03.31.08

Words to live by

Posted in Life, dogs at 4:13 pm by Elisa

Just read this in the back of Country Home (no I don’t live in the country but most of the time I think I want to).

Anyway it was written by Karen Weir-Jimerson and is about her Border collie Rose.

This one is going out to my friend Julie (who, like most of my friends has no idea I have a blog so therefore will never see this- I love living incognito but that’s a whole ‘nother story)

Julie is heading to the Capital Area Humane Society to pick up a new friend tonight. I think she said his name is Charley.

here is my favorite part of the story

Sharing your life with a good dog is a wonderful thing. And because of the odd inequities of life spans, humans have the opportunity to live their lives with many dogs.

Every connection that you make in life- even with a dog- teaches you something.

So here is the wisdom that Rose has impaired on me:

That speed and superiority can come without swagger.

That life is good if there’s as much joy in work as in play.

That true passion can ignite your life forever.

And that you should never pass up the opportunity to sneak in a nap.

Happy monday.

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Secrets from the Studio

Posted in ElisaLou at 9:37 am by Elisa

Lately I have been planning how I want to get the studio organized, decorated, layed out.

I finally got my Samantha Lamb prints framed and ready to hang. They look so good int heir new ikea frames.
Still trying to decide on the floor. Continue the cork or try something new. Right now I am liking the concrete- easy to sweep up (yeah right) all the fabric scraps on the floor plus it makes an awesome dance floor when Cole and I dock the ipod and shake our booties to the Foo Fighters.

The hardest part is it is a work space and while I can get very inspired by all of the pretty spaces I find online- I have a lot of things that aren’t so pretty- like a big industrial sewing machine , a large steam press, scraps all over the floor…

But…. I am still trying to get inspired- there has to be some compromise between work space and pretty place, right? So if you have any great pictures of your “craft” spaces email them to me- I need more inspiration.

And a little secret (if Cathy can admit it so can I). I watch Rock of Love 2 re-runs while I work. Yep, it’s true. I think I have complained before about day-time tv, but VH-1 and MTV suck me right in. Cathy said:
I will sit there providing a one-sided, running commentary during the hour I spend with Bret and the girls, tossing out things like: where do they FIND these people? who would want boobs THAT big? I cannot IMAGINE competing with 11 other women and watching you make out with them every day! WHY WON’T HE TAKE OFF THAT BANDANA?

I do this too- only I am standing and cutting. I can’t watch it while I sew because I laugh too much and we all remember what happens when I get distracted when I sew (let’s just say industrial sewing machines can sew through anything- including fingers)

Loved this quote from Cathy too

But it is what it is: a freaking train wreck of silicon-laden ’smokin’ hot hotties’ that you sort of can’t look away from. (Well, maybe YOU can… but I’m here today to stand up and admit that I am powerless over MOST of VH1s offerings.)

Right there with ya sista.

And if you missed the skit on SNL a few weeks ago she has it on her blog.

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03.29.08

Finally- camera strap sleeves

Posted in ElisaLou at 6:11 pm by Elisa

Took me forever to figure out which way I wanted to go with these. Most people that emailed me about making straps wanted something that they could slip over their own strap. Something lightweight they could carry in their camera bag and be able to change.

When I looked into buying straps and covering them and then selling the whole strap- I was a bit concerned with durability. I didn’t want to buy cheap straps and have it break on someones expensive camera. This seemed to be the thought among those that wrote to me after buying those types of straps elsewhere. But if I bought really expensive straps then I would have to charge a lot more for them to cover my cost.

I finally made up my mind one night at a Blue Jackets game. Andy asked for my camera to go down to the ice to take some pictures. I pulled out this

He said No Way. So I pulled the sleeve off and away he went with the boring “man-strap”. If I had sewn the cover onto the strap- he would have had to take the camera without the strap- or (god forbid) use my camera with a flower strap. So that pretty much made up my mind. Sleeves were the answer. The best part is that they are lightweight and you can just fold them up and put them in your camera bag and switch them out when you feel the need for a change.

You can find them here.

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Blue jackets vs. Nashville

Posted in Blue Jackets at 4:45 pm by Elisa

The Blue Jackets lost last night 2-0, but it was still a good game.

Nashville is quickly becoming a rival with their guys talking smack before the game.

Rick Nash on the ice before the Nashville guys piled on him

He looks like a little kid here being held down

And then of course after the Nashville player by the name of Tootoo roughed up a couple of our players the other night, everyone at Nationwide was ready to see him get some pay-back.

The last time we played Nashville our “enforcers’ aka fighters were out with injuries so Tootoo went after a couple of guys that don’t fight. After he tried to beat them up he skated around the ice with his fingers up in the air (two on each hand- 2-2). It was childish and Hitch called it a “clown show”.
But last nights game was different, Jared Boll was back and took him on.

Tootoo ended up here

and then they both got 5 for Fighting

Boll

Tootoo didn’t mess with anyone the rest of the game.

In fact their other guy that was doing a lot of talking pre-game, Darcy Hordichuk was thrown over the side onto our bench and onto Rick Nash’s lap by Jason Chimmera- the blue jackets player that was beaten up by Tootoo in the last game. I didn’t get my camera out fast enough for that one, too bad because it was right in front of us. Hordichuk was out for the rest of the game.

Boll, shortly after getting out of the penalty box- loved that he sat on the bench backwards and looked up into the crowd. The fans love him.

One more home game that I don’t think we are going to be able to attend because the boys have lacrosse games.

I’m sad we didn’t make the play-offs but excited for next year. Go jackets!

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03.27.08

4-0

Posted in Blue Jackets at 10:58 am by Elisa

That’s the kind of score we like to see. Columbus beat Chicago last night.

GOAL

Another Goal- did he even notice?

A little scrum between Aaron Rome and Brent Seabrook

After the game we ran into Dan Fritsche (the only player that is an Ohio native)

He is hiding his broken hand behind Blake’s back- he is out the rest of the season.

AND

when we walked in Nationwide Arena Andy made us enter a drawing for a free jersey- guess who won? He did of course. Shortly into the game they announced his name on the big jumbo-tron thing and said if the jackets scored in the first 5 minutes he would also win tickets to the next game tomorrow night. Well they scored- with only 30 seconds left so he also won free tickets. We thought they would be upper bowl but they are actually good lower bowl seats. We already had tickets to the game- but only two so now the older boys get to go too- seriously the guy should play the lottery.

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03.26.08

Textures how-to

Posted in ElisaLou at 12:26 pm by Elisa

I thought it might be easier to just do a post on textures instead of emailing the details individually to the people who have asked me about it so here goes.

I think you have to sign up for a flickr account before you can access any of these pages but it’s free.

First of all, this is the group where you can find all the textures. Textures for Layers

If you don’t know about flickr and groups you can join groups- some have rules, some don’t. This one has a few, mainly just to give credit to your source and what-not.

Another one is noise and dust through the viewfinder

If you need a tutorial on how to actually drag textures onto images this one is good. I tweaked a few things with mine- just remember to adjust it once you get your layers together- I think I used multiply on mine but then I also use a weird combo of elements and photoshop together (I know, could I be more complicated??)- this tutorial is just for photoshop (but if you have elements it will work too- somethings are just located in different places) Confused? If you have any questions just email me and I will help if I can. But keep in mind I am just learning myself and like to make stuff up as I go- therefore never remembering how I arrived.

Ok I just re-read that last paragraph and confused myself so my advice would be to google it and figure it out yourself. Clearly I am not cut-out to be an instructor. Oh but the tutorial will help, it wasn’t written by me

There is also a group where you can post your pictures once you are finished.

Give it a try.

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03.25.08

Dooce

Posted in ElisaLou at 7:59 pm by Elisa

every now and then I check in-

loved the latest entry

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Headin’ home

Posted in ElisaLou at 1:19 pm by Elisa

I will be answering all emails when I get back- so if you sent me one over the last couple of days I am not ignoring you. Look for a response shortly……

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03.24.08

The farm turned white

Posted in ElisaLou at 9:53 am by Elisa

Yesterday I walked around looking for signs of Spring. This morning I woke up and looked out the window and saw this.

Completely unexpected but beautiful, it is now quickly melting.

the dogs were pleased even though it covered up a lot of good farm smells

it’s weird because across town there is no snow at all. (you have to drive 15-20 minutes to get to a Starbucks here unlike at home where I can walk to the closest one)