enJOY it

january : currently.

January 24, 2013

enjoying my last few weeks with Paul home.

planning trips and girlfriend adventures for the next few months.

thrilled to be pregnant with a baby girl.

praying she stays healthy & keeps growing.

celebrating reaching the halfway mark with her!

resisting (almost) all the adorable baby clothes.

covering our fridge with ultrasound photos.

preparing for a stamp launch next week.

stretching daily with yoga.

making time for short walks.

carrying my knitting from one room to the next.

expanding our housing search and finding much better options.

writing lists of projects I’d love to tackle.

preparing a book report for the blog.

living in maxi dresses and skirts.

ordering my first pair of maternity jeans.

eating grilled cheese sandwiches like it’s my job.

loving the custom artwork that Kal made for the future nursery.

sleeping unbelievably well and appreciating it so much.
simple tips for self-portraits.

January 23, 2013

I'm a big fan of taking self-portraits. In my house, I am the main photographer. Paul is kind enough to be in photos and happy enough to take them for me, but "oh we should take a photo!" is not an expression that's ever come out of his mouth. Plus, with him deploying often, if I want a photo of me for the blog or our project life album, I have to take it myself.

So for the past few years, I have been "practicing" and doing just that. Below are some of my favorite simple tips.

Take a ton. The best part about taking your own photos is the only person who gets bored is you. When Paul's taking photos for me, I feel bad asking him to keep taking them or being picky about how things are looking. I'm just grateful for the help so I don't want to push my luck. But when I'm on my own, I can take more and not feel like I'm wasting someone else's time. I look at the camera and tweak things as I go until I have that perfect shot. (Surprisingly, when I look back at a group of photos, often it's the third out of ten shots that wins, but at least I have choices.)

Try the "hand reaching out method." You know this one. Hold the camera in front (or above) your body and snap. Sometimes it's perfect. Sometimes it takes more than a few tries. The trick is to keep your reaching arm out of the shot. It's also important to pay attention to the light source. If it's right in front of you, or right above you, you'll get an incredibly awkward "camera-shadow." I like this method a lot if I don't care that both of my hands are in the shot. It's easy to work with since I don't need to mess with a timer or remote.

Use a timer. But my favorite method is to use a timer. With the timer, I can capture more natural "real-life action shots." I love to get my hands at work (or recently, fun yoga poses.) When I am using my iPhone (and that's often), I use the TimerCam app set to either 5 or 10 seconds. With my big camera, I used to use the timer setting, but I recently purchased a wireless camera remote that is pretty rad because it focuses for me. I have found that the few second delay between when I hit the timer button and when the shutter closes gives me enough time to "hide" the remote to it's not obvious that I snapped the shot. The photos in this post and this post were both taken by me with the camera remote.

Use a flat surface. It should got without saying, but always rest your camera on a flat surface. Often, for my yoga shots, this means setting my iPhone right on the ground. My phone and case rest just fine on the long side so I don't have to use anything to prop it up. I also love the look I get when I set my phone on a table or counter – it's normally ideal for "hand" shots. When I want the camera or phone higher, I usually just build my own tripod. Sometimes this means a stack of books. Sometimes this means a chair on top of our coffee table. Sometimes this means resting the camera on a lifegaurd stand and running a few yards to pose for the shot. Anything can be a tripod, it just needs to be flat.

Trust your camera. What I have been most impressed with since I started taking more self-portrait timer shots is how awesome the camera seems to crop when I am not trying. It's helped me realize that a closer-cropped image can be cooler than a full shot.

The timer needs to be trusted too. When I plan shots and look through the viewfinder, I often lose some of the magic that comes with just setting my camera down and hoping for the best. In the above shot, I had set up my camera and was just "test" shooting to see how much of the mat was in the frame. I lit candles while the camera did it's thing and was thrilled to find the resulting photo (and the reflection) that was caught on accident. Counting "1-2-3" then snapping the shutter guarantees a grinning subject. Hitting 5 seconds on a timer and letting go can result in a completely different image and I love that.

Snap now, crop later. So yes, this is an opposite tip of "trust your camera" but what's rad about timer shots is that once you have The Shot, you can always prefect it later with cropping. Above is a sample of a photo I love taken last week. In it's original form it's a bit cluttered but I love how it looks both cropped for instagram and cropped as a vertical 4×6. Cropping can turn a decent photo into something awesome and alleviates the fear of having to set up the perfect shot right from the beginning.

Check the background. This goes for every single photo, self-portrait or not, but take a look at what's behind you. Sometimes this means just scooting a mess out of the way. Sometimes this means stepping in front of a cool wall or scene. Sometimes this just means making sure there is no power chord in the way. I don't worry about perfection, but there are always tiny things you can do – move a bit to the left, remove a pile of clothes, etc. – that result in a better shot.

related reading : simple tips for everyday photos.
my current favorite drink.

January 22, 2013

Obviously a baby on board means no alcohol. I'll be honest, I thought I would miss having a drink in the evenings or beer on football Saturdays, but it's been an easy transition. (And I definitely don't miss feeling dehydrated and I love how clear my skin has become!)

So I still have something fun to drink, Paul has been mixing up virgin cocktails every night, usually with whatever fruit we have in the house. Recently, he stumbled on the perfect blend and I wanted to share it here (Plus it is pink…so it's perfect for celebrating the little lady.)

Squeeze into a large (because why not?) drinking glass the juice from one lemon, one blood orange (or half a grapefruit!) and four small clementine oranges. Stir in a bit of honey. (Add to taste. We use about 2 tsps but it totally depends on how tart your fruits are.) Fill the rest of the glass with soda water and add a bunch of ice. Stir a bit more and enjoy.

*And if you want to add a kick : use a smaller glass, skip two of the clementines, add (way) less soda water and throw in a shot of vodka or Bourbon.
happy monday.

January 21, 2013

Enjoying the sunshine and some bonus time with Paul today. Have a good one.
project life 2013 : week 2.

January 20, 2013

It's week two and I love this project.

click the photos above to enlarge for a somewhat clearer image.

Week of : January 7 – January 13.

What happened this week?

We were home Monday-Thursday and then drove to San Diego Friday afternoon to house hunt.

Anything special in the spread?

I added a Design H photo pocket page insert this week to hold a few more photos and thoughts from our house hunting trip. I didn't take a lot of photos of the adventure (though many of the houses we saw) so there really wasn't too much to include. The blurred out section is the fact sheet from our favorite place. (Which, by the way – we put in an offer in, but decided NOT to take after they countered and we realized it wasn't just right.)

I used a journaling card from the baby kit on this insert as a 4×6 journaling card. Totally wouldn't know it was from a baby kit, would you? 😉

Techniques this week :

Nothing too special. More writing on photos. More letter stickers on photos. I sewed some fabric from the chair recover project on top of the photo of the chair.

I also tucked a 4×6 file tab card (from an office supply store) into a 4×6 pocket behind a photo to hold the date.

Overall thoughts :

Still really loving the 3×4 journaling cards to tell stories. Love that I am getting more writing in. I have been doing the spreads in just one or two time chunks each week instead of a bit everyday and I think that's contributing to the more unified look.

Ratio of iPhone photos to "real camera" photos : 8 to 2.

Ratio of photos taken by Elise to photos taken by Paul : 9 to 1. Paul took that photo of Stephanie, Katie, Ali & me at CHA. 🙂

Supplies used : Seafoam core kit, Project Life baby edition, Studio Calico Project Life kit (arrow & grid 3×4 cards), the FOR THE LOVE stamp on the chipboard is not for sale, but a small version is here, Ormolu file tab, Paislee Press "fave" digital element, Meredith Tilton Love Light transparency, Amy Tangerine letter stickers, Amy Tangerine house sticker, Paper Source kraft circle sticker, Office Depot paper clips, Evalicious journaling tag & flair badge, Martha Stewart & Avery labels.

Tools used : Design A pocket pages, Design H pocket page, Fiskars corner rounder, Zig Millenium pen, Rotatrim paper trimmer, Office Depot date stamp, staz-on ink. All photos were printed at home on my HP Photosmart 2575 printer on Office Depot semi-gloss photo paper.

Project Life is a memory-keeping system created by Becky Higgins. I use photos, text and stuff to document our life weekly. You can see all the posts from 2012 here and 2013 here. Do you have a question about how I am tackling this project? Check here.
we are having a…

January 18, 2013

Of course! 😉

What a total joy! Seriously. What a joy.

At our ultrasound yesterday we learned Baby Cripe is developing right on schedule with four heart chambers and four very active limbs. Baby looks healthy and she has the cutest profile ever. I had yet to cry at an ultrasound and this one brought tears. I really feel like I knew she'd be a she.

I am SO glad that the baby cooperated and Paul and I were able to find out together. It's still very up in the air that he'll be home for the birth and so sharing this small moment was so special for us.

We feel very blessed and are overjoyed to be welcoming a little girl into our home this June.

p.s. all the online gender predictors said boy, so pregnant friends, feel free to take all that with a grain of salt. 🙂
40 pizzas / meatball pizza.

January 17, 2013
There has been a bit of pause between pizza posts! I assure you, we've been making and eating pizzas, but the low light in the evenings make them tricky to photograph. Please excuse these awful photos and read below for a great pizza. 🙂

pizza no. 13 : meatball pizza.

occasion : it's Tuesday & we had spaghetti and meatballs last night.

crust : our whole wheat usual.

sauce : red tomato sauce of Paul's concoction (I've shared this before, but here it is again) :
- olive oil
- 1 large garlic clove – minced
- 28 oz can of whole peeled plum tomatoes
- pinch of dried rosemary, basil and oregano
- salt & pepper to taste
Saute the minced garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Add the tomatoes (crush them up with a wooden spoon), dried herbs and a bit
of salt and pepper. Turn the heat up slightly and let the liquid in the
tomatoes boil off. It took us about 20 minutes to get it to a great
consistency. Taste it! It may need more salt. The trick is to NOT taste
it too early because so much will boil off leaving a more intense flavor
and you'll end up oversalting.

cheese : sharp cheddar & mozzarella.

toppings : homemade meatballs cut into slices.

thoughts : this is one of our favorite pizzas because it's so easy and you can stretch one meal into two. On Monday, we made meatballs (using this recipe) for dinner to eat with pasta and tomato sauce. We made extra meatballs and extra sauce, knowing that we'd be able to but a pizza together the next night with the same ingredients. We built the pizza upside down – cheese on the bottom, meatball slices in the middle and red sauce on top. It was SO good.
on daily yoga.

January 16, 2013
Before I wrapped up mile a day, I started thinking about what could be next. I still think running is rad and plan on incorporating (slow!) runs into my routine for the next few months, but I really wanted to try yoga for a different strengthening exercise.

I have been on a yoga kick before. My second semester junior year I was obsessed and took classes at my college gym and then was going to classes daily during the summer. It was great for my body but much better for my mind. I had struggled with some body image issues a few months prior and yoga was a big part of why I was able to turn that around for good. I loved the workouts. I loved the quiet. I loved the stretch. I loved seeing progress over the weeks and months of making it part of my routine.

But since then (and that was almost seven years ago!) I have fallen off the wagon. Yoga got very boring. I wasn't connecting to it like before. Classes, once I was out of college, were very expensive. I didn't have time. Yada, yada, yada, my list of excuses could go on and on.

So when I decided to recommit this month, instead of thinking about why yoga had or hadn't worked for me in the past, I thought about what had worked for me with running a mile a day and applied that to this new workout. Mile a day worked because :
- it was free. I stepped outside and ran.
- I could do it anytime of day (again, I just walked outside and started running).
- it didn't take a long time. 10-20 minutes and I was done with the commitment.
- it was physical and I got out of my chair and away from my desk.
- I was holding myself accountable through daily photos that I posted to instagram.
The reasons why I enjoyed the running adventure so much is really wrapped up in the above five reasons. It made sense to me that I should try and get the same few things out of my yoga routine.

I am doing yoga completely at home. Completely from memory. No DVDs. No youtube videos. No podcasts. There is nothing wrong with any of these methods and I love that folks have so many choices! But, for me, right now, this is working really well. I bought a book called Yoga for Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond to read through and see safe and modified poses for each trimester. For the most part though, I am just using what I remember from those classes in college and doing what feels good for me.

Because of the book, this venture isn't totally free. I also bought a new mat in early January because my old one was dirty and ragged and I wanted something fresh and, don't laugh, but I downloaded an Eyna album to put some sound to my routine too (and totally love it).

I am really working to find a balance between keeping the routines short (so I don't get bored or let my mind wander) and still getting a decent practice. I have slowly worked up the time from that 10 minute session on January 1st to about 25-28 minutes today. (I did this by adding in more poses and holding each pose a bit longer). I'd love to get them a bit longer, ideally 35 minutes or so.

I have my mat, book and a few candles set up in a corner of our bedroom (finally! after 13 months of living here that odd extra space is being used!) and having a dedicated space is making a difference, I can tell. Having extra space will not always be an option, so I am very grateful for it at the moment.

And, as you've seen throughout this post, I am taking photos and posting them to instagram with the hashtag #dailyyoga. I will be the first to admit this is wierd. Yoga is internal. It's about going within, not sharing photos or comparing with others. However, this part has been inspiring and fun for me. I really like experimenting with self-portraits. I love the creative challenge of finding a new angle or pose to photograph. All of the pictures are taken with my iPhone, usually using the TimerCam app. I've enjoyed this part of the exercise so far and I have plans to expand this photo project through different ventures (crafting! baking! mothering! working! gardening!) each month of this year.

So that's my update. It's going well. I really love it. Keeping the workouts short and sweet is making a world of difference. Eventually, I'd love to work in a weekly pre-natal yoga class into the routine (something out of the house with a teacher and other students) but until I find the right one, this is going great.
for the love of house hunting.

January 15, 2013

Oofta.

We saw 17 properties in San Diego this past weekend. A little bit of everything – some places we couldn't quite afford. Some places that need a lot of work. Some places that just need a coat of paint. Some places that were totally empty and easy to visualize. Some places that were filled with stuff (so filled I have no idea how the sellers could be out in a year, much less a month!). Some places with huge yards. Some places with no yards. Good areas, bad areas, great houses, awful houses, you name it – we saw it.

It was a whirlwind. And I feel like my emotions have ran the scope. In the past, Paul and I both been pretty no-nonsense about where we live. We look through some places online, look through some places in real life and then sign off quickly. The current place we're in, I signed a lease and paid a deposit before I'd even set foot in the neighborhood.

But, of course, that's a bit easier to do as a renter, not an owner. Owning is a completely different beast. The pressure to "get it right" is overwhelming (but fun too!). We made the decision to consider buying based on many factors, but I am keeping in mind that we can always rent so it would be crazy to purchase something we're not in love with and that doesn't work for our growing (!!) family.

So I'll keep you posted. I plan on talking more about our process once things start to feel more organized and an actual plan takes shape. We have our fingers crossed about one (amazing!) place but outside of that it's looking pretty lackluster at the moment…
18 weeks.

January 14, 2013

So, this adventure is a good one.

I am in awe of the feeling. In awe of my blooming belly. In awe that there is the beginnings of a human in there. It felt real at 15 weeks when we saw the tiny one moving around on the ultrasound screen so actively. It's arms! It's legs! It's elbows! How bizarre and exciting it was to compare this person looking shape to the gummy bear we saw at our 11 week ultrasound.

But the growing belly and textbook symptoms are making it seem even more real right now. I have had a significant amount of "round-ligament pain" – the lower stomach pain that feels a bit like cramps – these past few weeks which is my insides stretching and growing to make room. Last week some lower back pain started to kick in. Paul googled a diagram to show me what exactly what bones and muscles were moving and the page he pulled up said this was usually something that started at 18 weeks.

"A-ha!" I thought. How odd & cool to be "right on schedule."

Last Wednesday night, as we were going to sleep, Paul said something relatively non-confrontational and I burst into tears. It took about 10 minutes to get a handle on my emotions and afterwards we just sort of stared at each other like "Hmmm, that's new…" For the most part, I feel pretty normal so the quick rush of emotions is startling. That part might get tricky, especially with Paul headed for deployment soon, but we'll make it work.

My daily yoga sessions are wonderful and I plan on sharing a bit more about them soon. I am loving feeling that comes with a quick 20-25 minutes on the mat. The work outs are super deliberate and focused and seem to be easing the physical discomfort and increasing the mental calm. I'd love to continue them indefinitely. I got a great comment on instagram about "yoga mama." equaling "zen baby." How awesome if that turns out to be true!

We've got a very long way to go, this baby and I, and I am really enjoying the ride. If all goes as planned, we'll find out the sex at the end of this week. I still think it's a girl, but regardless, I know knowing what's kicking around in there will be completely thrilling. We are so excited to be on this adventure and I am looking forward to spending the next 22 weeks in very close proximity to our baby boy or girl.