Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter Dinner


Impromptu holiday celebrations are my favorite kind. Mark and I whipped up an Easter dinner on a whim and invited some friends over. The menu:

• BBQ Pork Ribs (with sweet baby ray's bbq sauce)
• Mashed red potato's with olive oil and basil
• Green beans with bacon bits (Mark's homemade bacon)
• Garlic bread
• Apple pie

Monday, April 25, 2011

Just like Vegas


What happens at a bachelorette party stays at a bachelorette party.

Luckily for Jason, we're a pretty tame bunch.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Goodbye Tully


Yesterday the best dog in the world passed away. I have a long history with dogs. Mostly with them biting me and me being afraid of them. So afraid that I would cross to the other side of the street when I saw one. Tully is a big part of the reason that I was able to get over that fear.

I will miss his exciting hop as he welcomes you into his home. I will miss him climbing onto my lap as if he were a tiny kitten. I will miss the way he shows you his toys and does not want you to actually touch them. Mostly I will miss how he made everyone around him feel loved.

(not my photo. I believe it belongs to his owner Erin.)

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

so much good news


My lovely little ring that Mark got me along with more news.

The time has come to move out of our quaint house and downsize into a hopefully quainter apartment. Just the thought of editing our possessions and decorating a new home makes me giddy. I'm turning in an application on a place today (fingers crossed).

I also received an amazing new position at the hotel where I work and I feel like my career is headed in an exciting new direction.

So to top off all this wonderful news, I am starting a new blog. This one will continue as is but I have felt for a while that this is very much a personal blog and I don't want to weigh it down with tutorials and art endeavors. The new blog will be dedicated to those things and it will debut on May 1st.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011


11:15am - Top secret projects with Temper Trap on repeat.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Friday, April 8, 2011

Ohio Roller Derby


Completely unplanned, Sarah scheduled her birthday party at the same roller derby tournament as Jason's bachelor party. There were plans to embarrass the boys but by the time they arrived we had turned into such die-hard, kazoo blowing, screaming fans that we couldn't peal ourselves away from the game. Typically I would rather watch my cats for an hour than watch a game of any sport but roller derby really does it for me. Maybe partly because I know that these gnarly ladies have full time lives and jobs outside of the rink.

I wonder if they offer season passes?

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Tone Shoppe in 614


More awesome news. The Tone Shoppe was featured in the April issue of 614 Magazine. Here is the article:

Behind the Music
Three innovative studios go beyond the board
By Erin Norris

I moved to Columbus five years ago, and if there is anything I regret, it was spending the first two years in an underage vacuum of local music awareness. It wasn’t until I received that coveted piece of plastic that declared I could legally experience local nightlife that I began to scratch the surface of the incredibly active and diverse music scene that has long been a cultural staple of the city.

The sheer amount of local talent warrants an equally passionate community of recording studios, sound mixers, and mastering engineers to immortalize this music in permanent form, and they work hard to keep up with Columbus’ growing soundscape. Central City Recording has made their mark on the city this past year, and Musicol’s reputation among local and regional bands is stellar – but several other studios around town are garnering a name for themselves and the C-bus scene.

The Up-and-Comer
Eric Cronstein lives where he works, a convenience he generously extends to all of the artists he records with.

“Anything that is here is usable by anyone who is here,” he says with a sweeping gesture from the studio to the domestic space. “When you are recording here, everything is available 24 hours a day. This is your home, there are no boundaries.”

Cronstein’s studio residence, the Tone Shoppe, is a humble monument to the artistic process. Nestled in the outskirts of the city, it serves as a retreat for artists who want to record in a professional but comfortable environment. “Most people say that when they’re here, they forget that they’re at a studio, because we’re really away from everything,” he said.

As a staff engineer in Cleveland, Cronstein began to feel disenchanted with the industry’s focus on finances and competition. “In Cleveland the studios would advertise ‘We are the premiere studio!’ or ‘We have the biggest console!’ but no one ever just said ‘We make really good recordings’ – which is what it is really about.” Interested in starting his own project, Cronstein decided to relocate to Columbus, an opportune area due to its thriving music scene. He and his business partner, George Chase, opened the studio in May 2010.

Since then, Cronstein and sound engineer Mark Parsons have recorded with local bands such as Tin Armor and Churches Burn, as well as out-of-town guests like The Sidekicks and Reverse the Curse. Cronstein says albums have taken anywhere from several days to several months to record. “We like to talk to people about their project before we do it, and we don’t like to work on an hourly basis. I feel like the focus on time stifles creativity,” he explained. “I know that musicians are not the wealthiest of folks, and I want to be able to give them something regardless of what they have.”

If anything, the Tone Shoppe team has a genuine respect for music, and a dedication to making the recording process a creative endeavor, rather than a business transaction. Whether clients want to come in for a few hours per day, or spend the summer playing baseball in the backyard, the satisfaction with their time spent and their final product is all that matters.

“Essentially, an artist is coming to a place to have somebody help them make their art, and they should have an environment that is conducive to that.”

www.thetoneshoppe.com

Read the entire article HERE
(photo credit: Chris Casella)

Monday, April 4, 2011

We're getting hitched!!


It's official. Our tiny little family starts with our wedding, fall of 2012.

Mark proposed last wednesday with flowers, chocolates, a vintage ring, and lots of sweet words.