Saturday, August 27, 2011

My New Accommodations!

It’s very exciting to officially have my own desk. In an office, that’s not in my home. Granted, it’s a bullpen-style office, so I share it with 14 or 15 other people, but I like it a lot. I’m still slowly making the desk my own, as is obvious in that the only things that are mine there are my binder, sweater, coffee mug, and photos. Oh, and that tiny little bottle of green hand sanitizer. It’s fantastic, though, knowing that I don’t have to schlep everything I own to and from campus every day.

This is our costume shop! It’s a little messy right now, because we’re still getting prepped for the beginning of the semester next week. We’ll officially have undergrad lab students to supervise as of next Wednesday, so we’ve got a couple of days left to get it looking as neat and clean as it usually does. Kim, our shop supervisor, is so incredibly organized—it’s like a dream! I’m also learning to glean the best ideas from BG and from here, which gets me dreaming about the costume shop I’ll run one day. In this picture, you can sort of see the two other first-year grads working in the shop with me this year, Kitty and Randall. Kitty’s focus is lighting design, and Randall’s is directing, so they’ll likely not be in the shop after this year. Since costuming is my focus, though. I get a more “permanent” (3-year) residency in the shop, as well as a claim to my own cutting table.

It’s a little messy right now as well, since one end is covered with things from this summer that didn’t get finished, and because I’m working on assembling the undergrad training packets. Next week we’ll zip through the sewing training ourselves, then we’ll be off running, teaching the undergrads basic sewing stitches.

We’ve got a separate dye/laundry room, which is really fantastic because we don’t have to worry about accidentally getting dye on other garments. We also have this fantastically large dye bath that I’m really excited to use. The best part about this though, is that we’re totally allowed to use the laundry room for our own personal use, as long as we don’t use the shop’s detergent. Considering we were considering buying a used washer/dryer set for around $300, or eventually spending close to $1000 at a laundromat over three years, this is going to save us a ton of money, not to mention the water bills we won’t incur. Very, very excited.

Since we don’t have to buy a washer/dryer set, we have all this extra room in our kitchen. We’ve been looking around for something to create some more drawer space, because the drawers you see in the photo are only about four inches wide, which isn’t quite adequate for storing a silverware tray. So last night, after getting my financial aid refund, Jesse and I went to Target.

image

We came home, and I was totally intending to help build this thing. I sat down, slid on the box this thing came in, and whacked my head on the door. Jokingly, I suggested that I wanted to just go to sleep, and wake up with it put together. My wonderful husband told me to sit down and read my book, and he’d put it together.

I love my husband so much. I sat down to read A Storm of Swords, the 3rd book in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, and stopped to take a few photos along the way. A few minutes after I took this last one, I looked up and found this in my kitchen:

I love it, and it looks like it was meant to live there! I can store all my pots and pans inside, and keep the dust and such off of them. Hurray! The funny thing, though, is that our bamboo silverware tray, which I love, is exactly half an inch too long to fit in the drawer. Sigh.

At any rate, I’m very excited, and a new silverware tray won’t cost more than $5 or 6. I’m also very excited for classes to start on Monday. I’ve been purposely making way too much food all week so I have leftovers to take for lunch. I have a really neat lunch container that has a built-in cold pack, which will be great, and while we were at Target yesterday I bought a new lunchbox.

I think you can tell it’s meant for kids, because it’s super reflective in the flash. But I got in on clearance for $6, and it makes me feel happy to buy a new lunchbox for back-to-school.

Memphis is getting better and better, and I’m feeling more at home here. In meeting some of the other first-year grads, it’s great to hear that they all feel just as clueless as I do. It’s really nice to know that even though we’re all working on terminal degrees in our chosen fields, no one is stuck up about it. I’m glad that we can all be honest about just how little we know. There’s a welcome party at the head of the department’s house tomorrow, and I’m excited to get to know everyone a little better, as well as try one more version of Memphis BBQ!

I’ve got some sewing projects to tackle tomorrow—hopefully I’ll get them all done! I’ve got two one-seam dresses, which I know I’ll get finished, as well as the fantastic wrap-dress I need to finish for the first day of classes. So excited, but ready to relax and enjoy my night now.

Ciao, all!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Grad School and Sewing Projects!

I’ve been working on a few sewing projects lately, because this crazy heat down here in Memphis is just NOT conducive to wearing denim. That makes me a little sad, because I’m a denim kind of gal—I love my bootcuts, my capris, and my skinny jeans. That being said, though, I’m definitely not wearing any of those until the weather cools down. I’ve made the skirt above, which was super simple, and another “cheater” skirt.

I call these cheater skirts because they don’t require a zipper or any other type of closure—just elastic! I love elastic, because it’s super comfy, as long as it’s not too tight. The top skirt was actually more complicated than the bottom one. It involved stretching some 2 1/2” wide elastic to the width of the skirt fabric, then letting it pucker up the fabric once it shrunk back down. The second skirt was the simplest thing ever—just a simple A-line skirt, cut on the bias so it stretches just enough that it doesn’t have to have a lot of fullness added in, with an elastic waistband. I’m experimenting with slightly shorter skirts as of late, since all the skirts I’ve ever made have been at least mid-calf. Showin’ a little knee! =P

On an unrelated note, I need to develop some better project-photo poses. These are miserable! Thank you to my wonderful husband, Jesse, for taking a moment out from Lost Odyssey to snap these for me, though!

As far as beginning grad school down here in Memphis goes, I love it! Granted, classes haven’t started yet, so I might eat my words next week when I start getting some assignments, but I really love the people down here, as well as the department. We’re having a department welcome party BBQ at the head of the department’s house on Saturday, which will be nice to take my man along to as arm candy (kidding, of course!!).

I spent a good 40 minutes today figuring out why my desk and chair were rather broken (I’m one of 16 in a communal grad student bullpen-style office). I have a design-height table as a desk, which is great, except that it means I also have a tall drafting chair. And for whatever reason, it doesn’t have one of those little rings at the bottom for me to rest my feet on, and it didn’t seem to be height-adjustable. I swear. Ancient 70s science lab chair. At any rate, after crawling around on my hands and knees under the chair (which is too heavy to just lift), I discovered that it was, indeed, adjustable, and had originally hailed from a Bowling Green, OH manufacturer. Who knew! It totally makes sense, though, as to why this chair was impossible to understand.

Also, the adjustable height mechanism for the table was completely shot—it looked like someone had tried to adjust one side to a 10-degree tilt, and the other to a 35-degree, and, well, it just didn’t work. Thankfully I’m sort of handy with these things—I loosened the adjustment knobs all the way, then picked up the table and dropped it. =P The jarring of the impact sent everything falling, and it now lies completely flat again. Yay!

At any rate, today was non-stop busy in the costume shop, so I didn’t get a chance to take any photos of my desk or workspace. Those will be coming soon, however! Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a necklace I’ve been lusting over since I saw it on Meg the Grand’s Pinterest, via Etsy:

image

Love it!! Ciao, All!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

New City, New Place, New Life!



Well, we're finally beginning to get settled in our new place in Memphis. We've had some issues with maintenance things that should have been taken care of before we got here, but this little apartment's finally starting to feel more like home. I took a big step in that direction today by finally getting our family photos on the wall, and it feels great! These are immediately opposite the door as you walk in to the place, and it feels good to see them when I walk in. Our families mean so much to both of us, and it's hard being this far away from everyone back in Ohio. I love walking in and seeing everyone on the wall, though-- it's great to remember what everyone looks like!

Speaking of photos, the ones on the blog will probably not be stellar for a while, as I have yet to see my USB card reader come out of its box after the move, which means I get to see just how well I can get the camera on my BlackBerry to work. =)

To be completely honest, the world of blogging is not new to me. My Google reader has at least 50-75 new posts for me to read every day, and I've even got a teenage angst-filled livejournal floating somewhere out there in the abyss of the interwebz. I've always been one of those folks who starts keeping a journal, then finds it five years later with only 15 pages written on. At any rate, I don't know what it is about being here in Memphis, but I feel like this whole "new life" thing might make for an interesting topic. I mean, first, I graduated with my Bachelor's in Music. And then I completely forgot about that as I frantically spent the next month getting married. Then I had a couple months where I didn't know what to do with myself, since the last year and a half had been spent planning said wedding. And now, I'm here in Tennessee, about to start a three-year program at the University of Memphis, for my MFA in Costume Design (which is a terminal degree, might I add!). I mean it. If you'd asked me four years ago if would be here, I would have laughed at you and told you I was destined to be a music teacher, and that nothing would ever stop me. And now I'm here. Go Tigers, right?


Anyway, go figure. This kid who didn't always get an A in art class (weren't those classes supposed to be graded for effort??) is now getting paid to sew and design costumes. And that designing includes rendering. With sketches. And drawing. And painting. And expensive fine art supplies that I used to dream of using, but never purchased because I'd be wasting them on my mediocre skills! And this is somehow what I'm going to be getting a degree in! I honestly can't believe the crazy twists life takes, but I'm loving them. And wherever life ends up for the next three years, I'm just along for the ride. =)

Friday, August 19, 2011

Blog Templates!

I think it's a little silly that I chose this specific template because I appreciated that they spelled the color "grey" instead of "gray." Usually, the British English spelling of things drives me a little nuts, since I just can't figure out how the U in words like "colour" makes any sense pronunciation-wise, but I've always spelled "grey" with an E. I think it's because Gandalf the Grey has an E. Just a guess.