christmas decorations, so far...

I've been super excited to decorate the house for Christmas. It is so much different buying and making things to decorate our house then it was for a rental apartment. I chose a neutral color palette with metal tones.

We bought a (fake) tree a few weekends ago, and I just couldn't wait to get it up and get it decorated. I've been picking up Christmas ornaments for a while, one-by-one, because I wanted to have a unique combination - no regular glass ball ornaments. My mom has also been buying me handmade, one-of-a-kind ornaments from a small boutique in Zionsville for the past few years. Many of our ornaments are music-related; not just because of my last name, but also because of James' & my love for music and the huge place it has in our lives. I love the instrument ornaments I found, some music notes, and treble clefs.

Tree skirts are so expensive! I wrapped 2.5 yards of burlap around the base of our tree for a natural and chic look for only $7!

For those of you who haven't seen our house in person, this is your first look at our bright red living room! This is the color the living room was painted when we got the house. It is not bad, but it is not our style; we want to use more earthy colors in our house, so come January, these walls will see a big change -- but for now, they work for Christmas!

I made a sign to hang with our awesome mantle for Christmas - "peace on earth". I cut my own stencils, because I hated all the fonts the stencils I could buy were in of course, using an exacto knife. I then placed my stencils on pieces of burlap, and sprayed with brown spray paint. After that, string together, and voila!

I saw some twine-covered tree cones at Pottery Barn a while back, and LOVED them. The only thing I didn't love about them was the fact that they were $49! I knew there had to be another option. I kept my eye out for something similar that was cheaper, never found it, and decided I should just make my own. I do like that the ones from Pottery Barn go to a full point better, but ya know what? That is not worth another $34!!

Want some? I'd be glad to make them for you! $20 (Hey, I gotta make a few bucks! And otherwise you'll have to spend $49!)

That is all for now. I'm working on a few other Christmas decoration projects, and will post them soon!

downstairs bathroom

We've been working on lots of things in the house recently. There is finally one room that is basically done - the downstairs bathroom!

When we moved in, the bathroom was a basic tan color, along with many other rooms in the house. We want the rooms in the house to have more impact with the colors. We were also excited to be able to paint rooms whatever color we want after living in rental houses and apartments for so long, where you are stuck with whatever color it is - usually tan or white.

The wheat color and white were already set as part of the color palette because of the white fixtures in the bathroom (shower, sink, toilet) and the wheat-colored tile floor. I wanted this room to be kind of bold, but still somewhat neutral so it didn't seem out of place in comparison to the rooms around it, so I chose the light slate color for the walls. I found a great shower curtain at target, and incorporated the mustard color from it.

This was the first room I've ever painted by myself, I'm pretty proud of it! I knocked it out one Sunday afternoon and only had to make a few touch-ups. I can't wait to get some of the other rooms in the house painted.

mod dot thank you cards

One gift I gave Elizabeth for the baby shower was for me to do custom baby announcements for her and Jake. I've been working hard on getting those ready - look for them here in a week or two when they are all ready! It has really gotten me excited about doing some more fun projects like this, and hopefully earning some money along the way.

I also gave Elizabeth some thank you cards to use for her baby shower gifts (see them below). I call them Mod Dot Thank You cards. Want some? Customize this design with

• Choice of colors
• Coordinating envelopes
• Fonts to match your style
• Or even change "thank you" to a name for personal notes

$8 for 10 or $18 for 25.

email me at cmusicdesign@gmail.com

baby shower for elizabeth

On Saturday, August 28th, my mom and I hosted a baby shower for Elizabeth in Cincinnati. We had it at the clubhouse in my grandma's neighborhood.

food

My mom and I planned a light and fresh menu for the shower.

The cupcakes were from Holy Cow Cupcakes in Carmel, Ind. The were well worth the trouble of trying to keep them from melting while driving to Cincinnati.

The pineapple fizz was a great fresh drink for the hot summer day, and even matched our color scheme!

The italian chicken salad is something I make pretty regularly. I am not a fan of heavy, mayonnaise-based chicken salads, so this is the perfect alternative. I have listed the recipe at the end of this post. We used small hawaiian rolls to serve it on.

Caesar salad served in endive is a great way to make a portable appetizer-style salad. The endive is a sturdy lettuce-like leaf that holds the romaine lettuce tossed with caesar dressing. We top it with some parmesan cheese.

decorations

I made some custom decorations for the party. 

On the right is the sign I made. It added a nice custom touch and also allowed us to have our own color palette instead of using the traditional baby blue pastel colors.

For centerpieces, we used orange pails filled with green tissue paper "grass" and stuffed with handmade chocolate spoons. Then we tied on some blue and yellow balloons to fill out the color palette. There were dark chocolate and white chocolate spoons with a variety of sprinkles on them. They were cute and delicious!

games

We played a few games. First we played the game where everyone has to pull off the amount of string they think will fit around the mom's belly. Buff won by pulling off literally the EXACT amount for the size of Elizabeth's belly. We thought my cousin Sarah Music had it won when her string was only about a centimeter too long. I've never seen such close guesses on this game. I am usually terrible at it!

The other game we played definitely got everyone laughing. We passed out parenting/baby magazines to groups with 2-3 people in each and asked them to create Baby Music's first portrait. Everyone went through the magazines and pieced together a baby for Elizabeth. They were all pretty creepy! Elizabeth chose Sarah O'Brien and Grandma Riedy's portrait of Baby M.

I also created an activity for all the moms at the baby shower to write down their best advice for Jake & Elizabeth for different ages. The ages were 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 1 through 5 years. When the mom finished writing out their card, they sealed it in an envelope for that age. Jake & Elizabeth will get to open each of these when Baby M is the specific age and get some advice specific to having a baby/child of that age. I can't wait to see some of them!


I can't wait to meet my nephew sometime in the next week! So exciting!

i'm a slacker

The past month has been a crazy one, so I haven't had time to keep up on the blog as much as I'd like. I've got lots of things to post, so I'll try and get on that!

cm design

Did you know I do freelance design work? My freelance business is CM Design.

If you need any of the following (or know anyone else that does), please email me at CMusicDesign@gmail.com

• Custom announcements and invitations
• Custom/Personal stationary
• Logo Design
• Business Cards
• Illustrations
• Marketing collateral 
• Graphic Design
• Branding 

When Wuhnurth is over and I have a little more free time, I hope to launch a website showcasing my portfolio of work and get some more things done with CM Design. In the meantime, I will post some things as I create them here so everyone can see! 

kitchen creations

Here are some of my first DIYs for the new house. Considering I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, these were both much-needed!

Canisters

I loved the look of these glass canisters from Target. The square shape and stainless steel lids give them a modern look, and the rough hand-blown-look glass gives them the perfect eclectic look I was looking for. Plus, they come in three sizes and are stackable... perfect for maximizing space!

I picked up some scrapbooking letters in a font I liked and some etching cream at Michael's. To reverse-etch the canisters, do the following: 

1. Tape off a rectangle with painter's tape. The area inside is what will have an etched finish. 
2. Inside your rectangle, spell out the word with scrapbooking letters. 
3. Smooth tape and letters out with a spackling knife to be sure they are pressed down everywhere; otherwise you may not end up with a clean edge after etching. 
4. Apply a thick coat of etching cream inside the rectangle using a foam brush. 
5. Set aside for 3-5 minutes. 
6. Rinse etching cream off and un-peel tape and stickers. 

 

Spice Rack

I made this spice rack using 3 Grundtal magnetic knife racks from Ikea, 24 twist top tins from SpecialtyBottle.com, and labels I printed on sticker paper.

With this spice rack, all my herbs and spices are quickly accessible... no dizzying lazy susans.

baby shower invitations

I can't wait til my nephew baby Music is born in October! Last weekend, Elizabeth had two baby showers, one in Plymouth, Indiana with her family, and one in Indianapolis with some friends. Below is the invitation I made for the Plymouth shower, given by her mom and sister.

My mom and I are hosting a shower for our side of the family in Cincinnati next weekend. The invitation I created for that shower is to the left. I am also creating some other custom items for the shower, so I will post those here when they are finished, too! 

wuhnurth

James is the founder of Wuhnurth Music Festival, a 3-day environmentally-based music festival celebrating music, peace, art, and community. Our mission is to spread environmental awareness and encourage activism, while promoting talented up-and-coming musicians. When the festival is over, a portion of the profit raised will go towards funding environmental initiatives.

We put a lot of work into this all year, and this year, it should really pay off! We moved the festival from the Water Bowl in Muncie, Indiana to a new place: Stable Studios in Spencer, Indiana. We are so excited to have Stable Studios as part of the Wuhnurth Family. They are like-minded people with the same passions as us, and are even making renovations to parts of their property to accommodate all the festival-goers this year.

There will be over 40 hours of live, original music provided by 35+ bands performing on 3 stages this year: a covered main stage, an all-sun stage with a field to sit in, and a circus-tent-style stage in the woods. Headliners for this year are Cornmeal, Marco Benevento Trio, and Papadosio. Some other of my favorites performing are the Ragbirds, Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, Mountain Standard Time, Midwest Hype, MC Sparkplug, and my good friend Megan Maudlin. See the website for the full line-up.

We will also have environmental speakers, lightshows, fire dancers, activities for adults and children, eco-friendly food and merchandise vendors, hula hooping lessons, morning yoga and meditation, and musician workshops.

I hope to see you all there!!

what i'm reading...

I just started reading a new book, Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip through the Islands of Figi and Vanuatu, by J. Maarten Troost. He is said to be one of the greatest travel writers of this time, and I can definitely say it makes me daydream of sitting on a remote island sipping drinks out of coconuts while lying on the beach!

"A delightful, self-deprecating, extremely sly account of life in a place so wretched it gives new, terrible meaning to getting away from it all." -National Geographic Adventure

our new house

James and I moved into our first home in the beginning of June. We have three bedrooms, two full baths, a finished basement, and an awesome deck in our backyard.
We are loving every minute of it so far! We have been busy doing yard work and deciding on how we want to decorate everything.

I'll post new pics of the different rooms as we get them done. Right now, some of our rooms are either empty or just filled with boxes waiting to be unpacked.