My SNAP! Recap

Happy Hump Day!

If you didn’t get a chance to link up your Best DIY Projects of April to my party yet, just click on the button below to do so.

 

Today, I wanted to quickly share with you the wonderful trip I took to Utah for the SNAP! conference.

 

I am so very, very grateful that I was able to attend this conference.  For a mama that hasn’t done much traveling over the past 13 years while I’ve been raising boys, I feel so blessed to be able to do such things now.  I am also very grateful to Dee from Red Letter Words for helping sponsor my trip.  And to everyone who purchased one of Dee’s products to help sponsor me, THANK YOU!!!  I truly do not deserve such kindness.  You bless my heart!

 

This was the very first year of the SNAP! Conference, and Tauni and the SNAP team did an amazing job putting it together!

 

I flew out of Ky at 6:00 am EST, and arrived in Salt Lake City Utah around 10:45 MST.

I was able to get a couple of amazing pictures from the plane.

Which is all I got because I broke my camera on the bathroom floor during my layover in Chicago.

 

(Good news about my camera!  The camera wasn’t damaged, so I only had to replace my kit lens.  I was able to get another lens this week, and I am thrilled to have a working camera again!)

One of the very best parts of the whole conference was my roommates!

I roomed with Beth (Homes Stories A2Z), Rhoda (Southern Hospitality), and Beckie (Infarrantly Creative).  This is the first conference I have ever been to that my sister wasn’t my roommate.    I did miss my sis, but I was blessed to be rooming with three amazing women.  I cannot express how much I love and adore them.

Here are Rhoda, Beth, and I being silly at dinner the first day.

 

My dress was a hit at the conference!  Two other girls had the same ones.   However, I would like to mention that mine was the cheapest.  The girl on the left had a little bit of a different dress on, but the girl on the right had the exact Calvin Klein dress that I had on.  She paid over $100 for hers at Nordstroms (I believe).  I got mine for $39.99 at Marshalls!!  Booyah!

(Photo by Destiny, A Place for Us)

Here I am with some of my favorite “home girls”.

Kate (Censational Girl), Stacy (Not Just a Housewife), Rhoda, Me, Beth, and Wendy (The Shabby Nest)

That was the first time I had ever met Stacy and Wendy in real life, and they were so awesome!  It was like we had know each other for years.

There were many great sessions by the “home girls.”

Shelley (House of Smiths), Ana (Ana White), Emily (Décor Chick), Kate

I have been wanting to meet Shelley for what seems like Fo-ev-a!  That girl is a hoot!  She is every bit as precious and vivacious as she comes across on her blog.  And it was an honor to meet Ana too!  She’s going to be speaking at our Haven 2012 conference next month, and I look forward to seeing her again.  Kate and Emily were also speaking at the same session as Shelley and Ana.  They were already  my  “in real life” friends, and it was so good to see them again!

I got to meet Cassity, who is a doll, and I also got to see Brittany again.  LOVE HER!

Cassity (Remodelaholic), Brittany (Pretty Handy Girl), Emily

 

 

My roomie, Beth, was a speaker at one session, and she did an AMAZING job sharing how to decorate with vignettes.  In the picture below, she used me as a “sunburst mirror.”

(photo by Destiny, A Place for Us)

I spoke on Saturday at a session called, Power of Personal on a DIY Site.  Char from Crap I’ve Made, and Rhoda and Beckie were also speakers in that session.  Don’t I look all serious and professional in this picture? 

Well, it wasn’t ALL serious.  We laughed a lot too!

 

Then Saturday night, we had a big ol’ dance!  One thing you need to know about me is that I LOVE to dance.  And there is nothing more fun than about 300 women dancing to “Girls just wanna have fun!”

Emily, Décor Chick, snapped this picture of me dancing.  How funny is that?!  Jenn, from Tatertots and Jello, is feelin’ it too!  (Love how my shirt straps are hanging out, don’t you?)

 

Beckie was a crazy lady on the dance floor!  That girl can bust a move!

 

I learned so much at SNAP!

But the main thing I learned (again) is how blessed I am to be a part of such an amazing community of women.

It is such a honor to grow with them, learn from them, laugh with them, cry with them, be stretched by them, dream with them, and be loved by them!

This little blog of mine has blessed me beyond my wildest expectations!

 

Maybe someday, I will get to meet some of you in real life!  Wouldn’t that be great?!!