The Photo Edition

By request (Honest to God I Swear No Really), here are the photos I have from BlogHer’12.  To be honest, I don’t have that many since my camera phone mysteriously only works when I take photos with Instagram and I was trying not to completely photo bomb my Instagram account.  Someday soon I will make it to the Apple Doctors and find out why my phone hates me.

This outfit took an entire styling team.  And by ‘styling team’ I mean, I obnoxiously posted multiple photos of different outfits to my personal Facebook page and requested feedback.  Then, I ultimately went with whatever I wanted to wear anyway, despite cries that it was too matchy matchy.  I would like to think that I stood out at the first evening of events and perhaps that is why I successfully met almost all of my favorite bloggers in one single night.

This was 9:00 am on Friday morning, where I usually would have found myself half-asleep sitting on the couch and letting the boys watch ‘just one more Kipper’ before we get dressed to go to the park.   But noooo, this Friday I found myself sandwiched between two extremely handsome, elegant and friendly men.  Yes, that is me awkwardly trying to keep my sweat off of Badgely and Mischka, while simultaneously not letting my hands rest on their bottoms.  Modeling is hard, you guys!

A portion of my day was also spent exploring the Expo Center in search of magnificent companies…and garlic grilled cheese samples.  Let’s not lie, Annie.  To be honest, even if not all companies are a perfect match for me or this blog, it is exciting to see so many new products before they hit the shelves.  I wish I saw the one above and thought about how perfect it would be for all of my scuba diving expeditions in Bali, but really, all I could think about is how life saving this would be every time I go to pee while forgetting my phone is in my back pocket.   Genius.

When you need to escape the madness of 5,000 women (and about 12 lucky men), you can sneak up to some of the hosted suites.  This one was my favorite, as they had padded decorated the entire suite with white furniture, walls and fabric.  Something about it made me feel right at home…? Oh, and they had mountains of amazing cheeses (Manchego, Roquefort, Camembert, Bouchon de Chévre…yes, it was accented, capitalized level Fancy Cheese), blackberries and rosé.  And iphone chargers.  These guys were smart.

When you wanted to be reminded that you were there for a blogging conference – and not just being transplanted into a strange and unfamiliar world where you meet designers, eat fancy food and wear pants before 11 am – there were sessions (I was a good student and attended all time slots.) and events like the Voices of the Year readings.  Here is my friend Liz reading her piece about her stolen Gordita Fund in front of thousands.  Hardcore, tiny and hysterical is how I like my friends.  Okay, not all friends, but Liz for sure.

Let’s get back to the wining and dining, shall we?  Truthfully, this was the first year that I had private events to attend…and I freaking loved it!  Bring on the fancy!  I am not going to pretend it isn’t fabulous being wooed and entertained and spoiled.  It totally is.  This was a beautiful dinner at Serafina hosted by UrbanSitter.com (more on their wonderful company later, hopefully…) and organized by the super funny Ilana of MommyShorts.  I felt like a teeny, tiny fish.  But a happy fish.

And then I came home at 1:00 am to these.  Yes, the boys’ weekend was apparently off to an amazing start.  I started to feel like perhaps they didn’t even miss their estrogen-filled family member all that much.

By Saturday I was ready for sleep, water and a foot massage.  I had the next best thing as an attendee at The Glamorous Luncheon, hosted by GlamorousMoms at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Perfect meal, perfect hostess, and perfect table mates.

Oh, and in addition to lovely swag bags, we basically got to do some personal shopping, as Shannon walked around and let us choose our own silk Karen Kane scarf.   That woman knows how to make a girl feel glamorous! She sure chose the right website domain name.

Saturday night, I opened the fridge to get some water and found the above JUG of Martinelli’s apple juice.  You know the apple juice that is super yummy but I’m pretty sure is actually so pricey simply due to the adorable apple-shaped glass bottle in which it arrives?  Yeah, my husband and the boys managed to find the steroid size.  You do not want to know what the price tag said.  On a related note, it was about this time that I became positive nobody was going to be all that excited to have Sergeant Mommy back in charge on Sunday.

And finally, here is what I looked like at the end of the day on Saturday.  My eyes actually felt as though they were made of concrete, my stomach as though it was filled with gymnasts and my feet as though someone had been squeezing them into sandpaper vises for three days.

But my heart was happy and my spirit excited.  I am ready to do big things.

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2 Responses to The Photo Edition

  1. Julie says:

    Love your writing!
    Looking forward to more …

  2. Julie –

    Thank you so much. That means the world to me. 🙂

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