Saturday, August 28, 2010

Organizing My Books

I thought I would share this book organization project

For the last several months I have been a busy beaver cataloging all my books that have seem to multiply. Of course, if I would stop ordering, this would not be the case. So, it was time to catalog and stop ordering the same book twice or not finding them at all within the masses of books.

I would like to share with you how I went about doing this. I first categorized all the books. For example: Beading, Bead Embroidery, Jewelry, Wire Works (Green), Crafts (Black), Doll Making (Purple/Blue), Dover Books (Yellow/Blue), Drawing (Red/Purple), Fashions (Yellow/Red) etc. I can tell you I had books everywhere. I didn’t realize how many books I had and had several doubles too.

I also color coded all the books according to the category with large adhesive dots which I cut in half when there were two colors for the category. Now, from there I set-up a “Home Library” folder in Excel and logged all the books within their own file. I set-up the file with these headings: Title, Author, Category, Cover Type, Condition, Notes. You can go further and add the ISBN# but I had so many books to enter that I felt this would be enough for me.

Now I can go to my computer and check before I order a book and if I pull a book out I just have to look at the color dots and they go back into that section. I generally don’t lend my books but if that would happen I can make a note for that book on my computer plus put a post it note in that grouping to remind me one is missing.

I know this seems like a big undertaking but I just set it up that I would do so many over a weekend. It feels good to have the books in order and in place. I hope this helps someone that is dealing with lots of books to keep in order
Until the next time….

Art Within Art Calendar Project

The Gift


A Fish Tale
I have come to the end of my commission project. "A Fish Tale" is the cover for the calendar. Now to work on the next calendar which will be a larger format. I hope you have enjoyed the posting.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Isabella with her birthday dress



Isabella is her new name. She is now finished with her hair and body painted. To celebrate her arrival she is wearing her new birthday dress.

It is all about the heart...

Heart n' Soul
Well, I guess you know what month this one is going in. I am almost at the end of my journey for the 2011 calendar.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Artistic Doodle Journey

Entangled
I am on a roll right now trying to finish my 13 images for a calendar. Enjoy!

Artistic Doodle in Color

Kaleidoscope

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Artistic Doodle Summer Drawings

Fantasy Garden
I am now using a different paper for my drawings, which is giving me some really clean lines.
More to come...