2012 June

My Recap of Haven 2012 {Part One}

June 29, 2012 By Megan 4 Comments

I feel like I’m the last blogger from Haven that is posting their recap. Sorry for the delay. I just needed some time to digest and process the amazing-ness that took place {plus I’m a terrible blogger and took hardly any photos and was waiting for people to post theirs }.

Last summer when I first heard about Haven, I debated about going. It sounded like an amazing opportunity, but it also sounded super intimidating. I had only been blogging for a few months and I hadn’t really delved into any ‘big projects’ just yet. I was afraid that I would be really inexperienced and feel totally out of place. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case at all!

Everyone I met was super nice and welcoming! The Haven Team truly did an amazing job to make this conference a huge success for everyone.

{Photo courtesy of How to Nest for Less}

Left to right:: Kate-Censational Girl, Sarah-Thrifty Decor Chick, Beth-Home Stories A to Z, Rhoda-Southern Hospitality, Traci-Beneath My Heart, Chris-Just A Girl, Marian-Mustard Seed Interiors

Here’s a little day to day look at how the conference went. I’ll break it down into two parts. My hope is that if you have ever considered going to a blog conference {or any kind of conference for that matter} but were too scared, this would provide you with some insight into what all goes down and hopefully ease your fears. I also want to document it for myself, to remember everything that happened and to remember all the things I learned. {I apologize in advance, this is a wordy post}.

I arrived to the hotel last Wednesday afternoon. I immediately met my roomie Erin from How to Nest for Less {who was the only person I ‘knew’} and was immediately a little less nervous knowing at least I ‘knew’ one person. After dropping my stuff off in our room, I gave myself a little pep talk and went right back downstairs to the lobby to socialize with all the girls that had already arrived. To say I was nervous was a huge understatement.

After exchanging a few business cards with a few of the girls, I began to recognize names and faces from all the blogs I’ve been reading over the last few months. I even had a few girls recognize my blog name {which I was pleasantly surprised by}! {Sidenote: there was lots of squealing among the bloggers when they saw someone they knew or ran into a ‘big’ blogger. If you want to get a good sense of how that squealing went, you should check out Chelsea from two twenty-one‘s first vlog where she does an amazing impersonation}.

After we all chatted for a bit downstairs, it was time to go upstairs and get ready for our cocktail reception sponsored by FrogTape and Oreck. This was one of the things I was soo nervous about after learning the schedule. The reception was a time to get to know other bloggers and ‘network.’ Let’s just say ‘networking’ isn’t my thing. I’m terrified to go up and approach people, especially when I felt like such a small fish in the sea. But, I was able to chat with several girls and bonded with Bonnie and Trish from Uncommon Designs over our love for Clemson {they are both alumni, Go Tigers!}.

{Photo courtesy of Finding Home}

On Thursday, we started the conference off with a keynote speech from the fabulous duo from Young House Love, John and Sherry. Their speech was super encouraging and I think it set a great tone for the conference. If you don’t read their blog, you totally should. It’s chock full of wonderful DIY goodness.

{Photo courtesy of domestiCate}

I didn’t have the guts to get a picture with them, but I did pet their famous pooch, Burger, between sessions one day {that’s something, right?}.

{Photo courtesy of Decor Adventures}

After the keynote speech, the conference sessions officially began. You were able to attend three sessions each day. The first session I attended was called I Like Big Blogs. I’ve never really had a major goal of ‘growing’ my blog, but I was excited to learn more about SEO and learn some tips on how to better utilize social media. My mind was a bit blown by the stuff Beth from Home Stories A to Z taught. Let’s just say I learned a lot about Google ‘juice’ and how you don’t want it stolen from you!

{Photo courtesy of Love of Family & Home}

The next session I attended was all about Blogging PR and how to pitch to companies, brands & magazines. I have to say, a dream of mine is to be published in a magazine one day. I know that’s a huge stretch and possibly a far fetched dream, but it’s something I hope to accomplish one day. Ana Flurry, one of the speakers for this session, is a freelance editor and has contributed to magazines like InStyle, Country Living, & Better Homes and Gardens. It was interesting to hear from her on what they look for when finding content for magazines. One of the things she suggested was to pick a publication you want to be in and find a particular section within that publication where you would fit in. Then find the person who writes that section and start following their blog, twitter, etc. Now I just have to start stalking some of these writers

{Photo courtesy of my iPhone}

The last session I went to on Thursday was one I was really looking forward to. It was all about photography…learning how to shoot in Manual and how to style your photos. Over the last year or so, I’ve learned how to shoot semi-manually with my DSLR. Kevin and Josh from shootfly did a fabulous job of teaching us all about ISO, Apeture and Shutter Speed. Three things I knew a little bit about, but hadn’t really been able to fully understand when using my camera. Shootfly has online video tutorials teaching you how to use your camera and take better photos. I would highly recommend trying them out if you are interested in learning how to shoot better in manual.

The second part of the photography class was learning how to style a photo. Layla, from the Lettered Cottage, gave us the four S’s to remember when styling:: skooch {move things over}, scorch {light a candle then blow it out}, swap {move different objects in and out} and stamp {add text/watermark your images}. Photography is definitely something I am really interested in and I’m excited to use some of their tips to hopefully create better blog-worthy photos!

Alright, that’s enough of my blabbing for now. Click here for Part 2.

Linking this up to Southern Hospitality.

4th of July Party Ideas {Backyard BBQ}

June 27, 2012 By Megan 1 Comment

Does everyone know what a week from today is?? It’s the 4th of July!

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. Partly because it falls in the summer and partly because I have a love/hate relationship with fireworks. I love fireworks, but they also scare me to death. I blame it on several traumatic childhood experiences. One of which involved a firework backfiring into our neighbor’s garage where we were all sitting and the other involved some sort of spinning firework that ended up running rampant in my grandparent’s backyard.

I may not love the small backyard fireworks, but I certainly love a good fireworks show {especially when they are free}. I also love the 4th of July because it’s a good excuse to have people over and grill out. If you are planning to throw a backyard bbq at your place, I’ve thrown together a few fun 4th of July party decoration and food ideas to help make your party fabulous & festive.

1. Make your own party decor like this burlap flag banner from Uncommon Designs. 2. Spice up your party table with some fun red or blue striped napkins from Pehr Designs. 3. Add a nautical theme element to your table with these rope plates. 4. What 4th of July party is complete without watermelon? Turn watermelon wedges into popsicles from One Charming Party. 5. I love anything to do with s’mores. Make your own s’more star cutout cookies from the master crafter herself, Martha Stewart. 6. For a festive beverage option for your guests, check out this recipe for Firecracker Punch. 7. And last but not least, what 4th of July party is also complete without sparklers?? {I have to say, these used to freak me out, but I’ve worked through it and can now handle these on my own}.

Hopefully some of these ideas are helpful! Do you have big plans for the 4th of July? Are you planning to throw a party?

I’ll be back on Friday with my recap from Haven!

Ikea Purchases & Ring Organizer

June 25, 2012 By Megan 4 Comments

Sorry for my absence all last week from the blog. I left for the Haven Conference on Wednesday and got back into town Saturday evening. I was hoping to post at the end of last week with a little update about how the conference was going, but between having spotty internet service and having full schedules each day, I didn’t get a chance to post anything.

I had an amazing time at the conference though! Hoping to do a little recap post later this week with all the lovely people I met and some of the things I learned.

But, before leaving Atlanta on Saturday, I of course had to hit up IKEA Thought I would show you some of my purchases.

Planning to incorporate the faux plant into my bedroom.

Several months ago, I mentioned that I was on the hunt for grain sack pillows. I never found any, but when I came across these dish towels at IKEA, I thought they looked almost like grain sack. Since I already found a pillow for my bed, I don’t think I’ll turn these into pillows. They were only .79 each though so I went ahead and got a few. Maybe I’ll try and make them into a cute tote bag??

I showed you guys my diy earring holder a few weeks back. I actually finished a little something else to hold all my necklaces {hint: you can see it in the background of this photo}. I’ll be posting about that soon. But, I have some rings and I didn’t exactly know how to organize those. I found this cute little blue bowl and thought this would be the perfect little thing to throw my rings into on my dresser.

Not fancy by any means, but I love the color and it does the trick!

I also bought a new light fixture for my room which I’m super excited about. My current light fixture is one of those ‘boob’ builder grade lights. It’s not totally terrible, but definitely doesn’t go with the look of my room. I’ve never dealt with electrical stuff, so this should be interesting. When I asked a few of the girls who went to IKEA with me about how to install lighting, the consensus from everyone was to BE SURE TO TURN THE BREAKER OFF. Got it! If you’ve installed new light fixtures in your home, do you have any tips I should know about??

Can’t wait to get it up though and see how it looks with the rest of the room. I just have a few more projects to complete for my room before it’s completely done {for now}. Planning to do a full reveal with cost breakdown of everything I promise!

Let me know if you have any suggestions about what to do with the ‘grain sack’ dish towels too! Would love any and all ideas

Happy Monday Friends!

Blogging Made Me Do It

June 15, 2012 By Megan Leave a Comment

I guest posted over at Make Them Wonder last week about what blogging has made me do. In case you missed it, wanted to post it here for you guys today.

I started my blog out of a need for another creative outlet. I had opened an Etsy shop {which I’ve now all but abandoned :/} several months prior to blogging, but was seeking an outlet where I could showcase other projects I was working on and hopefully inspire others to get creative.

When I wrote my first blog post a year ago, I didn’t really know what to expect. Besides hoping to inspire maybe one or two people, I really was just looking forward to meeting and getting to know other bloggers and other women who had a passion to create. What I didn’t expect was how much blogging would push me to grow as a person.

Source: weheartit.com via Good Morning London on Pinterest

Blogging has forced me to put myself out there and to step out of my comfort zone. You see, I’m typically not good at sharing my thoughts and not really one to be all ‘look what I did.’ And a huge part of blogging is putting your thoughts out in the open for all to see and read and to ‘show’ people the things you’ve made or accomplished. Not my strongest suit. I’ve had to learn to get over the fear of what others will think of what I’ve said or what I’ve done and be confident in myself. I can now say I no longer fear the ‘publish’ button {as much as I used to}.

Source: tumblr.com via Sally on Pinterest

Blogging has also made me push my creativity. In this day and age with tons of diy/decorating blogs and Pinterest, it’s easy to come across a million projects you can replicate exactly. Having a blog, you want to come up with fresh & new ideas, not just recycle things that everyone has already seen. So I’ve had to push myself and challenge myself to take all the inspiring things I’ve seen and love and create something that is totally my own and that fits me. Now when I’m working on things, I see it through the lens of the blog. How can I make this project more visually appealing, more inspiring, or more unique which in turn has challenged me to push my creativity.

Source: us.fotolog.com via Kymberly on Pinterest

And the biggest thing blogging has made me do is to learn to take risks. As a general rule, I’m not much of a risk taker. Those that know me would probably describe me as a pretty cautious person. That’s not to say I’m not a ‘go-getter.’ Once I set my mind to something, there’s no turning it back most of the time. But, usually the things I’m going after are never super risky. But, I’m learning that if you don’t take the big leaps, you’ll never end up where you want to be.

The first big risk I’ve taken is switching over from Blogger to self-hosting on WordPress. To some that might not sound like a huge risk. But for someone who is technically challenged, it was. I’ve had to learn how to read and write html code, how to edit CSS, and learn what name servers are {although I’m still not 100% sure what that means}. And, at any minute there is the risk that I could totally mess up my entire blog and it could disappear or crash and it’s totally on me to fix. Ahh! But, I love knowing that I completely own my little blog and it’s so much more rewarding when I figure things out on my own {like when I figured out how to fix the padding in my CSS template all by myself!}.

Another risk I’ve taken is signing up for my first blog conference {Haven} ~~later this month~~ next week. I’ll be a super small fish in a sea of big fish. I’ve never met any of these women and am terrified that I’m going to be the awkward middle school kid who doesn’t fit in with the cool kids. But, I know that I’m going to make great connections and learn so much and feeling a little awkward is a risk I’m willing to take.

I’m so glad I decided to start blogging. I’ve ‘met’ some incredible people and have learned so much along the way. Blogging is a lot of work, but it’s made me into a better person {cheesy I know, but it’s true}. Can’t wait to see what the next year has in store.

Any of you going to Haven?? So much to do between now and then to get ready!

Inspiration:: Breakfast Nooks

June 13, 2012 By Megan 3 Comments

Kitchens are an important room in the house. It’s the place where people tend to congregate at gatherings and it’s where families come together around the dinner table.

Lately I’ve been dreaming about what my future dream kitchen might look like. Would I want white cabinets or dark, a large island or small. Would I want granite countertops or butcher block. There are so many options!

What I have decided that I want is a breakfast nook. I think breakfast nooks are so dreamy and cozy.