So! My brain is frazzled, It also hurts a little, my eyes are still droopy and I have a heavy heart, I have so many things whirling around in my head that I know know whether I am coming or going!!! What on earth have I been up to you may wonder, a heavy night partying, a long day at work or has something bad happened? Quite the contrary! I have been to Blogtacular and I bloody loved it!!!

Blogtacular 2016

I have followed Kat who founded Blogtactular some some time and as this was the third year of the event I have often wondered, would this be good for me or is this just a Mecca for REAL bloggers, you know the ones that do it all the time, the ones that get paid for it, the ones who everyone knows? It was Allison Sadler who convinced me to buy a ticket and I can’t thank her enough. I have been looking forward to Saturday’s event for months, getting excited about meeting new people, meeting the lovely people who I have come to be friends with on Instagram and the prospect of learning new things. Prior to the day Blogtacular set up a Facebook page for ticket holders so you could start to chat to the other attendees and ask questions, this was brill and meant that many of the strangers standing in front of me didn’t really feel like strangers at all.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the photo-walk and pre event party the day before ( I will make sure I can next year!) so I arrived on Saturday morning not really knowing what to expect but I was greeted with lovely hugs from my IG friends and everything was great! I had made the decision to make up some mini flatlay styling kits – a smaller version of my new product to hand out with my business cards and I am pleased I did as I was able to speak to the editor of Mollie Makes about them and use them in my Flatlay session with Sara Tasker.

We all went into the conference room for the Keynote speech by the amazing and enthralling Lisa Congdon, Artist, illustrator and author. She spoke to us at length about her life, her goals and her fears and basically put everyone’s mind at rest, she told us that everyone has ‘vulnerability hangovers’ and that’s ok! That’s when you do, say or write something that you later regret!! We then had the choice of picking 3 sessions out of 9 throughout the rest of the day which was very difficult as you kind of wanted to listen to them all but we made our decisions and stuck to them – ish!

Blogtacular 2016 – LIsa Congdon

The rest of the day was taken up with a community session, learning how to take your community along with you on your journey , iphoneograpy – getting the most out of your phone camera and practising flatlay skills and then a writing workshop, how to grab your audience, have I grabbed you? Do you feel grabbed?!! We ended the day with a talk from Enid Hwang – Pinterest’s community marketing manager and it was fascinating to hear how Pinterest started, how big it has got and how powerful a tool it is. She was also really lovely and funny and what she said resonated with everyone.

Then THE GOODY BAGS!!!! I mean who doesn’t love a goody bag? I resisted looking in mine until I got on the train but it is filled with gorgeous stuff, stationary, crafty makes and Annie Sloan paint in my favourite pink. Another post just on that I think!

Blogtacular 2016

Even though the workshops were FAB and gave me loads of food for thought, which as I said I spent most of Sunday in a daze contemplating my next move! I suppose the best part of the day was people. Being surrounded by like-minded people, creative people, lovely friendly people, people who didn’t care if you were big or successful but just wanted to chat. People who were free with their ideas and their time and people who made me laugh.

I left feeling excited that I had more to give and more to do and I have all of the people there to thank for that. I have plans and I am not afraid to use them!! Oh and on the train I met a man who’s wife ran a bridal shop so I gave him my card! Yesterday she messaged me, you see life has a funny way of putting you in the right place at the right time.

Blogtacular 2016 – What on earth an I doing??

Blogtacular 2016

Blogtacular 2016 – Enid Hwang

Blogtacular 2016

Thank you Blogtacular – see you next year x