First of all, huge thank you to everyone who left such kind comments on my last post. After a weekend full of sleep, recuperation, and some deep thoughts, I am feeling much better and finally ready to share my wonderful experiences from Alt Summit. Its hard to believe that two weeks have passed since I narrowly escaped Seattle’s silly snowstorm and fled to the less-wintry confines of Salt Lake City to play and learn with 500 other fabulous bloggers.

Ever since I signed up for alt, i’ve sort of been asking myself why I decided to go. I heard about it after the first year (the conference is in its third), and mostly heard rave reviews last year from the likes of Amy, Danni, and Melanie. Over the summer I received e-mails that the early bird deadline was approaching, and even though I wondered why I might go, when the deadline approached, I clicked “register” and felt so excited. This blogging thing started as a way to chronicle home renovations and general goings ons, and even though it hasn’t grown into anything huge, it feels like it has become more than just a diary, it has given us a creative outlet and a community of like minded people to embrace. A lot of what I heard at the conference was “how to quit your day job”, and I think I can fairly say for both D and I that we’re not looking at that as a goal right now. I think we both just enjoy this outlet and the creative possibilities and Alt was a great step toward becoming more immersed in these possibilities.

I met some fabulous people and learned a ton. I took seminars on Site Design, Working with sponsors and ad networks, Connecting a blog and a shop (especially helpful for us to grow our little etsy businesses), Blogging about interiors, and Building a personal brand. In each session I felt more energized and engaged in wanting to grow our little community. I took tons of notes and I have a lot of ideas that I can’t wait to bounce off all of you.

Regardless of the photo above, I hardly took any real photos the whole weekend and instead relied on my phone (one of a very few androids in a sea of i-phones) to snap the activities. Instead of a verbal play by play of the conference, I thought I would share some of my favorite moments and some of the most important things I will take with me until next year.

Bring a cute notebook and a cute case to hand out all those fabulous cards (ooh, that reminds me, need to share our new cards with you all!) I brought a wool pendleton case and a zoom-zoom-zoom notebook that I picked up at MOMA in December.

Get excited about SWAG! It will come in beautiful packages and be overly generous. I hope to be able to share some of it with all of you, its that great!

The Grand America is just that: Grand. Beautiful at all hours of the day, but particularly at dusk. Its a little pricey to stay, but if you find a group of roommates, its awesome to be at the center of the action.

Speaking of roomies: its nonsense when people tell you are crazy to room with people you meet on twitter. I linked up online with Kristen and Allison, and they were both awesome ladies that I loved swapping stories with at the end of every day. Stranger Danger no more

Nail Polish is key (third only to top knots and red lipstick). I chose Loreal’s Water’s Edge with a topping of copper glitter. Loved it! Actually, it felt awesome to get up and ready everyday. I know, i know, i have  JOB and should be presentable, but I work with all men and over time I’ve come to realize, nobody cares. So to get up and put real cute outfits together (see that up top? mustard AND polka dots, wowza put on full makeup, and care about details like nails was sort of refreshing. I will try and keep it up.

How many bloggers does it take to set up room service? 4: 3 for the table and one to document it for the blog! (har har har). A story about these fine ladies: Katie, Brittni, and Jenn. We were all supposed to fly from Seattle to SLC on Wednesday before the Dinners with sponsors. On tuesday midmorning, the snow began to fall. As we were all a-tweeting, Brittni suggested that there were seats left on flights out Tuesday night if we could find a place to crash. Katie found a room free at the Grand, and we all crazily switched our flights. It was nuts! Again, total strangers (except for blogging), and we all bunked down in a crazy frenzy. And, as witnessed above, ordered room service at midnight after long travel days. You know what? It was crazy, but also fairly awesome. These gals are all terrific, and I’m not sure I would have had time to connect with them otherwise. We really got a chance to chat, and it was nice to start the conference a little early with some awesome bloggers to link up with.

Eat a good breakfast, there is a lot of hustlin‘ to be done. I ordered this banana brulee oatmeal from the Garden cafe and it was the best oatmeal I’ve had in my life!

The design camps on Saturday are TOTALLY worth staying for. I went thrifting with Liz, and then came back to the Grand for textile design. We painted some silk and it was awesome! Photos by b.a.d. photography.

Ah, but perhaps the most important thing I learned the entire weekend was of the pastry called Kouing Aman. Its like a croissant stuffed into a muffin tin and baked through with honey. AH-MA-ZING. Thanks to Liz for reserving some of these at Les Madeleines just for our group.

The theme I kept hearing again and again through the weekend was to step outside your comfort zone in order to achieve true growth. Building a community and/or business isn’t easy, and in many cases you need to feel uncomfortable in order to get where you are going. For me, immersing myself in the wonderful Alt community was the first step in going outside of my little laptop comfort zone and it was so worth it.

Be my roomie next year?

Here are some related links that I couldn’t resist sharing, in case you want more:

I bought this book upon a recommendation in the Journalism for Bloggers panel.

Helena was awesome to share some too-strong cosmos with (thanks hgtv!)

Uncle Beefy is a riot, so is capree, and carina for that matter (Carina even invited me to the cool kids party on Friday night, but then I was too zonked to go. me <– lame)

Man, can Tabitha thrift. She’s the stylist for Parks and Rec, so no surprise there. Plus, she’s hosting a pen pal project, come join me!

Melanie has compiled a pinterest board of posts about alt. Also, Ben is adorbs.

I had wanted to badly to come home from a refreshing weekend at alt summit and with my childhood best friend full in my heart and wanting to relay all the goodness to those of you who are most supportive. I wanted to share fun party pics, wonderful knowledge, and say what a great place this has all put me in mentally. But, as the weekend came to a close, I was hit with one piece of sad news, and then over the course of the week it became abundently clear that some time of rest and reflection were in order.

Firstly, thank you all for your kind comments on my mention of a loss in the family. My dear grandmother, Ella, passed away while I was in the midst of conferences at alt summit. I actually didn’t find out until I was at the airport on my way to St. George the next day, which in retrospect is probably for the best, since there wasn’t much to be done. Her passing brings a profound sadness to our family, however it was not a shock, and in many ways it brings me a great deal of peace. She suffered a stroke 12 years ago, and has been under 24 hour home care since then. She was doing pretty well until the latter half of this year when her health started to pretty rapidly deteriorate. When I called my mom to tell her I was leaving early for alt (due to “snowmaggedon”), she let me know that it was pretty likely she wouldn’t make it until I got home, but that she was already so sick she probably wouldn’t remember a formal “goodbye”. We had happy times over the holidays this year, so I reluctantly got on an airplane for what seemed sort of like a selfish weekend. When I heard she was gone, though, a wave peace came over me. She hasn’t truly been herself the last couple of years, and even over the holidays there was a more apparent struggle within her. She led a full life of 94 years and I believe she has found her peace and gone home to the 4 siblings and loving husband that went before her.

But as I said, it will be a profound loss. She was the oldest of 9 siblings, and at our next family reunion I think her maternal instinct will be missed greatly. Even writing this, I don’t think it has fully hit me that she won’t be around the next time I go visit, she’s been such a wonderful constant in my life.

One of the struggles to get through the weekend was feeling like I couldn’t be there for my family during this time of grief. When I got home, I made plans to go see my parents for dinner. On the way over Wednesday night, I received a phone call that my other beautiful grandmother fell during the day and broke her femur.

She’s had surgery and is now recovering, but it will be a long 3 months before she can bear weight again, which means she will be in a recovery facility until then. She is a wonderful industrious woman who loves to sew and create (its where I got it!) and I know it will be tough for her not to be home in her environment. Prayers for a speedy recovery would be totally welcome.

I had been hoping to make it to the hospital to visit her this weekend after surgery, but Thursday morning I woke up and my eyes were on fire. My immediate thought was that I had pink eye, which scared me. I have really sensitive eyes, and I can’t really stomach the thought of eye drops (contact lenses are enough to make me run for the hills). I went to the doc and found out that I didn’t have pink eye, but instead mycoplasma, which is the bacteria that can ultimately cause pneumonia. Apparently mild respiratory symptoms (which I had been noticing all week but just thought I was fighting something off) along with eye irritation is enough to get you diagnosed with this fun little bug. So, no hospital visit for me. I’m happy to say that I’m on day 4 of my antibiotic and my eyes no longer look like tomatoes, and a small bug seems pretty trivial in comparison to the bigger picture. The grief and stress have sort of knocked me down, though, which is why some of the happier posts have taken awhile to come together.

I’ve taken the weekend to rest and I think I’ll be back in fighting shape very soon, and I can’t wait to bring you some happier details of the past couple weeks then.

[yes I packed washi tape and used it to jazz up my badge]

My oh my what a whirlwind tour. I would have loved to post a recap of my wonderful trip to Alt Design Summit earlier, but after the conference I headed down to St. George, UT to visit my childhood bestie Kaitlyn and her family. Tonight I’m popping online to say, “I’m home!” despite some serious travel delays and I’m worn out. There were long travel days on both ends of this trip, and I’m sad to say that my family suffered a profound loss while I was away (more on that later). I need some time to recoup before I share the rest of the details.

I will say this: Alt was wonderful. There are so many adjectives being used by attendees, but the thing that floored me was the beauty that was all around. And I don’t just mean physical beauty, although there was that too (500 bloggers in a room is some serious business!), but also emotional beauty, creative beauty, and most of all Beautiful Energy. The energy of these men and women was INCREDIBLE. I didn’t stop moving for a second, and I certainly was never bored.

Also I met some amazing people, and made many new friends. I also played famous for a few moments each day by getting some QT with my some of my design idols.

Until I can get more put together, I’ll share with you these links if you’re itching for a recap of the action:

If you’re really interested, here is the Alt Summit 2012 flickr stream. Beware there are over 2500 pictures (and only like 4 of me, 2 of which are totally unflattering)

Jasmine Star’s reflection. She was the star of the show, IMO

BlogStar’s 38 things I learned at alt summit (I am so excited to use our pinterest pencils!)

Alt Summit (hair) buns (The hair inserted by me for clarity).  I will be learning how to top knot ASAP.

Amy’s 8 steps to getting over post alt summit depression.

I’ll be back over the next few days with much much more to share, I promise. There was a lot of learnin’, meetin’, and partyin’ goin’ on!

[nighttime view of the courtyard at the Grand America]

With all this snow, I have been cooking up a storm.

I have been making batches of soup in especially large quantities.  Some are old favorites that make my tastebuds sing with joy in the memory.  Some, like this one, are merely a result of food we have on hand.  I routinely begin a soup day in strong consulation with my favorite soup book:

I bought this as a gift for B… a really long time ago.  Even she said the other week, geez, I think that might be the most use we have ever gotten out of a cookbook.  So true, this thing was worth every penny!  (and note to self, who can I buy this for??)

Chicken + Potato x 2

(adapted from the Big Book fo Soups and Stews)

serves 6

6 cups chicken/turkey stock

4 medium sweet potatoes peeeled and chopped

3 carrots, chopped

2 medium potatoes (I used russet, but I bet red would be great too!)

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, minces

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken

salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot over high heat, combine all ingredients except the chicken.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce to medium-low heat and simmer while covered until veggies are crisp, approx 15-20 min.  Add chicken and simmer, uncovered for an additional 10 minutes.

Ladle into bowls with salt and pepper to taste.

Over the past two days I have been working from home, due to the crazy snow and ice we have been getting….  Whoa.  It is quiet here, with B being at Alt….

I have been working a bunch, but in my pjs.  The fire crackles all day long, and i move from working on the couch to the dining room and looking out into the snowy yard.  I may have listened to everyone of my favorite playlists on my ipod.

But the last few evenings, I have loved getting inspired to create.  A little photo editing here and there… beginning this new knitting project…pinning stuff I want to create…going through a few patterns and craft books…

One of the books I want to use a bit more this year is :

Scandinavian Needlecraft

I have been very into embroidering lately and felt, so I’m not surprised.

I have completed one project out of this book already.  I never posted about it because… I made three of the same Deer!  (Rudy, RJr, Rudette…hehehe!)   I kept one, and used it on my Christmas Dessert table.  The other two found new homes, wrapped in paper and opened under the tree.  I sit here tonight, gazing at the first deer, and smile, knowing two others are out there, hopefully being loved.