My Recap of Haven 2012 {Part One}

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.

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