enJOY it

around here.

May 9, 2014

Friday...again.

Last weekend was the Queen Bee Market. Thanks for saying hi if you dropped by – so fun to meet a few of you and see familiar faces! It's was so good to get out of my box (as always!) but also a reminder (as always!) that my business is 99.9% online.

(As always!) It was totally fun to play with my booth styling and try out some new products. I am hoping to get those cards into my online shop SOON. But first I need to figure out how I am going to have a normal shop + a make29 shop… we'll see…

In other news, I wrapped up a BIG project which always makes me feel like I lost 5 pounds and got a new haircut (THE JOY! THE RELIEF! THE DISBELIEF!). And then I had a BIG opportunity cross my inbox and I am the perfect amount of nervous and excited about it (it is NOT a product line or a book deal). I'm looking forward to sharing more on that soon.

I hope you have a great weekend. Sunday is Mother's Day! My first one! I'm hugging my little bug tightly, thanking my own mom profusely and getting a massage to celebrate.

Cheers.
the only pizza dough recipe you will ever need.

May 8, 2014
Years ago, I shared our go-to pizza dough recipe on the blog. Since then, we have continued to use it ALL THE TIME and I have been thrilled to get emails from readers who love it too. I figured it was about time I updated the photos and share exactly what we do since we've perfected our craft. If you are a novice to pizza making or an old-pro, I promise, this recipe (and our technique) is sure to become a favorite.

For the perfect pizza dough, I recommend a pizza stone (we have this one) and a pizza peel (we have this one). Neither is "necessary" but the difference between a pizza cooked on a pre-heated stone and a pizza cooked on a baking sheet is unreal. You'll also want a rolling pin (we have one similar to this). (And since I always get asked on IG, this is our pizza cutter, and yes, we like it.)

I use our KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook attachment, but you can totally knead your dough by hand (we did for years). It will take longer but you'll get an arm workout.

Once you have the tools, the ingredients list is cheap and most likely you already have everything in your pantry…
- 1 T yeast (we buy the stuff in the jar that you store in your fridge after opening)
- 1 t white sugar
- 3/4 C warm water (should be about 100*F)
- 1 C white flour
- 1 C wheat flour
- 1 t salt
- 1 T olive oil
- small handful of cornmeal
Into the bowl of your stand mixer (or normal bowl if you are mixing by hand), pour the yeast and sugar. Next, add the warm water. (It's key that the dry ingredients go in first, then when the water is added, they will mix themselves.)

Give this about 10 minutes for the yeast to activate, if you watch, you'll actually see it happen. (It will bubble just like the image above.)

Add the flours and salt to the bowl and mix with the dough hook on low.

After it's started coming together, add in your olive oil. If you are doing this by hand, mix with a wooden spoon and then when it's started to stick together enough, knead by hand. It should take a few minutes to come together.

Turn off the mixer and give it a few minutes to rest, then turn to low again and give it another few minutes of kneading.

Remove your stand mixer bowl and shape dough in to a ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean towel.

Place it in a warm spot for a few hours to rise. (It will look like the photo above when it's ready!)

When you're ready to build your pizza, take it out of the bowl and mix by hand with some extra white flour.

Use your fingers to get your circle shape started on your pizza peel.

And then use a rolling pin to really thin it out. There is no need to "curl up" the edges of the crust, the yeast will help it rise naturally when it's baking.

Preheat your oven (with the pizza stone inside!) to 450*F.

Prepare your pizza toppings. Lately we've been using olive oil for a base and then throwing whatever meat and veggies we have in the fridge on top.

When your oven is preheated, you'll want to work fast and prep your pizza. We have found that if you let the pizza sit to long on the pizza peel it gets sticky and it's impossible to slide off. (More than once we've ended up eating a calzone on pizza night!) To speed up the process, we get all the toppings ready to go, then I give the dough one last flip, this time spreading corn meal on the underside to prevent sticking.

Add on your pizza toppings and carefully slide off the pizza onto your HOT pizza stone.

Bake for about 15 minutes and then check to see if it looks done (crust is hard, cheese is melted, etc.)

Slide your pizza peel back under the pizza to shimmy it out (usually takes a bit of practice) and TA-DA, homemade, fantastic pizza with the best crust ever. (Optional: take a photo in front of the window to make your pizza appear like it's sent directly from Heaven.)

Need some pizza topping suggestions? Check out these 20 that we've shared over the past few years.
three things I know to be true / blogging.

May 7, 2014
Next up in my series of things I know to be true … blogging. This is not the normal, "post frequently, be consistent and take good photos!" advice (though that's good advice, too). This is the deeper stuff that is totally true for me.

Write about what YOU want to write about. If I've learned one thing over the past 9 years it's that I have to write about what I want. Only. Always. Forever. Asking what people want to see from my blog results in seriously conflicting opinions (more baby posts! more DIY! less baby posts! more recipes! more about your family! less about your personal life! more DIY! less about your house! more about what you wore! less shopping links! tell me where you store your minibooks!) and for me way too much stress. It also results in requests for stuff that is relevant but is totally uninteresting to me. I can't fake it for the blog. Let me re-phrase that… I can't fake it for the blog and sleep well at night. So my advice is to just write. Write about your passions and adjust accordingly as your passions change.

Consider the goal. Why are you writing your blog? Seriously? Why? Nothing matters, stats, links, clicks, comments or post-frequency until you know the "plan" for your blog. Is this a way to share your stories with friends and family? It it a way to promote your business? Is it a way to create a community around a niche interest? It it a place for you to share the insane things that you witness while on the subway to work? Is this how you plan to support your family in the next five years? Knowing your goal is the only way to determine what actually matters for you and your blog. Being honest with yourself can save you a lot of stress and/or help you develop an actual game plan.

It all comes back around. All of it: the interest, the ideas, the pageviews. Like every other activity, my interest in blogging waxes and wanes. My ideas flow for weeks and then dry up completely. My stats go up and down, up and down, up and down as seasons change and links get shared and inspiration strikes. I cannot control my interest, idea flow or pageviews. But I can control my work ethic. No matter what, I sit down and write. Every week for sure and nearly every day. My goal with this blog is to share my passions and promote my business and so I dedicate many hours and energy into developing original content because THAT I can do. I have learned that the rest, all the stuff I cannot control, is cyclical and will always return as long as I keep writing.

ps… this post was intended to share my thoughts on blogging but when I read back through I realized these three things are my mantras for life too: Do what you love. Know why you're doing it. Trust the process.

This week on ELISE GETS CRAFTY I'm chatting with Elsie and Emma of A Beautiful Mess about managing a team and growing your business. Click here to subscribe or stream the episode from your computer here.

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new business cards!

May 6, 2014

My MAKE29 business cards are perfect for sending out with numbered editions, but I needed something different for just handing out in real life and for sending along with other products. And I love any excuse to design new stuff for my brand.

I've always been a fan of photos on my cards (remember these?! or these?!). Maybe it's because my blog and website branding is so photo heavy and this is a physical extension of that. Or maybe it's just because I don't really have a logo so this is easy. I enjoyed picking a random assortment of new photos (two ampersands, obviously) to fill them up. I recently changed my email signature line to "I make stuff like it's my job." and felt like it would be fun to put that on there. My goal for my business cards is that people want them. They want to keep them. They want to stick them on their bulletin board.

The backside holds all my info. Paul was like, "what's gram?" and that's when I realized I REALLY need someone to check my work before I send it off to the printer. I used GRAM because it's shorter than INSTAGRAM so it fit with my format. Probably a massive fail, but who knows? If you're on IG you'll probably get it, and if not, you can email me. 😉 I wanted to incorporate the podcast and it didn't fit the format so I made that a small joke out of that. Small joke + big statement + photos = ELISE.

I had these printed by overnightprints.com (my go-to these days for promo pieces) and as always, was thrilled with the results.
our sunday in photos.

May 5, 2014

This is what yesterday, May 4, 2014, looked like at our house in San Diego, California.

I am going to make a point to get out my big camera more often on the rare days we get to spend together just the three of us. Taking photos – capturing us as we are, now – somehow makes the day feel longer and the moments more special.

Being able to "look back" at these photos just hours after they were taken is a gift. I cannot imagine how I will feel when I see them decades from now.
weekend links / 17.

May 3, 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…

this new storytelling app looks gorgeous.

the best home decor DIY I've seen in a long time.

I'm going to ALT in June and was excited to see the speaker line up so far.

the perfect late spring slash early summer top.

the outfits of Kate Middleton in rainbow order.

no brainer advice.

my friend Robin wrote a book about her crafting adventure!

super cool fabric.

hats of the Kentucky Derby!

(we're rooting for California Chrome.)

…and from my own archives, how I go from idea to reality.
queen bee market bound…

May 2, 2014

Locals! I hope to see you there. More info here!

Everyone else! I'll see you on Instagram!

All! Have a great weekend.
WELCOME TO THE PARTY, MAY.

May 1, 2014

IF IT SEEMS LIKE I AM SHOUTING, IT'S BECAUSE I AM.

May 1. We made it. May is a big month for me.

Here's what I've got work-wise:

The Queen Bee Market starts tomorrow! I'm selling a bunch of RANDOM items. Seriously. So RANDOM. And so RAD. When I quit the stamp making business, I still wanted to show at the QBM because I love the energy and I love the opportunity to do my job in real life. I decided to just sell a bunch of RANDOM items that were in limited quantities and hard to ship. Enter airplants. Enter marbled bowls. Enter stained wooden letters you can no longer find in stores (because I bought them all). Enter colorful fabric garlands. Enter jade succulent wreaths. Do you see what connects these five items? RANDOMNESS. AND RADNESS.

And then I had an idea for two fill-them-in greeting cards (black ink on white always wins) so I threw those into the pot. Of all this stuff, those cards are the only thing I will be selling online.

After we get through the market I am planning on being attached at the fingerpads to my computer to get the Blog Design Love 2.0 class in the can. It's (almost) back and it's BETTER THAN EVER. Like seriously. I cannot over-hype it enough. 😉 I am so excited to write and code and screenshot and then write and code and screenshot and finally, finally get her live. (Obviously I will let you know when that happens.)

And then when the dust settles, I am going to get MAKE29 squared away for June. I've got a plan to create MORE options (think different sizes of the same print in editions of 290) and am super excited about that. In this case, I really think more will equal more. The May edition is currently packed up, sitting on a wooden palette in my garage (go big or go home is the motto this time around) and waiting to launch. Is it May 22nd yet?

So that's business…here's the personal:

PAUL IS DONE WITH HIS EVENING ROTATIONS.

This means I have a partner who returns home in time to help with this baby who I love so dearly but OH MAN IS SHE MOBILE AND INTO EVERYTHING. The difference between Elise at 4pm when she knows she's have help in about 90 minutes and the Elise at 4pm who knows she's flying solo for the foreseeable future is quite remarkable. Even Ellerie was like "Geez, Mom, this is remarkable." And I was like, "I know, little bug" while launching myself across the room to pull her off the bookshelf she had just climbed.

(If you're the sort of person who prefers visual aids, this is me at 5pm yesterday and this is me at 5pm last week.)

It's crazy to eat dinner at a normal hour. It's crazy to see sunlight when Paul gets home. It's crazy to have a castmate in the bedtime ritual that has become at least a 65 minute production complete with character voices and diaper changes so fast they would make an Indy 500 pit crew member's head spin.

We have a few more weeks of lots of work and then it's full on leave time at the end of May. We're headed to Houston for a trip (traveling with kiddo(s) is NOT a vacation) to see some friends that will for sure be awesome and then Paul and I are sneaking away to our happy place, Palm Springs, to celebrate four years of marriage and congratulate ourselves on a really insane first four (five by then!) months of 2014.

I'm embracing May and everything she's got planned. I'm geared up. I'm excited. I AM READY TO ROLL.

Seriously, May, welcome to the party that is 2014.

(It's The Most organized party you've ever attended. And also, BYOB.)
three things I know to be true / DIY projects.

April 30, 2014
It's no secret, I SUPER LOVE TO MAKE STUFF. And after many years of DIY (do-it-yourself) projects, I have learned a few things. This, fellow DIYers, is what I know to be true:

Would I buy this? This is the question I am constantly asking myself throughout a project. If the item I am attempting to make isn't something I would pay money for, I probably won't love it long term. Please understand, this is not to be confused with the question "could I sell this?" I don't care if anyone else wants to buy the stuff I make for my own home, but I do care that I would. "Would I buy this?" is a simple way to ask: do I love this? Is this project something I can successfully execute? Is this going to look awesome and/or be functional? Am I going to be proud to display this in my home? I have made (and shared!) many a lame project, but the ones that I LOVE for longer than a season are the ones where I look at them and think they are awesome for more reasons than just the fact that I made them.

If you're curious these are a few of my favorites : chevron headboard, hairpin leg coffee table, big script art, foldover clutch, Ellerie's quilt, quilted floor pillows. I totally would have bought all of these, but I am so thrilled that I was able to make (and customize!) them instead.

You have to enjoy the process of making as much as the end project. DIY isn't just about having handmade stuff in your house. It's about enjoying the time spent making the stuff. I have learned that nearly everything (even with a perfectly written tutorial to follow) involves a ton of trial and error. I don't mind this aspect at all…in fact, I LOVE that part. I love figuring things out. I love gaining insight about a new craft. I am prepared to make the mistakes. Paul, on the other hand, is a perfectionist (which is awesome considering his job) and struggles with DIY projects because he doesn't love the errors that come between point A (conceptualizing) and point B (the end result). Over the past few years I think our personalities have rubbed off on each other for the better…I've become more precise and wasted less raw materials and he's become more willing to embrace the process and accept the flaws.

Making breeds making. The more you do, the more ideas you have. I used to think that there were a limited amount of ideas out there and it was in my best interest to hoard them for a rainy day (which in San Diego basically means forever). The very best thing that has happened for my business, life and blog is that I realized the opposite is true. The more you experiment and the more you share, the MORE ideas you have. Every time I learn something new (like how to stain wood or how to sew a zipper) I think of 15 new projects that incorporate my new skill. This is why I set so many random craft challenges for myself. Making from scratch is inspiring. You get something customized. You gain an appreciation for well-crafted handmade. You learn something. You end up with something special. And more than that, you earn inspiration for more projects.

This week on ELISE GETS CRAFTY I'm having a small business discussion with Ann-Marie Espinoza. We chat about a bunch of different things, but the focus is on bloggers and brands working together. Click here to subscribe or stream the episode from your computer here.

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what’s in my behance action book?

April 28, 2014
I got a question recently about how I use my Behance action book and my first response (in my head) was "how don't I use my Behance action book?"

Since last fall I have used it for alllllll my business thoughts that are not complicated enough to warrant a spreadsheet (like income and expenses or my to-do list for the Blog Design Love 2.0 eCourse).

I thought sharing a few pages would make for a fun post and then I got carried away and took photos of the whole book. This is literally a spread-for-spread breakdown with photos of most of the pages. Feel free to skip this post unless you're like me and find how other people keep track of their work load fascinating.

1 : quilt eCourse brainstorm

2 : master list of photos to take for the quilt eCourse & ideas for quilt eCourse #2 (not yet finalized or realized)

3 : list of projects to create for the blog before 2013 ended & thermometer style chart of my financial goal for 2013 (drawn in September) and a break down of where that money will actually come from

4 : sketch of new office layout & office reorganization measurements/cost breakdown

5 : MAKE29 project ideas (wrote this much later on the backside of another paper) & 2014 financial goal with ideas for where the money will actually come from

6 : stamp inventory & fall Queen Bee Market to-do list

7 : stamp inventory after the QBM & backyard plans and measurements

8 : grid I created to track a media campaign I worked on & list of various projects to complete before the end of 2013

9 : initial brainstorming for MAKE29 (called edition29 originally) (two pages)

10 : "edition29" list of things to do before 2013 ended & 2014 photo calendar ideas and to do list

11 : talking points for an in-person workshop I taught (written upside down) & ideas for a temporary freelance gig

12 : sketch with measurements for the tree skirt I never completed & list of items on my 2nd shop my closet instagram sale

13 : list of photos I needed to take for my Play! workshop handout & conference call notes about the Play! workshop

14 : conference call notes about the Your Story Retreat & my voiceover speech for the MAKE29 trailer (written in Sharpie over another page)

15 : November and December blog editorial calendar & brainstorm of personal goals for 2014

16 : notes for an ebook concept that isn't finished yet & conference call notes about the ebook

17 : intital planning for my Use Your Stash eCourse plus notes about the December Duos class (two pages)

18 : MAKE29 project notes & notes from a conference call about the Studio Calico creative team

19 : grid to keep track of freelance gig progress & talking points for my Play! presentation

20 : MAKE29 project notes & notes from a conference call about joining a media network

21 : stamp order tracking (you might be like "ELISE, YOU TRACKED STAMPS BY HAND?" and I'd be like, "I know, it's embarassing.") & new website notes

22 : more stamp order tracking & MAKE29 video trailer breakdown of shots to capture

23 : more stamp order tracking & to do list for the Use Your Stash eCourse

24 : to do list for the website upgrades & QBM spring prep

25 : pricing and inventory projections for QBM & more changes to make to my website

26 : listings for my first FOUND instagram sale (two pages)

27 : A BLANK PAGE! & notes from the podcast webinar I attended

28 : ideas for podcast episodes & Blog Design Love 2.0 brainstorming

29 : another page of ideas for podcast episodes & a legit breakdown of what I needed to do for the use your stash class (I generally mess around with to-do lists to feel like I am on the right track and then when the deadline approaches and I get super serious and fancy)

30 : listings for my second FOUND instagram sale (two pages)

31 : MAKE29 project notes & a calendar breakdown of podcast episodes from April – July that once had many more post-it notes until Ellerie "helped" me get organized

32 : random free-form journaling from the Your Story Retreat (written upside down) & official QBM pricing plan with calculated possible income breakdown

33 : notes for a video I recorded for a BPC class & MAKE29 project notes

34 : (brief) notes from a conference call about a possible brand partnership & a blank page

Looking back through this book as a very interesting excercise for me. When I look at the pages, this is what I see : Brainstorm. Calculate. Communicate. Mock-up. Plan. Re-calculate. Break-down. Follow-through. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

This is how I run my business. This is how I execute. This is how I make money doing what I love. I am obsessed with the nitty-gritty. I love to put my head down and work. I like to make stuff but I equally like to plan how I'm going to sell that stuff. I have found that success comes when you can balance the two.

I am about 2/3 through the book and just keep turning the pages. I always have a few different projects in the works (and therefore a few different revenue streams) and it's been awesome to keep track of everything in one place. I'm a huge fan of this book and will for sure have a second one ready and waiting when I fill in that final page.

please note : I am not affiliated with Behance or the Ghostly Store in anyway and yes, I totally think you could keep amazing notes in a normal spiral bound notebook. I just love that this one has the orange column to break down porjects and a grid section to fill up however I need. I'm always working to improve on my brainstorm and organization skills and so far this book is helping me do that.

Since writing this post, I created Get To Work Book! It's a day planner + goal setting workbook that is designed to help you take your big goals turn them into something real. Learn more and shop the brand here.

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