Stacked.

No. I am not talking about my chest.
I wish.

Ever just feel stacked?
Piled on.
Buried in the to-dos and the dang-I-don't-wannas


Or perhaps, you are so totally inspired to create something new, paint a wall, re-arrange furniture, clean out a closet, re-organize, BUT there's just a ton of JUNK {important junk} that has to be done first?

Yeah, stacked.

And why is it that the brightest and best ideas come to me whilst I'm hidden under the rubble?
Like new bag designs, art projects to do with the boys, inventive gifts to make for others, a new art cabinet design complete with detailed protocol for bins and baskets. I mean seriously.

Eventually the pile either tumbles down with a whole lotta effort on your part or you tumble down from the pile.

Kinda that fight or flight thing, ya know?

Organization is always something I have craved. I intend to be organized with my home. I enjoy having its presence all perky and neat. I like to have a place for everything. Or at least I intend to.

With my business, same goes. And my boys, my chores, my to-dos.

Yaddayadda...intend.

I have always been this way. I can remember back in high school I had this secret girl-crush on the captain of the cheerleading squad. Now me, being the captain of the basketball team leaves you all wickedly wondering.

Read on for clarification.

Skim on and get that I might be unsure of my sexuality.

I was totally mesmerized by Courtney Cunningham. She was the eldest of 4 girls and lived right off our little hometown square in a Victorian pink house. I kid you not. It was pink. I loved the idea of 4 sisters living in a pink house.

ANYWAY, she was uber and I do mean uber organized. She had the coolest planner/organizer thingy.

I sat across from her in AP English class and would totally check out of the lesson at hand only to eavesdrop with my little eyes in hopes of catching a glimpse of what was in that planner.

Not nosy-nosing to find out WHAT she was doing, but more importantly, to see her method of HOW SHE WAS DOING IT. I mean there was color coding with multi-colored highighters, tiny tabs that were different colored, blue ink, red ink, and LOTSA things crossed off.

She had the coolest hand writing all messy-neat in its own way and everything was written on the lines and with order.

Dang, I loved her.

Courtney, if you should be reading this:

"You were a guru long before your time. I STILL long to get my hands on that 1993 planner of yours."

I actually bought one myself as close to the looks of hers as I could. Mine was red. It said "planner" on it. Clever name; I should have sensed demise from the start.

Somehow I tried to emulate her methods...the ones I could make out. I never dared to ask her "how" as that would mean defeat. And well, that just couldn't happen you see.

But the problem was, I just stared at the damn thing wondering what to write down. It just didn't click for me. I ended up with beau coups of multi-colored highlighters, pens, post-its, and tabs all stuffed and crammed in my backpack just hanging out waiting on me to use them.

Uggh.

I continued to to force this method of organization upon myself through my college years. I would end up writing down things I just did, JUST so that I could highlight them as "DONE."

Pitiful. Courtney would be mortified.

The one day, out of no where, the steno pad became my friend. I morphed into the way my mind REALLY works. Jumbled scribblescratches of lists, circled importances, dreams jotted, numbers to remember, all with the use of 1 pencil and 1 highlighter.

And it works for me.

I am not ON TOP of the piles all the time rest assured, BUT my mind is happy. Things get accomplished.

And eventually they always do, huh?

The piles that is. Whether you are the queen of checklists and color coding or the diva of chaos and clutter...one way or another your junk gets done.

Some just get it done more efficiently than others.

And that's just it. I think I that's what my mind longs for:

{excellence in order}

{efficiency with ease}

...the way MY BRAIN can best operate.

Cause everybody can't be a Courtney Cunningham. Goodness knows, I've tried.

And how's that for showcasing my last batch of Pretty Ditty wallets? {this post}

See, I even write like the way my sweet steno looks.

I can check off:

"blog about bags" and "vent about my organizational skills" with one strike of the highlighter!

These Pretty Dittys turned out superfine. I loved seeing all the different fabric collections clients chose to create their own. These pictures, again, seem to resemble the looks of pages in my steno pad: cluttered with the goodness and get-tos of my mind!

How do YOU get the jobs of life done? Feel free to answer my poll or leave me a detailed comment on how you tick-tock!

How do you keep your life organized?(survey software)


.mac :)