You may have noticed my posts have been very low this last week. I was attending Blissdom2011 which is a blogging conference. There was over 700 women and a handful of men too :) I can’t even tell you how much fun it was! There were so many people to meet, network with, build friendships and just be encouraged by. I am really glad I went. It is completely out of my comfort zone. I like dragging Troy along with me places since I am shy and don’t like to face things alone. Which usually means I stay at home! But it was a no brainer on attending. It was here in Nashville so I had no travel fees and no hotel fees. I am really proud of myself for going and I wasn’t nervous at all! I think when you are around about 700 women who have the same concerns as you it makes it easy.

Wednesday, was the Workshop Day. I attended three sessions. At lunch, I met Ann from Women, Money and Divorce, Lynn from All Fooked Up and Marta from Marta Mitchell Interior Designalong with a few others. The afternoon workshop I attended regarding Monetization one of the speakers was Nathan Engels from We Use Coupons and TLC’s Extreme Couponing. It was nice to meet him since I am the Publix Forum Leader for his site.

Wednesday evening before the kick off cocktail party a bunch of us headed over to Cracker Barrel for dinner. When I say there was a bunch of us there were 9 and a baby. We all loaded in a shuttle van! It was quite a scene. Kind of like… how many bloggers and you jam in a minivan :) I think when we came back we surprised the hotel guy at the curb! Especially, when Nathan popped out of the trunk! Dinner was fun way of breaking the ice when I didn’t know anyone coming there. Along with Nathan and I there was also Karen from Saving the Family Money,  Kasey and Jamie from Time 2 Save, Sarah, Matt and 10 month old cutie Maverick from A Thrifty Mom, Amy from Saving with Amy(she actually lives about 30 mins away!), and Lisa from Simplified Saving!

Thursday the keynote speaker was Brene Brown . Her talk was very real. She connected with the audience as moms and women who have the same fears and concerns in life. You can view one of Brene’s talks on YouTube that is similar to what she spoke to us on. It is worth the time to listen to. I attended more sessions and took a ton of notes! There were also a lot of sponsors there so I spent some of the afternoon visiting the booths and making connections. Dinner was BBQ and BLTs sponsored by Jockey (bet you haven’t been to a conference before and got a free pair of panties!) . I missed the red carpet event and instead had a God ordained talk with Kasey from Time 2 Save. It always amazes me how people come into your life and you just know it is more than just you randomly meeting them. I also missed Michelle Branch sing, but did get to see the last couple sets from Mat Kearney.

Friday was my last day. We had a cooking demo from Chef George Duran and enjoyed chicken with pasta and tomatoes. In between talks I was able to get a massage in one of the expo rooms. Dinner was a Girls Night In sponsored by Freschetta pizza…. Yummy! Also, Blue Bunny(I got the cutest little blue bunny for Katelyn from them) had an ice cream sundae bar. It was much like a Friday night at home, pizza and ice cream! There were also special drinks the Blissdom Blossom.

They were really good, but had hibiscus flowers in them that made them a little different! For entertainment we had Chris Mann and Crystal Bowersox sing.

Crystal and her Hubby

I took some fun pictures with the Time 2 Save girls in the photo booth, but they aren’t online yet for me to share! The pictures are quite funny!

I am sure I am missing some of the great girls I met (you should see the stack of business cards I got!), but here are a few others I hung out with while I was at Blissdom: Jenny from Bargain Blessings, Ruth from Shopping Tips & Tricks and Beth from In Good Cents! Overall, it was an amazing time. Not only to learn, but to meet new people and I guess you could say to fellowship with others. I can’t wait to go again next year!

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