2012 June 25 | Beneath My Heart

Wow! Ladies, I am still recovering from Haven 2012.

It was very surreal to watch a dream come true this past weekend. For several years, many of us have been wanting to put together a blog conference just for Home/DIY bloggers. A year ago, Rhoda took the lead and created our planning team. For a year now, we have dreamed, planned, skyped, networked, emailed, phone-called, brainstormed, and more to put together Haven 2012.

Kate, Sarah, Beth, Rhoda, Me, Chris, and Marian

I love these ladies so much! Kristi, our blog designer, and Kristin, our event planner, are missing from this photo. We could not have done this even without them!

To see it come together before our eyes this weekend was beyond words! We all felt like proud little mamas. :)

Check out all of the swag bags lined up and waiting to be handed out.

We had so many amazing sponsors that helped us fill our swag bags with all kinds of goodies.

Wednesday, the planning team hung out to put together some of the decorations.

We all worked together to get the registration table, swag, and décor in order for the big event!

We were laughing at how many of these paper balls/lanterns that we had to put together.

Rhoda was buried in a sea of them…

It took all of us working together to put this event on.

Wednesday night we had a “meet and greet” party sponsored by Frog Tape and Oreck to start things off.

Then on Thursday morning, our keynote speakers, John and Sherry from Young House Love, inspired us all and made us laugh a lot. They were amazing!!!

They have such a wonderful blog. and it was great to hear their “blog story” of how it all began. They were so endearing to listen to. Two words I would use to describe them are “genuine” and “hilarious.”

I was able to snag a picture with them after they spoke. This picture cracks me up because it looks like John and I are a couple with our cute little baby and that Sherry is taking a picture with us! Ha!

There were many great sessions throughout the day on Thursday, and that night we had another mixer sponsored by Rustoleum. It was so great to see all of these amazing attendees just chatting it up and making new friendships.

Friday was full of more great sessions that I loved being a part of. Kevin and Layla (from The Lettered Cottage), and Josh did an AMAZING job in their photography class! I learned so much!

Here’s Kevin talking to some ladies about their cameras.

Here’s sweet Layla talking to some ladies about their cameras as well.

Now, here are a TON of pictures that I took with some of my favorite ladies.

Renee from Living, Laughing, and Loving and Christina from The Frugal Homemaker

Tonya from Love of Family and Home

Kristin from Favorite Paint Colors

Melissa from 320 Sycamore

A highlight for me was meeting Tonya from Women Do Everything. What an amazing life story she has. So Inspiring!

Susie from Susie Harris blog

I was thrilled to finally meet Susan from Between Naps on the Porch. She was one of the blogs that my mom followed, and she told me I should go read her blog. It was a very special moment for me because I could hear my mom saying, “Traci? You got to meet Susan?!!” Yes, Mom. I did. Smile

Susan from Living Rich on Less

Check out this group of amazingness…

haven 166

Front row: Sandra (Sawdust and Paperscraps), Roeshel (DIY Showoff), Brittany (Pretty Handy Girl)

Middle row (sitting): Chris (Just a Girl), Myra (My Blessed Life), Marian (Miss Mustard Seed), Stacy (Not Just a Housewife), Wendy (The Shabby Nest), Me.

Back row (standing): Gina (Shabby Creek Cottage), Beckie (Infarrantly Creative), Beth (Home Stories A2Z), Rhoda (Southern Hospitality), Sarah (Thrifty Décor Chick), Kate (Centsational Girl)