Month: August 2011

I woke up Sunday 8/7 knowing I had to quickly say goodbye to my now good buddy, Miranda {Diana had left in the middle of the night}. I helped Miranda ship off some of her swag & Diana’s forgotten laptop. While in the hotel lobby {in my pj top no less}, I was able to say goodbye to Erika, Casey, & Katie as well as figure out that Nichole & I had similar flights out.

I’m still in shock that Alena collected enough swag to fill a double bed, that my swag filled a huge suitcase, & that my Scout bag made for the perfect carry on. Yes, you can call us BlogHer newbie swaghags. I love free shit. I won’t buy shopping bags, lip stuff, cloth diapers, water bottles or pens for a while. I’m thrilled with the children’s toys, other toys, books, nail polish, gifts & gift cards I brought home.

After a hastily eaten quesadilla with Jen & Angela, I said goodbye to Hannah & Alena, dragged my bags & checked out of the beautiful hotel. Nichole & I left at noon & chatted non-stop until her flight left at 330. It was great to have more one on one time to talk infertility & future blogging as well as having someone to watch your bags while you enjoyed a diet coke or as in my case, figured out all my delays. I hated saying goodbye but am already enjoying a closer online relationship with her.

Knowing I still had time in San Diego plus a very close lay over, I switched to sit closer to my gate & found Molly. Yay for more bloggy chats in the airport. With hugs goodbye, I boarded the flight to Phoenix. My Phoenix to RDU flight ended up being delayed 3 hours which meant I was able to get on it yet it also meant that I arrived in Raleigh at 3am.

Was the BlogHer hangover worth it? Absolutely. Have you seen that it took four posts to recap the fun?! I love the women I met, the companies I connected with, the friendships I grew. I realized from BlogHer that I like who I am & came home maybe a little more confident that I could go off kinda {but not really} alone & have a rocking good time. BlogHer taught me to feel like a real blogger/writer now instead of this girl who does this thing on the internet.

I felt a bit that BlogHer was like high school for me {yes, I’m a weirdo who enjoyed HS}. I loved & tried to be involved in so many groups because I hated to not spend time with everyone. And I still feel like I didn’t get enough time with each individual blogger. I don’t know what I’d skip, but I left craving more time to absorb awesomeness from so many ladies I just barely had time to chat with & hug.

Will I be photographing & running around in NYC for BlogHer12? Maybe. While I admired & enjoyed seeing the babywearing blogging mommas, I don’t think I’d want to do that. I also don’t think I’d enjoy BlogHer super pregnant. So BlogHer12 is a maybe. And if I’m not there, someone better take 500 photos, so I can live it vicariously through them!

With that, my BlogHer recaps are done. Can I call myself a BlogHer veteran yet?!

I skipped the BlogHer breakfast & instead headed next door to the Manchester Grand Hyatt for the De Wafelbakkers pancake breakfast. Fresh fruit, blueberry pancakes & a funny pancake hoarder video {tell them I sent you if you check it out} were enjoyed. I left with a great reusable grocery page {especially for frozen items}, a fun peace/love/pancakes T, & a pancake pillow that I gave to Mae.  Callie, one of the organizers of Haute Green, had emailed saying she’d received some late swag, so I stopped by her room & picked up a Ergo pouch, another Thirties duo & some more Rocking Green soap.

I dropped off swag then Miranda & I walked together towards the conf center. We met Katherine Stone at the elevators & walked the rest of the way with her. Then we turned the corner & saw Bob Harper & Guiliana Rancic.

BlogHer titled my first Saturday session Til Blog Do Us Part. I took the description to mean incorporating your marriage into your blog ~ like how bloggers talk about kids non-stop but leave husbands out. I figured the session would discuss how to talk about your marriage more & how to do it without hurting your marriage/spouse. Sounds good right? Instead 3/4 of the panelists blog about divorce &/or co-parenting & much of the session went on about that. The upside, I managed to check email & twitter.

I met up with Miranda, Diana, Erika, Rebecca, Molly & Devan for lunch. As you can see with our schedule, time to just talk was rare & I really enjoyed catching up with these ladies over lunch. Thanks to my time on twitter that morning, I chatted with the ladies from Lee Jeans & was able to jump in on Diana’s fitting. I hopefully have a pair of great fitting dark jeans headed my way. The booth next to Lee’s was Retail Me Not. I climbed in & walked away with $30.

With cash in my hand, I rushed off to the Queen Bee Market which was held at the beautiful Hilton just on the other side of the convention center. Prepare to be overwhelmed by the cutenesss & talent displayed at QBM. I was thrilled to meet Jess from Allora Handmade & Hannah from Peggy Ann Designs.  I purchased a melon AH cuff, Pleated Poppy card wallet & hair clips, & an owl ornament. Take a good look at the broach Jess gave me {my giveaway win} which I clipped on my bag then proceeded to lose between the hotel lobby & the street. ::sad face::

Enjoying my first sort of alone time in days, I walked through the conference center back to the Marriott. I dropped off my purchases, chatted with Miranda for a minute, then headed up to the Daisy Recharge suite {another morning twitter find}. I enjoyed low fat cottage cheese & fresh fruit as well as having my make up done.

I’m not sure why, but I was the only one of my roomies to have time at the ShopatHome.com Save & Spurge suite at the Hard Rock Hotel. Another rooftop suite event, but this time, it was just me & Carole overlooking the city & pool below. We were joined by Kitty, champagne was poured, & blondie brownie enjoyed. Carole showed us all the great deals available on ShopAtHome.com {affiliate link} & the frugal-lover that I am signed up. I also left with a swag bag that included a Boden scarf, wine opener, some gift cards & a Mikasa clock.

The Hard Rock is across the street from the convention center & I made it just in time for a quick Sabra hummus snack & to find an open table behind Jamie & Kylee & other friends for the closing keynote. {Yep, that would be my first official BlogHer keynote attended} I really enjoyed Ricki Lake & the other panelists discuss women in media. I got chills watching the preview of the follow ups Ricki has done for Business of Being Born. I really need to add that to our netflix que.

Eileen had organized dinner at The Marble Room. I quickly changed & cabbed it over to join 15 other ladies for dinner. Dinner was fabulous: great conversation, drinks, appetizers, dinner, & atmosphere. I walked back so I could enjoy the Gaslamp District at night with Katie & Miranda.

Diana, BA & I chilled at Aiming Low. Fun laid back theme, cool cake, & everyone was given quirky, original tags. Mine said “fun”. Guess not everyone’s was original, huh?  You can’t go to BlogHer without having gone to CheeseburgHer {you remember Suzanne’s advice & photo?}. While I refrained from the bag {I never found the decorating station} & eating a cheeseburger {I don’t eat beef}, I did rock a temporary tattoo & helped my friends eat fries. I also chatted Gigi‘s ear off & sadly said goodbye to many new friends.

In case you missed them, here’s my previous BlogHer11 recaps: Wed/Thurs, Friday, & Sparklecorn.

My Friday BlogHer post was getting ridiculously long. And honestly, a party as hyped & photographed as BlogHer’s sponsored Sparklecorn, requires its own post. I think I’ll just let my photos tell the story: of the people, the outfits, the cake & me dancing on stage. Yay for such a fun party with bloggy friends!

Oh & go check out this Sparklecorn video. I’m not in it but it’s very cool.