Blog Party 2008

The blog party has been on my mind all year to this point, especially because every time I'd check Annalisa's blog I would see the countdown to it on her sidebar. This was often anxiety-producing for me, especially when I checked her blog Saturday morning and saw all these zeros!


Saturday morning as Kristi, Michelle and I were sitting on the couches in our pajamas talking about the day we had a funny conversation that went a little something like this.

Kristi: What would you like me to do? I'm trying not to take over the party.
Me: I WANT you to take over the party!
Kristi: Oh good! (She then hopped off the couch and went shopping.)

I had been thinking Kristi (aka The Idea Factory) would come to Utah and get things moving, but it turns out she was holding back so as not to step on my toes. Meanwhile I was waiting for her to do her thing. It's a good thing we had that conversation early in the day, phew.



After that happened I was able to relax more and offer my suggestions without fear because I knew she'd make things great.


Lelly was kind of enough to make calls to various Hampton Inns and to book the room for us (she works for Hampton Inn) even though she wasn't able to make it to the party herself. I really appreciate her doing this for me, and hope next year she can come and enjoy herself.


Kacey from Doodle Bug Stationery donated the darling name tags for our party, along with 4 sets of stationery to be given as door prizes. Thanks Kacey!


Everyone brought a food item to share and we ended up with a fantastic variety of salads, desserts, and appetizer-type things. Regrettably, I was too amped up to eat until the very end of the night so I missed out on most of it. I did manage to eat a several of Barb's homemade truffles, a Krispy Kreme donut, a piece of Crystalyn's tastalicious chocolate-chip bundt cake, and Lindsay's fruit pizza (notice a pattern here?). It was 1:00am, what was I to do?


I was so excited to meet Barb and Kelly (FYI--they're sisters in law) in person. I have been reading and commenting on their blogs for a long time now and feel like I know them, so it was really fun to put voices with their personalities. I was so happy they came to the party! (They came from Canada and Oregon.)


I had to take a self-portrait during the party. This is when everyone was gathering for the big, group photo. Notice Amy M. waving in the background.


I had asked Wende, Crystalyn and Amy M. to be our official blog party photographers for the night (Kristi's brilliant idea) and was able to relax and set my camera down because of this. They captured a lot of fun shots of the night and made it easier to enjoy the party. Thanks girls!


I love this random shot from the middle of the party. It's fun to see everyone visiting and to get a feel for the room.


Having Kristi there was like having a celebrity in the room. Everyone was so excited to meet her. I think she actually managed to talk to everyone too, I'm not sure how she did that. (LtoR: Elisa, Janae, Kristy, Lindsay, Erin and Kristi.)

I was hoping our question and answer session would be better, but I think passing the microphone ended up changing the dynamic and keeping people from chiming in as much. I thought we would have a better discussion about blogging in general, though it still ended up being informative.


Tip Junkie Laurie took notes and did a very thorough job of posting the information on her blog. Thanks Laurie! (It was fun to meet in her in real life too.)


I was really happy with the turn out for the party. There are many more blogging friends I wished could have been there, but for those that made an effort to be there I was definitely thankful.


This is one of my favorite photos from the night (I think Crystalyn took it). I love the perspective on it, love that you can see the D.J. set up, love the clear focus on my sister Robyn taking a picture of me in the distance with the microphone. I had no idea the photo was being taken, so I love the candidness of it. I just think it's cool.


Kristi did a great job on the microphone giving out the door prizes and having people introduce themselves. It was a huge relief for me not to have to up front all the time (that's so NOT my thing) and was a great way for everyone to get to know Kristi's fun personality better.


Sweet, new blogging friend Ryann (who doesn't have a blog, but is a reader) ended up winning the huge amount of ribbon Kristi brought as a door prize. Kristi named Ryann "Miss Blog Party 2008" because she stopped us and introduced herself at Women's Conference and because she had such great things to say about her love of reading blogs and how they have touched her life. She is a great example of how we never know who is impacted by the things we share on our blogs.


Overall, I wanted the party to be a place for blogging friends to come together to be united in their online friendships, to feel comfortable and happy, and to recognize that they are part of something special. I kept telling people over and over again that it didn't matter if they didn't know many people there, that we are all united by a love of blogging (even those who don't actually have a blog themselves) so we are in good company and already have something in common. I truly believe this and really hoped people would ignore their feelings of shyness and their insecurities and just talk to everyone. I hope people were able to do this, I know I did.

**Do you have any questions about the party?
What could we do to make it better next year?
Will you come to the party next year?
If you have pictures to add to my smugmug
gallery, email me so I can give you the sign-in info.
stuart_jill@hotmail.com**