I’m Elise Blaha Cripe (also known on Instagram as @elisejoy — Joy is my middle name). Once upon a time, I started an online blog called enJOY it. The year was 2005 and I was 20 and a junior in college. I used HTML coding to make the sidebars fancy and wrote about everything I found interesting. I kept sharing through graduation, finding a job, marrying my husband, launching my own business and having my kids. I wrote about crafts, goals, deployments and moves. Over the past 20 years, I grew and changed and the Internet did too. My work evolved to fit new online platforms and new life seasons, but at the core, I was always doing the same thing — trying my best to follow my interests and share authentically.

At the end of 2023, after 18 years online, I stepped back completely from creating and consuming content on the Internet. 2024 felt quiet as I slowly found my way through burnout. Without the overwhelm that comes from the constant scroll and content churn, I found it much easier to access creative flow state. And as a result, 2025 has felt expansive. I launched Scattering Seeds to be a new home for this creative expanse.

I am delighted to be sharing on a platform that belongs to me with an “end” at the bottom of the page. There is no infinite scroll, AI slop or algorithm here. It’s just me, forever finite, sharing what lights me up in a way that connects with you. My main goal is to be a bright spot in your inbox. I want Scattering Seeds to be the email you rush to open or the one you keep for last so you can savor it. (This may be my most ambitious goal yet.)

If you’re new to my work, here’s a few more personal details: I live in Northern California with my husband, our two tween daughters and our two perfect orange cats. We live in a overly-wallpapered cottage style home on a one acre property that came with an art house (that’s a photo of it above), a hobby vineyard (yes. we make wine!) and so much space for my epic cut flower garden. I love to read, knit, quilt, sew, throw pottery, and paint. I am not an expert at any one craft but I am absolutely an expert at trying all the crafts. For eight years I ran a planner business called Get to Work Book and in 2019 I published a book on goal-setting called Big Dreams, Daily Joys. You can get in touch by emailing elise[at]elisejoy.com.