SNAP Conference Recap! #snapconf

This time last week I was hav­ing a fab­u­lous time at the first-ever SNAP con­fer­ence at Thanks­giv­ing Point in Utah. The con­fer­ence was a spin-off from last year’s Cre­ative Estates con­fer­ence, put on by the fab­u­lous Tauni and all of her “Snapettes”.

Such a fab team!!

img source | kris­ten duke photography

My fab­u­lous AZ roomies (Sara: Clever Pink Pirate, Katie: Sweet Rose Stu­dio, Jessa: Sparkle, Amy: Pink Bow Bath Bou­tique, and Joanna: Baked by Joanna) & I flew to Utah on Thurs­day morn­ing. Even though it was super early, we had a bit of fun at the airport–especially when I got the full TSA “pat-down” (which I got on the way home again too!!!). Once in Utah, we rented our super stylin’ van and made our way to Thanks­giv­ing Point! After reg­is­tra­tion, we headed to the tulip fes­ti­val and it was incred­i­ble (be sure to click on that “tulip fes­ti­val link” if you want to see our awe­some pho­tos from that)!! Between the gor­geous weather, tulips every­where, and blos­som­ing trees, we loved the loca­tion and every­thing else just kept get­ting bet­ter from there! Through­out our 3 days, there were excel­lent ses­sions, spon­sors, swag, food, friends, and even danc­ing! (Food pho­tog­ra­phy from Baked By Joanna, Amaz­ing cake by I’m Topsy Turvy — Photo from Is This Really My Life, Deli­cious choco­late from Velata)

(Top pho­tos with roomies, bot­tom left with me, Laura, & Sara, and two cute preg­nant ladies: me & Alli­son)

LOL! This photo is hilar­i­ous (espe­cially if you know all of our jokes) and I LOVE that we all got a photo together. Thanks to Car­olina for mak­ing such a great shirt that we all had to rally around–wish you could have been there!   (Left to right: Jen­nifer, Katie, Me, Amy, Viv, Alexa, and Heidi).

I was seri­ously ter­ri­ble with tak­ing pho­tos this year and being in them, but even with­out the loads of pic­tures to prove it, I did LOVE recon­nect­ing with peo­ple I met last year (a few shout-outs to some of the non-AZ peo­ple that I got to chat with  Cindy, Kim, Kami, Jen, Amy, Char, Becca, Ash­lee, Ali­son, Alli­son, Heather, Rebecca, Bev, Jen, Tara and many more that I know I’m leav­ing out with my late night brain). And, there were SO many peo­ple that it was a joy to meet this year–both new-to-me peo­ple and peo­ple I’ve been talk­ing to on-line for a year or more (in addi­tion to some of the fab­u­lous ladies I listed above in some pic­tures, it was an absolute plea­sure to meet Beckie, Ash­ley, Rhoda, Heather, Michele, Natalie, Alissa, Kim & Mel and many more!).  As always, the only regret with events like this is not hav­ing enough time to talk to every­one and there are STILL peo­ple that I wanted to meet but haven’t yet! Next year, right?! On the last night though, we did man­age of bit of dancin’ with some of these fab­u­lous ladies!

In addi­tion to all the fun, it was still a con­fer­ence–full of lots of learn­ing and some great take­aways! I didn’t expect to do a bunch of cry­ing in some of the ses­sions, but I totally did–especially in this one on the “Power of Per­sonal” with these fab­u­lous ladies: Beckie from InfarrantlyCreative.net, Rhoda from SouthernHospitalityBlog.com, Traci from Beneathmyheart.net, and Char from CrapIveMade.com

Photo credit: Clever Pink Pirate

I learned TONS from a legal ins & outs ses­sion with Danielle; heard some great info on get­ting fea­tured in the media (and was SO excited when one of the speak­ers was from our very own Ari­zona Repub­lic); have man­aged to finally suc­cess­fully edited some­thing in Pho­to­shop thanks to Amanda Padgett’s classes, and even got a few pho­tog­ra­phy tips from the fab­u­lous Kris­ten Duke!! There were other fun ses­sions as well, with many great “take­aways”, but I think one of the most impor­tant things about the con­fer­ence was the theme–“Just Be You”! It was reit­er­ated in var­i­ous sessions/talks and is one that is SO impor­tant to remem­ber, not just as a blog­ger, but as a person!

This slide, from part of Ana White’s pre­sen­ta­tion (which P.S. I cried dur­ing that ses­sion too, when Shel­ley from House of Smiths was talk­ing), pretty much sums it up! Lots of great points to remem­ber all in one place!

As a token to remem­ber this theme long after the con­fer­ence has ended, we each received this spe­cial neck­lace cour­tesy of Amy Corn­well. *Love*!

So, need­less to say, it was a fab­u­lous time and I’m so thank­ful that I was able to attend (thanks to a sup­port­ive hus­band & friends at home). It’s such a plea­sure to be in the com­pany of won­der­ful friends & such inspir­ing women! And, it was extra spe­cial since I’m think­ing that was my last “hur­rah” for a while with baby #3 com­ing this summer!

Thank­fully, there is a great blog­ging com­mu­nity here in AZ and I’m lucky enough to see these ladies pic­tured below (and more) on a lit­tle more fre­quent basis. Here’s a group of some of us AZ folk at the air­port Sun­day morn­ing (and boy do we look tired!!!!):

(Left to right: Joanna from Baked By Joanna, Kristy from The Diary of Dave’s Wife, Jamielyn from I heart Nap Time, Katie from Sweet Rose Studi, Kelli from lolly jane bou­tique, Me , Amy from Pink Bow Bath Bou­tique, Sara from Clev­er­PinkPi­rate, and Kristyn from Lil’ Luna).

Thanks to every­one who had a hand in mak­ing the first-ever SNAP con­fer­ence a super awe­some event!! If you want to read more from all the fab­u­lous atten­dees, don’t miss the post with the big ‘ole SNAP Recap linky!