My First Studio!

Hi friends! I am busily gearing up for my move to Baton Rouge, and I am so excited! Last week, I flew down there to "apartment hunt," check out more of the city, and meet once more with my future co-workers. I can't say that I really "hunted" for an apartment, however, because I ended up taking the first one that I saw. You guys, I'm completely in love with the apartment and the location! It's near campus, so I can walk to work, even though Baton Rouge is definitely a driving city - as a former New Yorker, being able to walk places is pretty critical to my happiness, so I'm thrilled with the location. But more importantly, it's a two bedroom apartment that costs about a third of the one bedroom I had in New York, and it's located in a complex with a pool, has a view of the lake, and, most importantly, has... wait for it... a washer and dryer IN THE UNIT! I know, right? Unheard of!

The reason that I'm extra excited about this place is that I'm planning to turn the second bedroom into... you guessed it... my very first studio! Or craft room, to put it less pretentiously, I guess. This is where my yarn stash and spinning wheel will live, and it's where I'll do my metalwork (it even has a window through which to vent the fumes from the E6000.) It'll be so nice to have a separate space for all of those things, rather than having it all over my living space. Until now, my "studio" has always consisted of a spot on the floor in front of the television... but now, I'll have a real craft room, and hopefully be inspired to create more (and more consistently!)

I don't have any pictures of the apartment yet, but I will definitely try to post some as I get things set up. For now, here's a picture of University Lake as taken from campus. My building is on the other side... if you look to the left of the photo, near the bridge, that's where I'll be!

Craziness, a move, and the Fall Collection

Well.  I am not the best at blogging.  I know it's been awhile since I posted, and I know I have yet to deliver the photos of my fall collection.  For this I apologize, but I have to make an excuse this time... I have been in the process of accepting a new job and planning a move to Louisiana.

When I went to Baton Rouge two weeks ago, it was for a job interview at LSU.  Well, guess what... I got the job!  I'm now the Foreign, Comparative and International Law Librarian at LSU, and a soon to be resident of Baton Rouge.  Geaux Tigers!  There are lots of fried green tomatoes in my future!

I'm so excited for this move.  I'll most likely be relocating sometime around the end of October.  The time between now and then will be filled with things like looking for an apartment, packing up all my stuff, renting a moving van, and figuring out how to transport my two lovely cats to Louisiana.  So, I might not be blogging that much for awhile.  I also may need to put my shop on vacation around the time of the move, though hopefully not for long.

Anyway.  Pretty much everyone who's currently following this blog is also following me on Facebook, so I'm pretty confident that you guys have seen the fall collection since it posted last week.  I am really proud of this collection, which I've been working on since mid-summer.  I'd been reading a lot of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction, and it led me to adopt a darker, more industrial aesthetic than I usually do.

The inspiration for these pieces is, as you know, the idea of "life after people."  I envisioned my beloved New York City as it would appear if human beings suddenly ceased to exist - I imagined urban and industrial areas overgrown with vegetation and harboring various birds and insects, both gothic and pretty.  I only created five pieces for this collection - it was an exercise in planning, execution and cohesiveness more than anything else.  I loved having a single concept to work from.  So without any further delay, here it is:

These will not be the only pieces to appear in my shop this fall!  However, they are the official "Fall Collection" of the House of Decadent Delusion.  Like I said, I wanted to see if I could design a collection, and I think I did pretty well for my first try.  I hope that you guys enjoy it!