Kicking off the Archive-Along

Sparked by a simple comment in a chat room a few weeks ago, Diane of Crafty Pod and I have put together a special blog-project on the subject of archiving your online work. The Archive-Along kicks off today, and is aimed at helping you explore various ways to create online and hard copy portfolios of some of your best online work.

Part of what interested me in this subject was my work on covering the STS-130 mission for MAKE. All my work for that project was online, and I wrote some of my favorite stories of my career during that time. And then I started to wonder .... where does all that work go? Hitting "post" sends it out into the virtual cosmos, and while folks read and commented on the stories, once they were out there for a while it just felt like they were kind of ... gone. I thought about how I'll want to share these stories with my kids and grandkids years from now and realized that, unless I was proactive with my archiving, I might not be able to.

Diane and I started brainstorming on the idea of archiving our work, and realized this is a great opportunity to engage the blogging community at-large (and not just crafters!) to share ways to make sure your best work is preserved and to see what other ideas you may be able to offer.

Even if you haven't been "published" on large web sites, it's important to go ahead and start developing good content archiving habits. It's also a great way to have one go-to spot to share your best work with potential publishers. Regardless of your level of blogging, project writing or experience, joining in on the Archive-Along is the first step to making sure your work never goes "poof" with no record left behind.

Over the next two weeks, Diane and I will share tutorials on various methods of creating digital and hard copy archives of your work. We encourage you to follow along and post summaries of your results and experience in the comments here. As you create your online portfolios, be sure to share them in the comments as well. Also be sure to keep up with the main Archive-Along page where we'll keep track of all our tutorials and feedback from participants.

Lastly, head over to the Archive-Along Flickr group and grab an Archive-Along button for the side bar for your blog! We're looking forward to helping you (and ourselves) get more organized, develop solid archiving habits and give all your hard work the care and curating it deserves!

Embroidered Peg Board & a look at my craft space

Over on CRAFT, we're just wrapping up one of our most fun and most popular series: Make Space For Crafting. During the last month, we've featured numerous craft spaces of some of our favorite crafty peeps as well as loads of tutorials and projects that are perfect for organizing your own craft space. I love that we've had spaces from tiny craft closets to vast, gorgeous studios, and projects that range from fast and easy to more elaborate. I highly recommend checking out the complete series archive.

I just posted up a peek inside my craft space last night. Mine's not completely finished - I still have some art to hang on the walls and a curtain to hang over my closet and roman shades to make/purchase/hang, but it's getting there, and I love it oh so much. Having my own space - especially since I work from home - is so important. I can go in there and really feel comfortable and inspired to work. Love that.

One of my favorite things in my craft space is my peg boards. Peg boards are one of the handiest organizational tools around, and I decided to gussy mine up with some embroidery with yarn. I love having over-sized embroidery stitches up on my wall.

Check out the piece and more pictures over on my Flickr stream. Do you have any favorite craft spaces to share? Any tips of your own? Let me know in the comments. Our main Make Space for Crafting series may be over, but with response as great as we've received, we're working on ways to keep it alive in some form.

Mmmmm.... Bookshelves

Technically, it's a big magazine rack. I've been in the process (a long one) of cleaning out, reorganizing and decorating my home office/studio for the last few weeks. I got the room cleaned out, but had stacks and stacks of beautiful craft books that wouldn't fit in the skinny hand-me-down bookshelves I already had. I ran to my favorite thrift store and found the perfect solution in this ginormous magazine rack/bookshelf.

See, I'm a hugely visual person. I like having things out where I can see them - especially my books. Craft books are typically beautifully designed, and having them shoved - spines out - into a cramped bookshelf just doesn't do them justice. I also have a lot of random vintage books that I love (I'm a sucker for old science and text books, especially ones about the space program) and I just like to be able to actually look at them, ya know?

The magazine rack was $16, and after finding a friend's truck (and a friend who could drive a stick - thanks, Jamie!) I got it home and found that it fit perfectly on the wall directly across from my desk. I have loved having it there where I can look up at any moment and see my favorite craft and vintage books. It's crazy kinds of inspirational. I've also started hanging some of my other favorite inspirational items on the wall above the shelves.

I've still got a lot of work to do on the office, and I'll be documenting it here from time to time, but just this first big purchase makes me so giddy I can't stand it. And I haven't even repainted it yet!

You can see close-up pictures of each of the shelves over on my Flickr stream. I've labeled all the books and included links where I can, too. Enjoy!