My Mom has lived in San Diego for the past 10 years. So while I have never lived there, I’ve been visiting it for a while, and spent 12 years living a few hours away either in Palm Springs or Santa Barbara. San Diego has eternal spring-like weather right next to the ocean, with nice cool mornings, sunny afternoons, and another cool-down at night. Tropical foliage grows naturally all-year round, it’s nothing to walk past bunches of wild bird of paradise or phylodendren or lily and of course, those infamous palm trees. It’s a paradise, and one of the biggest cities in Southern California.

And it’s true, as Mom said, every chance we got I wanted to eat outside in the sunshine and nice temperatures. You just cannot get good Mexican food on the East Coast, so I made sure to eat some while in SD. The cheeseburgers are better too, or maybe it’s just eating them outside at a patio table that makes them better. Hey, come to think of it, even the ice cream and beer taste better! I think it’s the laid back way, that makes me relax (almost to the point of complacency I admit) but anyhow, it was nice to take a break from the noisy, smelly, sometimes freaky subways and massive midtown crowds.

We went to San Bernadino to the St. Bernadine hospital to visit Bob’s Dad who was recooperating from his triple bypass surgery. Even the Jesus statues look better in California! Seriously, it must be the sun that gives everything a little halo around it. It was funny to see high school surfer kids with long bangs say “have a nice night dude” when they bagged the groceries. Such a contrast to my European grocery here in Queens.

And check out my newly stretched out legs! I’m really this tall, if you didn’t know. Not really, but nice illusion. You can do so much with good natural lighting.

While in San Diego, among other things, I got to terrorize my dogs by dressing them up in various accessories, like this doll top hat. They loved it! Okay, they didn’t love it, but they suffered through it because I’m their Mom that’s why! I only took a few photos while in California which I will post later. I had a very relaxing trip!

Dear Friends & Family: Wishing you a happy day of thanks, food, friends, family and relaxation! I’m sending my wishes from San Diego, surrounded by my cuddly dogs, chirping birds, loved ones, food, and SUN! xoxo Sarah

My sweet coworkers surprised me with delicious cupcakes from the cupcake cafe on my last day. I can still taste the ultrarich buttercream frosting. YUM!

sushi

Originally uploaded by FunCupcake.

This is what happens when 5 designers contribute to creative uses for uneaten sushi lunch. You get Sushi man! The waitress was less than enthused I think.

sandal

Originally uploaded by FunCupcake.

I am going to take a little break from frequent posting as I transition from my old job (today is my last day) and start my new projects (which also, without meaning for them too, start tomorrow) and also enjoy spending time with Salvi who is in NYC this week. So you will have to look at one of these old shoe drawings for now, think you can handle it? See you next week! xoxo

Cappucino sundae on the Upper West Side

I love this! It was massive. I couldn’t really capture the scale of it, but I think it must have spanned 2o feet! Another shot from the Camden Market in London. Gee, should I do a PR campaign for the market?

I designed this outsole, when we were working on nautical-themed designs. The lines and anchor would be recessed and when you walk, like in semi-hard sand on your nautical adventure, your shoe would leave this impression behind. I like it and if I had my own footwear line, I would put it in. Hell, I would do an entire line based on nautical loveliness. Not preppy nautical, mind you. But some sort of vacation, classic, 1940’s somethine or rather.

Anyhow, people are always asking to see the footwear I design. And I would show you more footwear-related design, but as you might imagine I have been under strict contract to protect the proprietary design I do for the company I work(ed) for, and this is the dilemma. We work on footwear for upcoming seasons, and really it would be questionable for me to post any of these designs before they are produced, which is sometimes half a year to a year later. So let’s say a shoe that I design makes it all the way to retail. Well it’s a long road to it’s production. And that little shoe sometimes has a short lifespan (1/2 the time it doesn’t even make it all the way to production for a number of reasons.) The process is something like this; First, a protoype is made, usually in one color/material, then the shoe is fit tested and visually corrected at the factory by our fit technicians and fit test model (yes, there are perfect size 6 feet getting paid to try on shoes all day) and sometimes design also visually corrects the prototype here in the design office. Based off of our corrections on that prototype, a pair of samples are then made in a variety of colors and materials. Then we “merchandise” the line and drop what didn’t execute well, and maybe add some things based on what is working. We shuffle things around and refine the line. Then we take our samples to a big shoe show and buyers can purchase the shoes to retail in their stores. We often design almost twice the amount of shoes that actually make it to production. Half of this, sometimes more, is dropped along the way, either because the factory cannot make it to look as it should, the pricing is too high on the components, it doesn’t merchandise or fit well with the rest of the line, or simply, we find something more relevant to take it’s place.

So here’s the dilemma. First, the designs I design aren’t technically or legally”mine” to show. Second, they could be copied before they even hit retail if I were to divulge design details. But I always work on things paralelling what I am doing on work, so I can reveal my interpretation of things, that I did outside of work, which holds no liability. Like the anchor outsole design! It’s mine! All mine!

or the woodgrain

or the apples