Long Island loves Billy Joel

So just about 15 times a week I hear Billie Joel mentioned in L.I. or NYC. whether it's his songs on the radio, his residency at Madison Square Garden, or stories about him driving right into someone's teacher's house in the 80's. It seems like this town just can't get enough Billie Joel, and I'm okay with that. Speaking of music there are some great shows I'm looking forward to this month - Columbus's own Saint Seneca and Jon Lampley are coming to play at venues in Brooklyn and I am going to see the elusive Neutral Milk Hotel whom I've been dying to hear play for a very long time.

In other news, my new spring window displays are 95% done! I'm going to make you all wait till they are 100% done to see my final pictures BUT I will share my sketches with you. This was my original idea for our "Up above" inspiration for Spring 2014.  Hot air balloons were a key part of the inspiration but I really wanted to push the "up above" theme even more by adding a bird cage element which I thought really added to the narrative of the window. The white script and edwardians designs on the corner of the window would have been painted directly on the glass and all other elements are composed of different gauge wire, canvas, cardboard, and of course - paint.

 Unfortunately since this is my first window where I've had time to prepare, some of the higher ups thought it might be a good idea to do a window that was a little less difficult and more like the prototype they sent out so I could get a better grasp of everything that goes into making a window. Hopefully through the next few windows I create I can show off my skill set and have more freedom on my following windows. I'll just have to show them what I'm capable of! Anyway this was the final sketch that was approved.

It was a difficult window to create since most of my time, measurements, materials, and effort was focused on my original sketch until about 3 weeks ago, but it's done and I'm very happy with the results. The staff as well as customers seem to like it as well. I've actually created 2 windows (a main/apparel window and a home product window.) Here is a sneak peak of both!