My Broken Shoe & Other Haven Mishaps

Hello friends! I took a much needed break from the blog this weekend while I attended the Haven Conference in Atlanta. Haven is a DIY/home design blogging conference that happens every year and I’ve been dying to attend!

I know there are so many Haven posts filling up blogland right now but to be honest I’m still too overwhelmed to write an informative post. So like any newbie Haven attendee would do, I’m going to share some conference bloopers!

To start the journey I had strategically planned to have my hair blow dried at one of my favorite salons. I scheduled the appointment for 10am with plans to leave between 10:30am-11am with my friend and travel buddy, Mallory, from Charming in Charlotte. And if you haven’t found her blog yet it’s a must read y’all! Mal rocks!

The stylist was great and VERY thorough but I didn’t pull out of the salon until after 11:15am. And of course after Mallory picked me up she had already gotten coffee so I had to make her stop for me :)

I thought my day would turn around after the coffee…well…

I had planned on bringing my roomies a little gift (for putting up with my frantic self) and even though it was on my list along with a notebook, a good bag to carry all of the awesome swag, etc, I realized I never made them. I was stressing about it because I really wanted to do something but my roomies were so gracious! I’m not really sure what I did end up packing that was on my list other than way to many clothes!

We finally make it to Atlanta and couldn’t be more excited. Since we were “drivers” to the conference we lugged in our 2 (I mean 15) bags, got through the check-in lines and headed to our room. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly but I was a bit of a bumbling idiot which I guess is really not that unusual for me.

I woke up the next morning with such hopeful ambition. I knew the day would be jam packed with informative session and it started out great…until I realized that my fly (yes the zipper on my pants, sorry is that TMI?) had been down for about three hours. I’m talking, white skinny jeans and black zipper with a shirt that didn’t quite cover. You feel me? I’m not one to get embarrassed too easily so I brushed it off zipped it up and kept moving.

During the conference a handful of bloggers were chosen to participate in a coffee table challenge where we had 10 minutes to pick accessories and style a coffee table in front of other attendees. Just shortly before the challenge I had to run to the room to use the bathroom and grab some more business card.

So, I’m riding the elevator up to the 7th floor and by about floor 4 I realize I’m almost alone in the elevator with the one and only Mandi from Vintage Revivals (who is just the sweetest by the way!). Mandi was incredibly friendly and started chatting with me right away. Then she asked me for my card and with shrunken shoulders I had to tell her I was out. I mean REALLY?!?!?! I eventually found Mandi again after her awesome session and brought her my card and we chatted for a minute. She could not have been more sweet and humble!

Red faced as I was I made it to my room where of course my key wouldn’t work. At this point I only had about 7 minutes to get downstairs for the style challenge. So without cards I headed back down to use the restroom and get to the challenge.

As I was walking towards the auditorium I made a funny step and felt a pop in my shoe. Would you believe that the strap on my adorably cute silver wedges broke (sorry mom, these were yours!). Yep! Broken shoe and all I’m off to the coffee table challenge to run hobble back and forth from the table to where the accessories were under a time limit. At this point I’m screaming in my head, RRREEEAAALLLYYY?!?!

Here is our team and table. We didn’t win the challenge but I thought it turned out pretty well regardless!

From left to right:

Life on Viriginia Street, Windgate Lane, Sand and Sisal, Our Rosey Life, Me

Needles to say I was completely frazzled for the first 24 hours so I apologize to any of you that I met and chatted with and probably made no sense whatsoever.

Despite all of this I met so many bloggers whom I’ve connected with and can now call true friends as well as many new ones!

There are so many more but here are a few of the great friends I met!!!

Sorry for the iPhone pics, I never even pulled out my other camera :(

From left to right:

Me, The White Buffalo Styling Co., Cuckoo 4 Design, The Chronicles of Home, A Home Full of Color, The Thriftress, Primitive and Proper

From left to right:

Blue I Style, Me, Tiny Sidekick, Upcycled Treasures

From left to right:

The White Buffalo Styling Co., Iron & Twine

Me and Charming in Charlotte with Whitney and Erin from the awesome Home Depot Team! Their booth was so creative and I love seeing several of my projects hanging on the Instagram wall!

From left to right,

Me, The White Buffalo Styling Co., Charming in Charlotte

I loved so many things about the conference ~ the sessions, meeting sponsors, chatting with everyone ~ but my favorite part was meeting so many beautiful and talented friends. Some that I know I’ll be friends with for a lifetime!

Now, I’m ready to hit the ground running and use all of this new found knowledge to bring you an even better Simple Stylings blog!

Lots of exciting stuff to come, I wish I could spill all the beans now!

Home Depot Style Challenge posts are starting to go live this week so I’ll let you know as soon as our game is posted!