Favorites – AWBU Insta-Recap

This past weekend was one of my favorite yearly events  the Arkansas Women Bloggers University Conference. 

I love this event primarily because I get to see friends from all over the state and even a few from around the country!

I also love it because EVERY year I learn something despite the fact that I think I won’t (can we say arrogant? cynical?)

And this year I learned the most thanks to the skills of Jackie Wolvern, James Busvlogger, Alison Chino, and Allie Worthington.

Also I got to laugh a lot, hug a lot, and just soak in the goodness that is the women of AWBU. (Which I needed after the insane week that led up to AWBU.)

Plus I got to road trip with Jeanetta (above) on the way there and Misty on the way home. Love.

This years conference was in a hotel instead of at one of our amazing state parks, which is where they have been in the past. The hotel was good for some things, but I have to say that I personally missed being at a park (even though the city of Rogers, AR was a FAB host to us all throughout the event,) and I think that the lack of  “scenery” inside the hotel hindered my photo taking this year.

Or maybe I was just tired.

Or just too busy learning stuff.

However, I did manage to snap some shots on my phone, and if you follow me on Instagram then you will have seen all of these, but I thought it would be nice to round them all up in one place as a little photo album of the weekend for me.

So here they are in no particular order – favorite moments from the AWBU 2014:

 

Foodie Friday – Practicing my food photography skills. This photo actually won me a door prize. Pretty sure the fruit loops did all the work, I was just lucky to catch them. The event was sponsored in large part by Taste Arkansas one of my favs.

 

It’s been a year since I hugged this gals neck. I pretty much tried to stayed glued to her the entire two days we were together.

Alison is a dear, dear friend, and now she lives in Scotland. Getting to soak up her friendship, her wisdom, and her hugs were the highlight of the weekend for me.

In her session on Storytelling she reminded me that to write a compelling story, I have to live a compelling story.

Alison, I am on it!

 

 

 

Friday night’s event kick-off was at the Rogers Little Theatre. We were entertained by the Sockmonkey Improv group and fed by our sponsors. It was so much fun and the improv troupe brought back all sorts of high school and college memories.

 

 

Drinks with my girls after the show.  Having moved thirty minutes down the road means that I don’t get to see my Dogtown girls enough. This was a great night of fruity pink drinks and lots of laughter.

 

 

Silly selfie.  Because this is a social media driven event there are lots of contest and promo’s and challenges.

This was the selfie challenge. I remembered it about 20 min before I passed out from all the fun.

Also I got to show off some of our sponsors, which is what a good conference attendee does. Win-win.

 

This was my egg-fortune from Great Day Farms.

When I begin blogging 8 1/2 years ago it was still pretty “different.”

I am grateful for where it has taken me, those it has led me too, the lessons it has given me.

Starting my blog is one of the best things I ever did and finding the AWB gals was icing on the cake.

 

Alli was our keynote speaker and quite by accident I sat down beside her at lunch.  It was so much fun to get to meet her in person after having been online peeps for a while.  This girl knows how to rock a selfie, knows about good lighting, and knows the value of saying no.

The past 18 months have pretty much been about learning this for myself and it was great to have her sweet reminder that when we try to do all the things all at once, we only end up doing them all badly.

Amen sister!

So there you have it.

My AWBU Insta-RoundUp for 2014.

It was delightful. Can’t wait till 2015!

 

much love,

J