SNAP to it!

"There is something a bit different about being a creative blogger…We inspire one another and when we connect in ways that comfort and sustain, it is something truly extraordinary.
That is why we launched Snap – a community where imaginative bloggers can come together; learn from one another and walk away invigorated.

The hallmark of this community? A three-day conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, each spring targeting the best bloggers representing modern handmade, contemporary craft, mind blowing events and DIY.
Take a step away from your busy life and join us for lots of laughter, hugging and replenishment. You’ll walk away with a stronger sense of community, enhanced skills and an even greater sense of self." ~Snap! conference team.

It's that time again!!! Snap! conference tickets are on sale, and since a lot of you missed out last year on purchasing in time, I thought I'd let you know as soon as possible.

Yes, the pictures are amazing, but they don't even come close to how truly amazing this conference is in real life. If you've wanted to turn blogging into a more serious avenue for you to express yourself, grow your business or even make a living through... then this is the year to get serious. Go to SNAP! DO it. You won't regret it. 

Buy SNAP! conference tickets here.

xoxo

SNAP! Conference 2014 - You won't want to miss this!

Guys, I JUST realized how FAST the SNAP! conference is approaching, and I'm totally butterflies-in-my-stomach-excited about it!!!

SNAP! 2012 was awesome of course, because it was the first year that this dream conference, full of creative people and bloggers actually came together for Tauni and the team of us who had always dreamt of how great something like this could really be.

2013 was even MORE AMAZING, because we had tons of experience from the year before under our belts.

We were less worried about whether or not people would want to even show up, and so much more stoked about all the fun memories we KNEW we had to look forward to, as we were building each class, party and event for our attendees and sponsors!

SNAP! Conference Ticket Giveaway

Oh gosh, I'm SUPER excited for today's post!!! This week I'm giving away a ticket to the SNAP! conference that takes place April 18-20, here in Salt Lake City Utah! whoo hoo!

For those of you who have been reading along on our blog for a while, do you remember my recap post from last year!? Oh man... seriously, it was THE BEST. Combining over 300 creative thinking people/bloggers and handmade business owners in one place... you know it's bound to be a good time.

:)

I'm thrilled to be part of the SNAP! creative team, along with a bunch of other totally amazing women. We have a plethora for amazing speakers, classes and parties lined up for all of the attendees this year!
And speaking of parties, guess who's in charge of throwing the BIG DANCE PARTY on the last night, again!?!? Whoot, whoot... yup, yours truly! I mean really, could our fearless leader, Tauni, EVEN start to think about asking anyone else?... I think not.
ha!
:)

DIY Blogger House Announcement & Breathing Space Retreat

As I mentioned before, this past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Breathing Space Retreat at the oh-so-beautiful Daybreak Community, here in South Jordan Utah. Cason and I love EVERYTHING about this planned community. From the amazingly beautiful lake, to the walking trails and colorful homes... Daybreak has some serious eye-candy to offer.

The retreat this year was filled with fun hands-on workshops and classes. From cupcake decorating by The Sweet Tooth Fairy, to Style guidance from Becki at Whippy Cake and home decorating advice from award-winning designer Brian Clark.

photos via: Jenny K Photography

SNAP Conference 2012 - Recap

Snap-rific, Snap-tastic, HOLY-SNAP-OLY... it HAPPENED!

SNAP 2012 was a total success!!!

(If you can't tell from the picture of the SNAP team below)

:)

Photo: Kristen Duke Photography

SNAP - She believed that she could...

This week is the SNAP - Creativity at your Fingertips blogging conference! I've been a big ball of stress for the past few months, but I'm SO HAPPY with how everything has come together. Now that I've finally gotten everything done that I was responsible for at the conference, all I can do now is just hope and pray it all goes as planned for the classes and panels I've coordinated. eek!

I haven't had a lot of time to do much of my OWN prep, so I've spent most of the day yesterday and today working on personal items on my agenda to get ready for SNAP. Mostly boring things like, making sure I have all my toiletries fully stocked, getting my nails done and frantically shopping EVERYWHERE for clothes that are cuter than the ones I normally wear! lol. Conference fashion (for me) is a LOT of pressure! You know how most women admit that they dress to impress other women, and not men? Well, I think this is SO true, and 300+ cute, talented, trend-setting women all in one place, can definitely make for some AWESOMELY adorable clothes, bags and shoes... so I'm desperately hoping that I can at least blend in with the rest of 'em. ha!

Another project I've been working on are my bloggy business cards. If you've been to conferences, then you KNOW that business cards are basically the ONLY thing that you REALLY need to remember when you're packing. They are SUPER important, especially if you're networking with people or companies that you hope to make further connections with in the future.

I got a really great piece of advice from a business owner who spoke at a conference last year. She said, "I wish you bloggers would put your pictures on your cards! I can NEVER remember who's card is who's, so I just throw them all away"... Guess who she was basically saying it to? Yup... me. ugh. I was so embarrassed, but I knew she was right. How was she suppose to remember ME, at the end of a crazy weekend of 300+ people handing her their cards? Ever since then, I've always tried to put my picture on my card. ha!

Another thing that I've noticed through going to a bunch of conferences this past year or so, was that I always remembered the people who handed "stuff" out with their cards. Whether it was a small pair of earrings, a little piece of candy, or a cute hair clip. (usually something that relates to their shop or blog's theme). So THIS time around, I wanted to bump up my "bloggy-business-card-appeal" and add a little something with my card that people could have and use!

I decided to go with a small vinyl phrase from our House of Smiths Design shop! During the past few months I've kept coming back to this little saying...

"She believed that she could, so... she did."

Awwwh SNAP! - Creativity at your Fingertips is Fast Approaching!

How was everyone's Easter!? Good I hope!

Yesterday got so busy for us that I wanted to post a fun little Easter picture or two today, before it was too late. Last week we had the opportunity to go down and visit one of my favorite photographers Emilie, from Photo by Emilie, who does an annual live bunny photo shoot during Easter. My girls were just gushing over how adorable these tiny bunnies were, and I was dying over how adorable the photos turned out!

I'll be talking a lot more about Emilie, her classes and some other great tips later on, but just wanted to share these cute shots that she and I took, for now.

Alt Summit 2012 Recap

Yay! Time for an Alt Summit recap!

First off I have to give a huge THANK YOU to my sponsor this year, Rue la la for being such an amazing company to work with. The ladies on their team are top-notch :)

And secondly, this post would be MOST boring without all the amazing photography talents of Justin Hackworth, Brooke and Moss and Isaac.

So here we go!

Wednesday night of the conference started out with a bang. I headed to a yummy dinner at the wonderful Cucina Tuscana Restaurant with the fabulous ladies from Rue La La and a few fellow bloggers. It was delicious and I had such a good time chatting with new friends and learning about how Rue la la came to be one of the largest online fashion-forward flash sites, with over 5 million users!

(no wonder all the best stuff is always sold out so quickly!)

:)

After dinner Jen, Megan and I headed to Ruth's Chris for a speaker cocktail party hosted by Mail Chimp. It was done beautifully and so fun to meet face to face with lots of fabulous bloggers.

Don't ask... I have no idea what I'm doing in this photo. ha!

Rue La La & The Altitude Design Summit

You know how December is SUPER busy, and you always say to yourself... "Self, if you just get through December, then January will be a breeze!"... Well, I'm thinking that February is the new January. ha!

I can't believe how busy and fun January has already been, and it's not stopping anytime soon! Starting tonight I'll be headed to the Altitude Design Summit, right here in my own backyard! If you haven't heard of Alt Summit, basically it's a social media conference that is centralized around lifestyle, food and amazing fashion blogs. Here's a little more about what you'll find at Alt:

2011: The House of Smiths - A Year in Review

Can you even believe that 2012 is almost here!? I feel like this past year has been a whirlwind of crazy-awesomeness! We've had so much going on around our house, with the blog and Cason's new job, that I feel like time has just flown right by! How is it that some days seem to NEVER end, but then when you look back on an entire year... you can't believe that 365 of them have passed so quickly?

I wanted to do a little recap of some of our favorite and YOUR favorite posts from 2012! We went through our posts from this past year, and along with a little breakdown for you of what we were up to, we gathered our most popular projects and listed them here for any of you who may have missed them!

We started off our year with one of our most popular posts, believe it or not...

Are you a noreply-commenter!?

A simple quick tutorial on how to change your blogger.com settings so that I can respond to your comments that I love so much! Because let's get real... asking a question about a project or specific decoration in a comment and then having NO WAY for me to respond back... is just plain ol' silly.

:)

February flew in and love was in the air! We decorated and crafted up some new Valentines Decorating Ideas and shared them with everyone!

March was an EXTRA exciting month around the Smith house! I was contacted to see if my girls wanted to attend a little tea party at the Plaza Hotel in New York with Miss Kelly and Electrolux, to support an amazing cause.

 One of our favorite blogging related experiences, to date. SUCH a fun opportunity. I quickly started realizing how much of an impact blogging and social media have in the world!

SNAP! Conference ticket giveaway - 3 Day Pass ($250 value)

This weeks giveaway is a really fun one. Something that I hope ALL of you take advantage of!

A 3 day FULL pass to SNAP! The creative conference held here in SLC Utah, April 19-21st 2012. (a $250 value)

SNAP will be a weekend full of fabulous events, parties, classes and workshops like Modern Handmade Crafting, Photography, Home DIY'ing and Party Planning! Basically, if you have a creative bone in your body (yes, even if it's just a pinkie toe) you MUST come this next year, to SNAP! And don't worry... you DON'T have to be a blogger to attend. While we WILL be touching on blogger type subjects in some classes, there will be something for everyone, and tons of new like-minded friends to mingle with!

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION EVENT

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION EVENT 2011

I'm back from THE CREATIVE CONNECTION in Minnesota, and it was a blast!

I had quite the time recovering from sleep deprivation but other then that, it was an incredible event. ha! As I mentioned before, I was selected to be part of the blogger social media correspondent team, that included me, Cindy, Kami, Char, Kari, Kim, Jen, and Amy. We were responsible for all of the social media coverage (aka: blogging, tweeting, facebooking...etc.) Thank you SO MUCH Jo! So besides a ridiculous amount of instagram-ing, you KNOW that I took about a thousand pictures as well, and totally want to share them all... so I'll stop yappin' and just SHOW you my TCCE journey through photos.

:)

The blogger team flew in early, a day before the actual conference started, so once we were all settled in, of COURSE our first stop was to the Mall of America. I had my very first city bus ride. ha! It was quite the experience with 8 giggly girls all in one place.

We chowed down on some Bubba Gump Shrimp, and did some power walking to get in all the stores we could...

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION EVENT 2011

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION EVENT

I've been here this week in "Minne'soooda" at THE CREATIVE CONNECTION Event helping out as a social media correspondent and basking in the knowledge, creativity and sheer fabulous-ness of the ladies here. The classes have been fantastic, the decorations are top notch, and the food... well, it's just pretty!

(is it okay to describe food as "pretty"? ha!)

Blogher Conference

What? Shelley at a blogging conference?... That's new!

hee hee...  jk

I wanted to share a few of my Blogher 2011 photos with you because it was an absolute blast! First of all... who KNEW San Diego was completely gorgeous, fun, has perfect weather and is a 24/7 party town!?

I didn't, but now I do... and I LOVE IT!

I started off the trek to Blogher with Jenn and Heather. We made the 12 hour car ride with snacks and great music in tow. It was actually a LOT of fun being able to chat about everything and nothing for as long as we wanted. It made the time fly by. 

Heather had some meetings that she needed to attend, and we were quite early to the conference the next day, so we did some shopping and met up with my sister and cute niece, who had just moved to the area, for some delicious fish tacos and some Pinkberry frozen yogurt.

Can you say Salted Caramel with heath bar and brownie??? Oh.My.Gosh

Ah-mazing! Yes, it was my FIRST Pinkberry and now I'm hooked!

After Jen and I said our goodbyes, we headed to the conferences sponsor hall to meet some of our favorite people...

SNAP Conference 2012 Location Update & other Information

CONFERENCE LOCATION UPDATE!

We're so thrilled to finally announce the venue for the SNAP 2012 creative DIY conference!

After much work from our fabulous Tauni, we have secured Thanksgiving Point and it's incredibly beautiful surroundings for our venue.

 

Can I just tell you how utterly excited we all are!? We couldn't ask for a more majestic setting. The conference will be taking place during the most beautiful event that Thanksgiving Point has to offer... The Tulip Festival! Not to mention the award winning dining and most importantly... INCREDIBLE shopping that Thanksgiving Point has to offer!

Believe me, you will NOT be lacking for things to do or see between classes.

:)

EVO Conference Recap

A few weekends back I packed my bags and headed towards Park City Utah with a gaggle of other bloggers for the EVO 2011 conference.WOW. It was AWESOME!

There were lots of fabulous speakers, classes, sponsors, old friends and fellow new friends, like:
Alison and Shelley, Melissa, Cheryl, Kim, Gina, Lori, & Tsh
 to socialize with! And let's not forget the BEAUTIFUL scenery that Park City itself has to offer.

Instead of posting a ton of pictures, I threw together a little video of some of my favorite shots and moments.

Enjoy!

EVO Conference and Photo Finalist!

Best Weekend EVER!

So this weekend I'm at the EVO Blogging Conference in Park City with a bunch of fabulous fellow gals!  I've been having a BLAST meeting up with other amazing bloggin' ladies, great companies and gaining lots of useful information about the "art of blogging"

:)

SNAP Conference 2012

What do you get when you have A PR mastermind, Home DIY junkies, Crafting know-it-all's, and professional party planners, talking about a possible collaboration... all in ONE room???

THE 2012 CONFERENCE!

SNAP is a brand new blogging conference being held in
Salt Lake City, Utah on
April 19th - 21st, 2012.

Creative Estates Conference 2011

 It's official.  I've been smiling so much the past few days, that my cheeks hurt. lol.

I'm still on a "Creative Estates high" and just can't seem to come down!

I had SO much fun!

I felt so empowered, being around THAT many talented, creative women.

I could share with you all, each and every detail that I loved about the conference in writing... but I'll spare you, and let the pictures do most of the talking.

Because you KNOW with about 200 bloggers in one place...

that there were pictures... LOTS, and LOTS of pictures :)

Here's a rundown of what all went on!

Creative Estates AZ 2011

Oh my goodness!  I just had to pop in, to say have FABULOUSLY the Creative Estates conference is going!!!  There are so many amazing ladies here!  I'm totally blown away by the sheer creativeness of so many fantastic people, in one place!

I can't wait to tell you all more about it, and the BIG NEWS for next year! :)

Stay Tuned...!!!

 

A huge shout-out to Clever Girls Collective, for sponsoring me during this event!

I am so lucky to be included in such a Clever partnership! :)