elisalou designs

Recently I was contacted by the daily puppy guy asking if he could use Barley’s pictures on his website.

You can check it out here

What a week this has been.  I knew I should never have sung Mondays praises because it was all downhill from there.  Tuesday was tantrum day for Cole.  Non-stop.  Wednesday was crown day with a call from the school before I left- Austin was sick.  By the time I got home Blake was also home, puking.  Yesterday I took Austin to the doctor.  Strep Throat.  It is looking like Blake has the same thing.
We still went to see Blue Man Group last night- it was a good show.

I have been sitting here humming that GreenDay song because I get to get a crown today. Lucky me! 2 hours in a dentist chair. Sigh.

Can you tell my husband reads my blog? The snowflakes are gone. 4 new fabrics went up and I thought I should mention that even though the website isn’t currently set up this way- it is possible to put the corduroy on the outside of the bag if that is your preference. Just indicate in the comment section when checking out. Those new dot cords are yummy. So so soft.

Also, I have been getting a lot of inquiries about jewelry. It is still available- just email me.

That’s the news for the day.

I asked my husband to change my blog, maybe put some bags on the header.  Not sure what he was thinking but he gave me a snowy scene with an ugly snowflake border.  Hmmm….

Maybe something like this would have been better

this is the fireplace in my studio, decorated with Christmas lights last year.

Yesterday Cole and I hit our first thrift store.  Wasn’t sure what to expect but I found two wing chairs for $30 each!  And the feet match the feet on the chairs and table from Andy’s grandmother.  They need to be recovered, so I reserved some books at the library to try to tackle that project.  I put one of them here in my studio next to the fireplace.

 Love that Astro is laying there with his weird little squeeky toy.  And not to leave out the girl, even the back of her head is cute.

Busy week around here.  I get to spend 2 hours at the dentist tomorrow getting a crown, we are going to see the Blue Man Group with friends on Thursday night and then to the Game of the Century as they are calling it around here.  Ohio State vs. Michigan on Saturday.  Off to make some bags!

I actually like Mondays.  The house is always a disaster after a weekend with everyone (plus friends) around so Monday is usually spent picking up and catching up.  The noise level is greatly reduced and Cole and I hang out while I catch up on emails and computer work while he watches SpongeBob, snuggled on the couch together.  Wireless is a wonderful thing.
I hate the fact that I can’t update my website. Somewhere along the line I should have learned HTML, or perhaps I should have chosen a web host that was more user friendly.  At any rate I have to wait for Andy to have time to do my updates.  I have so many new ideas because the current website is not what I want it to be.  I was hoping to at least have new fabrics up but Andy had work stuff and house stuff to work on and a long trip to Home Depot…..   Bear with me, changes are coming.

On the house front, we have decided to stay put for now.  We were both 50/50 between the other house and our current house.  I had an “ah-ha” moment the other evening when I was in the tub ( having my “5 minutes peace” - ever read that book?  It’s a children’s book about a mama elephant that needs 5 minutes….anyway) I was looking around the bathroom thinking of all the things that would need to be fixed before we put our house on the market.  That bathroom hasn’t been touched in 40 years.  It’s a serious timewarp.  So as I thought about all the changes it needed I thought that once I got them all done, well I might actually like it.  I decided that once I get my house fixed and if I still feel like moving we can revisit the idea again.  When I think about the upgrades we have put into this house like a water treatment system, gutter system, new Pella windows, new roof- all things that cost a lot but were not very much fun- well I really don’t want to have to start all over.  That Bungalow is very cool, but colonials aren’t so bad either.  Besides, I have a friend who has threatened my life if I move even just a few streets over.  Expect me to flip flop on the decision, I always do.

I am excited about some new products that I will introduce early next year.  Here is a sneak peek.

I am in love with this polka dot cord.  It is so soft.  It was supposed to go up over the weekend so look for it soon.  It comes in brown/blue and brown/green.

Andy set up a little photography studio for me in the basement and I have been playing around with it.

I took the middle picture because I get a lot of questions about sizes.

This pictures shows a large bucket, a boxy tote, and a lily.

I am going to try to start posting more pictures of the bags here on the blog.

Aren’t those little flowers on the sidekick pouches cute??  I just found those.

Off to get out of my jammies, reheat my coffee and hit the studio.

How fun is this?  Flickr toys rocks.

Thanks for all the response regarding the Amy Butler fabric.  Now I need your choices for a couple other of my favorites.  The first one is Anna Maria, you can see her fabrics here

and Heather Bailey, you can see snips of her fabric here tell me what you think.

Speaking of fabric.  We have an old dining room table set that belonged to Andy’s Granmother.  Andy doesn’t like it, says it isn’t our style.  I like it because it is old and we don’t have anything that has been passed down to us.  So I pulled out one of the chairs to show him how we can make it more “our style”.  I still don’t really care for the caning on the back, but I thought the seat was a major improvement.  And since I have my eye on our current dining room table as my new cutting table when I get my new studio……well he just better get used to it.

BEFORE

AFTER

A busy day of studio work around here with new updates to the website.  Hopefully going to get a bunch of fabrics added.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

I went in with low expectations.  Our realtor said that it was very outdated.  It was.  But oh did that little bungalow speak to me.  Buy me, buy me.  I need new life breathed into me, I need all this wallpaper taken off and some color added to the walls.  I need little boys sleeping in my rooms.  You need a studio in my walk-out basement!  I can be your little cottage.  That’s what it was saying to me.

Sigh, it was a very cool house.  Loads of character.  You can see more pictures of it here but keep in mind my pictures don’t do it justice.

There were a few cons

the price, it’s expensive

the kitchen is not so great

All four bedrooms share one bath upstairs

But the pros were long  (a few were the library with original built-ins, the stairs, the porches, the telephone nooks, the crystal doorknobs- sigh).   But I promised myself that I wouldn’t think about it too much as the chance of us actually moving is slim. 

A very good day for Elisalou.  Amy Butler has decided to remove her restrictions on the usage of her fabric for manufacturing purposes.  What does that mean?  It means Elisalou can now use her fabrics to make bags.  I am so excited because her stuff is so cool.

Take a look here

Tell me what you like, I am going to be placing an order soon.

Yay!  Thanks Amy!

Update on my hair:

Andy informed me last night that one side is shorter than the other.  I told him that I would just tilt my head to the side and no one would ever notice.

On the election:

No more political commercials and no more annoying phone calls!  Yippee!

Now GO VOTE! 

Heading out this morning to do a little house hunting with my Coley man.  Our realtor has set up two properties to see.  Both of them are only a couple blocks away, both are closer to the boys school.  First on the list is this 1920’s bungalow.  It is slightly bigger than the house we are in and has a similar sized yard.  Here is the back

I asolutely love the porches.  I plan to take my camera, so more pictures to come.

Next on the list is this TINY 1920’s farmhouse.

This house is on the same street as the one above but almost half the price and half the size.  I think it has one bedroom downstairs and two up.  Not near big enough for a family of five.  It would need an instant addition but it is priced so low that it is do-able.  Plus it would be nice to get exactly what I want in the addition and not try to work within the confines of an existing lay-out. The bonus of this house is it’s cute, I LOVE old farmhouses.  It’s location- very close to old downtown and the boys school, the pool, the library, etc.  The last bonus of this house is the yard.  It’s huge. 252 deep.  Oh and the other nice thing is that good friends of ours live next door, and they have three boys too around the same ages.  See that little building back on the left?  Playhouse or Studio?!  Hmmm….

There is one more Cape Cod I would like to see but I don’t know if we will get to it today.  It too is on a half acre and is so cute and actually bigger than our house now.

Having said all that, we are not really looking to move.  But we like to look.  Trying to decide if it is worth adding on to our current house (which is not exactly our style- but might be with a lot of work) or move over to the “older” section of the neighborhood where we would be closer to the boys school and downtown.  We love old houses and while our house is old, it’s not old enough for our liking.  I don’t want to add on to a house if I am not 100% possitive it’s the house I want.  But something is going to have to give soon, we either move ahead in our current location or we move on. 

So, we look.  We think.  We buy LOTS of remodeling magazines.