Warning: Long post with lots of words. Nester attempts to put her deepest thoughts in writing without cracking open her brain or heating up the glue gun.
My sister, Emily and I went to Blissdom 08 this weekend. I hate to bore you with all the glorious details on this blog but, you know I'm not afraid to wreck it all up every now and then. I do want everyone to know this. If you are a blogger and have never gotten together with other bloggers, you should. You will not regret it. You will learn, you will get encouraged, you will make friends, you will be proven wrong about things you assumed.
Here are my highlights:
*Seeing Karla Again--how weird is it to have friends who you met online? Karla is an amazing woman with a sassy haircut and I am so glad to know her and she has been so encouraging to me I consider Karla a close friend. She worked her hiney off to make this weekend wonderful and it was worth every minute of work! Thanks Karpo!
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Meeting Fussy in the Flesh. Y'all, this woman is the real deal. She and Karla both ran the entire weekend while holding/nursing a little fella and everything went off without a hitch. I love seeing moms do their thing with a baby in tow. Also, little known fact, Fussy has a beautiful profile. I'm not talking about the words in her about me on her blog. I mean when she turns her pretty face to the side, she has becomes even more pretty with her cute little button nose. Wish I had a button nose. Thanks for including me Fussy!
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Meeting Robin. Ok, you know how you read someone's blog and you think you have a feel on their personality and stuff? I was so off with
Robin! Loved her both ways but, in person we connected so fast and she was delightfully wise and thoughtful and nurturing. Robin is the editor of the Inspired Bliss channel over at Blissfully Domestic. Here's a photo of the people in our hotel room {minus Karla's perfectly non crying one year old}.
Robin, Emily, Karla, Nester
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Meeting Simple Mom. Y'all. She is my current blog crush. Poor
Tsh had to put up with me asking her questions and admiring everything from her simply perfect business card to her tiny, no nonsense purse of which I could fit no less than 89 of in my big obnoxious pocket book.
This is where I cornered her so I could soak of all of her knowledge and try my hardest to make her love me. I just know we would be good friends if we lived next door to each other.
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Meeting Jessica, a fellow
encourager to women and etsy seller who's tag line is "Live Beautiful". How can we not love her?
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Meeting Devon and Peyton. This mother and daughter could only come for a session but then sought out me and Emily and even gave us a...
gift? What a treat to meet real live women who read our blogs! That was a wonderful experience--thank you, ladies!
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Meeting Megan. Ok, you know how I said that people are not always what you think when you read their blogs?
Megan was the queen of this. I've read her blog in the past and expected her to be 8 feet tall, and not speak to me but just listen, look at me, think about what a dork I am, roll her eyes, and walk away hoping to forget the bad memory of the anti-deep thinker that is Nester. I couldn't have been more wrong. Megan was the most insightful, personable, encouraging, accepting, I'm-true-to-myself and oh so comfy in my own skin kind of person you would ever hope to meet. I had no idea she would be so great and not abnormally tall--she's my height. And she owned such a sultry, self confident beauty. When I grow up, I want to be Megan.
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Hotel Preston. Let me just say this, they had a display of a dress made out of pink crayons, they had red cowhide with black spots lining the elevator and a playful grouping of pendant lights hanging in the lobby. Pure eye candy.
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Epson. One to One . Yes, I'm talking about a company. Whenever I see people talk about a company I totally tune out. But, let me tell you, Epson made this entire conference possible. They footed the bill so it could be free for us. Are you tuned out yet? Well listen up. It is a complement to every one of us bloggers out there when companies realize that we bloggers are worth investing in. Those companies that are with it enough to know that bloggers have influence and yes, they want us to buy their stuff but, I'm so glad they acknowledge the growing impact that the blog world has. Done tooting horns.
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Kim, Rachel, Mommy. We had lunch with these girls on the way home. Again, if you have never met fellow bloggers in person, I am so sorry. These girls had me and Emily giggling like fools and also had our eyes bulging out at the stories they told us. Of course, I grilled Kim about her business trying to squeeze out any and all information that I could steal from her and use for my own gain. Heart y'all! {waiting for a photo--I'll have it up later!}
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Traveling with my sister. Emily had me laughing so hard while I was driving through those corkscrew roads in the mountains, that I was sure I was gonna kill us both. I had NEVER heard the story about her driving her car down a sidewalk and then down
steps during her last trip to Nashville.
Emily was invited to the conference but, I know that she was really doing me a favor by going with me. People at conference were introduced to
me because I was on a few panels. I think some people assume that I know what I'm doing when it comes to blogging. I so don't. Some assume that I have all sorts of philosophies, tricks, and ideas on how to make a blog bigger and better. It was glaringly obvious this weekend that I didn't. I just love to play in my house and share it.
Megan, Fussy, Tsh, NesterAt night and in between sessions I would seek out my sister for her wise input. I usually feel like I cannot process what I think about something till I bounce it off of her first. It's funny because during the conference it was said that "mommy bloggers" {I have no idea who that is} will
never get 1000 visitors a day, they won't be able to write about the mundane happenings of life {and make it applicable to others}, and really need to utilize all sorts of social media so they can connect with other people. Let me just say that my sister {soon to have an article published} sat their quietly knowing that she was defying all of those odds in her own blog {I know not if she is a mommy blogger}. Man, she should have been the one on the panels.
I'm not AT ALL saying that any info we got/gave was wrong. It was wisely said by Megan that there are always exceptions to the rules and the day was really to talk about the general things that we can do to grow our blogs. But, for me, my favorite blogs seem to be those that do
defy the rules. Megan herself only posts when she feels like she has something to say.
June writes diary style about her pets and what she eats and uses few photos and it couldn't be any more funny, dramatic or captivating.
Meredith uses photos and only a poignant sentence or two and you feel like you read an essay. The Nester is a fake designer who hates to write but loves encouraging women in their home.
Emily sees the holy in the mundane and people respond to that in huge numbers. And she doesn't care if anyone even knows.
Thank you Karla, Alli, Robin, Jessica, Tsh, Barbara, Megan, Blonde Mom, Devon, Peyton, Kim, Misty, Rachel, Lynn, Emily and all of you that I was too shy to talk to. I learned so much from you!
Special thanks to Secret Agent Mama for not suing me for using her photos because her mad photography skills blow my mind.Special thanks to Emily for taking photos with her professional grade camera and emailing them to me.
My boys sat for Lena and she was wonderful. Y'all, she sits with a pair of scissors and black paper and just stares at the child and cuts! No tracing, no drawing--just cutting without hardly even looking at the paper! It only took 7-8 minutes and the boys simply looked at books.
It was the right decision for me. I have not regretted having spent that money on those precious works of art. There are some things in life that you only have one chance to capture.
Now, if you have the funds, you can go to Lena's website and find out about submitting a photo and she can create a silhouette for you. They are SO detailed! Or, you can do what Linda or Molly or Leah did and make them yourself--but no matter what, consider having silhouettes made of your children, you will not regret it!
