My First Blog Conference | HAVEN 2014

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

---

I have officially attended a blog conference. It was a blast and it was tiring, but I walked away inspired to do so much! Now, I totally thought I would have a plethora of pictures to share with you, but I was a little busy learning and meeting people, so I took a little less than I anticipated. I do have some and I will share some of the highlights along the way.

I'll go ahead and apologize for the awful cell phone pictures! Just squint your eyes and all will seem normal ; )

It started off with the Keynote Speaker Chip Wade, and I have to say I am excited to watch his show, Elbow Room! Something else fun to watch was the HAVEN team totally bust a move! These ladies rocked it!!

After this we had the opportunity to walk around and meet some of the great sponsors and vendors that helped make this great conference a success!

I had the best roomate, with the cutest little baby girl ever! How cute are they??

One of my favorite rooms was the Home Depot DIY Hall of Fame! It is so great to see all these fabulous bloggers sharing what they love to do! Did I mention how nice it was to be with hundreds of women who are glued to the social media on their phones and thinking of all the creative things they could do with their new swag and nobody looked at each other as if we were all crazy. Those are more often the looks I get as a blogger. Nope, not here. Everyone "gets" you. Everyone is here for the same reason as you!

The first day we took a class from Beth @ Unskinny Boppy for Lightroom. If you have been on the fence about lightroom, DO IT! Beth has some great posts on her blog about how to get started, and this will change your editing life for ever people! She rocked her class! Probably my favorite of the whole conference. I was just soaking everything up!

Jennifer | Dimples and Tangles 
Sonya | At Home with the Barkers
Abby | Just a Girl and her Blog
Me
Angela | Blue i Style

I also got to participate in the Ballard Coffee Table Challenge. We had 10 minutes to decorate a coffee table. Wow. I didn't realize how slow I am at stuff like this. Typically I just pull everything out and look at it throughout the day, change things up a bit, and then eventually I end up happy with it. But it's a process for me. So this was fun and challenging! Women running with vases. You know, typical blog conference! : ) AND we actually WON! I wasn't there for the announcement since I had to leave Saturday night, but still super exciting!

I also took a painting class with Brooke from All Things Thrifty, and Stacy from Not Just a Housewife! They were so much fun! Seriously.. look at Brooke rockin those safety precautions! I was so bummed I didn't get to meet her, but I had to fly out Saturday night and FYI Atlanta airport is HUGE! I did however get to meet Stacy and she is just as sweet and adorable as you could imagine!

There is so much I could tell you about this conference, but there just isn't time! So I will leave you with some tips in case you decide to head there next year!

- Try not to be afraid to approach people. I was the first day and I probably missed out on meeting some great people. I just had to realize everyone was there to do the same thing, meet people and have fun!

- Go to the parties! They are a blast and you get a chance to chat with some people in a relaxed environment!

- Dance like there is no tomorrow! It's not often I am without kids and can enjoy myself like that. Nobody with think you look like an idiot, I promise!

- Take pictures with the people you meet. I got distracted, and totally forgot to do this the majority of the time!

Have fun and Relax!