Wow! Last week I blogged that I was going to Haven. I blogged that I was hoping I wouldn’t be nervous, that I was hoping I didn’t have food in my teeth, & that I didn’t break out. Ummm all of the above happened. The morning before I left I was so nervous, I went into panic mode & was regretting my decision of going. After taking some rescue remedy & boarding my flight I was fine, but man o man I had an anxiety attack about my first blogging conference. First night there I was at dinner with my GMC bloggers & a blogger friend pointed out that I had something in my teeth. Than by the second day there I had a pimple the size of Texas by my mouth. I can’t make this stuff up. You know what though? It didn’t matter, none of it mattered. By the time I got there my anxiety went away & I was overwhelmed with the kindness of the blogging community. I was so shocked when people would run up and hug me and say hi, I was floored when I met bloggers in real life that I had followed for years {how did they know my name?!?}, & I was so grateful to meet my blogging friends who I had been friends with online & finally being able to meet them in person. Everyone was so down to earth & the whole thing was surreal. I didn’t take my camera with me & the lighting in the hotel was not the greatest, & I didn’t want to be on my phone the entire time, but I did snap a few cell phone photos amongst the craziness. I could blog a million words about the conference & talk about every detail, but I don’t even know where to start. Here is just a little mini Haven recap, not a lot of details, but just a glimpse into my first blogging conference. It was an amazing experience, & I can’t wait to do it again! Here are just a few of the photos from my phone from the weekend…
For three days straight I was constantly meeting bloggers who I have known & new bloggers who I am so glad that I got to meet. It was like we were already had met & that we had been real life friends forever. I couldn’t possibly list in this post all of the bloggers I loved meeting or what it meant to me to meet them, but I truly hope that they all know how amazing they are! During the day we attended some great classes about SEO, photography, blogging tips & tricks, tiling class, how to build furniture, & so much more. My brain felt like it was going to explode from so much new knowledge by the end of the day each day, but at night it was time to relax & have some wine with good friends. Each night I went to dinner with my lovely GMC bloggers {I had missed those girls so much & I’m so thankful for the time I got to spend with them!} & after we would go back to the hotel & hang out in the ballroom with all of the other bloggers attending the conference. Ryobi & Home Depot put on an amazing party for us on Saturday night that was a great way for all of us to hang out together. Very late nights & very early mornings were pretty much the schedule, but it was all totally worth it & I’m grateful for the Starbucks that was by our hotel. Have I said enough times how thankful I am for the friends I got to see at the conference & the new friends I made? Okay. Just wanted to make that clear.
While we were there, we got to meet some amazing vendors. Companies like 3M, Home Depot, Scout & Nimble, Easy Closets, Modern Masters, D. Lawless Hardware, Moen, Ryobi, Online Fabric Store, Bright Ideas, Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, & so many more. The swag bags were filled to the brim with amazing products from the companies that I can’t wait to try out {I dumped some of it out on the floor when I got home for Jose to see above}. Packing my bags to go home proved to be a difficult task with all of the extra stuff I was taking home, but again, SO worth it. A huge thank you to GMC for inviting me to come to Haven & a huge thank you to every single blogger that taught classes, hung out with me, & reminded me how awesome blogging is. Thank you! Fore more glimpses & words about the weekend visit my Instagram & say hello!
Home Sweet Home. We both slept for hours when I got home… Jose must have been worn out from missing me 😉 & My oh my look at those red eyes, I was dealing with a Haven hangover that’s for sure!
