Spectra Fashions Questions ! Please help a virtual newbie

Didn't Patrika Darbo leave Days like fifteen years ago? And even when she was on, she had so little screentime that she would easily have time to do a few scenes here and there on a second show. Basically two PT jobs instead of one FT.

So years ago, Spectra Fashions was apparently the only other fashion house in Los Angeles besides Forrester Creations. They were never as successful or as highly regarded but they got by.
Sally Spectra was the head of Spectra Fashions, and was something of a Frienemy to Stephanie and the Forrester Family. They were always pulling stunts like stealing Forrester collections before they hit the runway, and then using those designs as their own before Forrester knew what hit them. It happened on more than one occasion.
CJ is Sally's son. He grew up alongside Rick, etc so would be about the same age.
The new younger Sally and her Grandma, I don't recall them being mentioned in the past and certainly weren't shown.
There was a lot of intermingling with both Forrester and Spectra families. Macy who used to work for Spectra and whom Sally considered a daughter was married to Thorn and would be considered one of the loves of his life. I am pretty sure Thorne even worked for Spectra for a time. Macy died when a chandelier fell on her head.
Darla, whom also worked for Spectra and who Sally also thought of as a daughter, later married Thorne also, and they had a daughter, Alexandria. Darla died when Taylor ran her over while drink driving.

As for her clothing choices, that would be more to do with how flamboyant and so over the top Sally was. Everything seems to be a calling to her and the company.

Patricka Darbo might currently be on days right now, but I guess days is super far ahead in their filming, I think about 6 months. So she filmed that (days) about 6 months ago and who knows how long she was back. I'm sure that everyone, on both shows, knew what's going on and was okay with it.