A Beautiful Mess: March 2007

fridays come so fast...

first... a photo of the most beautiful dog in the world.

2. a promise that i am gonna finish up my Q&A this weekend... i apologize for the delay, but what can i say... sometimes life gets in that way of blogging! :) lol!

also.... T and i have been looking at houses... mostly online and a few in person... we aren't finding anything that we both love in the district we want to be in... we are starting to consider building a house... honestly, that is something that i have always said i never want to do... i love decorating. love it.... but actually building a house scares me. i would love a little advice from some of you who have been through it... how much more time did it take on a day to day basis (during the building process) ? how long of a process was it for you? do you feel like you got a better house for the money (or one that better suits you... i guess)? do you have any regrets? basically, what i want to know is... is it REALLY worth it? it seems like such an involved task, but we are totally willing to go through it, if that is what we need to do..... thank you in advance for your advice and thoughts.... :)

Oh.. and one more thing.... TGIF!

photo shoot fun!

just wanted to share a few photos from this mornings photo shoot at Convey. Sesha and Jen asked Em and I to pose for some FUN shots! We had SUCH a fun time! :) These are all just candids. I will share some shots when they have finished all the editing and stuff... might be a week or two... can't wait to see them!!!! :) Emma's shots were very serious and edgy. Mine were fun and silly. See this wall they made out of pop*ice! That was such a cool idea! I loved it!!!!!! Oh.. and I took a couple more shots at home (before i washed off all the crazy makeup... so you can see the fake eyelashes and the funky eye makeup!)
I love that studio and all the fun people that work there soooo much! They rock! fun fun fun! :)

we made some new friends this week...

Somehow I got it on my head that I needed to make something to decorate our home for Easter... so TJ and I decided to make ugly dolls... He is still finishing his up.. I will post a photo when he is done... they are really fun and easy to make! :)

Hope everyone is having a good day... Gotta take Cocoa for a walk.... :)

ETA... i made these up out of my head, so i don't have any type of pattern or instructions to share. However, if you want to use the idea to do something similar for your kids *feel free*! I just used felt (from the fabric section at Hobby Lobby), buttons and embroidery thread! :) I sew all the details on before I stitch the front and back together and add stuffing.... hope that helps! :)

i heart KI!

just in case you didn't know ;)... ki memories is an amazing company! I'm not just saying that because I get free stuff, lol, i am saying it because I have never worked with a more honest, ambitious and talented group of people in my life! They pretty much rock my world! :) Just wanted to share some goodies that came yesterday.... I am *dying* over the albums. They are even more gorgeous in real life than online. I love felt SO much. The colors are great too.

Last night I spent the evening organizing my albums! I FINALLY made up my mind about how I wanted to organize them (for the past almost 2 years I have just been piling them up or putting them in albums randomly... I was just SO busy that I didn't even worry about it... then all the sudden, I HAD to organize them!) I decided to organize them the way Stacy Julian shares in her book. Cool method b.c it can be customized... for example I have a TON of pages about scrapbooking classes and trips.. if I would have stayed with my chronological approach I feel like those pages would have seemed a little out of place in my family albums... see what I mean? So I am sooooooooo happy with the new system. I got ALL my pages into albums and it feels SO good! I will share photos of my albums and more details sometime soon.... I am SO excited to FINALLY not have piles of layouts everywhere.. I feel like I can actually enjoy them now... and SEE them... :)

more...

these layouts are featured in the current issue of "Scrap!" (cute dutch mag)... so i thought i would share them with all my non-dutch friends ;) I also have a layout (one of my recent faves) in the April CK... it seems like I took a break from magazine work last fall (during all the travels) and all the work I have been doing since the new year is just starting to come out. :) I love all the magazines! I enjoy them all every month! :)

a little share...

i made some stuff...

wanna see?

working=fun

My sister and have something in our blood... we LOVE to work. On Saturday night she had just got home from a big trip and she called me and said she was coming over to "hang out"... so we ended up working all night...lol! But it was *fun*. :) We had a little Zoolander and some itunes to keep us company. haha.

We have a new little side project that I will share with you later this week... lots of fun.... and of course, still working on new "Love, Elsie" products! yay!!!!! I can't wait!!! :)

I hope you had a great weekend! Happy monday! :) Elsie

#7. Style

***********************************************************
melblackburn said...
You have a very unique sense of style, which I admire greatly. My question is, how has your style evolved and what influences your style?
***********************************************************

Fun question. I guess, like most people, my style has always been evolving (since i was a little kid) and it is still evolving.. it is an exciting thing. keeps things fresh. I don't know about you, but I don't like to stay in the same place for very long. I am always looking for something new and trying something for the first time... here are some images of things that made me say "ooooooh!" :) I like to take a little bit of this and that (whatever i am currently in love with) and mix it all together and call it "my style"... ta*da!

Have a great sunday!

**note: the bird print is here. the coin purse is here. the layout is by the ever inspiring amber skolnick. and the blue locker photo i totally scammed off candice's blog! :) lol!
and here some more photos i think are pretty!

cleaning & organizing.... oh my!

just a little peek into my SUPER exciting weekend! :) I am giving my studio a little purge and reorganizing a ton of stuff! :) I feel the need to get this all done before we move.

here are the little binders i made for my acrylic stamps and sketches. i am trying to think of a new way to store unused mini albums and photos (when i have several sizes from one event).. suggestions are welcome! :) actually... ANY organizing suggestions are welcome, lol!

I be posting a new Q&A answer (or 2) tonight! Have a great Saturday!!! :)

and they say you can't buy happiness...

my pretty and talented friend, rachel, crafted this little cutie. t.j. loves it!

shopping on etsy is on one of my new hobbies... almost as much as shopping on itunes.. but not quite. ;)

the only challenge is trying to keep cocoa from attacking it (she loves toys!)...

a few blogs i have been loving as of late (recent discoveries)...
inside a black apple
the blog is found
kelly mccaleb
little birds

happy friday! :) elsie

ps. i have a new post on the RV blog as well.... goodnight!

the studio is full of love today! :)

this week rocks! i feel super duper productive. i want to stay up all night and create. IT ROCKS. that is my favorite feeling on the planet! :) Today is rainy, mellow and smelling yummy like coffee candles. i am happy!

i promise i will finish my Q&A this week... i was saving some of the harder questions (ie. takes more time to post about... lol!). I am going to go ahead and ship the goodie boxes to the first 6 people tomorrow...and the rest next week! :)

Congratulations to everyone who won the CK Hall of Fame contest! I can't wait to see who entered! :) I have been a bit out of the loop this year as far as keeping up with 2peas and stuff.... but this is always an exciting time of year! Congrats to you, if you are a winner or HM! :)

By the way, these frames are jinky's (www.ittybittyactions.com) love her actions! I am not a user of actions (although I might try them someday...) but hers are delicious!

T.J. is home this week for Spring Break! :) Good to have him around... we work well together... he works on his screenplay (he has a screenplay writing class that is the current center of his universe) and i make stuff.. it's fun!

Have a good night! Els