BloggyCon Recap

Hey, friends!  By now, I’m pretty sure all of you know that I spent this past weekend in Sandusky, Ohio for BloggyConference!  I had an absolute blast with some of my favorite friends from the blogosphere, so I wanted to give you a little recap in photos.  {If you follow @oneartsymama on Instagram, you’ve probably seen most of these…sorry for blowing up your feed this weekend!}

Ok, ready?  Here’s how the conference went!  First of all, Kara from Happy Go Lucky picked me up on Friday morning and we drove all the way to upper Ohio. We had never met face to face before, and she’s even more fun and fabulous in person!  Love this girl!!!

After a very scenic route, pretzel sandwiches from Sheetz, a few other stops {ahem}, and a ridiculous amount of tolls on the Ohio and PA turnpikes, we finally ended up in Sandusky and found our way to Cedar Point where the conference was being held.

There, we met up with Carrie {My Favorite Finds}, DeDe {Designed Decor}, Kirsten {One Tough Mother}, and Jenny {Ignite Learning With Conscious Discipline}.  I can’t even begin to tell you how it felt meeting these girls in person.  It was kind of like a reunion even though we’d never met before.  Each one of them was just the way I expected them to be but even more gorgeous and fun.  It was so SO wonderful being able to hug and chat and eat {and eat some more} together…I could go on and on.  Anyway, we all changed into our outfits for the Meet and Greet that was scheduled from 6-8:30 and headed over to the courtyard to get our badges and SWAG bags.  We originally were excited to mingle and meet the other bloggers who were arriving but when we realized how cold and windy it was, we decided to head back into the hotel and enjoy a Hibachi dinner instead.  YUM!  After dinner, we put on some comfier {and much warmer} clothes and head to Target.  Even though the in-store Starbucks had the audacity to be closed, we stocked up on ice cream, water, and a few other goodies.

When we got back to the Breakers Hotel, we ate our ice cream, then exchanged the gifts we’d brought for each other.  Kirsten had the genius idea to each bring 5 of our favorite things for each other, so that’s what we did.  I can’t wait to show you the gifts I gave and the ones I got, but if I did it now, this post would take you forever to read!  So, stay tuned for more about the fabulous presents from my sweet friends at a later date!  Once we’d opened our gifts and stayed up way too late chatting, we finally headed for bed.  Saturday morning, we started off with a keynote speaker, Debba Haupert from Girlfriendology, and then it was my turn to present during the first break-out session.

By the way, part of our SWAG was these cutie-pie bears from Honda.  Our job was to photograph them all weekend, as well as this coming week, and share them with the hashtag #HondaLove.  Which was waaaay too much fun.  I’ll have to do another post later to show you how my bear {named Odysseus after the Honda Odyssey} enjoyed the weekend!  I had a great time sharing; I loved meeting the bloggers who attended my session and it was so much fun watching them take notes and engage with the information I presented.  Then it was time for another break-out session, lunch, and a session on Pitching to Brands, presented by Honda.  I made sure to take good notes!

The final scheduled activity for the day was splitting into Bloggy Squads based on our niche.  Most of the gals I was with attended the DIY squad.  Then, it was time to hit the amusement park!!  But not before we got a good beach photo with our bears!

After changing into some comfier clothes, we headed back outside {brr!} to explore Cedar Point.

We also got to say hello to one of our sponsors, Udderly Smooth!  MOOOO!  {Thanks for the hand cream and the comfy fuzzy socks!}

Our favorite ride was the Raptor…a seriously fun steel suspension coaster with all kinds of corkscrews, drops, and excitement!  It was probably good that my talk was already over because I was afraid of losing my voice with all the screaming I did!  For dinner, we shared appetizers and desserts at T.G.I. Friday’s…mmmm, peanut butter pie!  Then it was time for another pj party!  I. love. these. girls.

Sunday morning comes way too fast when you stay up way too late!  But, we had some informative sessions, like this one by Chrissy Watson from bloggylaw.com.  Chrissy is a practicing lawyer who spoke to us about FTC, the Law, and our blogs.

When the sessions were over, it was time to hit the road, but we weren’t ready to say goodbye yet.  So, after a few last group photos, we followed each other to a local restaurant for lunch.

And we stopped in a store I’d never visited before called Charming Charlie.  Oh. my. goodness.  I could have spent ALL day in there!  It’s probably good that there aren’t any near me.  I did a good job of not overspending, but I did treat myself to a few things, like this fun ring…hey, the Ravens were playing {and winning!}, I had to wear some purple!

After 7 hours, and some more coffee, I finally arrived home, already missing my bloggy friends who are now real-life friends.  I can’t wait to see them all again.  Hugs to my girls!  I’m so ready for my next conference…what will it be…?

Hugs & Glitter,