The Friends I Made at Haven

One of the best, well probably the best thing about going to a blog conference is meeting other bloggers in person. I mean these are people you read all about, know what goes on in their life, their craft fails, their secrets, and to meet them and hug them and stay up late and talk to them is just amazing.

You become instant friends, really.

I met so many wonderful people last week at the Haven conference, it was a dream come true.

I mentioned yesterday, Karah from The Space Between (left) and I met at the airport and traveled to the restaurant for dinner together where we met these ladies who became our conference buddies. Anna on the right is from Directions Not Included. Perfect name for a blog right?Can you spy me in the mirror taking the pic?

Also there were Ange from The Blooming Hydrangea and Lisa from Before Meets After. Hugely successful bloggers! Lisa was a sweetie and took us lost bloggers (since we went to the wrong Cheesecake Factory) to the hotel.

And Ang and I apparently like to take pics of each other at the sessions. Us wacky girls! Notice Anna laughing at us. That’s Andrea from Our Blue Front Door on the left.

The first person I looked for at the opening reception was Pretty Handy Girl, also known as Brittany 🙂 She and I connected when she left a comment on my blog about liking my social media buttons so I wrote the html code for them for her blog and then she ask me to guest post and I just love her.  PHG is a “big blogger” you know what I mean and I was like “What? She wants ME to guest post?” Totally awesome for her to give me that opportunity and I am forever grateful Britt! Love you.

Here we are with Roeshel from The DIY Showoff being DIY Charlie’s Angels.

Also on my to-meet list was Skye from Neathering Our Fest and the Woodsys! Adorable, all 3 of them. The Woodys’ had matching t-shirts, so cute.

Leave it to us to close out the opening reception. This crew. That’s Ange, Karah, me, Lisa, Marian, Andrea, Kathleen, and Cassie.

This girl is hysterical! I was like “Cassie, you are so serious on your blog, let it loose girl!” as she poses with the feather duster and texted the pics to her husband. Uhh, huh 🙂

Another lady I HAD to meet was Karry from House TalkN (middle). I mean, she does vlogs in her powder room and dances in the hardware store. What’s not to love about her?

In the sponsor areas I got to meet Renee (left) from Living, Laughing and Loving and Beth (second form left) from Home Stories A to Z. Renee and I were tweeting with each other at the conference trying to find where the other one was. “Where are you? Wait, what are you wearing?” It was so funny, she is a sweetie.

And Beth’s blog is one I love. She has an amazing link party that is all about tutorials and tips. I stalk it, I mean, link up with it regularly 🙂 That’s me and Karah from The Space Between.

This was our Twisted Taco diner crew. Kelli, Carrie, Breida, Jennifer, me, Karah, Cassie.

Although I didn’t get to talk with her, this is Chris from Just a Girl. I love her blog, the woman does amazing furniture makeovers, go see them. This was the beginning paint and stain session she did with Centsational Girl.

Another blog buddy was Beth from Free Stylin. Look at how fun she is!

{Yes I have curly hair in real life} And here is Alison from House of Hepworths. Pose with your name tag shot!

These ladies! Oh, love them. We had hours of conversation. I mean hours. This is Kelli from Restore Interiors and Jennifer from Celebrating Everyday Life. Kelli actually recognized me in one of the sessions and when I told my husband about it when I came home I teared up, she is so sweet! I’ve link up to her furniture parties and was so glad to hug her in person.

And Jennifer, if you do not know her blog, you need to go there right now. I mean, right now. The girl is a stylist genius, you will be pinning for hours. We traveled to the airport together to go home and blog talked non stop.

Clearly I’m the lean in type for group photos, look out 🙂

Here is Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage. I also guest posted for her on How to Cut Your Own Photo Mats and she told me it’s one of her top 10 posts of all time. Yahoo!

I snuck in for a little of Shaunna and Marian‘s advanced painting techniques session.

And lastly, here is a fuzzy pic of Sandra from Sawdust and Paper Scraps, Brittany and me.

There were so many people I didn’t get to meet too, I wish I had! I’m happy to call these ladies my friends and am so glad to know all of you 🙂

Photo by In My Own Style

Above is Kate-Centsational Girl, Diane at In My Own Style {my roommate}, Erin-Two Story Cottage, Rhoda – Southern Hospitality, Sandra – Sawdust and Paper Scraps, Carrie – Making Lemonade, me, Brittany- Pretty Handy Girl.

P.S. There is a flickr Haven group here if you want to see more pics and Rhoda has a link up party for all the Haven recaps here.