Posts Tagged: Blissdom 2011
The Night I Decided I Hate My Black Boots
I decided I hated my black boots when I was invited to the Housewares Show in Chicago last year, but I just couldn’t let go. It was the wrong pair of socks I contended, and I continued to wear them. When I shot The Most Interesting Show In The World I wanted to wear leggins, a black dress and a vest. And, “the” boots. At the last minute I remembered the pain from Chicago, and switched to jeans and black flats. I didn’t think I looked as cute, but I was going there to work; looking cute was just a bonus, anyway.
I didn’t have a suitcase full of new duds to take with me to Blissdom like I did for BlogHer. I had a few key pieces, but shoes were my major problem. I didn’t want to wear heels as I knew the amount of walking there was in the Gaylord Opryland. I decided to take “the” black boots, my new red flats (ehem…my new ten dollar red flats), my new cowboy’ish boots (ehem…my new *free cowboy’ish boots), and my new mock-Chucks. Did I need *the* black boots? Maybe not, but they sure looked fabulous with the outfit I planned to wear them with.
My friends at Eliza Parker sent me the most beautiful, versatile A-lined skirt and my newest and beloved piece that I wear a few times a week—the Million Ways Long Cardigan in (my favorite color) gray. I planned on wearing the cardigan wrapped and tied at the back, with the skirt, fishnet (ish) stockings, and my black boots. The outfit was awesome. My feet, not so much! I even put thicker socks on top of my stockings, trying to learn from my mistake in Chicago. It didn’t matter. By the end of the night I was carrying my boots around, cursing at them, and vowing to every single person that would listen that I was thoroughly done with these boots.
My next mission in life: Find some new black boots that don’t kill my feet.
Me in my Eliza Parker Million Ways Cardigan, surrounded by gorgeous friends!
[Photo Courtesy of Nish, The Outdoor Wife]
My Bliss: Part IV
One of my favorite things about going to a conference is when we all get ready to party. Imagine three, four, sometimes five girls in a room dressing up in their clothes, fixing their hair, putting on their makeup. There’s usually laughter or snorting, depending on whose room you are in
Wednesday night’s festivities included an awesome party at Water’s Edge Marketplace, followed by the premiere of CMT’s Working Class with Melissa Peterman and Ed Asner. The first part of the night was just awesome. We showed up hungry and, boy, did they feed us well. The food and drinks were awesome, the setting was memorable, and the company was superb. It was a wonderful kick off party!
We mingled, and talked, and caught up with each other. Lotus and I even got to catch up with our old friends David Griner and Kammie Avant from Luckie. We met Kammie when David invited us (along with Anissa Mayhew and Lindsey Labresco) to Birmingham for the Marketing to the Modern Mom day event that offered a candid discussion about social media and motherhood. It was awesome to see them again. I can honestly say that David is one of my favorite guys in social media.
So, here’s a question for you….
What happens when someone tells you that there will be FREE wine and cupcakes at a party?
You do cartwheels!!!!!! (Well, at least, that’s what Lotus and Leslie do!!!!!)
We headed for the premiere of Working Class. There was wine, and cupcakes, and popcorn and bliss. The Bringer of Bliss, Alli Worthington guided us in.
We drank wine, ate cupcakes, watched the show, and then Melissa Peterman entertained us. She was adorable, funny, and Rachel even got to join her on the stage.
While I was getting some wine Momo caught me and said that Jim was coming in around midnight, and asked if we wanted to welcome him. I didn’t even ask Lotus, I just said we totally would. A few minutes after Melissa’s Q&A we headed to the lobby to greet our old friend.
We walked out the front doors, and Lotus said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that was Jim in that truck?”
The truck pulled up to the curb and through the tinted windows we could see Jim enthusiastically waving at us. It. Was. Him.
He checked in, took his bags to his room, and then we headed to Fuse, where we **drank and drank, tweeted in a circle, laughed about how we were all in a club with each other tweeting, sent hilarious tweets to each other about how we were all in the club tweeting with each other, and drank some more. Then we drank some more.
Momo retired for the night (she’s obviously the smart one opting to try to get some sleep) while Jim, Lotus, and I scoured the hotel for a ***cough drop. We found one and along with finding one we also found some Australian guys. And, let me just say—for the record— that it was definitely a very strange ending to a jam-packed day!
We finally decided to call it a night at, like, 3:30am, but I still had to go get my pajamas and head to my room (thankfully Stacie offered to let me stay with her which was awesome especially when I discovered that I left my air mattress pump at home!)
Lotus and I stumbled to the room, assembled our plan to get in the room quietly, and then she graciously walked me to my room. What can I say? She’s a good date!
When I fell into bed the whole day whirled around in my head. From waking up late to turning in early to everything in between. This day definitely set the stage, my bliss was well on it’s way…[To Be Continued…]
*Free Boots: Thanks to the Clever Girls SWAGG campaign that I participated in, I was gifted some SWAGG bucks and I got this great pair of cowboy(ish) boots from Amercian Eagle. Thanks CGC and SWAGG!
**I had a shot of Jack Daniels and a New Castle. Both firsts for me. Thanks Jim, Momo, and Lotus!
***Cough drops are my euphemism for cigarettes. I know, I know, they’re bad for my health. But, I’m TOTALLY a social smoker.
“Wisdom outweighs any wealth.”—Sophocles
In the beginning, when I first decided to roll into the blogging community, I didn’t get many comments. But, as friendships started to blossom, more interaction took place. One of the first people to comment (and connect with me) was Victoria, aka *Vdog. Back then it was all about the memes. There was Haiku Friday, Wordless Wednesday, Sunday Scribblings, and so on. My people would comment all over mine, and I would comment all over theirs.
Lotus commented on a post after I had commented on one of her posts about her Weekly Winners. Here we are, a few years later, still sharing our photography winners. Here we are a few years later, teaching photography workshops together, cultivating ideas together, sharing, supporting, encouraging, and constantly building upon the friendship started because of our little hobby.
Going around and around the blogosphere you find people that you would never have found in life. Take Mrs. Flinger for example. The first time I ever saw her, I actually saw her, like in a video, but that totally counts. All I remember was that it was “fucking great day”. When I saw that video I knew that I would be great friends with Leslie.
Because of these three women, I met Dawn, and countless others who I have added to my arsenal of friends.
We all got together at the first second Blissdom, where Room 704 was born (today’s their birthday, actually.) Where I led a photo-walk in downtown Nashville with Lotus. Where I spoke on a panel with Leslie. Where our online friendships crossed over into living breathing life.
Photo credit: Malia
*Vdog–Victoria came to our house when we drove to Asheville, NC for Type A Mom Conference. To this day Davey asks if Vdog is going to come over. One day he said, “Can Vdog, with the purple glasses, come over please!”
My Bliss: Part III
After Lotus and I left everyone that was gathered by Stax, we got got back to our room, we talked while I unpacked (to which I came prepared with my own hangers, yo!) We were waiting for Leslie and Victoria to come in, so naturally we sat around on our laptops, munching salt and vinegar almonds, going in and out of conversation, while classical music played in the background.
Soon there was a knock at the door. Our beeshes were finally here, and a love-fest ensued. We delighted in each others company, told each other secrets, shared travel stories, caught up on Tweets, and soon-thereafter tucked into our beds, like the little-old-ladies-in-training that we are.
Our plan was to get up early enough to make it to breakfast.
*Our plan failed when we woke up with fifteen minutes to spare.
We jumped up, put bras on, ran our fingers through our hair, and booked it to the breakfast area. I made one of the worst mistakes ever: I didn’t brush my teeth. And, of course, I ran into tons of people who wanted to hug and talk to me. All I could do was eat breakfast and hope that I wouldn’t offend anyone with my breath. Ask me if I’ll ever not brush me teeth ever again.
I’m sure people thought we had gotten totally drunk the night before, when the fact of the matter was we were sleeping. Hard. Remember? Little-old-ladies-in-training!
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Lotus and I had our Wisdom Workshop at 1:00pm, so we got back to the room and prepared ourselves.
We left after noon to grab some lunch (our lovely friend Rachel’s recipe, FTW!) and met up with our fellow workshop leaders—Amy, Angie, Casey, Dawn, and Deanna.
Photo Credit: Hannah Braboy
We broke all the workshop attendees into groups. Dawn and I took care of covering the basics about how to get off the green square. Lotus and Amy talked about creativity, detail, and composition. Angie covered natural lighting, while Casey and Deanna went into depth about aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
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After the workshop, which was Ahhh-mazing!, we went on a photo-walk in the Delta Atrium. It was an intimate group, and just oh-so-fun! There was lens exchanging, head-shots, group shots, creative shooting, and just a major photogranerd fest.
Afterward Lotus and I went back to our room and greeted our girl, Dawn!
And, Lotus did some cool, feel good, Tai Chi’ish thing. I don’t know, but it made her feel good; that’s all that counts.
Soon we’d be getting ready to go party the night away! [To be continued…]
*Leslie was the only one who got up early because she had a meeting to get to. I’m sure she brushed her teeth!
Some of the Things I Did Last Week
My Bliss: Part I
I slept with old friends, I walked, I taught, I laughed, I took pictures, I interacted, I sang, I danced, I ate, I drank, I loved…I found my red ball!
Please come back as I re-live my Bliss through the week. I’ll have a great giveaway (in conjunction with Storkie) that you won’t want to miss.
Come back; I have so many stories to tell.
Some of the Things I’ll Be Doing This Week
1) Sleeping with some old friends. Not that kind of sleeping with, sicko!
2) Walking. A lot of walking. Not in high heels. I’ll be doing my walking in cute red flats, fake Chuck Taylors (don’t judge me, Chucks are just too narrow for my big feet), and my black slouch boots. I ordered some new boots with a gift certificate, but they have yet to arrive. Ask me if I’ll ever use basic free shipping again.
3) Teaching friends how to “get off the green square” at Wednesday’s Photography Wisdom Workshop.
4) Walking. Lots of walking. Oh, yeah; I already said that.
5) Hugging. Lots of hugging.
6) Lauging. Lots of laughing.
7) Pictures. Taking lots and lots of pictures. I mean, how can I not?
8) Interacting, face-to-face, with people that I have come to love and respect.
9) Enjoying a good portion of the week, being filled with creativity, individuality, adult interaction, music, food, drinks, and walking (lots of walking!)
10) Finding my red ball!
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play… He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.”
—James Michener
