DIG-IN

Last Sunday, James and I went to an event called Dig-IN at the White River State Park in downtown Indianapolis. Dig-In brings dozens of Indiana chefs, breweries, wineries, farmers, and artisan food-makers together for a "Taste of Indiana."

For just $20, we stuffed ourselves with an array of tasting-size portions from 30 top notch chefs from around the state, sampled beer from 11 Indiana breweries, and sampled wine from nine Indiana wineries.

A gorgeous day + local beer and wine + artisan food = one perfect date afternoon! We will definitely be back again next year!

Some of our favorites

"My Dad's" sweet corn chowder with candied bacon by Circle City Soups. 

Brined and roasted turkey and vegetable salad from R Bistro.

The "Bees Knees": French toast, wyport wine, honey-cured pork tenderloin, swiss cheese, and strawberries, with Coopers Hawk port wine syrup and powdered sugar from Served Cafe & Bistro.

Crispy pulled pork with braised native beans and rendered Indiana bacon, layered with pork jus, hickory syrup, and pork emulsified foam from the JW Marriott's head chef, Brendon Cheney.

Summer salad with peach vinaigrette, stout-glazed smoked Indiana duck breast, and cheese crisps from Black Swan Brewpub.

And both mine and James' favorite: Watermelon and peach-smoked bison brisket bruschetta skewers with spicy house pickles from Chef JJ's Back Yard.

CM Design updates

I'm keeping busy with lots of projects for my freelance business, CM Design. In the past, I've usually just had one project at a time to work on, but right now I'm working on four! It is very exciting to be working with some new people, and doing a broader range of work. Here's what I'm working on now...

WEDDING #1
Peacock-themed wedding stationary for Whitney and Anthony including save-the-dates, wedding invitations, maps, reply cards, wedding programs, and seating cards.

Whitney and Anthony will marry in Danville, Indiana next June.

WEDDING #2
Wedding stationary and styling for Brittany and Phil's with a vintage, earthy theme, focused on things like lavender, burlap, and wheat. I'll be creating their save-the-dates, wedding invitations, reply cards, wedding programs, and also helping with the overall look for the wedding - things like bouquets, boutonnieres, and decor for their big day!

Brittany and Phil will marry in Westfield, Indiana next August.

BIRTHDAY PARTY
I can't believe my nephew is already going to be one in October! We'll be celebrating with a vintage carnival theme. Elizabeth has all sorts of great ideas planned for the decor and food already.

I'm making:

• Invitation and envelope labels
• Food label cards
• Water bottle labels
• Tags for the party favors
• Welcome sign
• Photo booth sign

BUSINESS BRANDING

I'm working with Renee of Nay Baby Designs to create a logo for her new business. She creates custom embroidery and appliqued clothing for kids. I'll also be working with her to create business cards and shirt tags complete with instructions on caring for the custom clothing. 

To the right is a picture of a super cute shirt Renee created for Weston! Check out her site to see more samples of her work, and order something for the special kid in your life! 

EXPANDING...

The idea of CM Design being my entire job one day (way down the road...) is starting to seem a little more realistic. Before it felt like a dream, now I feel like I really could do this someday. It is very exciting!! 

I created a facebook page for CM Design to try and get the word out there more on my business. Check it out and "like" it! I've included pics of some of my recent work, and have lots more to upload. Please keep me in mind for any design need you have, or tell someone who you think could use my help! 

a new obsession: pinterest

Pinterest is awesome! I've always have WAY TOO MANY bookmarks, screenshots, lists of things I want, lists of ideas, etc. that it becomes hard for even me, the organization freak, to keep track of. With Pinterest, it is so easy.

Some info about Pinterest from their website:

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard. 

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. 

Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We find that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.  

You can request an invite from the site, or let me know if you'd like an invite and I'll send you one! I've got quite a few boards going already. Click here to see them and follow me!

stationary set gifts

We went to Cleveland for my twin cousins Sarah and Kelsey's graduation party at the end of June. Some people think they look just like me... what do you think?

For their graduation party gifts, I decided to make them each a whole set of customized stationary. I've created stationary for people before, but this was my first time making complete sets with packaging and all. They turned out great!

It all started when the girls asked me to make them cards with their new address, emails, etc. at Bowling Green, where they'll head this fall, so they're friends and family can keep in contact.

I gave them some options to choose from, and once they'd each picked designs, I secretly went to work on matching stationary.

Sarah chose a fun polka dot design with Bowling Green colors and Kelsey choose a girly Asian flower design in purple.

Each stationary set consists of:

• 10 sheets of 8 x 10 inch linen stationary
• 20 sheets of 5.5 x 8 inch linen stationary
• 20 4.5 x 6 inch blank notes - with two variations
• Large and small envelopes
• Envelope seals
• Matching case to hold everything

Personalized stationary makes a great gift for anyone, and I promise you will pay a lot more for it from a stationary store then if you buy from me! So contact me at cmusicdesign@gmail.com or comment here if you'd like more information. 

weston's baptism

Last weekend was Weston's baptism. I made invitations seen at the right for the baptism (and party!) a while back. Elizabeth wanted a preppy look with navy and green, so I created this patchwork plaid for the invitation.

Weston was calm (as always) through the whole mass and baptism. He didn't cry during the baptism as babies often do because he is a little fish! He wanted to get all the way in the water, not just have it on his head!

Then came the work for the party. I made water bottle labels, food cards that matched the invitations, and two signs for for party decorations.

For the first party sign, I cut custom stencils to match the font used on the invitation to spray paint pieces of burlap with "WESTON" and a cross on each side. I then strung each letter together with navy ribbon.

The second sign was made on my fancy-schmancy new sewing machine that I got for Christmas last year. Elizabeth found the patchwork fabric at Joann, so I luckily didn't have to sew all those pieces together! I created the white border around the edges with mitered corners - my first time with this technique! I cut a J, W, and a cross out of Navy fabric and sewed those on, too. I used kelly green ribbon to string it up. Then came the problems... since the sign was made of fabric, it didn't stay stiff and square when hanging by the bow... so I used a little spray adhesive and a piece of cardboard to make the sign nice and sturdy.

We had a huge array of amazing food after the baptism, but I can't take credit for any of these. Jake, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's mom Pat made each and every delicious morsel you'll see below.

Here's a great family picture from the church. My Grandma and Grandpa Riedy made the trip up to Indianapolis from Cincinnati for the weekend to come to Weston's baptism, too!

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!

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! 

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!