enJOY it

i love january.

January 19, 2012

athropologie necklace, ampersand screenprint, paper source twill ribbon, hanging plant (tutorial), LNA nightingale maxi dress, peg & awl wooden candle holders, fujifilm Instax MINI, odette new york arrow bracelet . all images from their respective linked sites.

Sooo, other than that twill ribbon, this is all just an amazing wishlist. (Luckily my birthday is next month.) (Also luckily, that plant holder doesn't look too hard to make.) I need a $200 maxi dress like a need a hole in the head, but wow, that's a pretty dress. And I am really hoping to hop on the instax train soon.

ps : I did a video tutorial on how I make these I LOVE boards a few months ago.
perspective shift.

January 18, 2012

I'm working hard to adjust my attitude for these next few weeks.

Instead of wishing the time away and dwelling over how much longer until Paul gets home, I am focusing on the things I get to do in my last few bits of Alone Time. Depending on how things go, this could be my last long Alone Time stretch ever. Paul will deploy again, of course, but we might have a little one by then.

That's insane.

So instead of reveling in gloom and loneliness, I am celebrating the little things :

I can go to bed and wake up on my own schedule.

I can race through full series of shows (How I Met Your Mother & United States of Tara are both fantastic).

I can eat the exact same dinner night after night (brussels sprouts cooked like this plus turkey sausage is the current go-to).

I can go away or invite friends to stay for a weekend without a second thought.

I can wander for hours and change plans on a whim.

I can work whenever I feel inspired.

Of course I would rather have Paul home. Of course I could use my partner. Of course eating a variety of meals and having someone to laugh with at Barney Stinson would be awesome. If given the choice, I would have Paul come home tomorrow (or better yet, yesterday).

But I don't get a choice. And I have enjoyed the schedule I've carved out for myself over the past five and a half months. I am choosing to remember that and celebrate instead of dread the remaining few weeks.

*photos are from the last few weeks and were taken with instagram.
adventures in driftwood.

January 17, 2012

Thanks to some big waves recently, my giant driftwood wreath is going to be a reality much sooner than anticipated.
tutorial : combining text & photos in PSE.

January 17, 2012

Happy Tuesday.

After posting my business cards yesterday I got a question about how I made the text look like the photo was visible underneath it. I filmed a quick (less than 5 1/2 minute) video to show how PSE can be used to get the look. As mentioned in the video, I have no formal photoshop training so everything I do is quite possibly the least proper method. But hey – it's effective! Watch below to see how I created the two graphics above.

combining photos & text in PSE. from elise blaha on Vimeo.
new blog business cards.

January 16, 2012

In September 2010, I had business cards printed and I still love them to pieces (here's the post about them). I will continue to ship them out with purchased products and use them "shop related" things (like if I was to show at another craft fair).

But I decided to also have some "blog-focused" ones printed up as well, because in some situations (like @ CHA where I'll be Monday 1/30!) that is what I would rather highlight. Since I still plan on using my shop cards, I wanted these to fit right in with them while still standing out as something new.

I am obviously still a fan of the "statement" business card. This is who I am and this is what I do. I want my cards to be something that people want to hang onto because they like the message and maybe because they feel like the statement works for them as well. On my shop cards, I used a variety of different statements. For the blog cards, I kept the same statement but changed up the photos to share different projects.

Here's how the back of the shop card and the blog card differ – definitely still related, but selected information. (That gray should be the same shade – must be a printing consistency problem, I am not worried about it.)

And just like with the shop cards, I had these printed by moo.com.* I love the slightly larger size, paper weight and the fact that I can get a variety of images printed on the front. Can't go wrong.

I also love the "collect them all" aspect when I see them all together. I am so pleased with how they turned out.

*affiliate link used. I love moo.com.
project life : week 2.

January 15, 2012

Week two and I still love this project.

(click to enlarge & it will be a [somewhat] clearer image)

It's seriously awesome. I already take a ton of photos and that is something I have been doing for the past year or so. I am absolutely not particular about getting a photo everyday or including every photo I take. In fact, I like the selection process the best – it's fun to decide what sort of stuff will make the cut every week. It's going to be interesting seeing how this book (and my photos) will change once Paul is home and then down the line when we have kids.

The desk and knitting self-portraits were both taken by setting the camera down and using the self timer.

I decided that like many others who are doing this project, I am going to use the upper left corner pocket to share the dates that the spread encompasses. What goes in that pocket will be different each week except for the khaki colored sticker that has been stamped with the Sunday and Saturday date. Sometimes this sticker will be on patterned paper like above, other weeks it might be on a photo.

And then, once I had decided that, I went back and changed week one a bit because I wanted them to "match" a bit better. Getting finicky is NOT how I want to handle this project, so hopefully that's my only switch. Above is the change to the top pocket in week one. That yellow chevron pattern is a scrap of a notecard from Linda & Harriett.

I kept up my "this week" journaling for week 2. Again, those orange arrow stickers are from the Clementine Core kit. The photo of Paul makes me laugh whenever I see it. I took a screenshot during one of our video chats and cropped it to 3×4 to slip in the pocket. The label stickers are from Martha Stewart and Avery's new home office line at Staples.

I wrote some personal journaling on one of the folded cards from the Clementine Core kit and then folded it in half and clipped it to a piece of American Crafts patterned paper c/o Scrapbook Circle. I wasn't sure how I would use those pre-scored 4×6 papers but this worked out well.

The label stuck to that scrap of fabric from my heart pillow practice is by Martha Stewart too.

It addition to the fabric, my "scraps" this week include a cut down paint chip with some text and a cut piece of a card that came with a lululemon order. I loved the little graphic and I am happy to have a place to save it.

Other than that, lots of photos – mostly of projects because that's pretty much what's going on around here right now. I print all my photos at home on an HP Photosmart 2575 using Office Depot semi-gloss photo paper because that makes it easy for me to work on this project throughout the week. Again, I could not love putting this album together any more than I do.

supplies / Paper Source ribbon and cirle label, Martha Stewart & Avery labels, Jillybean Soup decorative label (on paper chain photo) and patterned papers c/o Scrapbook Circle, Design A page protectors (which I hear will be restocked in Feb), 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. See all my Project Life posts here.
project 21 of 26 : heart pillow.

January 13, 2012

As promised, these project posts are going to be popping up frequently (even with the blanket knitting). I have "plans" for the next five but that doesn't really mean anything because I had "plans" for the original 26 and only maybe two of those have been realized.

But I really wanted to make a heart pillow after seeing lots of expensive ones all over Blogland the past few months. I picked up cream and red canvas and red thread that closely matched the fabric. I also got a zipper because after sewing the clutch, zippers are no longer mysterious.

I cut out my heart, centered and pinned it on a square of cream canvas and then carefully sewed around the edges of the heart using a zig-zag stitch with a length of almost 0 so the stitches were super close together.

It took awhile and my machine jammed up a few times but it worked! The heart is secure and the edges are pretty clean. Below is how it looked from the backside. Pretty cool on its own and I feel like something like that will be making it on to paper soon…

Usually to make a pillow, I pin the front and back together (right sides facing in) and machine stitch three sides together. Then I turn it right-side out, slip in the pillow insert and hand-stitch the final side. But what's awesome about the zipper, is it means no hand-stitching.

I added the zipper to the bottom side (point of the heart side) and then attached that to the fabric that would be the back of the pillow. Then I pinned the front and the back together with right-sides facing each other and unzipped it a bit so once the other three sides were sewn, I could pull the pillow right-side out through the zippered edge.

The pillow insert slipped right in. It looks much cleaner and it's easier.

I ordered a gray couch about 10 weeks ago (after years of Ikea, I had no idea furniture that you don't put together yourself takes so long to ship) and this guy will look perfect on it, but for now it's living on the built-in couches.

This is project 21 of 26.

I am attempting to tackle 26 personal craft projects before I turn 27 on 02.22.12. You can follow my progress here on the blog or on pinterest.

See project 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20.
next project.

January 12, 2012

We are getting closer to Paul's return and I feel a little bit like I am running in slow motion towards the finish line. I expected the holidays to be difficult. But really, this part, the-almost-but-not-quite-part, is harder.

So I've started Operation Get Through It.

And the first mission is a big project that is inexpensive, time consuming and will hopefully turn out rad. I am hoping to knit a black and white checkered blanket. (This is my inspiration photo but because I am on a bit of a black and white kick, it's just two colors.) Right now I am just planning on knitting up rows of white and black boxes. Then I hope it's easy to attach all the rows together. That can be done, right?

ps / that blanket in the photos is from target.
january : currently.

January 11, 2012

counting down the days until Paul's home with a paper chain.

remembering that the come home date is more likely than not, inaccurate.

collecting beach rocks.

considering getting to yoga once a week an achievement.

hoping to attend CHA in Anaheim at the end of the month.

ordering new business cards for the occasion.

celebrating the fact that there is a much bigger plan than mine in the works.

enjoying printing photos and stashing away bits of paper for Project Life.

struggling with loneliness.

choosing to be productive today.
i’m hosting the BLOG 2.0 workshop again.

January 11, 2012

Want to shape up your typepad blog in 2012? Full class details and the answers to a few FAQs can be found here.

This class is now closed. Thank you so much!