enJOY it by Elise Blaha Cripe

weekend links / 32.

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...

blogging lessons (LOVED this, via Joy the Baker)

congrats on the new adventure, Ali! The site looks amazing.

how to fold a fitted sheet.

this is for the Pacey Witter fans.

and, btw, doesn't this guitar player look like Dawson?!

I'm so late to this story, but I heard on the radio yesterday about Rollasole vending machines and I thought the idea was genius.

pink is for girls, blue is for boys. #oofta

believe in your selfie tee.

love these custom photo puzzles.

a beautiful post on maternity leave.

recently picked up this dress for an upcoming wedding.

this zillow commerical hits close to home (pun intended).

I imagine you've already seen this sunscreen promo, but in case not...wow.

and from me...plant stands! and print packs! and posters! and flamingos! ;)

around here.

Cheers, Friday.

I'm excited to get the plant stands listed today at 8AM, thank you for your excitement around them this week. I agree, sharing the behind the scenes can be a valuable addition to a project and it's something I would love to do more of moving forward.

I have been thinking about the second half of MAKE29 often this week. I am pretty sure I have September nailed down. I have the beginnings of a plan for October. November I'm cautiously optimistic about. And December is going to be brilliant, I just have to make sure I can make it work. I'm seriously considering an edition of 2900 of December. Which is absurd, but mostly exciting because I just want this product into as many hands as possible. We'll see. There are a lot of working parts.

And speaking of big goals and crafting adventures, I recorded a great podcast episode this week with Chris Guillebeau about his upcoming book The Happiness of Pursuit. Fun fact, I am IN the book. Like in the index and everything which feels a bit surreal and definitely cool. My chapter is called "The Love of the Craft" which is pretty rad. It's a good episode and I can't wait to share it (and many other fun ones) with you this September.

Something is in the air. Something good. I can feel it. Let's roll, Friday.

ps. next week I'm sharing a video tutorial for how to make that big black and white engineered print photo.

august book report.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith I got through this one much quicker than the Cockoo's Calling and really enjoyed it. Maybe because I already knew the characters and so I felt like it was easier to read? I feel like we didn't need to hear about how Strike can't afford to take a taxi on every single page, but other than that, this was a good one. I'm anxious for the third book...

The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss I added this to my library queue after AJ Jacobs mentioned it in Drop Dead Healthy. I have read 4-Hour Workweek and thought this might be interesting. It's not the sort of book you curl up with and read (at all), but it's for sure worth a page through to see what he says about different weight loss, muscle gain & calorie intake theories. I just like to know this sort of stuff for some odd reason. I read so many chapters of this outloud to Paul it was just so crazy (and interesting!).

Fallen Skies by Phillipa Gregory | I have read almost every single book Phillipa Gregory has written (which for the most part means the Tudor Series). I picked this up at the library on a whim and because it's classic Phillipa, I found myself totally sucked in and wanting to devour it in a day, forgoing all other activities, like eating and tending Ellerie (I'm reading it in the photo above). It's not a literary work of art, but it's entertaining and a super quick historical fiction read.

The Vacationers by Emma Straub | I saw this everywhere this summer (it's one of those books that got a lot of great press and is making the blog rounds). It was...fine. Another one with a wide range of mildly screwed up characters (which I tend to like) but I didn't think the characters did that much. I never felt "on the hook" or more than a bit interested. Quick, easy read, but I wish I had enjoyed it more.

WHAT'S NEXT?! I'm currently reading Lean In (and having SO MANY THOUGHTS about it) but I'd also love a great fiction book, folks. Where's the next Still Alice? Or Night Circus? What are you reading?

ps. see all my past book reports here and be sure to come back for the comments section on this post. It's always 10x better and more helpful than anything I write.

Other posts you might enjoy: 

• creative books I always return to
• 9 books our toddler loves
• winter book report 
• summer book report
• spring book report

August MAKE29 : behind the scenes.

I am excited to share a little behind the scenes look at the August edition of MAKE29. These wooden plant stands will go on sale at 8am PST on Friday 8/22. I am thrilled about the return of 3D projects this month and think this second half of the year is going to be pretty fun (and go by quickly!). I hope to finish off this craft (ad)venture strong.

There are 290 plant stands in this edition and each were carved from a solid piece of maple.

I had Jeff and Cherie Kirscheman (see Jeff's construction site here and Cherie's etsy shop here) cut these stands for me, inspired by a vintage wooden stand I found while thrifting last year. This is the same couple who did my ampersands in March so I knew they'd do a great job. They live and work just miles from my house and I am always happy to be able to keep things local to San Diego and support another family business.

Jeff has a giant machine in his workshop that he and his dad built and tweaked over the years so that it can now cut anything to perfection. On a normal day, Jeff uses it to create custom cabinetry. I visited the shop a few weeks ago and was able to watch one plant stand (two interlocking pieces) come to life.

Pretty impressive (and took longer than I expected!).

Each stand was cut one at a time and the machine took two passes to get the cleanest cut possible. After the machine created the shape, Jeff adjusted the notches by hand to make the pieces interlocked perfectly and drilled a hole in the bottom piece so the stands can be held together with a screw. Cherie then sanded each piece.

And then I took over and stained each piece in my garage workshop, taking care to keep the original two pieces partnered up so the wood grain would match in each set.

After a few days of drying, each stand was stamped and numbered.

I'll be shipping them out in three pieces (2 pieces of wood & 1 screw) to reduce their fragility and keep shipping costs down. I'm including a fun "how-to" instruction guide because...why not!?

These were, obviously, pretty time-intensive to create, but they turned out so awesome. You can read more about the product on the listing page here. Thanks for letting me share a peek behind the scenes. I am hoping to do that a bit more these final six months.

E & e in August.

I will be documenting Ellerie's second year by photographing some mama and baby favorites each month.

This is what Elise and Ellerie are doing in August 2014.

EATING : backyard sungold tomatoes | backyard sungold tomatoes

READING : Show Your Work, Do More Great Work & Write It Down, Make It Happen (aka, research) | Hatch

PLAYING : with the VSCO app | with her baby doll

MAKING : a list | animal sounds

WEARING : the fitbit and an Odette arrow cuff | mama's hairbands because we lost her beloved slap bracelet

ps : JUNE & JULY