New plan, new goal, new bags!

The business trip to San Jose was awesome and much needed.  Shar and I were very productive.  I love how our creative energies bounce off each other and spur us on.  Individually we have our own unique strengths, but together we form this brilliant, super creative wonder woman!  Though our face to face meetings are few and far between nowadays, we’re hoping to make it a quarterly trip.  I’m hoping Southwest has those promos again soon.  I know you’re wondering about highlights, so here they are:

• Oct. 16, 2009, our first meeting in person since Aug. 14, 2008! BFF's together again!  The Wonder Woman is emerging . . . We revised the line, created names for each bag, found a label vendor, signed up for Facebook, Twitter, Etsy and Ebay accounts and made plans to visit San Francisco’s fabric shops the following day.  Here’s a special shout out to my cousin Yvonne’s fiancé, Jason, for bringing us snacks to keep our creative juices flowing.  Thanks cuz!

• Fabric shopping day!!!  We visited Britex Fabrics, Fabrix, Mendel's Far Out Fabrics and Peapod Fabrics in San Francisco.  

Our famous route in the search for fabrics 

We expected it would be a long day (we wore comfy shoes and I even brought snacks!), but nothing prepared us for what lay ahead.  Who would have thought that we would have walked a total 8 miles by the end of the day?!  And it wasn’t just flat sidewalks, mind you, this is San Francisco where they apparently love their hills!  Up and down and up and down for six hours straight with loaded handbags. And we didn’t stop there.  The night was topped off with dinner and dancing at Poleng Lounge.  As if our legs needed the extra exercise!  In the end, we came up with only two yards of fabric from Peapod (the owner was a bit prickly).  It was worth it though.  Shar and I talked shop, received a few cat calls and experienced the city from a different perspective, all the while being thankful for having each other to share those moments with.

 (Left) Field testing The Traveler.  Just call me The Bag Lady. (Right) Thumbing through upholstery fabrics at Britex.

• Shar and I come up with some nutty stuff when we’re together, and making a duct tape dress form takes top honors for the year.  After realizing just how expensive a professional one cost, I decided to do some research to make my own.  This chick on You Tube taught me how.  Shar was my guinea pig. She thought I was going to use just one continuous strip of tape and wind her up.  Umm, she should have checked the video again!  

Take it from Shar, it’s very hard standing still for two hours while being wrapped up like a mummy.

There were some touchy feely moments (you can guess where), but Shar was a good sport and didn’t complain one bit.  We did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. We didn't realize stuffing Charlotte would take all night, so there wasn't enough time to wrap me.  It'll give Shar an excuse to visit me in Prescott.

  Charlotte, our S & S mascot, all dolled up and modeling our totes.

• The lovely downtown Los Gatos.  We should have started our search right in our own backyard.  Nestled along the many sidewalk shops was a boutique called Natural Expressions of Los Gatos.  It was like entering heaven…the colors (Oh, the colors!).  It housed just the type of fabrics we were searching for.  I wanted to buy a yard of everything!  My mind went into overdrive just thinking of all the possibilities I could stitch up.  Not only do they carry fabrics but also all sorts of beads, wires, chains (anything and everything really!) to make jewelry.  I could have lounged in there all day.

Since I’ve been back, I made the finishing touches on a tote I started before the trip.  We’ve been choosing florals lately, so it was a nice change to see a different sort of pattern.  Perhaps I should rethink the combination of colors though.  I like them separately, but not so sure with them together. 

I also finished a sample of The Shoe Addict, one of the products in our line.  I’ve always put my shoes in a plastic grocery bag when traveling. You never know what got stuck at the bottom of your shoes and you don't want to pass them on to your clothes.  It was time for something a bit more stylish and green.  The fabrics for the final product are worthy of any shoe!

It easily fits a stiletto!  Mine is a size 9 with a 4.5 in heel.
So now it’s back to work.  Shar and I are still riding on our wave of energy from our meeting and trying to get things checked off our to do list.  It seems like it keeps growing, but we’re enjoying every minute of it.  Up next, The Diva!  I’ll let you figure that one out . . .