enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

made it.

I am safe in Winnipeg and soaking up life with Kal.

The house is rad, the kids are adorable (example a : storytime / example b : at least one of these two are coming home in my suitcase), Dan is funny and the whole situation is far from awkward. (Although the Canadian customs folks were more than a little concerned that we met on the internet.)

But the coolest part is the art and the talk. My mind is already buzzing and it's been less than a day.

Good stuff. Happy Wednesday.

tree stump table.

I'm sneaking another post in this morning to share the side table my sister-in-law, Kristen, made for our apartment. How cute is that?! When I decided to redo our living room last spring, I wanted something different so we replaced a lot of our old box store stuff with handmade and antique. This table was the finishing touch and it's been in the apartment for a little over a month.

I love it. Totally adds character, matches the other wood without being too matchy-matchy and is just big enough for a wine glass to rest without being so big that it collects clutter.

Kristen just started a fun blog (with lots of decor ideas & recipes) and shared a DIY for this exact side table here.

ps : I wish I could reach into these photos and plump that pillow.

pps : marbled lamp tutorial here.

goodbye new york.

Yesterday's weather more than made up for Hurricane Irene.

We spent the day wandering the West Village, Chelsea Market (where I found - but didn't buy - my new favorite shoes) & Soho and stopped for teeny (and fantastic) cupcakes from Baked by Melissa. We had dinner at Little Owl which is the restaurant below apartment they always show as Monica's in Friends. It was amazing - probably my favorite meal of the trip. And last, we had drinks at a speakeasy called Death + Company which was a great experience. (If you go, try the Waterloo Sunset).

Seriously - this was such a good trip. We're planning the next girl's adventure now.

Today I am flying up to Winnipeg which is so crazy and exciting, I can hardly believe it. See you in a hot second, Kal!

rooftop photoshoot.

love my girls so much. These weekends make me over the moon happy.

still in new york.

We crash landed in New York early Friday afternoon and had a great first day in the city. We wandered the High Line (which was amazing) and had a margarita happy hour then dinner at a tapas place before finding another fun bar. It was a perfect first night.

Then we woke up just in time to evacuate our Battery Park Marriott. Good times.

The hotel transferred us up to the Times Square Marriott and we spent most of the day hiding in the hotel, watching the news and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding on TLC while waiting for the storm to hit. (Though we did get dressed up - that's the photo on the left.)

And then we woke up this morning to find the storm had passed with relatively little fanfare. (Thank goodness.) We wandered a very crowded Times Square and then through Central Park (photo on the right) and down by 30 Rock. Because all the stores and restaurants were anticipating a very heavy storm day today, almost everything is closed.

But we're continuing to make the best of it and are now safe at our friend Michelle's apartment in the West Village. We'll be adventuring out later today for some dinner and are hoping for a very sunny Monday.

ps : photos above were taken with the PictureShow app & I'm updating a lot on twitter and instagram (elisejoy) while the internet is sparse.