With a broken leg.
Even I'm quite impressed with my own dedication, but we've missed out on so much this summer because of my partner's Meningitis that I'll be damned if I was letting my knee stop me doing anything.
There were some great speakers at the conference, and the day started with the very funny Ben Wakeling of Goodbye, Pert Breasts, who looked very nervous stood up there, but did an excellent job of telling us it's okay to not please everyone, as long as we please ourselves. He also gave advice about how to get your work noticed, and it's probably best not to start by tweeting Stephen Fry...
The amazing Sarah McIntyre made me want to start drawing, even though I'm completely crap at it, explained the story behind her latest book and generally just enthralled us all with her loveliness and excitement about life.
We had advice about the technical side of our blog from Ruth Arnold aka Geek Mummy, and lots of brilliant food blogging advice from two of my personal favourites Emily Leary of A Mummy Too and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. We also got a lot of tips and hints from the Tots 100 representatives Sally Whittle and Lindy DeMelo.
My favourite part of the day though, was seeing bloggy mates and coming face-to-face with so many more amazing bloggers who I have spoken to and never before met. It was great to meet Tas from Not My Year Off and Clare the Ninja Cat Killer and a few others who's work I've read and wondered if they're the same people in real life! Sadly I didn't have chance to have Reiki on my knee from Katie at Chaos and Calm, but I'll be ready next time!
It was especially lovely though to meet 3 more of the amazing bunch of bloggers who I've now known online for over a year through our involvement with Izziwizzi Kids, but never managed to meet, as well as getting back together with 2 of those who I've been to places with a couple of times before. These ladies were there for me at 3am when I was sobbing over my laptop with my partner in hospital with Meningitis and 6 of our children sleeping in the rooms next to me unaware how seriously ill their Dad/Step-Dad was. They were also there for me when I started my blog and didn't have a clue what Tots 100 even was, and at every point in between. When I want to vent or ask "Did they really just say that?", when I am posting a competition and can't get the tweet right, when I've written a post and want to make sure I didn't miss anything obvious - this lot won't hesitate to tell me how crap I am.
L to R - Kel from Writings, Ramblings and Reviews, Me, Eileen from ET Speaks From Home, Anna from In The Playroom, Tami from Mummyoftwo and Pippa from Red Rose Mummy.
I have a few more of that group that I've yet to meet - it's on my bucket list.
It was a great event, I learned a lot, and it was populated by a fantastic bunch of people, every single one of whom I have a lot of respect for. Roll on next year!
Please excuse the lack of photo's - Google has obviously decided it's way past my bedtime and is 'undergoing maintenance'.....it probably knows best....
Shamed we are not able to speak much! Girl nightout next!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely! :D
DeleteIt was great to see you all but we definitely needed more chat time :p Great round up of the day!
ReplyDeleteThank you hon! It was lovely to see you, but as ever, we needed many more hours in the day :)
DeleteLovely photo - was great to finally meet you even if it was very brief! :)
ReplyDeleteIt was! Sorry I couldn't be better company on the hobble to the train station! :D
DeleteI'll be there next time :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent! :D
DeleteSo wish I could have been there - on my bucket list to meet more of you guys too
ReplyDeleteI wish you'd be there too - let's work on that bucket list next year, if not this :)
Deletelovely to meet you again, sorry didn't get too much chance to chat with so many people there x
ReplyDeleteI spoke to you more than almost anyone else - that's how crazy it was! :D
DeleteIt was great to see you again... :) x
Sounds like a fantastic event, selfishly speaking it's a shame it was too far away for me to make it but over all I think it's good that more events like this are taking place outside London.
ReplyDeleteIt's lovely. Having all these young people and 2 little ones, plus no relatives anywhere nearby means it's incredibly hard for me to even imagine going to London for a day - but Manchester I can definitely manage! :)
DeleteCan't believe you did so much and with your leg in a brace! A really great round-up of blog summit, must have been so nice to meet your blogging chums in person. Lovely post Jenny, thank you so much for sharing with #whatsthestory
ReplyDeleteLook after that knee Mrs :)
My knee wasn't in a brace at the time. After 3 1/2 weeks they'd finally confirmed it wasn't just "a sprain" and was in fact broken the day before, but the 'soft tissue' Consultant just told me to carry on using it until I was passed on to the Orthopaedics on Monday when they said "stop using it immediately, here's a cricket brace".
DeleteIt was lovely to meet them - I'll meet you one day, but don't let that scare you too much! ;)
Impressive travelling you have done there with a broken leg!! The blog summit sounds like it was a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteIm' kind of lucky really because they realised it was broken on Friday, the Blog Summit was Saturday and on Monday they put me in a splint! I probably wouldn't have gone if I'd been in the splint before! :D
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