an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.
Full class details can be found here.
As of Monday, March 28 – this class has sold out.
I am planning on running this workshop again – probably in fall 2011. If you are interested in joining the waitlist and having first dibs on signing up for the next class, please email me at elise.blaha AT gmail DOT com.
Thank you so much!
…to share my new coffee table. It's a BIG white trunk that needs a lot of TLC on the inside. And it's a preview of my new reality blog show : "How Elise & Paul Recovered from an Ikea Addiction."
Stay tuned.
FIRST : Things are going to be quiet around here the next couple days. We are right in the middle of our March 2011 Guest-A-Thon which is very exciting. It will be taking me longer to respond to emails for the next few days as well.
SECOND : the blog workshop will go on sale rain or shine on Monday 3/21 at 5 PM Pacific time. We just had daylight savings in the US so this is considered PDT. If you are not sure what time that is in your time zone, this website should help (just put the starting time as U.S.A – California – San Diego). I have been working on the class lessons all week and am getting so excited. And one more thing, I have decided to add a few more seats. Hopefully everyone that wants to take it will be able to.
THIRD : My handwriting was turned into a font! You can download it for free here.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST : Got five and a half minutes? Want to dream a dream? This is the best thing I have heard/seen in a long while. It is the 25th anniversary of Les Miserables. I have such distinct memories of being five and listening to my parents cassette tape of the play after they went and saw it in Minneapolis. And then I have distinct memories of reading the book freshman year of high school and finally putting characters names and plot lines to the soundtrack I already knew by heart. And ten years from now, I am sure I will have memories of listening to my favorite song from the play over and over again on youtube. Life is funny that way.
Bread no. 6 : soft pretzels from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day
Adjustments : I substituted about half the flour for wheat flour and instead of letting the dough rise over night in the fridge, I kept it at room temperature for about three hours.
Notes : too much salt! I think I got a bit over zealous with my measuring. I tried to make half the batch "sweet pretzels" by topping them with cinnamon and sugar before baking but the extra salty dough made them all savory. I also think the wheat flour and/or the not enough time to rise is why I have trouble rolling out the dough and making the proper "pretzel" shape. I always wind up with little pretzel knots.
Review : These still taste AMAZING though. Can't beat them.
Good news : I found out yesterday that I will be a participant in the Queen Bee Market this May. Hooray! I have heard a lot of good things about this fair and I hope it will be a good fit for me.
I will have a 4×8 foot booth to fill and will be working for the next seven weeks to get some displays put together. (And of course, product to fill the displays.) One of my goals after my first craft fair was to come up with a way for all 5×7 prints to be front faced and therefore easy to see and shop. This display was created to serve that purpose.
It came together pretty easily with stuff we had around the house. I had extra plywood left over from the headboard and some gray circle fabric that I never ended up using for the wedding. I wrapped the fabric around the plywood and held it in place with a staple gun. Next, I layered ribbons in my "colors" (which are basically the 9 colors that the my prints come in) over the top and stapled them around the back too. To make the ribbons tighter, I added thumbtacks where they overlapped. Because they were being pushed into wood, I had to hammer them in which resulted in a few bent tacks, but they are there to stay now.
I have been playing around a lot with the orientation of the board and the prints. I am not sure if I am going to prop it horizontally on a table or if I will prop it vertically against the table. It will depend on what other displays I put together, I suppose. Either way … exciting! And also … OH MAN, I have so much to do.
I watched The Business of Being Born over the weekend while Paul was on call.
I will admit that I cried through most of it.
And then the next morning, I woke up out of a dream convinced I was in labor.
For the record, I am not pregnant.
But I now have lot of opinions on how I want things to go once I am.
I'm currently reading Pride & Prejudice for the first time ever.
I bought this version
It is taking me about six minutes a page to read.
Which is much slower than my average six seconds a page.
I know it is going to get good though, once Mr. Darcy ups the charm factor.
I always debate long and hard between sweet or savory breakfasts at restaurants.
And 9 times out of 10 I choose savory.
And 8 times out of 9 I regret that choice.
Clearly I need to save my money & stop going out to breakfast.
When I go for a run, I spend every second of that first mile fighting the urge to turn back.
By the second mile, I feel less like falling over in a puddle of tears.
And by the time I'm on the third, I feel like I could run around the world.
Twice.
There is a lesson in there somewhere.
And it's either, Quit Early or Keep Going.
And man, I hope it's the latter.
Here is my first set of secrets & then my second.
I re-read them both before typing this post.
And I found myself nodding along and thinking,
"Wow. That girl is just like me."
I have been talking for a few months about a web design for bloggers online workshop and I am very excited to share the full details with you today.
Why only Typepad? Typepad is the platform I have used for five years and am most comfortable explaining and teaching.
Will you be teaching a similar class for other blogging platforms? Right now, no. But I am hoping to get a web design / blogging PDF download together that would work across platforms. At the earliest, this would be released in July 2011.
Why such a small class size? I am offering a limited number of seats because this is my first time running this workshop & I want to be sure I am able to give 1-on-1 attention when needed. Depending on how this round goes, I will be running the class again in the fall. So if you miss a seat this time around, not to worry.
Do I have to visit the private blog everyday? No, you certainly do not have to read class updates everyday. But please be sure you have some time over the total eight weeks (April 4 – May 30) to check in, read through the material & ask questions.
This is going to be an interesting & challenging class to teach. I am enjoying the lesson development and am excited to help you make your blog more YOU. Please keep in mind that this class will involve a lot work on your part as well. This is detailed stuff and I am going to make it fun, but I can't do it for you. Please email me (elise.blaha AT gmail.com) if you have any questions about what the class will cover or what my capabilities are. I don't want you to sign up for something that isn't what you are looking for or really need.
Whew! I'm excited! I need to get back to work! Again, check back Monday, March 21 at 5 PM PST to reserve your spot.
I applied for a spring craft fair yesterday. Key word : applied. I didn't even get in yet.
But in true Elise "cart-before-the-horse" fashion, I got started on a display for my possible booth. I figure, best case, I get in and I have a dent made in my massive to-do list. Worst case, I don't and I'll have a reason to apply for the next one.
I can't wait to show you the finished piece and the other display ideas I have in my head. I am going to be better prepared this time.
enJOY it 