Note: Because of the Easter weekend, Monday Funday is not happening today.Next Sunday at 7p CST, Monday Funday will happen again! And I will be announcing our new 6th hostesses!
Talking blog is super fun for me. My real life friends don’t get things like ad networks, google +, twitter parties, WP, themes, pageviews, google analytics, RSS feeds, etc… The questions, “What are you going to do about the feedburner drama?” or “What day is your linky party?” are not things you can talk to non bloggers about, ha! Thus, why any type of blog conference makes me giddy! I’ve been to 2 blog conferences: Bloggy Boot Camp and Haven (Day 1 and Day 2) BlissDom is my third!
I had not planned on going to BlissDom, but the cards just kept falling into place! 1: Andy and I decided to move back to Texas so I could easily drive to Dallas 2: Allison from House of Hepworths and Jessica from Don’t Mind the Mess had room for me in their already booked hotel room 3: I convinced Taylor from Taylor Made to come as our 4th roomie and share a bed with me even though we had never met IRL!
To save you from the moment to moment update that is happening in my head, I’m going to share my top 10 BlissDom moments. You’re welcome : ) (Oh and there’s a big announcement in item #7!)
1. Roomies
I heart these girls. I’d only ever met Allison in real life (IRL), but had a blast slumber partying with the 3 of ’em! From left to right, we’ve got Jessica, Allison, Taylor, me all looking fancy on our way to the Spazmatics at the Glass Cactus!
2. Spazmatics
I’ve seen the Spazmatics play a handful of times in Austin, but I think this one was so fun because it was uber spontaneous and free… 2 of my favorite things, ha! I had no idea they were going to be at the event! Oh AND did I mention, we had front row status… we are basically groupies.
3. Bus Pictures
This happened after the Spazmatics. It was a bunch of blog girls on a bus back to the hotel. With a pole. Fun! I had tons of fun dancing like a manic with Kristen, Jodi, and Hillary + the roomies.
4. Road trippin’
The wonderful Kristen was our road trip driver (and cookie maker extraordinaire!) Road trips are always a good time because you get to talk for lots of uninterrupted hours! This was even more eventful because we took an off roading excursion in the mini van, I got to drive my first mini van, and on the way home we stopped at Czech stop… best. kolaches. ever. Thank you, Kristen, for driving!
5. Head Shots
I have to admit, I did the free head shot thing both days! Thank you One2One Media. I thoroughly enjoyed taking silly pics and I think I am going to actually use one of these as my new profile pic for all of my social media outlets. Which one do you like best?
6. Key Notes (and free books)
I did not know who Scott Stranten was before BlissDom. If you don’t know him, he writes books, is super opinionated, and I love his ideas about social media! (Social media is SOCIAL!) He told stories about social media wins and loses in big business. I loved the story about the Ritz Carlton being a “Joshie” Company! Apparently, a little boy left his lovie at the Ritz, the parents told him Joshie was on vacation, the Ritz sent the lovie back with pictures of Joshie’s vacation and it even had it’s very own Ritz Carlton ID card! Talk about making an impression (see bottom right pic below, that’s Joshie on vay-cay! We also got one of his The Book of Business Awesome/ Unawesome fo’ free. I read the awesome side already.
7. Winning Sweet Prizes
Blog conference= tons of free swag, which is pretty fun. But, these prizes were extra special! I won Amdro pest and weed system and lots of Pennington smart feed for our new YARD! That’s right, we finally got a house baby (House hunt part 1 and house hunt part 2). I’ll be sharing more deets about that very soon! Fingers crossed I’ll have a growing garden soon too!
8. Urinals
Yep, that’s right, urinals made the top 10 list. With so many women at one event, the hotel got smart and turned the boy bathroom into a girl bathroom by sticking fake plants in the urinals, ha! Every time i walked in there, I smiled!
9. Selfie Group shots
Definitely one of my very favorite parts of the conference was meeting, tweeting, chatting, and dancing with other bloggers. Our Instgram feeds looked a lot like this. Oh and 2 more of my favorite people are in these pics: Kelly, Mackenzie
10. Meeting and chatting it up with Bloggers from all ova’. That’s Pizzazzerie in the bottom right, love her and her blog!
For lots more pics and BlissDom mania, my roomies did (or will do soon) BlissDom recaps too. Check out Taylors, Allisons, Jessicas. In conclusion, BlissDom rocked, but not because of amazing sessions or sweet swag. It was wonderful to meet the girls behind the blogs I read and love everyday, meet new bloggers, and stay up late watching you tube videos, chatting about google+, and making awesome new friends.
Comments & Reviews
Kathy says
Thanks for the awesome details and keeping it real!. As a new blogger, one of my goals is to attend a conference, still a little intimidated and saving my pennies.
Angela@JumpingWithMyFingersCrossed says
Great recap and great pics! Glad you had fun and glad I got to meet you. You have got great style!!!!!
Jodi says
Looks like you had as much fun as I did! Not sure how I missed that bathroom. Too funny!! 🙂
Alice says
Looks like you all had SO much fun! It’s great to see happy pics 🙂
Kelly says
Girl… it was sooooo fabulous getting to meet you and hug your neck in real life!!! I can’t wait till SNAP! Thanks for the shout out in your post — would you believe that I haven’t even thought about my re-cap post yet? I’m SO behind. LOL. Anywho. Love ya and a BIG FAT CONGRATS on the house…. I was super excited to read that news. xo, Kelly
Lauren @ The Thinking Closet says
Wow! This gets me so excited for my first blog conference, Haven, this summer! Eek! Hope it’s as dance-tastic and awesome as Blissdom sounded.
Love the headshots, by the by. Although I really like the one of you waving, I think for crispness, I’d go with the one on the top right…and you’ve gotta use the one with your tongue sticking out for SOMETHING. 😉
Michelle@yagottahaveahobby says
Looks like you had a blast! Maybe one day I’ll get up the nerve to attend a conference… I’m still pretty new, but I’m also kind of shy… Looks like a lot of fun though. 🙂
Cinthy says
Jamie, you look great in the pic with the coral dress with your roomies. 🙂 I love it. I’m wish we had blogger conferences where I’m from. I dont’ get to meet too many bloggers. 🙁
Jamie Dorobek says
Thank you, Cinthy! I know a few awesome CA bloggers!The V Spot and Organizing Made Fun are 2 of my faves!
Shannah @ Just Us Four says
Great recap! I am heading to Snap! next month and am so excited. 🙂
Congrats on finding a house. I am sure it is such a relief to be done with your search.
gina says
Oh I love that dress you wore to wee the Spazmatics – where is it from?
Love all the head shots – even the silly one =)
gina says
see! not wee! lol
Dana says
Looks like so much fun! Congratulations on finally landing a house. I can’t wait to hear all the details!
Sarah @ The Ugly Duckling House says
Congrats on finding the house! I can’t wait to see you again IRL. I used to think blog conferences (and um, blogs) were so silly. But after Haven and meeting so many wonderful people, I can’t wait for the next!
Jessica says
You cheater cheater getting your headshots twice. But seriously, didn’t they turn out amazing? If I’d known how good they’d look I would’ve gone back again, too!
Now we’ve just got to get you up here to the Blog Better Boston Style Summit…
Jamie Dorobek says
ha! I’m crazy like that 🙂 And I like options! The blog better boston style summit sounds FUN!