I was so worn out from the local SCBWI conference yesterday that I came home and took a two hour nap.  Exhausted, but the good kind.  Where you absorb so much and you are crazy excited that your body can't handle it anymore and gives out.

I don't know where to begin.  So,  I have been absent here because I have been working on the Alphabet Book as well as cleaning up my websites.  Two of my goals with a deadline of this month were to clean up my blog and to fix my online illustration portfolio.  The portfolio just wasn't working at all for awhile now because the navigation wasn't the best and it wasn't compatible with mobile devices that did't work with flash.  Long story short, I now have www.erikabarriga.com that redirects you to www.cargocollective.com/erikabarriga.  When I was researching I found Cargo Collective and fell in love.  I found out they were invite only, gave it a shot and they gave me an account.  I am loving the interface, perfect fit!

So I said all that to say this, I did not want to go to the conference without a working beautifully navigated portfolio site.  This past week was spent deep diving in code, magazines, design, etc etc.  PLUS there was a part of the conference where you could present your work on a chair.  I chose to put some of my illos on foam core and present that way.  Since I just finished my website last night, I just finished my board last night as well.  Everything has been wild over here, trying to get things done while still being well-rested enough to actually enjoy the conference.

So now to the good stuff, I really enjoyed it.  This was my second time attending a SCBWI event, the first one was NY in last year.  I found this event to be more intimate all the way around.  I think I also made a conscious decision to make more connections and just talk more.  Glad I did.

Highlights:

I attended the conference with my friend Christie and her husband Nick - their first conference! I learned ways to connect myself with my stories from a talk by Caroline Stutson Met Adam Rex who has a crazy amount of knowledge and talent - loved his keynote speech! Met Brooke Boynton-Hughes - we follow each other on twitter and now we've met in person, so nice! Entered my much edited down portfolio to the portfolio review and received invaluable feedback

It was great!  Now it's time to focus on more goals, draw some more and possibly write some too.