Looking back I’m slightly disappointed in the amount of concerts I attended in 2011. It was a busy year though. The shows that I did attend were very memorable. It’s hard to choose a favorite but if I was forced to it I think it would be The Head and The Heart. I feel lucky to have seen this band in such a small venue. I’m looking forward to 2012 and hopefully a year full of music!

The Head And The Heart – Beachland Ball Room. The opening bands were also very good, Thao + The Get Down Stay Down and The Devil Whale

Bell X1 – Club Cafe in Pittsburgh. Was an amazing show and the venue was so small. Love this band and I was so happy I got to see them live.

Interpol – House of Blues

The Kooks – Newport Music Hall in Columbus

Fleet Foxes – Masonic Auditorium

CAKE – Masonic Auditorium

Elton John – Blossom

2011 Interviews

Joshua Radin

Sara Bareilles

Gavin DeGraw

Recently designed the cover for the American Advertising Federation – Cleveland online newsletter. You can download the entire pdf here.

It was a fantastic show. Read my review over on The Cleveland Leader.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Sara Bareilles. You can read the full interview on The Cleveland Leader.

Sara will be performing at The House of Blues on August 9th.

Recently designed wedding shower invitations for two of my favorite people.

Recent baby shower invites I designed. The mom-to-be loves to travel. I had fun creating these and hope she loves them.

I love my new ring so much I just had to post a photo! It’s from Francesca’s Collections. There is a new location at Summit Mall in Fairlawn. If you’ve never been to this boutique there is also a location at Legacy Village. The prices are very reasonable for such unique jewelry, accessories and clothing.

Last Friday I traveled to Pittsburgh to cross a band off of my must see concert list. The venue was located in an area of the city called South Side.

Before heading to the show we stopped for dinner. We had no plans on where we were going to eat and randomly decided on The Brik Room. The food was surprisingly very good. I started with a Cucumber Basil Martini. Usually I go for the beer but this sounded to good to pass up. For dinner I had the Chicken Pesto & Sundried Tomato Sandwich and Sean had the Ground Steak & Briskett Burger. Both were excellent.

Club Cafe was the name of the venue. From what I read online the venue was small with an intimate atmosphere. When we got inside I was surprised at just how small it was. Club Cafe is a small bar with a stage and a few tables. I couldn’t believe I was about to see one of my favorite bands, Bell X1 in this small venue.

The opening act for the night was Jarrod Gorbel. I enjoyed Jarrod’s performance. He didn’t have a band or any additional backup singers. It was just Jarrod and his guitar. His music is somewhat mellow but I thought he was good. He’s definitely worth checking out.

Bell X1 took the stage around 9:00. Incase you don’t know, Bell X1 is an Irish Rock Band. They are the Irish band with the most airplay in Ireland. The band became known in the U.S. when one of their songs was played in an episode of the O.C. Bell X1 is currently on tour promoting their fifth album.

Everything about the show was fantastic. The venue was perfect, the sound system was amazing and the band was even better than I was expecting. I feel lucky to have seen Bell X1 in such a small venue. It didn’t really matter to me which songs they chose to play, I’m a fan of every song the band has. The setlist included “Flame”, “Eve the Apple of my Eye”, “The Great Defector”, “Alphabet Soup”, and my favorite “I’ll See Your Heart and Raise You Mine”.

My only complaint about the show was that the encore was only one song. I wish they would of played a few more songs, I didn’t want the show to end. At the end of the night th band mentioned they will be back to Club Cafe in the fall. I’ll be there!

When I logged into Gmail this morning, two lovely pop up boxes greeted me. They told me that a new feature “important tabs” had been added to my account. I manage my inbox fairly well by keeping up with my emails and deleting what I don’t need. As of right now I’m not sure this new feature will be beneficial for me.

When I have an important email in my inbox I star it to remind myself that it is there. It’s simple and effective. Now I’m debating to just remove this new feature or try to use it to my benefit. I know it will take time to adjust to a new way of organizing my emails.

It seems fairly simple to manage the “important tab” feature. If you want to turn it off, simply go to the upper right corner of Gmail and click on “settings”. Within the settings you can select “Priority Inbox”. This allows you to turn off the tab feature completely or change the settings.

Am I the only one who prefers to not see changes within Gmail?