enJOY it

weekend wedding adventure.

June 26, 2012

Over the weekend, we celebrated our friends' wedding in Humboldt County, California. We left Thursday, spent the night in San Francisco, then drove the rest of the way Friday. Sunday, the day after the wedding, we drove back to Berkeley, spent another night and finished the drive home on Monday. I didn't get great photos (happily, other folks did) but made great memories.

Here are three interesting things from the adventure that I want to note :

one. As mentioned, this was quite the road trip. 1300 miles and four days in the car for one party. But we both agreed early on, and realized again yesterday that it is always totally worth it to see friends. We were talking on the way back home about how there are so many events we (or Paul) will have to miss due to deployments and the intense schedule that comes with being a medical resident. When our schedule provides an opening, we cannot afford to let an event pass us up.

two. At the ceremony, I teared up more at the wedding vows then the usual processional. Vows are a big deal. I don't think, before we were married, I had ever really listened. I understood the gist of course, but not how insanely big and demanding wedding vows truly are. They ask a lot of the couple. We've been married for just two years, and have a lot of road ahead of us, but with each wedding we attend, I get something new out of them and re-realize their power.

It is such an honor to hear your friends speak such meaningful words outloud and commit to each other. It is also sort of impossible for me to hear them and not think about what they represent in my marriage. At the end of the ceremony, almost like he was reading my mind, the pastor said something along the lines of "…and for those married in attendance, let what you witnessed here today be a renewal the vows you once made to each other." Cue goosebumps. That's good stuff.

three. This beautiful outdoor wedding was rained on. I say rained on and not rained out because the ceremony and receptionhappened despite the rain and it was a truly fantastic wedding. Originally, tables for dinner were set with about half under a tent and half unprotected on the grass. As the mist turned into a down pour, most guests crowded together under the tent and people ate standing up or took turns rotating through tables to sit down.

At first, that might sound like a crisis. But in reality, it was probably the best way ever to encourage guests to mingle. Usually at weddings, I end up socializing most with the eight people at my table. In this situation, I wandered and chatted and made new friends and caught up with all the old. It was pretty awesome. I know for sure I wouldn't have had such great conversations with as many people if I had been glued to a table.

And, of course, part of what made everything so good was that Hillary and John handled the whole event with such grace and a positive attitude. At the end of the day, the only important part is that you get married to your favorite person. They obviously got that and their love and high spirits made it impossible to not have a good time in the rain at the wedding.

Congratulations, Hillary and John. Thank you for inviting us!

random iPhone photos from the trip are shared above. highlights : those pink pants are Old Navy. We stayed at the Phoenix Hotel in SF and it had neon doors and a killer bar/resturant called Chambers. Up in Blue Lake we stayed at the Blue Lake Casino (and walked away up $80 at black jack). The coffee in the hotel room was so good I could drink it black. The yellow dress was from Nordstrom (and not that short on me!). The wedding after party at the hotel was amazing. On the way back down we stayed at the recently renovated Hotel Shattuck in Berkeley and it had a peace sign in the lobby. We hiked the Strawberry Canyon fire trail that Paul used to run up in college. I was, once again, stunned by the beauty that is the bay area and northern California.
e & p tips for productivity.

June 25, 2012

I'm planning on bringing another new monthly(ish) feature to the blog this summer…

Three different tips from both Paul and me on the same topic.

It started because I wanted to do a post on productivity but realize how different my work situation is from so many others. I also started thinking about how differently Paul looks at work than I do. "Hmmm," I thought, "could be fun to get his tips too…"

And then when I asked him, he was totally on board. (And don't worry, he has more free time these days than he's had in five years or I would have never asked him.) The other night, we started brainstorming on productivity and other categories we could offer three tips on and, oddly, it became one of our better conversations.

So, welcome to Blogland, Paul. I'm happy you're here.

Background on Paul… he is a doctor on his GMO (general medial officer) tour with a Navy battalion. This means he's the general physician for the 600 servicemen and women in his unit both while they are at home port and when they deploy overseas. He has 12 corpsmen (medics) working under him. Clearly, we could not have more opposite jobs. And in general, we have pretty different personalities (he's a perfectionist! I'm an imperfectionist!) which is why I thought this would be a fun experiment & interesting feature.

I hope you enjoy!

Knock out your easy tasks first. I'm a procrastinator. To work around this, I try to make finishing small, easy tasks my first priority. The small tasks are the ones that can sit on the back burner and are easy to forget about. They are also the tasks that eventually come back to bite me in the end when they don't get done. When I first get to the clinic in the morning, I briefly touch base with my senior corpsmen. They usually have updates on cases or quick tasks that need to get done (placing consults, ordering imaging studies, emailing important info), and I usually try to address these things before I start seeing any patients for the day. As soon as patients start cycling through the clinic, the floodgates are open, and it's easy to let something important slip by. That said, if I have so many small tasks that I could waste a day on them and never get to the real projects (seeing patients), I try to prioritize which small tasks can be left for the beginning of my next work session.

Set specific deadlines. Again, I procrastinate. A lot. One of the things I forget most often, and have to remind myself to do, is to set specific deadlines. The first question to ask yourself when starting any project is when you need to have it finished. (Side note: it's important to set clear deadlines for those working for you, as well.) Whether it's determining the amount of time you want to give yourself to finish the small tasks, or breaking down what you need to do for larger projects, holding yourself to deadlines is essential to getting work done effectively.

Work towards a reward. I find I work with significantly more focus and energy when I have something to look forward to at the end of my work session. This can be something small ("I'm going to complete this task within the next hour, then I'm taking a 10 minute break" or "I want to be able to leave the office by 4pm"), or a large goal ("when I finish this project in 2 months, I'm going on vacation for a few days"). Everyone needs something to work towards, but it might vary immensely. Find what it is outside of work that you need to do in order to stay focused on finishing tasks efficiently when you are working

Don't work for your to-do list, make your to-do list work for you. If you're spending more than 10-15 minutes a day writing out, color coding or rearranging items on your to-do list, I think the point has been lost. (I have been there, I know.) It's easy to get so caught up in listing and organizing that you trick yourself into thinking you're being productive. Spoiler alert, you're not. You're just putting off doing the actual tasks in favor of organizing all the tasks. If you feel like this is you, consider paring down all your lists and charts into just one list for the week. Don't rearrange. Don't move tasks around. Just complete them and cross them off.

Group like tasks. The best example I have for this is the way I write blog posts. This blog is my job, so I am committed to getting at least six posts up a week. Instead of sitting down each day and starting and finishing the next day's post, I often break it all down into smaller parts. I spend a morning or two each week writing, writing & writing. I get the text down for the posts I want to have over the next few days. I get completely into the grove of the words, which while not always the most time consuming, is the hardest part. The next day (or later that afternoon), I attack the photos and create the accompanying graphics for each post. Then later, I go through and re-read, add appropriate links, finesse and make edits. Early on, I am not sure I would have been able to keep it all straight, but now, it really makes the most sense and helps me manage my time effectively (and guarentees that I have something decent up every morning at 5am).

Separate work and play. I used to say that reading blogs and keeping up on twitter was part of my job. And then about eight months ago, I actually got busy with my job (hooray!!), and realized that that was sort of a joke I told myself. Absolutely staying "in-touch" with what's happening online and developing virtual relationships is an aspect of my job (and a very fun aspect, at that), but it's not nearly the main event. It's not going to generate income and it's not going to help me keep things fresh and original. So I am working to change how I spend my work days and how I devour online content. I try to do my "play" activities (read blogs, follow fun links on twitter, browse Pinterest) on my iPad once in the morning before I start my day and once before bed. The goal is to not check blogs or read twitter during working hours (except to respond to @ replies). I am not saying "get an iPad, it will help your productivity!!" (It won't.) But I do think creating boundaries for your work vs. your play time can help make your online work time much more productive.

*top photo by Driver Photo.
around here.

June 22, 2012

The good news : That taped desk has brought a ridiculous amount of color into my everyday life.

The great news : Paul and I are already celebrating the weekend. We drove up to San Francisco yesterday for a wedding in Northern California.

The best news : My top secret project I have already alluded to 100 times but still cannot share more details on? Is an official GO. I will be a busy bee working on it for the next six weeks! I am so excited to hit the ground running when we get home from this quick trip. Usually when I am busy the ideas start flowing like crazy and I’m looking forward to seeing what the remainder of June & then July will hold. Obviously, I am also excited to spill the beans on what’s going on (spoiler alert : it’s not Baby Cripe) in a few months.

The shop news : I’ll be closing the pop-up stamp shop on June 30th. This was always in the plan – pop-up means short lived! I can’t thank you enough for your warm response to my stamps. It has been a great adventure and I am already in the planning stages for some new (and awesome) designs that will launch this fall.

ps… as you can see in the photos, I was playing around and created a pattern out of the TODAY IS stamp. I love anything that repeats, and this stamp is no exception.
i love june.

June 21, 2012

DIY cement planters, target patio loveseat, urban outfitters tapestry fabric, anthropologie coasters, west elm outdoor pillow, fashioned by hanging planters.

I put myself on "anything you can wear" spending freeze (no new clothes, no jewelry, no nail polish, makeup, anything) this summer and so far (since May 23rd, so good). All of my money (and most of my creative energy) this month is going into plants & decorating the bedroom. I ordered that fabric from Urban Outfitters and turned it into curtains last weekend. They turned out rad (I'll share the full room soon!) and for the first time, our east facing windows are protected from the streaming sunlight in the mornings.

The coasters, pillow and gorgeous planters are just wishes at the moment, but they are so pretty to look at that I thought I'd include them here. The loveseat we sat in at Target a few weekends ago and decided to pull the trigger online when it was on major sale & had free shipping. It arrives next week and is going to help us get outside more (we have an upstairs patio that we've done nothing with as of yet). Bloody Mary's represent the random on the board this month because they are quickly becoming my favorite drink ever.

all images from the product sites as linked. Bloody Mary photo is my own.
material 8 of 27 / paint onto a canvas.

June 20, 2012

I am never in a million years going to be a real painter. I can't make paint look like anything other than paint. So landscapes, portraits, animals? All out. And abstract painting is incredibly difficult. I look at gorgeous abstracts and think to myself, "Oh, I can do that…" Then two hours later I have something that is abstract for sure, but also a hot mess.

But shapes? Painted shapes? Shapes I can do.

This painting was originally intended to hang in our bedroom. The canvas is huge (3'x4') and I thought it would take up a lot of the endless wall space space. But of course, I forgot about things like matching. And how, yes… the stripe on the wall is a shade of blue, but the curtains have all sorts of colors in them. And the quilt has a pale pink. And the feel in there is actually turning out a lot more beachy, muted & soft (in a good way!) than I thought it would be.

The plan was always circles and I thought I would just be painting myself. On a whim, Sunday night, I asked Paul if he'd want to help paint while we watched TV. It went something like this :

E : "Babe, you, uh, wouldn't want to paint with me, would you?"

P : "Sure."

E : (trip over my feet running upstairs to grab an extra paint brush.)

Paul painted dark blue circles. I painted teal circles. We sat on the couch and turned the canvas 90 degrees every 10 minutes or so when we had filled the space with enough of our color. In total, we probably rotated it about 8 times and added more white to our paint to create different shades. We watched three episodes of Always Sunny and then called it done for the night. Paul went upstairs to do some other stuff and I stared at the canvas until I realized that what it really needed was some lime green.

So with Arrested Development now in the background I finished off the painting by layering more lighter shades of blue circles and a few variations of green.

It turned out better than I thought it would, but also a lot brighter. As mentioned, it doesn't work in our bedroom so we're putting it out in the hall. I love that it's a wall of color when we leave our room.

And I love that you can see it from downstairs too. (ps…here's a link to that pinwheel painting.)

We're pretty excited about our $25 canvas (Michael's coupon for the win) and colorful circles. I'm pretty excited Paul was willing to help out.

This is project 8 of 27. I am attempting to complete 27 craft projects using 27 different materials before I turn 28 on 02.22.13. You can follow my progress here on the blog or on pinterest. Birthday challenges are my favorite. You can see the 26 Projects I completed while 26 here and the 27 materials I have used so far here.
speaking of pattern.

June 19, 2012

I am currently working on a project that has me thinking about patterns all day long. I am always on the hunt for new ways to pair shapes and to help stay inspired, I have been using my phone camera to take pattern photos. I tag them on instagram with the hashtag #patternaday. I don't actually get a shot everyday (or even every other day) but when I see a great pattern, a photo gets taken. These are some of my favorites from the past few months.

I love them for the pattern & colors, of course, but more than that, I love that they remind me of where I was and what I was doing when I took the photos. My goal with photography – everyday OR travel, is to capture the details. Pattern is all about the details.
photo walk : pattern.

June 18, 2012

"Pattern" is my favorite thing to shoot. I love that if you get close enough to anything, you can usually find a pattern within the frame. I often take pattern photos when I am out of the house (and just have my phone camera), but I don't usually go on a walk with the intent of "shoot only pattern" like I did yesterday for these photos. It seems like sometimes when you are looking for something, it's harder to see.

I will be traveling next weekend for a wedding and I am looking forward to talking a few photo walks in different environments than just my street.

As always, please feel free to do your own photo walk. Use "pattern" as a prompt or anything else you can dream up. Keep the focus on just one thing though for a challenge.

All photos this time around were taken with my Canon Rebel xsi at about 10am (it was a super gray morning). ISO was set at 200. Aperture was at 5.6 usually. See all photo walk posts here.
project life : week 24.

June 17, 2012

Week 24 and I still love this project.

(click to enlarge & the images above will be [somewhat] clearer)

Got outside of the box a little bit more this week and stuck a fabric ampersand into the pages. I had messed up on the first one I cut for my pillow (couldn't erase my pencil lines), so I had an extra "&" on my desk. I decided to mount it to patterned paper and add it to the book. The first paper I used was diagonal striped and just ended up being too busy. So I added a piece of yellow cardstock on top of that and re-cut again. This time it looked pretty good.

The original plan was to just punch holes in the giant ampersand and have it randomly in the album as decoration. But once it had cardstock instead of patterned paper, it looked like a good place for journaling. I wrote some text until it was full about Paul being home this summer and our "plan" for the next few years.

In addition to the ampersand, I added a photo pocket insert this week. It's a nine pocket We R Memory Keepers page that I trimmed down to hold six photos. On the front side, it had six photos that I posted to instagram this past week with the hashtag "#morningyard". (My instagram username is elisejoy.)

I added American Crafts thickers to the outside and then small black letter stickers (from Staples) to each pocket to designate the day the photo was taken.

On the backside of the insert, I put five more instagram photos from Thursday night when I went to Urbanic's summer social with Amy & Ann-Marie. I picked up a few business cards and the "invite" and tucked those into the pockets too.

And then nothing ground shaking for the normal left & right pages. Photos, photos, photos and some collected odds & ends.

My family was in town this past weekend and they paged through the albums Saturday afternoon. I think my brother described it best, "Oh…yeah, this makes more sense in real life then it does in the photos on your blog." I can't really describe how happy these albums make me and just how much LIFE and LOVE is poured into them. I love the record I'm creating.

supplies / Paper Source circle label, Martha Stewart & Avery labels, American Crafts letter stickers (thickers and small blue ones), Amy Tangerine sewing machine brad, de-flecto letter stickers, My Mind's Eye patterned paper (c/o Scrapbook Circle), Elle's Studio circle tag, Office Depot shaped paper clips, Design A page protectors (which are available in this variety pack), We R Memory keepers photo pocket page, Clementine core kit, Bebas quote font. I use a Fiskars corner rounder (it's not amazing, but it's lasted the longest of any corner rounder I've ever had). I am using a Zig Millennium 0.1 pen and Recollections glossy marker throughout this album.

Confused by Project Life? Start here. Have a question about how I am tackling this project each week (including questions about the quotes)? Check here. See all my Project Life posts here.
around here.

June 15, 2012

Decently busy week, but very good week.

I don't want to say biggest achievement, because man, that makes my week sound lame, but something cool : I framed our recent photobooth strip. I love to frame strips in black frames (this one is a 8×10, but I have an 11×14 over the fire place) with a big white mat. Instead of worrying about cutting a mat to size, I just use double stick tape and center the strip on the paper (I buy nice, thick, white paper at an art or craft store and trim it to the frame size). On this one, I wrote in pencil the location & the date. I might go back and do that to my first one too.

I finished The Creative Habit on Wednesday and I was floored. I need to organize my thoughts and get a post together on it. Simultaneously, I have been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I can already feel my food habits itching to make some changes. I know this book is going to get under my skin… probably deeper than I would like it too. I am anxious to start Game of Thrones. It's the book Paul and I are going to both read this summer per our manifesto. We watched season one in May and both really enjoyed it. Excited to see how the book compares.

In other news : my parents are coming into town tonight to spend the weekend and we're looking forward to trying out some new pizzas on them. Can't wait to show them all the changes that have happened to this house since they visited six months ago and helped me get settled in. It's a different place this craft museum house of ours.

Have a wonderful weekend.
just for fun / ampersand pillow.

June 14, 2012

I should put "complete three just for fun projects" on my goals list every month. I'm getting more accomplished in June than in the past three months, for sure.

I feel like I've had this pillow on my mind for months – at least since I posted about this one from Crate & Barrel last February – but the motivation really struck when I decided to finish up this bedroom and also when I realized that almost all the other rooms in my house currently have an ampersand for decor…

from Anthropolgie, handmade & Target respectively.

Just like my heart pillow, I used duck canvas and a satin stitch with black thread to pull it all together.

I hand-drew my ampersand with pencil on the duck cloth and cut it out. Then when I realized I couldn't erase my pencil lines, I flipped my first ampersand over and traced it (so the pencil marks were on the back) and then re-cut it out. I should have made a template on paper first, but per usual, I jumped the gun. Another option would be to print an ampersand (or whatever letter you'd like to use) on computer paper and trace from there, but it gets trickier if you want the image to be big.

It's quite likely I'll be kicking myself in a few months for not using this project as the "fabric" material for the 27 materials, but I feel like I can get more creative in the fabric category than a pillow. 😉

ps…here's our DIY our bed quilt and our headboard. And yes, I made the bed specifically for these photos. And since we're sort of on the topic, I am seriously considering making another quilt. Waiting to see how the rest of the room comes together first.