enJOY it

around here.

November 7, 2014

Around here we are settling back into a normal routine. Paul has spent the last four weeks alternating between night and evening shifts which has made the days, nights and evenings a little confusing and disoriented for all three of us. I am so excited to have a partner back for the dinner and bedtime routine. Plus weekends! We are going to get our weekends back for awhile.

Around here it's starting to feel like fall. I always notice the most real season change right after Daylight Saving Time. In March, when the evenings stay lighter it always starts to feel like spring. And in November when it gets dark right at 5pm it feels like fall. We're finding ourselves reaching for an extra quilt (which obviously thrills me to no end) and figuring out a way to keep Ellerie warm through until morning (so far this, while gigantic on her, is working great).

Around here I just got my USE YOUR STASH eCourse transferred to elisejoy.com. This is the exact same class that I offered through A Beautiful Mess last April. But those girls are changing up their line-up for new and exciting things (like Happy Mail!) and so we decided to move the class to my site. You can learn more here.

Around here I am making plans for MAKE29. Here's a peek at November and here's a very early peek at December. This project continues to make me happy and that's such a win. I don't know what I expected on day one, but I based on my project track record, I didn't expect to be so obsessed with it still.

Around here we are keeping a running list of Ellerie words. It's up to 20 at last count. I marvel daily at what she understands. (This made my week.) It's unreal to witness this growth at such close range. We're also learning all about boundaries right now. Like "Ellerie, you can't color on Mama's white cupboards." But also "Mama, you can't leave your highlighters all over the floor."

Around here I just placed a bulk order for some film.

Around here Taylor Swift's 1989 album is on repeat (my steps are through the roof with all the dancing). And I literally count the days (6 to go!) until it's Thursday so Paul and I can listen to Serial and then discuss with fervor if this is just going to be a good story with a non-ending or if we are going to get to see a crazy case cracked open. (So far we have not googled to find out.)

Around here it's already November 7th and I have not purchased one single decorative gourd. This is insane.

Have a wonderful weekend. And happy early birthday Dad! 61 looks great on you.
november book report.

November 6, 2014

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell / another super quick, race-through-it read from Rainbow. I liked this but didn't love it. It might have been that I just read too many Rainbow books in quick succession (sometimes I think you need to take a break from an author to really appreciate them). I did enjoy the background info on what writing fiction is like but I sort of struggle when the love story is sabotaged by a misunderstanding. (As you can probably imagine, Rom Coms tend to grate on me a bit.) Regardless though, this was a fun read.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand / first things, first, people are Obsessed with this book. Obsessed. I posted a photo that had nothing to do with the book and over half the comments were about the book (not a bad thing, just an observation). It's an amazing story. Probably one of The Most Amazing Stories of the last century. The detail was rich, the fear was real, the story was truly alive. I really enjoyed it though it took me a long time to get through it. One thing I'll say, if you're just starting is that (for me) part two (the part where he's at war) felt really slow and I slogged through the details about the planes and who he was with. Hang in there. It becomes a frantic page-turner.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh / I have been sitting here trying to figure out what to type for a really long time. I enjoyed this book too but it's almost impossible to share my reaons why without spoilers. The character detail in this was just so (painfully) rich. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the very same time. Plus I feel like I learned a lot about topic I didn't know existed (flower meanings) which is always a perk of a fiction book.

On my nightstand right now : Yes Please by Amy Poehler & Lev Grossman's The Magicians triology.

what about you?
speaking at WDS 2014 | part four.

November 5, 2014

photo credit : Armosa Studios for WDS.

Remember this?! DOESN'T IT FEEL LIKE 100 YEARS AGO that I was chatting about WDS? You may have watched my speech last week or read the first three parts of this story, but if not you can see it here and catch up with part one & part two & part three.

Today I wanted to answer a few questions and wrap this up for good. (Whew.)

In part three, I had mentioned that I went on day two of the conference.

I did not mention that on day one we heard from best selling authors. We heard from CEOs. We heard from people who grew their business over 18 months to bringing in $30,000 a month. We heard from people making a real difference in other corners of the world.

No pressure, Blaha.

I found myself totally inspired and totally panicked after listening to a day of speeches. Part of me wanted to figure out what I could invent or who would give me piles of cash or what sort of non-profit I could start in the 12 hours before I took the stage (turns out, there were not a lot of options).

I was terrified on Sunday morning. I got chills and my teeth were chattering. The low-grade headache I had had for a week was intensifying. Worst of all, I was in one of the greatest food cities in the US and the flips my stomach was doing made it impossible to eat more than a dry bagel for breakfast. My mind was blank. I did the thing that I often do when I'm stressed: started to list other crazy things I would rather be doing (running a marathon, coding archive pages, flying in heavy turbulance) BESIDES what I actually have to do.

But I knew that if I somehow started talking a reflex would click in and the speech would tumble out. And as for the topic, there was nothing to be done. I only have one story.

Once I got on stage, thankfully, the nerves cleared a bit. The 30 minute speech I had repeated at least 40 times did indeed roll out. A lot of people asked me if I was really scared to do this and the answer is absolutely YES and also no. Once I was actually doing it it was okay. But all the moments and minutes leading up to getting on stage? Those were terrifying. It was infinitely harder to wait in the wings than it was to stand on stage.

I am lucky that my first big speech was at WDS. This was a friendly and forgiving crowd. They want you to succeed. They want you to get the laugh. There is little worse than watching someone bomb in real life and in real time and because of this, the audience is always on your side. At WDS, I really felt that.

A few people asked how I remembered the whole thing.

Part of it is that I really believe all this stuff. It wasn't like I had to share facts or figures or data. I just had to share my story. Another part of it is that I had said this thing from start to finish so many times it was like saying the alphabet. I probably could have done it backwards. While intoxicated. (Next time, I might try that.)

And the third part (the major part) is that I had what they call "confidence monitors" right in front of me. You can see them in the screenshot above. The one on the right (my left) displayed my current slide that the audience was seeing and the one on the right displayed the next slide (that the audience would see). I used both to know where I was and where I was heading. I just had to fill in the gap between the two slides to stay on track.

I had 88 slides total. Some were photos of projects. Some were key points from the presentation (just short and simple phrases). All of them were like giant flags that guided me and helped me remember what to say.

And as I said last week, IT WAS SO FUN TO SAY IT. I love that I was able to share my bold statement.

After day one I really questioned why I had been asked to join these great and talented folks to share my story. But after day two, I think I figured it out. I am on the bridge. I am on the bridge between A) thinking about your dream and Z) being in People magazine and on Good Morning America.

I honestly don't know that I'll ever get off this bridge. A lot of people live on this bridge. It's a HUGE bridge. We're all here. In our little section, staying above water, searching through our 99 bad ideas to find the single good one and hoping people don't ask us what we do for a living.

We are looking ahead and thinking, "Dude, how cool will it be if I get to go forward to there?" but also looking behind and thinking "Dude, how cool is it that I am no longer back there?"

It's a honor to be on the bridge. It's an honor to be here (at my computer, at my desk, working the middle of the day from my home). It was an honor to speak to a crowd that didn't know me but was so absurdly welcoming and kind anyway.

What I learned at WDS is that now is a really great time to be an unconventional person. It was was amazing to meet and talk with so many in Portland last July.

So, months later, I'd like to send a huge thank you to Chris and the World Domination Summit team. You are truly making magic and it was a thrill to get a peek inside your hat.

Today on ELISE GETS CRAFTY I am chatting with artist Emily Jeffords about making time to make. Click here to subscribe or stream the episode from your computer here.
our thanksgiving invites.

November 4, 2014

If you've been here awhile, you know my handwritten Thanksgiving invites have become somewhat of a tradition.

Here's 2010, 2012, & 2013 (Paul was deployed in 2011 and I went home instead).

We just invite our families and really they all know they are coming long before these arrive in their mailbox, but it's still fun to make and send them out.

This year, I got Ellerie in on the action and had her paint the white cardstock.

I covered the table with kraft paper and gave her six cards (figuring I'd have a few extra in case of mistakes). I've learned that the "trick" with toddler painting is to squirt a bit of paint on to the surface you want painted then encourage the kiddo to smear that around.

I put a drop of orange, yellow and gold on each card, gave Ellerie a paint brush and let her get to work. I shuffled cards and pointed at drops that needed painting and we were done in five minutes. Not the most "free-form" play ever, but she was interested and enjoyed it. (Afterward she just painted on the kraft paper – and her tee shirt.)

The result was six sweet Ellerie originals. I picked my four favorites and handwrote the details (there are not many – Paul is working on Thanksgiving so we will be celebrating the day after) and added the year. To finish them off, I machine-stitched around the main text with gold thread.

Simple and sweet and out the door (three of my favorite things).
making it work with minimal accessories.

November 3, 2014

I was asked a few weeks ago on a capsule wardrobe post to share my go-to accessories. That would be easy and fun to share, I thought. My accessory collection is much more minimal than my clothing (you're pretty much looking at it in the photo above). I've never been a big statement piece person and because of that I don't have a lot of different stuff.

On a normal day I wear my wedding and engagement ring on my left hand and a thin gold ring that Paul and Ellerie gave me for Mother's Day on my right index finger. I never take out my cubic zirconia studs (until I lose one and then I pick up a new pair on sale at Macy's). Most days I will also wear my Odette New York arrow cuff.

And obviously, there's always the fitbit on my left wrist. I recently realized that I could upgrade my fitbit band. I don't know if these band options have always been there or if they recently came to the market but there are so many colors now. I wanted a gray band but the individual one was sold out so I bought this neutral pack and split it with my mom. The gray is about 400% better than the black for my wardrobe.

About twice a week I'll wear the watch I've had for almost five years. I can't type properly with it on so usually it just gets worn if I'm headed out.

For the rare occasion when I need to be fancy, I have two pairs of earrings that I wear. This pair (in a rose gold) from Dogeared is my favorite and the second fake diamond pair (very similar) was what I wore for our rehearsal dinner. Both are fairly neutral and really go with anything. The shapes are simple enough that they never feel on or off-trend.

I have two cocktail rings – one in a neutral (similar, similar) and one in a fun color (sort of similar) – that I wear to weddings. And I have built quite a bangle collection (I love the kate spade idiom bangle line) and so one or two of those are sometimes added when I go to dinner or something.

And that about sums it up. I've realized I am not a necklace person. Every once in awhile I'll stick with something simple and gold for a few months (this was the most recent one) but for the most part when I look in the mirror the necklace looks odd with my neckline and/or face so I end up removing it.

Funny (semi-related) story : when shopping for my wedding dress, I went to two traditional shops before deciding that the J.Crew dress I had in a box at my house (seriously. It came in a small box like a pair of jeans.) was the way to go. The lady at the second shop had almost sold me on a white, poofy, strapless wedding gown. And then for reasons I'll never understand, she put a pearl necklace around my neck to "complete the look." I saw myself in the mirror and had a Carrie Bradshaw-like wedding dress meltdown. I looked like a wedding cake topper and felt totally unlike myself. I turned red and started to get hot and we quickly left the store. Totally bizarre, right? But yeah, necklaces are apparently not my thing.

What about you guys? Tons of options fans? Minimal fans? A little bit of both? I am always impressed with the folks who can wear bold and awesome jewelry so well.
weekend links / 42.

November 1, 2014

As part of my word WHOLE this year, I want celebrate the work of others by sharing links to my friends, possible friends and complete strangers who are doing great things on the Internet. This is some of the rad stuff I recently saw online…

not your grandma's embroidery.

great round-up of script typefaces.

loved this interview with one of my favorite creative mamas.

and speaking of creative mamas, Amy Poehler on NPR.

Kelly's instagram feed is one of my faves. here is how she gets those photos to look so good.

a new art project idea.

you had me at avocado.

"Discard everything that does not 'spark joy'…" great article on home organization.

loved these Matthew McConaughey spoofs.
happy halloween!

October 31, 2014

Here's my ladybug all dressed up and eating cheddar bunnies in .gif form. We're excited to go trick-or-treating a bit tonight!

And thank you so much for the excitement over the planner. It's going to be good. I promise. I had a great time sharing my story this past month, mostly because the hardest part of blogging for me is coming up with things to write about. For the past 30 days, I only had to come up with half the ideas! Major win. But things will be back to normal around here starting next week. And I'll be sharing bits of planner progress (including what the process for getting a trademark secured looks like!) throughout the next few months.

I am so grateful for your support. Happy Halloween!

AND OH MAN, WELCOME NOVEMBER. A new month is the best.
this is what’s next for my business story.

October 30, 2014

My word for 2014 is whole.

I thought it was going to be a more personal word, but I realized as I've looked back at this year, that what I have been doing most with my work is trying to tell the whole story.

I'm sharing the behind the scenes with MAKE29 products and so many of my blog posts. I'm asking others to do the same each week on the podcast. I just spent a month sharing what my business path looked like.

I know (because I have done it) that it's really easy to look out at Blogland and see ducks floating on a lake: it appears super serene, well-lit and calm above. But when you take a peek underwater, there is a lot of intense paddling going on underneath. (Those donuts aren't going to photograph themselves.)

And so, in the spirit of sharing the whole story, I'm excited to announce (way too early) my plan for a new product:

In 2015, I'll be launching a day planner/goal setting workbook.

I absolutely believe that the only way to make progress on your BIG GOALS is to take small steps EVERY DAY. This product will help you combine the two into one rad, well-designed spiral bound book.

Some of you are thinking "What? Lame. I have an app for that." And (hopefully) others of you are thinking "What? Cool! Can't wait!" But I doubt that too many people are thinking, "Wow. Elise is launching a planner? How totally off-brand and out of left field."

This is my DUUUUUUH, project. As in, of course I would like to try and make my own planner, how did I ever think of wooden ampersands before this?

It's happening. And if all goes as planned (pun intended) it's going to be KILLER.

I am working with Jolby & Friends out of Portland, Oregon on the design. It will be produced in the USA. It will be full of useful space and it will be meant to get scribbled in. This is not a fancy "let's decorate it!" book. This is a GET TO WORK BOOK^TM. (Don't worry though, it's going to look good too.)

The catch is that it's October 30 and I'm telling you about a day planner that will not be available on January 1. This is a risk because Blogland (including me!) tends to want stuff…yesterday.

But hey, it is what it is.

Instead of staying secret and dancing around it for six months, I've decided to share the process as I work on this new project because that's what I like to do.

So, the current plan is to sell the first edition of the planner early next summer. It will be designed for use from July 2015-June 2016 following an academic calendar. This will sort of be a "soft-opening" for me to see how things go and get an idea about quantities. I love that I can stress the "you don't have to start working towards your dreams on January 1" message (which is true) and I know that some people – like students, teachers, parents and new college grads – might like to work with the academic calendar anyway.

Then there will be a big launch of the 2016 traditional annual planner. (And hopefully more to come after that.)

I'm waiting what feels like forever to launch because first of all, MAKE29 deserves it's due. I have three more ideas I am excited to work on and share. But second, and more important: I don't want to rush it. This is the product that I can see really growing. It's a planner right now but in five years, it could also be a desk calendar. A wall calendar. A notebook. A wholesale line. An app. A goal-setting community website (with a much catchier title than that).

But that is not important today. What's important right now is that I make the best product I can.

There are some really cool features being worked into this planner. Different concepts that I haven't seen before (though I am sure they've been done by someone). But more important than the "extras" is the fact that this is going to be a planner built for practicality. I am testing every design we come up with (literally working with the pages at my desk on a daily basis) to make sure it's IDEAL for keeping track of to-dos and making progress on your goals.

So, that's the news. That's the finale. Exciting? Hopefully! Anti-climatic? Very possibly! Over-hyped?! Almost always! But what's that saying? Sometimes the journey is better than the destination? Let's hope!

Thank you so much for reading. Cheers to following your dreams.

love and thumbs-up emojis, elise

ps: did you miss the small business story? start with post one and work your way through all eleven.
this is my business story : part eleven.

October 29, 2014

read part ten here.

After having a baby in 2013, I entered 2014 feeling a bit more like myself. I had a plan to close the stamp shop, launch MAKE29 and start the podcast. Basically in that order.

As I mentioned earlier, my markup on stamps was not enough to grow or fuel this business and truthfully, I was bored and ready to move on. If I can't get excited about my own product, how I can expect anyone else to? So closing shop was an easy and non-stressful decision.

I was ready for the next thing: MAKE29. I have written a lot about this already but in sum : the goal of MAKE29 is to figure out what's next for me. I am experimenting with a lot of different mediums, products and price points to see what works. I used MAKE29 as a reason to launch a newsletter and have rebuilt parts of my website to support it.

MAKE29 has been a phenomenal learning experience and creative exercise for me. A huge amount of my energy this year is going into developing the 12 editions and creating a shopping experience that focuses on the story behind the products I am selling. I have just three editions to go and I am 99% sure I know what they are going to be. Maybe the most important thing to note is that I'm still loving this project. Usually, 3/4 of the way through something, I'm itching for the next thing, but (maybe because the products have been so varied?) that's not the case this year.

In April, I launched my podcast. I've talked about the process of starting the podcast, but I never shared why I decided I wanted to host a podcast. In fall 2013, for a online workshop at Big Picture, I hosted a video chat with some students. For an hour I answered questions live via video. I finished that super chat hyped up. I came out from the office nearly giddy and told Paul I wanted to be doing something like that.

What if I hosted something similar to small business owners like me? People could pay a small fee to take the class and then I would just talk for an hour or so about whatever came up, answering questions along the way. We agreed it sounded fun, but complicated. So then I thought maybe I could do one-on-one coaching and question-and-answer sessions via skype. That also sounded fun, but also redundant.

So then I realized I should just do a podcast. Same idea: I get to talk about business, other people (including me) get to learn about business. There's no initial money, but there is also no pressure or expectation. I'm "giving away" content but learning so much. I am so glad I went this route instead of the others.

Throughout everything, you have probably noticed that the blog keeps chugging away. The blog is the foundation for all of this and I am well aware of it. Some people can run a business without a blog. Right now, I am not one of them. 2014 has felt very natural at the keyboard and I have enjoyed writing so much this year.

This summer, thanks to the blog, I had the opportunity to speak at WDS. It was the coolest thing I have ever done (other than normal life milestones like graduating college, becoming a family, finishing Harry Potter, discovering a new show on Netflix, etc.). If you're curious, I didn't get paid to speak at WDS. I didn't notice a major uptick in blog hits or shop sales in that month or the months that followed. It hasn't really contributed to my bottom line in a tangible way yet. So, why, I wondered, does it feel so huge compared to other things I have done? What I realized is that at WDS, for the first time, I was able to speak in real life about my real passion.

And my real passion, I've learned over the past decade, is not working in a tall building and wearing a suit. It's not making frames, mini books or Project Life spreads. It's not blogging. It's not taking photos. It's not selling art prints or plant stands. It's not decorating playing cards or my house. It's not planning an orange and gray wedding or sewing quilts.

My passion is helping people realize that what they want is attainable through a bold statement and hard work. My about page has said this clearly since 2010:

The one piece of information that I would want a reader of this blog to take away is everything is what you make of it. Have a goal? Write it down. Then set a plan and make it happen.

At WDS I was able to stand up and share that message. I was able to look back on my seemingly random body of work and see that the thing that holds it all together is the idea that I feel my best when I am actively pursuing a goal. It was awesome speak to such a wide variety of people about one unifying subject.

After WDS, I had a chance to speak on the phone with book agent about writing a book. What's held me back in the past and continues to hold me back now is that I don't just want to write a book to write a book. I want to write a book because I can't not write a book. Today, I feel like I can say everything I need to say through the blog or an ecourse or the podcast. Maybe someday the current outlets I have won't be enough and that will be the day I get working on the rad table of contents I have saved on my iPhone notes app.

In the meantime, I've told this story. I've written over 9500 words to share how I believe I got from A to B. After hammering this out, I have realized it's less complicated than it seemed, but that might be due to selective memory.

Here's what I know: I feel better about my career path today than I felt in 2003, 2007, 2010 or 2012. I feel like everything I've done has led me exactly to here. And here is a pretty great place to be.

About two months ago, I had My Idea. Elise's Big Idea, if you will.* I figured out what the point of all this (the reading, the writing, the business major, the marketing emphasis, the Type A personality, the retail working, the handmade, the selling, the teaching, the PR internship, the stamps, the oversharing, the speaking, the everything) has been and (finally) found The Product that I am supposed to be working on. It's not MAKE30. It's not a book. It's not bread baking. It's (tragically) not the 2014 version of The Baby-Sitter's Club.

I'll share more about it tomorrow, in the final installment. I'll warn you though, the path to getting that product to market is longer than my average four day turn-around and we won't "see" it until next spring.

to be continued…

*I'm not ashamed to admit that on 10/14, when I figured out a way to bring this story full circle I high-fived myself.

Today on ELISE GETS CRAFTY I am chatting with author Kari Chapin about following creative dreams. Click here to subscribe or stream the episode from your computer here.
project life 2014 : october.

October 28, 2014

I am taking a less traditional approach to Project Life in 2014. Often that means not many layouts, just one or two a month. It's been fun to just make SOMETHING each month without worrying about documenting EVERYTHING.

click to enlarge

This month I used Studio Calico's Walden Project Life kit and the film photos I shared earlier this morning.

This month, I really loved playing with the color in the patterned cards and the color in the photos to make an almost an ombre transition across the spread. The patterns were so great in this kit. And I loved that heart filled with triangles stamp.

Ahhhhh, these photos. I love. And that floral card is not too bad either.

I used just one card for journaling and then pulled all the photos together with small journaling spots that matched. Just random, tiny details about Ellerie in October.

Thank you so much for following along. See my title page for this album here and 2014 album progress here.

Supplies : Studio Calico Walden kit, teal stazon ink, zig Millennium pen.