enJOY it
an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.
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Oh man, I have been all over the place with a plan for our new duvet cover/quilt. I found an image in Handmade Living
of a mismatched fabric duvet cover and I haven't stopped thinking about it. So that is what we're going with. Finally, last week I took the plunge and bought fabric from fabric.com. It arrived yesterday and I have already washed, cut and started to sew long strips of squares. Check back later this afternoon for an update. It's going to be totally imperfect – but I am loving how the patterns and colors are looking together.
Fabric from left to right : Michael Miller (MM) Summer Soiree Chevron Yellow/White, MM Ta Dot Stone, MM Quarter Dot Grey, MM Two by Two Stripe Sunny, Premium Broadcloth Silver, Moda City Weekend Urban Grid Downtown Turquoise & Amy Butler Sun Spots.
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HEY-YO. Happy Monday? We had a blast in Disneyland this past weekend and now it's my favorite part of vacationing – getting back into the routine. (No joke.) I have a list of things I want to get done this week including lots of outdoor runs and a big chunk of the blog design workshop worked out. I'll be sharing Disneyland mini Diana photos, a new fabric craft project and hopefully a new minibook later this week. But in the meantime, I thought I'd share my most recent attempt in my mission to get through my washi tape stash.
A super simple birthday card. I cut a piece of cardstock down to about 4×5.25" and wrapped various pieces of washi tape around it to make an overlapping stripe pattern. Next, I added a label (which was a mess up from a custom project) with our handwritten birthday wish and mounted the whole thing onto an A2 scallop card
. I'm a bit obsessed with this size card and scallops especially. (evidence here.)
Again, super simple & bright and cheery. And a perfect way to get washi tape out the door and enjoyed.
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Bread no. 2 : soft cheese bread from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day
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Adjustments : I know it's useless to share my adjustments without sharing the recipe but if you google, you'll find it. I cut it in half to make just one loaf. Then substituted wheat flour for half of the flour and added a bit extra salt. I used dark brown beer for flavor instead of water and just a bit of onion instead of all that the recipe called for.
Notes : this was my second try at this recipe which is why I knew it needed a bit more salt when wheat flour was used. I totally favor the loaf over the roll form, but next time I'll try a twisting loaf a la this.
Review : easy to make, easy to eat.
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I have had my eye on this little camera
for the past year or so. I finally bought one at my local art store with a 40% off coupon. I took a roll of film over the long weekend and waited nervously yesterday for the results. I was pleased that about 40% of them were awesome. Not film genius, that's for sure. But interesting and fun.
First things first, this camera is a toy. It's made completely of plastic and super light. That said, it's not very easy to use. Lots of knobs to adjust how much light to let in as well as four different focusing options. I referred to the manual a lot for the first roll. And based on the number of blurry prints, I still have a lot of learning to do.
But what's awesome is that it takes standard 35mm film which you can buy for cheap and get developed anywhere. You can take photos two ways : as square prints and as portrait style "half prints". (I have no idea what the technical terms are.)
Both can be printed as 4×6 photos. The squares get black borders on the sides and the double prints just go two per print. My photo developer told me that it is better to shoot a whole roll one way or the other because it makes it easier for them to see where one ends and the next begins. I'll keep this in mind next time.
You also have the ability to rewind the film one frame and make double exposures. I haven't figured that part out yet. All of my double exposures on this roll were complete accidents. I am hoping that sticking with one format and being diligant about advancing the film completely will help for the next roll.
I took this roll with 200 ISO film which explains why my indoor photos didn't turn out well compared to the outdoor sunlight flooded ones. I'd use 400 or higher if I was going to be taking a lot of images inside.
That last image is by far my favorite. I love the style & lighting – they seem to scream summertime right? (Of course, the palm trees help too.) And nothing beats getting actual prints. Seeing these makes me inspired to make a new mini book which hasn't been the case in awhile.
We are going to Disneyland this weekend with Paul's family and some friends and I am looking forward to bringing it up there for some fun shots.
Thanks so much for the excitement over our newly painted dresser and the blog design workshop. So far the dresser is holding up well. I am not going to try to seal it; I'll just repaint and touch up as needed. No big deal. And the workshop is continuing to take shape in my head. I will be keeping you posted over the next couple weeks. Tentative start date would be mid March/early April.
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Paul had yesterday off and we used that and the perfect weather (80* on January 17) as excuses to drive to Temecula to go wine tasting. We haven't been to this area before and were excited to try some new places. As mentioned a million times, we're a bit obsessed with red wine and slowly my palette is catching up to Paul's. Our favorite activity to pass the time on long drives is to dream out loud about being a part of a winery someday.
Ourmy second favorite is to take blurry pictures of pretty scenery.ps : photo no. 4 is of my new mini Diana camera
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We went from a perfectly fine gray dresser with boring knobs, to gray with exciting white knobs (from Anthropologie), to turquoise with the same exciting knobs.
And in true Elise fashion, I rushed right into this project without sanding the wood on the drawers or the top and I can already tell we are going to have a bit of a problem with paint chipping off. In my defense, the existing wood felt like it could handle more paint. And also in my defense, sometimes when I rush wildly into projects we get things like our headboard. So you win some, you lose some. And eventually we might strip and sand and repaint the exact same color because I love it. Unless anyone has an idea for some sort of clear sealer we could paint on top? Because that would be awesome.
If you're curious, it's BEHR Cozumel and it took two coats. (And the color is actually the most accurate in the top "before & after" photo.)
I hemmed and hawed a bit about such a bright color. I mean, what if I didn't like it? What if it ruined my fancy piece of furniture? And then I thought, dude, you're 25. If you can't paint a dresser a bright color at 25, you are looking at a long and boring future. Also, my fancy piece of furniture came from Ikea. So it's not like I'm destroying a piece of history or anything.
And that is the long winded way of saying : "I love it. I should have sanded it. Oh well, I love it."
Super excited to tackle the rest of our bedroom. Finally.
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During my big hullabaloo adventure to get the workshop PDFs available, I realized that I am so glad I took two semesters of web coding in college. SO GLAD. Seriously, it was the best class I took in terms of relate-ability to my career. (Also maybe allllll those marketing classes and don't forget that semester of yoga.) Regardless, "speaking" HTML helps me do my job on the blog and helps me direct traffic to my shop.
I then started thinking about teaching my basic but effective web-design/coding to bloggers via an online workshop. I mentioned it on twitter, and got a pretty positive response. So I wanted to share it here to and let you know that I am really considering it. I have so many ideas floating around right now about how to make it an amazing class.
Things I know so far :
one : the class would be expensive, like $100. Why? Because this is a teach a man to fish situation. I am not designing your blog for you, I am teaching you how to design it and then giving you the ability to maintain it. Much better in the long run.
two : the class size would be small, like 20-30 people max. I want to be able to visit your sites and give feedback. This is also the reason the class would be expensive – there would be some one on one time. Of course, depending on interest and how things go I might re-run.
three : you could google most of the stuff I am going to tell you about. But it wouldn't be as well organized and you wouldn't be able to ask google follow up questions. Also, if I do my job right, this class will be much less frustrating.
four : there would be quizzes. Not quizzes I grade, but quizzes you take and then check your own answers. Web coding has to be annoyingly perfect and the quizzes will help you recognize common mistakes so you can later fix your own sites.
five : we'd talk a bit about other blog related things for example : editoral calendars, sponsors, affiliate programs & google analytics.
six : I am just a baby web designer compared to some people. But I have enough knowledge to do what you see on the blog here and I built this site and this site from scratch.
Things I don't know yet :
one : how it's possible to teach this for multiple platforms at the same time. I know typepad, of course, and am confident I could show you the ins and outs. But I don't yet know how to get blogger or wordpress to do what I want. That is a hold up.
two : how to film videos with my voice and the active computer screen. I am going to do some investigation and be sure I have a handle on this technology before the class runs.
More thoughts :
I really like how things are starting to shape up in my head. I am definitely hoping to make this class a reality.
*very rough. I am thinking outloud here obviously.
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… I bit the bullet and we started painting. I think this might be just the jump start of color that I needed to get our bedroom DONE and AWESOME. More Monday. Have a great weekend!
enJOY it 