Five Friday Pin Up and my first Blogging Conference - Blissdom Canada.

In my last post I mentioned the last week was very busy which is why I was late in it out.  Here is my run down of what happened Thursday-Sunday.

Thursday - Work in the day, met my friend downtown right after work for dinner, then crashed at her house for an early Friday morning

Friday - Went to the Marilyn Denis show, Thanks to Blissdom Canada.  The entire show was bloggers who were attending the conference.   Then in the afternoon I got a prenatal massage, (Amazing) and then made cupcakes for my baby shower on Sunday, then a family dinner in the evening. 

Saturday - Went to the Blissdom Canada Conference from about 7am-6pm,  then went out for dinner and since I am now almost 36 weeks pregnant I crashed and went to bed quite early.   Not that I slept well but I was in bed. 

Sunday - Went for a pre-baby shower manicure/pedicure, then baby shower and then had some friends hang out afterwards for some games.   

So clearly very little time for writing and posting. This Monday started conference #2 with Online BlogCon. At least with this one I don't have to read everything right away and I can come back to those posts.   I can barely keep up with the facebook posts let alone the BlogCon posts. 

Here are my thoughts on Blissdom starting with the Marilyn Denis show.  It was very cool to see how the show operates.   The timing, moving things around, getting people ready, it was all very quick.  The hour flew by,  started and then it was done, just like that.    It was exciting to get some gift cards and a book as some giveaways as well.   It was pretty fun,  although it wasn't to then see myself on TV later on when I watched it.

The conference started Friday night with a small event I didn't attend.  When I first booked the tickets to go to Blissdom Canada,  I did not know I would be 36 weeks pregnant at the same time so I had to pick and choose what I felt I could attend.   My focus was obviously the main conference day.   It started with a newcomers meet and greet, which was quick but great to meet a few new comers as well.   After that there was breakfast, which was a little disappointing as it only consisted of granola, fruit and yogurt and then a presentation by Dove which was simply their commercial on TV done in person. After the opening remarks, the morning consisted of mircosessions, which sounded promising as the topics were very relevant and interesting.  Unfortunately with only a half an hour each there wasn't really enough time it seemed to get into any great detail,  I would have loved some more in depth content. We also only had time to attend three mircosessions out of about 25 that all had the potential for great information.  The afternoon consisted of 5 speakers with Jian Gomeshi being the first and best.   Not that he talked a lot about blogging, he is just a great speaker and was very funny.   I am very interested to get his book now.
  

I did meet a lot of really great people at the conference which is obviously one of the key reasons to go.  Blissdom is full of really fun, passionate people and that was probably the best part for me as I still left thriving for some more content when I left.  The other bonus was leaving with a great amount of free products and swag from the sponsors, that is always a nice perk.

Sunday was my baby shower so I did skip out on the Blissdom excursions day.  I am not upset however as my baby shower was fantastic.  My family did an amazing job at putting it all together.  Pink and green turtles were everywhere,  with tons of games, crafts and lots of delicious food.  I got to see lots of friends and family, got some great advice and the baby got spoiled.  Hubby and I are now pretty much set for baby's upcoming arrival, now we anxiously wait for the next 4 weeks.  It was really an overwhelming day full of a lot of love.

A few of my favorite things... Sea turtle cupcakes decorated by my sister and a create your own onesie craft that my sister in law planned.

With Blissdom last weekend and Online Blogcon earlier this week I have met so many new bloggers and been exposed to tons and tons of great new blogs.   For this reason I need to get back into my Five Friday Pin Up.   Here are some great things I pinned over the last little while.

1) Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup by We pass the time of day to forget how time passes : http://pinterest.com/pin/149744756331466585/     I have been addicted to tomato soup lately. I have to make this.

2) Grandma's Lasagna by Wishes N Dishes : http://pinterest.com/pin/149744756331553426/
Seriously, just look at this.

3) Broccoli and Cheese Muffins by It all tastes Greek to Me : http://pinterest.com/pin/149744756331623841/     I want these for breakfast tomorrow.

4) Pumpkin Caramel Kiss Cookies by Something Swanky : http://pinterest.com/pin/149744756331551969/     Oh pumpkin you do us right in so many ways.

5) Peanut Butter Glazed Chocolate Chip Donuts by A Kitchen Addiction : http://pinterest.com/pin/149744756331624341/   


I am still behind on the Online Blogcon posts and catching up with all the attendees blogs/pages/twitter/pinterest so my debrief on that will be in the next couple days.

Have a SWEET weekend!