It's been a long while in the works, but we've made it home for the first time.

The last time I did a life update post, I spoke about my partner and I's decision to move to Santa Fe and the most immediate tasks on that horizon. Since then, we got through the long five weeks apart and the emotional struggles associated with that, and plenty more since then.

We wrote and delivered an entirely new lecture on Bridging the Queer Divide in Furry Art at Havencon, which we also gave at one of our most important conventions of the year, Biggest Little Fur Con. Between those events, we also did an overnight drive to Santa Fe to do more hunting for housing when our initial lead fell through unexpectedly, and found the place we needed but hadn't expected.

And so, four or five days after getting back to the family home in Austin following Biggest Little Fur Con, we loaded everything up into a moving van, hitched the car to the back, and left in the early morning to New Mexico.

It's been almost two weeks since we arrived, and each day has had our space feeling a little more like a home as I unpack and sort the spaces into order. Even just a few days into being here, the city and especially our neighborhood has already exceeded all of our expectations. Nearly everything we need is within walking distance, and every time we walk somewhere (which we do at least once a day nearly every day), we find something of wonder and beauty, even in small mundane moments. It was absolutely the right decision to move here-- I can't believe how much of the right decision it was to move here.

Even more important than the validation of our surroundings and the kind people that fill them, though, is just how good it has been to have our own schedule set by our needs and lifestyle goals, rather than the constraints of sharing a household with others. We're living our goal of creating a living space and a life centered primarily around the creation of artwork and meaning. In this we're held accountable by our own efforts, but also by the demands of a high rent, and so how we spend each day matters greatly to our continued success.

In this, I want to thank all of you so tremendously for being Patrons and supporting my work. I especially want to thank you for your patience these last few months as I've been consumed by admin work, conventions and con prep, and the enormous task of moving. I've felt negligent in providing you all with new artwork, but it's these last few months of work that have made my current situation possible, and for the first time in more than six months things are laid out such that I can finally just sit down and work again as of the last couple of days.

Starting tomorrow morning, I'll be streaming regularly again on Twitch. This week I'll mostly be focused on commission work to catch my clients up with some much-needed updates, but by next week I plan to start rotating in personal work, since it has been far too long since I've been able to devote time to some of my most important work. I'm looking very much forward to sharing that with you-- expect some WIP updates soon as I gather the pieces I'll be spending the next couple of months on and ease back into working on them.

This feels like the beginning of the rest of our lives, and I'm so honored to have you all along for the ride.

This post is brought to you by my amazing backers on Patreon.

-S