Elevate Blog Conference Recap

Wow, where do I start? The Elevate Blog Conference was AMAZING. The word doesn’t even encompass all the beautiful women and details that when into this creative day. I wish I had taken a thousand pictures – instead I think I only took one or two hundred. hee hee
This conference was organized by the lovely Summer from Made By Munchies Mama, Jen from Delightful Deets and Nichole from Yeung Mother Hubbard. These ladies had lunch for us, snacks, drinks in cute mason jars with daisy cut lids, striped paper straws, milk bottle centerpieces a mexican dinner {my favorite food!} AND

this amazing dessert display:


The time and effort put into this event was evident in all the details of the day:




Yes, there was  even a cotton candy making machine there!!

After lunch was craft time! Woot! Woot! Stencils + wood = cool new art project!
There’s no turning back now…



Yay! It worked!



After the craft we had the opportunity to listen and learn from a few inspiring ladies around blog land. Next time, I am not going to be shy and ask to get my picture with them all!
First up, Nina from Momma Go Round! She is just as bubbly in person as she is on her blog! I could totally ‘hear’ her voice – and that’s what she spoke to us about! How to find our voice and focus our blog. I really absorbed and learned a lot from her discussion!



Next we heard from Becki from Whippy Cake!!! She was so cute and fun! I love her headbands and it was cool to hear how she got started and branded her site!!




Another inspiring woman was Ashley from Little Blue Boo. This was the only picture I got of her speaking. Actually, here, she is listening intently to another blogger share. I was so moved from her entire discussion. To hear her talk about her story, her words of encouragement through life’s trials, I knew if her story was the only thing I learned that day, then my time was well spent.



Her talk was extremely emotional and touching. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I felt uplifted just being in the same room with her. And while we got to see this heartfelt side of Ashley, we also got to see her fun loving free spirit!! {Scroll down to the game pictures below!!} Whatever love I had for these ladies was amplified x10 during the games!! lol


We also got a photography lesson from Kristine at Lucky Lime Photography! It was so helpful! I know I’m not using my camera to it’s maximum potential and rely on PicMonkey to fix most of my errors. It was really cool to hear from a seasoned photographer the little changes and things we can do to make our photos look more professional!



The final speaker I heard that day was Holly from 504 Main. I love, love, LOVE the DIY yourself club {Hello, do you see that charm on my right side bar?} I am a total member of the club! Booyah! And here I was, sitting only a few feet away from her as she shared how she organizes her blog and her time. It really put into perspective the amount of time I put into my blog and reminded me to prioritize my life. Thanks Holly!




I am still start struck that I was in the same room as these ladies! After the workshops we enjoyed dinner and then it was GAME TIME! If you know me, you know I love games! My first thought was, ‘I sure hope I don’t lose any blog friends from all my competitiveness!!’ Ha! Little did I know I was in a room full of ladies ready to WIN IT! A Minute to Win It to be exact! I had to bring my ‘A’ game!
One task was wrapping party streamers around your arms. I’m glad I didn’t get this task! It looked so hard!! But – these ladies also made it look like tons of fun! {That’s Ashley from Little Blue Boo again!} She was hilarious!



Next up was stacking Ding Dongs on your head! Nay from Cover to Cover and Everything in Between had us almost the whole way! Then Nina {Momma Go Round}, on my team, came from behind and won!!! You go girl!!



You’re not having fun unless you have a Ding Dong stuck to your face! I love Nay’s expression here too! LOL


Fun can also be defined as having Vaseline stuck to your nose! My job was to move 5 cotton balls into the bowl. Owned it! Like my game winning stance??



Alissa from Rags to Stiches was also on our team and she and another teammate helped us to victory by pulling tissues out of a tissue box. Their efforts helped us win the entire game!!!! Woo hoo!! Here’s what winning looks like folks:



It was the perfect ending to a fun, awesome, totally fantabulous day!! WELL, the PERFECT ending was actually the raffle at the end – because I won an Elevate swag bag!!! Check out all this swag!!! {This was in addition to the swag bag that everyone got when we walked in!} One more time – can everyone say: AWESOME!?!



Here is a link to Elevate’s blog where you can get a list of ALL the sponsors of the day, including the swag bag above! They are all totally worth checking out!!! Elevate Conference Sponsors
Thank you again to Summer, Jen and Nichole for all your help in making us all feel so special! You girls rock!





If any of you have ever considered going to a blog conference – you should!!! It was so nice to meet and connect with so many local bloggers and enjoy a day of being uplifted, encouraged and ELEVATED!! Do I hear Elevate 2013???