enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

holiday book update #2.

December 2, 2010

And we're rolling. It's December. 23 days until Christmas and I haven't even thought about gifts. But I do have holiday cards ordered and neon green envelopes addressed … so there's that.

I have continued to add to my holiday book as we/I have done holiday-ish things and below is the progress from empty page to completed page. click any image to enlarge.

Journaling and a photo of holiday cookies from November 29. I also made yarn garlands to hang in our window that day so I braided up an extra strand to string though the book rings. I LOVE TEXTURE and try as hard as I can to bring stuff into my mini albums.

And then I hung more garland on November 30. I sewed a strip of felt circles right on to the page (before I mounted the cookie photo to the other side) and also sewed around the green scalloped card. I added a photo strip of the garland hanging and some text.

No photo for yesterday, December 1, but we did purchase tickets to see the Nutcracker with some of my college girlfriends. This will be my first time seeing the ballet so I'm beyond excited.

If you want to see the first few pages click here. I have a few holiday books left here.

And thank you for the felt garland excitement this morning. Would anyone be interested in purchasing sets just like mine (four strands & similar lengths)? I might get a few together and in the shop if you are.
hanging felt garland.

December 2, 2010

My holiday decorating ideas have changed a lot since my original sketches. Funny how that works. Yesterday, I used left over felt from my banner to make simple circle strands. Just turn on your sewing machine and stitch circles one after another to form a chain. I have seen these all over blogland and oh, man : SO EASY. I want to make about a million more in every color.

I have two more holiday DIYs to tackle. Hopefully this weekend after the pop-up shop.

PS : yes, that poster is from the show Dexter. We're obsessed.
pop-up shop felt banner.

December 1, 2010

One thing that I had to make for Saturday's pop-up shop was a sign with my shop name on it. I thought about ordering something. I thought about printing something. But the short time line and my small printer didn't really allow for either.

So I decided to make a small flag banner with a triangle for each letter. I found sturdy gray felt and then picked regular yellow felt for the letters. (The colors match the backside of my business cards.) Monday night, I made a triangle template out of paper and then free hand cut the letters. I have a super simple logo font (Helvetica) so it wasn't too hard.

I machine stitched the letters onto the triangles with white thread and then folded down the top of the triangle (I left a border for this purpose) with bakers twine inside it and sewed that in place too. It was way easier than it might look. And I am super happy with the results.

Are you local? Come see the sign and shop fun handmade goods this weekend!

PS : HAPPY DECEMBER. I feel great about this month.

PPS : these photos were a good excuse to change up my etsy banner.
starting the holiday book.

November 30, 2010

I mentioned in this post that I don't focus on documenting every day in December. My book has 25 pages, but I use them whenever I feel like something holiday-ish is happening and don't worry about using just a page a day. My focus is on collecting pieces and photos of the season.

I will be sharing weekly throughout the rest of December as I fill in this book. I want to show what the pages looked like and then how I made changes. This past weekend, I got started with photos of our simple decorations so far. You can click any image to enlarge.

I decided to add a piece of red and green paper to the back of the chipboard cover which seemed more festive. I also added journaling inside the stamped shape and a piece of heart ribbon.

I wrote all over the back of the white card and flipped the patterned page over (the holes are equal distance from the edge, so you can do this with any page in the book). I mounted a trimmed photo of our wreath to the blank side of the pattern.

I added photo strips of the winter berries to the patterned side. (If you have iPhoto, you can easily print photo strips by selecting multiple photos at once and then selecting the "Contact Sheet" printing option.) I glued the strips down and then used my sewing machine to go around the edge of the page. On the backside, the stitches made a nice frame for the wreath photo too. I added a silhouetted photo of the berry vase to the grid paper.

And that's it so far! I'll continue to add to it and again, I'll be sharing here weekly. Please ask questions in the comments and I will answer them there. I do still have holiday books available if you are interested in collecting your own holiday season.
starting to feel like Christmas.

November 29, 2010

It was crazy : I dropped my parents off at the airport on Saturday morning and when I got home was completely over the yellow and orange and general Thanksgiving-ness that has dominated our apartment for the last month. I was surprised at how quickly I went from loving it to needing a change.

I switched out our orange candles for white ones and picked up some red berry branches at the farmer's market. Instant Christmas without the Santa feel.

And a wreath I had ordered from this etsy shop came just in time too. It's so understated, I want to keep it up all year long. But I imagine pulling it out every December will be much more exciting.

We are not planning on getting a tree this year. I have a feeling that we will start getting trees again when we have our first little one. No reason, it just works for us to go without. I am planning on getting some sort of evergreen branch to put in a vase or something though – we'll see.

I also have a plan for a big garland extravaganza to hang over our window. Going to be working on that later this week.
happiest thanksgiving.

November 27, 2010

On Thursday, our families flew and drove into town and we hosted thanksgiving dinner for eight. Other than a minor turkey de-boning issue and the fact that my apple pie was seriously undercooked, it went so well. We have awesome families. And we're so thankful that they get along and are willing to spend holidays together.

Above are a few pictures of our little feast. As mentioned, we didn't use a table and instead sat in a circle in chairs and on the couch – resting plates and glasses on sidetables and a coffee table. It couldn't have worked out better. And I don't think I ever want to go back to traditional thanksgiving turkey. Turkey roulade & stuffing won the day.

I hope you had a great holiday (or weekend!) wherever you are.
go time.

November 24, 2010

Good morning!

Thank you for all the sweet words about my new office and upcoming craft show! Next week is going to be insane as I prep for my first live show ever. But today, tomorrow and Friday, I am taking a nice computer (and email!) break to prepare for and celebrate Thanksgiving and spend time with our families.

On the agenda for today – bake bread, bake pie, bake cupcakes. Our oven might launch itself into outer space.

If you're in the states, have a happy Thanksgiving. If you're not, I still wish you a great couple of days.

Thank you for reading.
so excited : san diego handmade holiday pop-up shop.

November 23, 2010

Are you local? Come shop handmade! More info here. I am so excited to be a part of this!
thanksgiving flowers.

November 23, 2010

We are lucky enough to have a great farmer's market with three flower stands just down the street from us. (It was a huge selling point when we picked our apartment.) Since the first time we went, I have been excited about buying flowers in November for Thankgiving.

Usually, I just get a $3 premade bundle of assorted flowers. This past Saturday, I bought four different types, focusing on colors, not so much shapes. (pictured above.)

Then I spent some time mixing and matching and filling every vessel (including a water glass) that I could find.

I'm in love. I wish we could always fill our house with flowers. But if we're wishing, I'd also wish we had vistors for dinner more often.
office redo : complete.

November 22, 2010
Better right?

Here's what I realized : Before our "office" was a home office. Like the kind of place were you keep your computer and all your books. The place that you work in after you come home from your real job. Totally great. Except that this is my real job. Our home office needed to function as the place where our computers are stored but also as the place that I run a business out of. And for about $110 I made it do that.

I adore the new space.

BIG CHANGES :
- bought a new peg board to hang ribbon, tools, stickers, packing tape and book cloth tape.
- moved the tall bookcase that was filled with Paul's medicine books and my scrapbooks into our bedroom and it is now actually finishing off a extra nook we had in there nicely.
- bought a new expedit bookcase from Ikea to take it's place.
- bought six new storage boxes from Ikea.
- moved my fiction/non-business books out of the horizontal bookshelf and into the closet (which became empty when I took out my sewing machine, fabric and baskets of minibooks)
- moved the little white bookshelf over to my desk area and it now holds stuff that I need to keep within reach (mailing labels, stamps, notecards, pens, receipt box, etc.)
RESULTS :
- SO MUCH MORE SPACE TO WORK
- packing materials are not on the floor
- boxes and storage cubbies for in-process projects (no more piles!)
- better sorting and storage for my inventory and paper/envelope collection
- easier to clean/organize and more space to grow
- it feels so much more REAL a.k.a "this is my job space."
The two bookshelves now hold almost all the "business" stuff. (You can click to enlarge and see what is what.) I filled in my pegboard a bit more and so far am loving the set up.
On the other wall, my personal craft stuff is stored an Ikea kitchen island (I could not find a link) that I use as a desk. The boxes hold current projects (25 to do book, holiday book, fall book) as well as art supplies and rubber stamps. The three baskets on the bottom shelf hold my mini book collection.

On top of the table is my new paper trimmer. I finally bought a "professional" paper cutter and I can't say enough good stuff about it. It was expensive, but worth it for the ridiculous amount of trimming I do.

P and I still share a desk and a printer and that works out well. I added the little white bookshelf to the side to keep extra stuff within easy reach but not have it cluttering the table. The bulletin board right next to my computer is super helpful too.

And that's that! Thanks for touring. Please let me know if you have any questions – I'll be answering them in the comments.