Jill and I recently started a small off-shoot site to our Dolls for Friends imprint called Doodle on the Carpet. The purpose of DOTC is to provide us a space where we can share some of the basic and rough doodles/sketches from our books. Some of these roughs have been slated for various projects we are working on, while others are just lazy day drawings that we’ve amassed over the last year plus.

Technologically, we decided to go with an old friend to power the site-Tumblr. It’s an extremely light-weight basic blogging system, but what I like about Tumblr is the fact that I could put a new, basic weblog up in just a couple of hours, I have complete control over the look/feel via css (because it’s standards-compliant), it’s hosted (which has its pluses and minuses) and there is minimal self-advertising (and that you can remove from the page if you want to).

So with very little additional time spent, Jill and I now have a quick, light-weight system that we can use to house rough scans of our drawings. All-in-all it’s a fairly DIY (and nearly free) solution. The only real expense we had on this was the dozen dollars we spent to register the url, but with a simple A-record change, you don’t even need to have much in the way of hosting costs. Done and done.

Once again, it’s time to let your voices be heard by taking the 2008 A List Apart Survey. This is one of the best opportunities to give web design/development professionals an accurate snapshot of our industry. The survey, all-in-all, takes about five minutes to complete and each participant gets us that much closer to understanding what it is we do, how we are viewed within our field and what we can expect going into the next year. Please take the time to take the 2008 ALA Survey for people who make websites.

I just finished working on the newest issue of A List Apart magazine. This issue was rather focused on the challenges of working from home when you have family home with you. Speaking as a designer who runs a small design studio (eljl) primarily out of his house, I know the challenges of trying to get focused while you’re trying to balance a home life. Anyone who works from home should read this fine article.

Here are the details:

Walking the Line When You Work from Home by Natalie Jost -
Working from home as a freelance contractor or remote employee can be a great thing, particularly if you live alone. But what if you have a spouse and/or children at home with you while you work? Every work environment offers distractions, but those who work from home with their families face a unique set of issues—and need equally unique ways of dealing with them.

We’re also asking for your personal thoughts on the matter of working from home. What works for you and what does not, your tips and your tricks for working successfully from your home-based studio. If you are interested in contributing check out the secondary call-to-action article and send over an e-mail.