enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

weekend links / 21.

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...

I could not pre-order this fast enough.

so glad Joy is bringing back her Baking 101 series.

I've been wearing this handmade ring non-stop since Mother's Day.

what a great shirt...

...and actually the whole lou + grey collection looks awesome.

I read Still Alice in over a 26 hour period this week and LOVED it. (ps...full book report coming soon. there are a lot I need to share about...)

roasted curry cauliflower sounds fantastic.

engineer prints made easy.

which reminds me...this big framed photo is perfection.

and from me...exactly the same and completely different.

around here.

We were gone for four days and then we were home for two and now today Paul and I are headed to Palm Springs while my parents hang out with Ellerie.

It was a busy few days at home (if busy = fussing with the plants, doing six loads of laundry, mixing cocktails and getting started on the backyard fence project...not necessarily in that order). It's pretty fun in our house these days. Ellerie has learned to point. At everything. Animals. Balloons. Trees. Light bulbs. Strangers. Walls. She's not picky. But she LOVES it when she points at something and then you go touch it. Or better yet, bring her to it to touch herself. This age, man. It's the BEST.

I had a few requests for a post about traveling on an airplane with kiddos. I don't have much to say because right now air travel is just parenting in the sky. At eleven months, Ellerie is too old to sleep for the whole flight and too young to distract and seriously entertain with "new books she hasn't seen yet" or "walks down the aisle." Instead we let her empty all the magazines out of the backseat pocket over and over and over again. My only real recommendations are to just bring more food than you think you'll need and greet everyone with a smile. It's far from relaxing but it's not too painful.

Have a great weekend! Palm Springs, we LOVE you. See you soon.

ps : Palm Springs is THE most photogenic city in the world (next to maybe Tulum) so if you're bored, check out my favorite photo heavy desert posts from the archives. (one, two, three)

project life 2014 : may.

As mentioned at the end of 2013, I am no longer completing my Project Life album on a weekly basis. I did that for two years. I enjoyed the process and I love my albums. This year I am taking a much more relaxed approach and playing more with this project. I don't have much of a plan other than to complete at least one (and sometimes many more) spread a month.

The big win is that I can never be "behind" on this album. I also like that I don't have to worry about having seven horizontal 4x6 photos each week and can group photos by subject instead of date. I love that I will be under no "weekly deadlines" and will be blogging just once a month about my album.

click to enlarge.

April ended with a 9 pocket page displaying our coffee bags. I had taken a ton of photos of our chemex coffee process for a blog post, so I decided to use 12 vertical photos on the opposite page.

I love those photos and LOVE how they look in a grid like that.

click to enlarge.

The next spread is my Studio Calico creative team layout featuring the Hello, Hello kit for June.

I used a bunch of embellishments from the kit and some printables to create a mostly black, white and gold page featuring photos from our Sunday at home.

The opposite page is one of my favorites. That photo turned out even better in black and white and I love how it paired with that journaling card.

Seriously my fave.

I had just a few more photos that I wanted to include from the month and I stuck them into the backside of the full photo pocket page. I have NO ISSUES at all that there were more great photos from the month that didn't make it in. I am busy this year in a very good way. This album shows just a small snapshot of our lives and that is more than good enough for me.

Thank you so much for following along. See my title page for this album here and 2014 album progress here.

product sources: Studio Calico Hello, Hello PL kit and add-ons, Studio Calico & letterpress plate (my card was a gift, thanks Andrea!), card from the midnight edition, We R Memory keepers 9 pocket page, Design A pocket page, staz-on ink, black sharpie.

all photos were printed at home on my Epson PictureMate Show

mexican martinis.

We spent last weekend in Houston visiting our friends Lauren, Pascal and baby Graham. We haven't seen them in awhile and it was great to introduce the babies (and give them their first date AND first swimming pool experience). It was very laid-back and such a fun trip.

The first night, after the babies were asleep, Lauren and Pascal introduced us to the Mexican Martini... a mash-up between a martini and a margarita. They were awesome and I immediately asked for (and if I could share) the recipe. Lauren's favorite are from Trudy's in Austin and apparently there are a ton of bad recipes online, but only a few legit ones.

We got home and mixed them up for ourselves last night. We adapted the recipe just the slightest bit from Texas Monthly:

serves two

2 shots tequila
1 shot Cointreau
1 shot fresh lime juice
1/3 shot olive brine
a splash of fresh orange juice
tabasco to taste (we added a few good shakes)
green olives as garnish

Mix all ingredients plus ice up well in a shaker. Pour into two martini glasses and garnish with green olives (we tried salt around the rim and felt it was "ehhh" but if you like salt, go for it). When we got home we added the tabasco and LOVED extra kick. If you're into spicy, toss it in.

Enjoy!

#tasteslikecandy

My backyard garden has been off to a rather rocky (err, hot) start this year. I'm working on it (buying earthworms is on our agenda today!) but so far, so slow.

These three sungolds are the first (delicious) fruits of the summer. One for each of us.

This week on ELISE GETS CRAFTY, I'm talking with creativity coach Jen Lara about creativity! We discuss how creativity can be measured and improved ...and we talk a bit about how I scored on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Jen administered to me earlier this month. Subscribe on iTunes or stream the episode here.