Catching Up on July and August

I have not fallen off the face of the earth, although it might look that way.

Chalk it up to a busy summer with a bit of vacation travel, and some workplace drama thrown in for good measure. To top it off, I also had a sewing fail that seriously made me wonder what the heck I was doing.

Since the last post on July 9 (hangs head in shame), I went to the ASG Conference in San Diego. It's been a while since I went to my last one here in Albuquerque several years ago. And I had gone to the previous conference in San Diego way back when--I think it was the year W. was campaigning for his first term.

This year's conference was at the same place, but I don't really think Town and Country is a resort anymore, and that's a real shame. It's a huge property with a combination of high rises and bungalows, as well as two sizable meeting facilities. However, there were many signs of deferred maintenance that made me wonder about its future. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if large parts are torn down and replaced with something new. The site is large and in a popular area of town, so the land itself must be quite valuable. Fashion Valley Mall is behind the property which was within walking distance and good for snoop and real shopping. We also took advantage of the many restaurants there.

I got some shoes (of course) at Steve Madden and a couple of tops at Nordstrom:

The conference itself was good, although I didn't see as many speakers and vendors as I expected from past experience. It's a huge and expensive undertaking, so that probably accounts for it. I took several classes with Louise Cutting and her assistant, Sandy Miller, learned a lot and was very pleased. I am also wanting a "real" dress form now, thanks to one of the other presenters--I didn't get one at the show but it is on my wish list. I bought several items from the vendors. Louise Cutting of course--I bought several of her videos, some patterns, and elastic.

But I also visited a fabric booth several times where you literally had to dig for the piece you wanted. Here are the fabrics I bought:

Clockwise from upper left--a Missoni-esque knit; white eyelet with an all over floral design; blue and red floral poly; black floral voile; strawberry print poly; splatter print knit; and in the center, a pale turquoise floral poly.

Since coming back I attempted to make a fairly simple outfit that went so wrong I can't even post it. I haven't had that big of a fail in years. Fairly discouraging, even though I know it happens to all of us once in a while. Too bad, because I did like the fabric, but the outfit was just horrible. Oh well.

And then, drama at work. I won't go into details but I'm working on another team now with a different client, and things seem to be going much better. The new team seems to have a more cooperative way of working. What a relief!

I have a few things sewn that I'd like to show you and plan to get some pictures up soon. However, it's been such a long hiatus I didn't want to delay writing for the sake of a photo shoot. Hopefully I will be back on track now that summer is over and will have some sewing projects for you to see shortly!

9/6 Edited to add some photos!