enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

thanksgiving flowers.

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.

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.

she + he in november.

November is better. For both of them.

He's doing another medicine rotation this month.

And while he can't see a difference, she totally can.

A much more confident and relaxed doctor stands where a newbie was five months ago.

She has settled into a happy work routine.

And has an awesome office space to match.

They worked out a plan for the future of their little family.

Of course the plan will go awry,

but it worked wonders to mentally put things on the table and talk them out.

And speaking of tables, she has their Thanksgiving table set already.

Because organization conquers all.

my december daily plan.

A huge plus of this office revamp is I am finding so much stuff. Sorting and purging and piling and boxing and going through every piece of paper I have is never-ending, but super satisfying.

Part of my sorting process has been pulling aside anything label-like in red, green or neutral. (I can't source everything shown above, but if there is something specific, just ask in the comments and I'll try to tell you.) I am using one of my own holiday books to document December and am not planning on adding any extra papers, just photos and small embellishments.  I'm storing these pieces in a small box with my album and plan on just pulling from that once I get started.

My holiday book is not actually a December daily book. I'll just add anything that we do or I collect that feels "holiday-like" starting with the day after Thanksgiving and ending on New Year's Day. So a week from today it all begins!

I have also listed limited quanities of the holiday book covers for purchase on their own. If you are interested in having a holiday book or cover by December 1st, I recommend purchasing by next Wednesday, November 23rd.

super simple fabric flower DIY.

The best part about re-arranging my office space is I am actually gaining a lot of new SPACE. Functional AND decorated? What a new concept for this little room.

I brought in a vase and a little plant so far. Some weeks I'll keep real flowers, but for now, I made up a few simple ones with fabric scraps. This project was inspired by the yarn pom-poms I saw here last fall.

To make one flower, you'll need three strips of fabric, scissors, wire (any kind - mine's floral wire) and a piece of string.

Wrap all three pieces of fabric around four fingers (at the same time).

Remove the wrapped fabric and tie it tight in the middle of the fold with string.

Use scissors to cut the loops in the fabric.

Keep cutting until the loops are gone and the flower is round in shape.

Wrap a piece of wire around the middle of the flower and twist it on itself to create a little stem. (You could take it a step further and wrap the wire in floral or washi tape.)

Stick in a vase with a few others and bang - colorful and sweet decor.

I also think these would look awesome strung on a garland...