enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

on blogging & moving forward.

I'm coming to the end of my "official" maternity leave. I am blessed that a big part of my day job is blogging. It's the only thing I consistently do week after week and the piece of my "freelance income pie" that takes up the most time. Every dollar I have made in the past 3+ years has been directly or indirectly related to this space.

But long before there was in any money in this blog, I loved to write here. This text box has become my friend, my sounding-board and occasionally my super inexpensive therapist. I have found my voice in this Internet corner and have learned a lot about myself just by typing (and re-typing) nearly everyday for over seven years.

I already knew I needed this outlet, but it was made even clearer when I got home from the hospital after Ellerie was born. Everything was hard those first few days and weeks. Showering was hard. Getting into and out of bed was hard. Sitting on the couch was hard. But writing was easy. I wanted to blog. I needed to blog. I was desperate for both the escape and clarity that came from stringing my thoughts together and hitting publish. I realized those first few weeks how important this space was to me on a personal level. It was awesome to see how much I needed to write.

And so, because of this, I know I'll keep writing here forever.

Since I started this blog, my story has changed many times. I have been single and living in a sorority house with my best friends. I have been a college student struggling to figure out how passion and a career path could fit together. I have been a girlfriend moving across the country to live with a boy. I have been a college graduate commuting two hours a day to work at a paper store for very little money. I have been a new entrepreneur starting an etsy shop. I have been newly engaged and planning a wedding. I have been a newlywed gleefully decorating an apartment. I have been a small business owner quitting my day job to make money doing what I loved. I have been a military spouse living alone while my husband was deployed. I have been pregnant and preparing for a baby. I have been a new homeowner feathering a nest.

And now, in addition to all of those other women, I am a mom. Over the years, I have thought a lot about how this space would be affected once I had kids. Recently I realized it would move foward the same way it always does - organically and with me. In seven years, the content and "theme" of this blog has changed many times, but, for me, it continues to work because it always feels real. I can't sleep when this blog looses it's authenticity and with a newborn, I don't need anything else keeping me up at night.

So instead of over-thinking it (she says, 500 words later), I'm going to just keep writing. About what interests me. About the things we do. The food we cook. The projects I take on. The thoughts I have. The goals I set. The mistakes I make. The people I love.

This space is where I share my story and I am so looking forward to getting back into the swing of near daily writing again. Thank you for reading.

p.s. as I start to prepare a loose editioral calendar for this fall, I welcome your suggestions! Is there anything you would like to read from me? Please feel free to share in the comments section.

project life 2013 : week 28.

It's week twenty-eight and I'm caught up with the album but a bit behind on blogging it.

click the photo to enlarge for a somewhat clearer image.

Week of : July 8 - July 14.

What happened this week? Paul came home from deployment for good! Hooray!

Anything special in the spread? I played a lot this week with the Midnight Edition (I love it and adore that it meshes well with Seafoam) and Kelly Purkey's Project Life kit for Simon Stamp.

Techniques this week : Nothing. This is a classic Project Life spread for me with labels and text directly on the photos to help tell the story.

Overall thoughts : Love having Paul back at home. The real goal now is to get him more active in taking the photos. Paul, I know you are no longer reading this blog, but let's make it happen.

Ratio of iPhone photos to "real camera" photos : 7 to 4.

Ratio of photos taken by Elise to photos taken by Paul : All Elise and one by Paul's uncle, Alex.

Supplies used : Seafoam core kit, Midnight core kit, American Crafts letter sticker, Kelly Purkey badge, letterpress card & label stickers, Freckled Fawn wood veneer arrow.

Tools used : Design A pocket pages, 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 (including anything about the photos)? Check here.

project life 2013 : week 27.

It's week twenty-seven and I'm still playing catch-up.

click the photos to enlarge for a somewhat clearer image.

Week of : July 1 - July 7.

What happened this week? My mom and I were home with Ellerie. My Aunt Carol and dad came to visit on July 4 and stayed through the weekend.

Anything special in the spread? I included Ellerie's birth announcement and the onesie that she came home from the hospital in because this was the week she grew out of her tiny newborn clothes. This is something I saw Ali Edwards do with her daughter's onesie and I just loved the idea.

I slipped the onesie and a transparency into a 12x12 pocket page and used a binder clip to hold it in place.

To the backside of the onesie page, I included a 4x6 journaling card from the baby edition with a short note.

Techniques this week : Nothing too special. The photo of my mom, Ellerie and I was so important to me, but because it was a tiny bit out of focus I converted it to black and white. I often do this with blurry phone photos.

Overall thoughts : Still the Ellerie Show in the album...I know. I have gotten a few questions about if I am doing a baby album for Ellerie. I do not plan on it, but I am going to make a hardbound book of my weekly letters to her as well as various photos from her first year. That will not happen for awhile though. This album is our family Project Life album and will return to our new normal soon and include more than just baby E.

Ratio of iPhone photos to "real camera" photos : 3 to 6. 

Ratio of photos taken by Elise to photos taken by Paul : All Elise and one by my Aunt Carol.

Supplies used : Seafoam core kit, Midnight core kit, PL baby edition, Evalicious here tab, Kelly Purkey badge & arrow sticker, Paislee Press heart, "E" printable, calendar, Elise Joy stamps (shop to reopen in mid-August), Elle's Studio tabbed 3x4 card.

Tools used : Design A pocket pages, 5x7 pocket page, 12x12 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 (including anything about the photos)? Check here.

dear ellerie / week five.

Dear Ellerie,

Sweet girl, we made it past the one month mark. Cheers to us. I have used a lot of fancy metaphors in my letters these past few weeks but the reality is, this has been hard. Becoming a parent is hard. Being a mom is hard. Re-finding anything that resembles life balance is hard. But a switch started to flip this past weekend as we celebrated a month of your special life. This week I have felt more balanced. And much more normal. I am still exhausted. I am still overwhelmed. But I really like where we are now and I absolutely love where we are headed.

I am also realizing that in the future, if you read all these letters in one sitting, you might think your Mama is slightly insane. (You might not be wrong.) Before you have a baby, weeks tend to run together and not much changes in a seven day span. Post-baby, each week feels vastly different. Hell, each day feels vastly different. I could write you a letter every single day and the mood and content would vary greatly. One day I'd go on and on about the joys of breastfeeding and the next day I'd cry into my keyboard about the pain that comes with chapped nipples. (And then I would cry harder when I realized how much time I now spend thinking about my nipples.)

So the news this week, little love, is that we transitioned to strictly bottlefeeding you breastmilk while I have some time to heal. The plan is to get back to breastfeeding, this time with a perfect latch right from the beginning. We'll go back to the lactation consultant and together, we'll figure it out. But in the meantime, I pump lots. You eat lots. It's a hassle, but it's working wonders for my physical and mental well-being. Because of the pain, I was dreading your feedings. How awful is that? Now, thanks to the bottle, I can appreciate and, more importantly, look forward to all of our time together. This is so much more fair to you and is for sure making me a better mama.

Oh Ellerie, I cannot wait until feedings are in the backdrop of our lives instead of our lives being the backdrop to feedings. I am excited for my remarks on food in these letters to involve tales of mashed avocado or, even more exciting, stories about how you helped me bake cupcakes and how you can now spread shredded cheese on a homemade pizza. Right now, when worrying about food feels all consuming, I keep the focus on the most important things: you're growing & you are so loved. That's what matters, not the method in which you ingest my milk.

And oh, how you are growing. Bigger around the belly. Chubbier in the cheeks. Your tiny arm and leg rolls are developing and this makes me want to squeeze you even tighter and kiss you even more often. As remarkable as the physical changes are, my favorite thing to witness is your personality changes. You're funny! So funny. But of course you don't know it. Of course you don't realize that you are endless entertainment for me and your dad. We watch you like we watch TV. And even when we're watching TV, we've got an eye on you and your variety of facial expressions and dancing arms. When you were still in my belly, I wondered often what you'd look like. Now that you're out, I find myself dreaming about what your tiny little voice will sound like. I wonder what you'll say first. I wonder what your preferences will be. I wonder so many things about the personality inside of you. Already I can tell it's going to be big.

You gave us your first smile this week. It was during bathtime and somehow, I had enough camera karma stored up that I was able to save it forever with Dad's iPhone. Both Dad and I exclaimed in joy and in that instant, I understood how people can go on and on about the rewards of parenting. Oh that grin, it melted my heart. You've got a tiny dimple on your right cheek and we've spent almost every moment since that bath trying to see it again. Your smiles are magic, sweet girl. I am so excited for the thousands more to come.

Ellerie girl, what an adventure we are on. It's upside down. It's sideways. But we're moving forward. We're doing so well. You're thriving, little one. I am honored to be a witness to it. I am honored to help you through it.

yours forever, Mama.

40 pizzas / fig & prosciutto.

pizza no. 16 : fig & prosciutto.

occasion : it's Friday night and figs were on sale at the grocery store.

crust : our whole wheat usual.

sauce : olive oil.

cheese : havarti.

toppings : prosciutto, sliced figs, fresh minced garlic, salt & pepper.

thoughts : this is such an easy pizza that feels more fancy than it really is. Perfect for summer & fig season. While usually I am all about "freedom in the kitchen!" and "substitute whatever you'd like!" in my recipes, I'd highly recommend this exact combination. The havarti cheese, salt & pepper and fresh garlic totally made this pizza. To keep the prosciutto from getting too dry in the oven, we built the pizza without it, cooked for 10 minutes then quickly pulled the pizza out, added the prosciutto and cooked for another five. Perfection, I tell you.