A Big Year at DLJ
It’s been another big year here at DLJ. Today marks the day that I flew back east to NYC for holiday trunk show season and decided not to leave. San Francisco is fantastic, and being bicoastal was sweet, but I missed pizza and people who wear high heels, and most of all my friends!
Life was good last winter. I was featured in Teen Vogue, my generous friends rented me a room in their Park Slope brownstone to use as my jewelry studio, I had a month-to-month sublet in the West Village, the 1998 Volvo I bought off a farm in New Jersey was still working. One little problem was that I teccchnicaalllyyy still lived in San Francisco. My apartment, my jewelry studio, and my other car were still waiting for me back in SF.
I flew to San Franciso on Valentine’s Day (Liz Lemon style – I book flights and dental appointments requiring anesthesia on Valentine’s Day) and packed all my stuff up to drive across the country. Leaving California was depressing. I cried when I left my studio because it was the first out-of-home studio I've ever had, which was so life changing and monumental for me and my business (I “forgot” to return the keys, which makes me feel better).
Life was good last winter. I was featured in Teen Vogue, my generous friends rented me a room in their Park Slope brownstone to use as my jewelry studio, I had a month-to-month sublet in the West Village, the 1998 Volvo I bought off a farm in New Jersey was still working. One little problem was that I teccchnicaalllyyy still lived in San Francisco. My apartment, my jewelry studio, and my other car were still waiting for me back in SF.
I flew to San Franciso on Valentine’s Day (Liz Lemon style – I book flights and dental appointments requiring anesthesia on Valentine’s Day) and packed all my stuff up to drive across the country. Leaving California was depressing. I cried when I left my studio because it was the first out-of-home studio I've ever had, which was so life changing and monumental for me and my business (I “forgot” to return the keys, which makes me feel better).
My empty studio in San Francisco...you would cry too if it happened to you!!!
The drive across wasn’t so bad. I liked Arizona because there were signs warning me not to walk on the ground because scorpions and snakes were battling eachother (my inner 10-year-old-boy loved that, and I spent some time outside rest areas looking for scorpions).
Arizona!
New Mexico’s welcome center is a glass case filled with stuffed animal aliens, and Santa Fe has AMAZING turquoise jewelry.
New Mexico rox!
It snowed .5” in Texas, which topped every winter I spent in Maine as the WORST driving condition I’ve ever experienced. After Texas I pretty much didn’t care about anything besides Jalapeno Cheddar Chex Mix so I have no memory of that part of the country.
No memory beyond Texas.
Right when I hit the East Coast I received news that I got an apartment I had interviewed for in Little Italy. Best news ever, and I drank one million glasses of wine and totally deserved it. This October, found a permanent space for my jewelry studio in Downtown Brooklyn that is flooded with natural light and I couldn’t be happier. My commute from Manhattan is only 15 minutes!
DLJ's new studio in Downtown Brooklyn!
I love working in Brooklyn, and this location makes it super easy to get to Williamsburg, where a lot of jewelry schools are. I took my first Wax Carving class this fall and loved it, and plan on taking another one in January. I loved my bicoastal adventures but am ready to start a new adventure…beginning to create a new line of jewelry. Stay tuned!
Written by Delia Langan
