!)

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone had fabulous holidays! I apologize for not getting the rest of the Christmas pics and words up, as promised, but Patrick, Laura, and the grandbabies came for the holidays this year, then there was always BREAKPOINT, High Risk #4, to finish and turn in.

Which I just -- yay!! -- did. It's Dallas O'Halloran's story, and will be out in July. As soon as I get my newsletter written, so subscribers can get the first sneak peak, I'll share the cover (which is beyond mouthwatering), here.

Meanwhile, somewhere beneath all the papers and books is my desk. Which I plan to clear off. Really.

I've never been much for New Years resolutions. I mean, they get so redundant. . . Exercise more. Diet. Floss.

But the one goal I always have every January is to find new ways to organize my stuff. I LOVE organizing! In fact, even the storyboards that I put post-it scenes on as a book progresses are color-coded by character. Once we were in a pub in Ireland and happened to meet a vice president of Rubbermaid. I told him that there was a good chance I'd kept his company in business for decades. I wasn't totally kidding.

One of the things that's been driving me crazy the past few months is my scrapbook stuff. As many of you know, I've spent three years with the Cards for Soldiers program. Plus, I make cards for friends, and for various volunteer groups that ask for contributions in my card making magazines. Then there are also personal cards for the troops we've adopted through Soldiers' Angels.

So, although all those cards have put me way behind on my scrapbook page making, that hasn't stopped me from buying paper. And it's not that I'm addicted to pretty paper (Really, she insisted!!!) but you see, scrapbook paper is sort of like category romance. Its shelf life is somewhere between milk and yogurt.

So, if you happen across a particular paper you just know will be perfect for a scrapbook page you intend to make sometime down the road -- like ten years away -- you must buy it NOW! Because the designers are always creating new collections and they don't keep the older ones in stock. So, if you don't snatch it up, you won't have it when you need it.

Patrick, who may be a tad cynical after all these years living and working inside the D.C. Beltway, tells me this is the beanie baby sales technique of supply and demand. I'm not sure about that. But I do know whatever you want to call it, it's responsible for thousands of pieces of paper. Which seem to have the capacity to reproduce like Tribbles.

I currently have paper stored by color and theme in plastic vertical folders in a walk-in closet. There are also shelves filled with boxes of ribbons, brads, flowers, stickers, and various other embellishments. Plus a LOT of cardstock.

Then, in an armoire in my bedroom, I have all my stamps, inks, pens, and a fabulous machine, the Cricut, which cuts out letters in all different sizes and fonts. (You can also replace the cutter blades with ink cartridges and have it write, instead of cut, but although I've had it over a year, and have bought the ink, I haven't tried that yet.) This involves software, so all my boxes of fonts are in there, as well. Oh, and this really cool paper cutter with a red laser cutting guide -- just like the laser sights on the guns my Spec Ops heroes use -- which my sweetie bought me for Christmas is now in there, as well.

THEN, we get to my office where I have a wide plank coffee table with a hinged top for storage, and three big baskets underneath where I keep the card making supplies.

You'd think this would be enough room, wouldn't you? But it's not. Because, did I mention, paper reproduces like Tribbles? Or dust bunnies? It's gotten so I can't even get IN the closet to put things away properly. Which has resulted in scrapbook chaos.

So, two days after Christmas, after watching this demonstration of it on Real Women Scrap TV, I ordered this amazing piece of furniture called the scrapbox. I've been lusting after it for a long time and finally let my sweetie talk me into it as a present to myself for finishing my book.

It'll be arriving today on a semi truck on two pallets, and according to online reviews, we have to put it together ourselves. One woman said her husband and son managed it in four hours. Since we've put bookshelves from Ikea and Copenhagen Imports together over the years, I have faith that if we take our time and remain patient, we can handle this challenge, as well. Without killing each other.

Wish me luck. I'll definitely be posting pictures of the before and after! Oh, I bought it in vanilla bean beadboard with cream interior baskets.