CLOSED!!! Featured sponsor: elise Joy!

Nov 8, 2011

i'm super excited to be sharing a bit more about Elise Joy with you! Here's a bit about Elise and her shop, in her own words:



I’m Elise Blaha Cripe and I have been keeping a personal & craft blog for almost six years! I blog about all sorts of things, but the main focus is documenting my life & DIY projects. I frequently share tutorials and recipes as well as my triumphs and trials of running a small business. And my small business is a mis-match of different things. I teach online workshops (my most recent was a crash course on web designing for bloggers) and sell paper projects like prints and journals through my online shop.


Lately, I am most inspired by the Pinterest. My husband and I will be moving to a new townhouse soon and I love that I can search things like “mirrored walls” and immediately find inspiration images to see how other people have dealt with similar decorating challenges. Coming up with decorating ideas for our new space is my favorite pastime right now.


This holiday season is a tricky one for me. My husband is currently deployed and not scheduled to return until early spring. A big part of me wants to just rush through the season because it means I’ll be a month closer to having him home. But the more practical part of me knows it’s better to just appreciate what we have. I am looking forward to spending a relaxing few weeks with my parents and younger brother – it will be just like the old days.




Elise is generously offering up one holiday mini-book to a lucky reader today!



To win a copy, simply comment below telling us your favorite holiday tradition!

For extra entries:
+ follow Elise's blog in a feed reader, and let me know in the comments
+ follow Elise on Twitter (@eliseblaha)
+ follow this blog via Google Friend Connect (in the right-hand sidebar)
+ become a member of the Ravelry community for this blog

Winner will be announced on Monday November 14!

39 comments :

  1. Is eggnog a tradition? If so, then let's go with that! If not, then decorating the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving night is always the dreamiest. :)

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  2. We have many traditions in our family as we have have children but a couple of my favourites are the following:
    Light Night: We all pile into the car (or truck atm) with thermoses of coffee and hot chocolate and simply drive around looking at all the Christmas lights either the town or people have put up.

    Baking Day: Everyone gathers in the kitchen and bakes all the treats for the season.

    Santa: Christmas morning my husband sneaks downstairs before everyone is awake, makes sure the house is warming up, turns on the lights on the tree, starts a pot of coffee and dons his Santa hat, so when we all come down the house is warm, sparkly and smells wonderful!

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  3. Following Elsie on Twitter!

    http://twitter.com/#!/dawngwimes

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  4. Following Elise's blog (oops, mistyped her name above!) with google reader. :)

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  5. i love putting up the christmas tree with the family. we spend the whole day getting it just right and selecting the best ornaments to display and we listen to christmas music. someone usually makes sugar cookies too!

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  6. Oh that is easy! The holiday baking...most definitely the baking...be it with my children, sister, or friends the whole process is fun...from picking the recipes to eating the final results!

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  7. I started a new tradition last year for my kids. I wrapped 25 Christmas and holiday books and let my daughter open one a day to read that night. This year I need 50 books because my 15 month old won't want to be left out. It is a nice way to count down the days until Christmas.

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  8. Getting together every year with my mom and baking cookies all day long!!

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  9. I love drinking hot spiced wine at the christmas market!

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  10. I love baking Grandma's Christmas cookies with my sister.
    Gwyn

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  11. just found your blog and am so excited!! I'm new to knitting and can't wait to see what kinds of tips and tricks I can pick up from you! I love doing our advent calendar.

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  12. husband and i exchange xmas pjs....i love it!!! ashley.theshineproject@gmail.com

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  13. My favorite holiday tradition is my family's annual Christmas party the first Sunday of every December. It's like a fun kick starter to the holidays!

    cbtran92[at]gmail[dot]com

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  14. To be honest, my husband and I don't have any family traditions (yet). Last year we were travelling to Northern Ireland and the year before we found out shortly before Christmas we were expecting. My favorite tradition that my parents have is Christmas crackers. Which is just a cardboard tube, wrapped with paper. Two people pull on the cracker and whoever wins gets a wee prize and gets to wear a paper crown.
    mummytocharis[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  15. Follow Elise on Twitter (@mummytocharis).
    mummytocharis[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  16. GFC follower (mummytocharis).
    mummytocharis[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  17. Subscribed to Elise's blog in my Google feeder. Note: I LOVE her blog [as well as yours].
    mummytocharis[at]yahoo[dot]com

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  18. My husband and I don't have any traditions around Christmas yet, apart from always spending it with extended family. Now that we have a daughter, I'm hoping that our own traditions will develop.
    Growing up, my 3 younger siblings and I would always share a room on Christmas Eve, we'd read the Christmas story, then wake Mum and Dad up at 7am with a cup of tea before we were allowed to open our presents.
    I'm also now following this blog via Google, which amusingly I'd done before getting to the bottom of this post. Today I'd planned to start loading the blogs I enjoy onto Google so that I don't have to wander all over the net to find them.

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  19. I just joined the Ravelry community, and my username is crtnytrn09.

    cbtran92[at]gmail[dot]com

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  20. I am following your blog through Google Friend Connect.

    cbtran92[at]gmail[dot]com

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  21. I love the candlelight Christmas Eve service at my parents' church...so quiet and moving.

    I follow Elise's blog in a reader, and I also follow her on Twitter (I'm @katiengibson).

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  22. I love that Christmas for my husband & I is just the 2 of us. We usually shop at the Japanese grocery store and have a nice quiet dinner :)

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  23. I also follow Elise's blog & follow her on twitter :)

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  24. favorite tradition: buying a real tree (growing up, we always had artificial ones and now I can't go back -- I love the pine scent too much!)

    PS: i follow Elise on Twitter + her blog too.

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  25. My favorite holiday tradition is sipping on holiday blend coffee with my guy! It's kind of our thing, and I love it! XO

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  26. Oh, how cool! I just love Elise's work and her blog!

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  27. My favorite holiday tradition is my family's Cookie Day where we bake dozens and dozens of batches and go home with a huge assortment.

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  28. I follow Elise on Twitter as well.

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  29. My favourite tradition is that my husband always wears the paper hat out of the cracker for the rest of the day - it's so sweet and whilst others often takes them off after about 5 minutes he really gets into the spirit of it - bless him x

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  30. Cutting out paper snowflakes with my kids and taping them ALL OVER the house.

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  31. ps - I also follow Elise's blog via Google reader and her Twitter feed!

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  32. Favorite holiday tradition is giving and receiving new pajamas for Christmas!

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  33. My favorite holiday tradition is eating strawberry shortcake for X-mas bkfst. Thx!

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  34. My favorite tradition is cinnamon rolls on christmas morning after we open our stockings and before we open presents!

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  35. Elise is a great inspiration and I love her mini books! Thanks for a chance to win one.

    This year's holidays will be the third ones since me and (now) my husband live together and that means the third special (= that represents our past year) ornament on our x-mas tree. Can't wait :)

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