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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Houston Blogger Symposium Recap

A couple of weekends ago I attended the Houston Blogger Symposium, thanks to Allison who told me about it (by the way, I must say congrats to Allison for her first international sale on her Etsy shop last week).  This was my first official blogger conference and I'm so thankful I was able to attend.  Tickets sold out quickly and the waiting list was crazy long. 

Unfortunately, I did not attend the pre-party mixer at Langford Market the night before.  I was not feeling great all week and it was crazy raining that evening so all I wanted to do was curl up in bed after work.  It looked like an awesome time though so I'm kicking myself a little for not pushing through the pain. 

The conference was held at Hotel ZaZa.  The room for the event was perfect with great views of Houston and lots of cute vendor setups.  We had assigned seating arrangements and I lucked out at the Kendi Everyday table which included: Sara, Allison, Bre, Katie, Jamie, Ashley & Courtney.

Note:  The majority of the images below are by Paige Budde Photography.  The grainy pictures are from my iPhone!

The Kendi Everyday Table

There was time for yummy food, champagne, and shopping. 




 
 

Once the conference started, we heard from two panels and a final speaker.  All were inspirational and I learned a lot.  Speakers included Megan (the AMAZING conference planner and moderator), Katy, Alicia, Lisa, Laura, Davina from Langford Market, Meg from Reward Style, Julianne from Francesca's, Kristina and my faves Kelly & Brandi.  For me it was just so overwhelming to be in a room filled with awesome, smart, creative women who love to blog just like me.  In fact, Alli and I kind of felt like groupies stalking our favorite celebrities when we were able to meet some of our blog crushes in person!

Allison and I chatting it up with new blogger friends!  I think I'm also patting myself on the back for attending such a great conference.



As if everything I just mentioned wasn't good enough, we all walked out with the BEST swag bags!  They were filled with items from Chi, Francesca's, Bath Junkie, New for the Night...we even received an entire outfit (hello cami, leggings and scarf) from Langford Market!!!  We were spoiled. 



If you weren't able to attend this conference, I included lots of great links in this post of bloggers you should check out.  You can join the Houston Blogger Symposium blog so you can join us next year.  My advice is to register early! 

Also, if you feel compelled to attend a blogger conference soon, check out Blissdom coming March 2013 in Dallas!  I hope to see you there. 

Blog Alert....big Perfect Catch Blog news coming later this week...stay tuned!

Chelsea

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Happy Birthday to my Ashley!

Today is Ashley's birthday!  Go show her some birthday love on her blog, Newlyweds & Nesting.  Her husband, Wentzel celebrates his birthday tomorrow so you can show him some love too!  You can also check out her online store, Ribbons & Rick Rack

Ash, or Ashel, as a call her...she calls me Chels-a-roo (we are so mature), moved to Tyler a year ago and I miss her everyday.  We got very spoiled when we first met at work because we got to spend every work day together.  Since we worked at a college in the admissions office doing recruitment and special events we even got to spend many evenings, weekends, and during summer orientation, two straight weeks together in a dorm!  On top of that, we completed our masters together (signing up for the same classes of course) so we got to spend our nights together too...hello Taco Bell runs for dinner!  Some days we were together from 8am-10pm...seeing each other more than our husbands.

Needless to say we developed a special bond that doesn't happen often and I knew we would remain close forever, no move would change that, however sometimes it stinks. 

Even though I don't get to celebrate her birthday in person, she is coming to visit in a few weeks and I can't wait!!!!  Last time they were supposed to come, our AC went out so let's all pause and say a little prayer that nothing happens this time. 

Drill Team pose!

San Antonio

Ashley's Wedding Shower

Ashley's Wedding

We love Pears!!!  Gotta love the matching HBU shirts...and my horrible haircut!

Our staple black and gray

Summer Orientation

At a wedding

MBA Graduation day!!!

Happy Birthday Ashley!!!  I hope you have the most special day!  Can't wait to see you soon. 

Love,
Chels-a-roo

Sunday, September 23, 2012

September Birchbox Vlog



This was not my favorite Birchbox, but I didn't hate it enough to cancel my subscription.  Overall, I continue to feel that for $10/month I am getting my money's worth and discovering some amazing products that I now use everyday...this just wasn't that month.  But I did get 100 extra Birchbox points for receiving a duplicate item.  Thanks Birchbox!

Still not a Birchbox subscriber yet?  Subscribe now!

Have a great Monday!

Chelsea

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Erin Condren Life Planner Reveal Vlog



Check out Erin Condren Life Planners here!  I couldn't be any happier with my new planner and am happy with all of the "upgrades" I purchased. 

Hope you are having a great week!

Love,
Chelsea

Monday, September 17, 2012

Looking Forward

I had such a wonderful weekend that included a lazy movie night with pizza on Friday, the Houston Blogger Symposium on Saturday (so inspired...post coming soon), a fundraiser for Melanoma Cancer Research Saturday night with my mom, and the laziest Sunday I've had in a long time! 

Even though it's a rainy Monday (well it was when I woke up) and I'm dragging a bit, I'm looking forward to lots of things this week:

-  Erin Condren Life Planner arriving Tuesday!
-  September Birchbox arriving sometime this week!
-  Junior League Ad Sales meeting Thursday night...my sales are doing better so I'm looking forward to this meeting!
-  Reading Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (author of Gone Girl)
-  Watching Parenthood on Tuesday night on NBC.  Oh how I missed this show!
-  Eating potato leek soup from Whole Foods for dinner tonight.  The ultimate rainy day/Monday meal. 

What are you looking forward to this week?

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Blogger Conferences


This weekend I'm attending my very first blogger conference, the Houston Blogger Symposium.  I'm attending with friends Allison, Sara & Darcy...plus tons of online friends I can't wait to meet in person!  This is probably the best way for me to get my feet wet since this is a local, half day conference with around 50 people in attendance.  Not too terribly overwhelming. 

I feel like I'm somewhat prepared with my new blog business cards, but what else does one do to prep for one of these? 

And most importantly, what does one wear???

I need two outfits: one for the pre-party mixer tomorrow night at Langford  Market in Rice Village and another for the actual conference at Hotel ZaZa.  Help!





I also recently signed up for BlissDom 2013 in Dallas, TX on March 21-13.  This conference will be much larger.  I'm excited to attend with Ashley, especially since we don't live in the same city anymore...it will be great to catchup plus attend the conference together.  Besides being my bestie, Ashley was the one who introduced me to this awesome blogging world (even helping me setup my first blog, Life's a Beach, and designing all of my headers and backgrounds) so it seems appropriate that we are attending together.  I can't think about how stressed I will be to choose outfits for that one!

In the past BlissDom was held in Nashville.  I was jealous in past years reading about other bloggers' fun experiences.  I never felt like my blog was "big" enough to justify flying out of state for a conference.  But this year...4 hour drive?  No brainer! So excited!!!

P.S.  Laura...go signup now and we can check that off your list!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

That Fall Shopping Itch

Every fall I get that shopping itch.  Maybe it comes from years of going back to school shopping.  Stores throw all of the summer clothes on a sale rack and have gorgeous displays of rich colored sweaters, dark denim, tights and leggings.  Even though in Houston we won't really have a need to wear these items until late December, there's something about football games and fall decorations that makes it okay to wear a big comfy sweaters in 90 degree weather. 

Since our new house is eating all of our money at the moment I can't really indulge much, but here are a few items that have either caught my eye or I've recently added into my wardrobe. 

Sweater Coat, Anthropologie
Tunic Sweater, Old Navy

Peplum Open Hem Sweater and Hammered SatinFloral Peplum Top, Ann Taylor
Southwest Fringe Sweater, Macy's

Striped Cover Up Sweater, White House Black Market




 

Monday, September 10, 2012

Erin Condren Countdown

I ordered my new Erin Condren Life Planner last week and am impatiently waiting for it to arrive.  Being without a planner stinks...plus I'm so excited to see the new features!  I am officially stalking the EC site checking on my planner's status.  And I realize this officially makes me a loser...

That and the fact that I admitted last week that one of my favorite things to do on the weekend is grab a coffee and browse the aisles of The Container Store. 

Anyone else???

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Labor Day Weekend 2012

I realize I'm just now recaping the weekend and it's basically the beginning of a new one, but my excuse is that it's a short week.

After my super fun car break-in last Thursday and living without AC for two weeks, Jason and I decided to get the heck out of town for the long weekend and it was wonderful!  We headed to Matagorda, a favorite weekend retreat.  My mom and LE were there of course (it's their house) and my step-sister, Lisa.

For those of you new to the blog (welcome!), Matagorda is where Jason and I got engaged and a fave place for us to run away to since it so close...just 1.5 hour drive.  Besides all of the good memories and getting to spend time with family, one of my favorite things about Matagorda is that fact that getting "dressed up" in this town means putting on shoes (flip-flops of course).  I didn't put a stitch of makeup on the entire time we were there and went to the store in a bikini top.

We fished, boated, shopped, ate (I did cheat a little, but tried to balance it out and watch my portions), watched movies, read, and spotted a ton of weird animals....

We also learned (thank you Mom) that it's possible to get a cheese dip hangover. 

This is where the boys lived

My weekend uniform!

Tuck loved being in the sun

He also discovered fishing!  He has been around us fishing so many times, but this trip he actually got into it.  He tried to bite the fish and almost jumped in after them several times.

One happy pup

Weird animal sighting #1: A Buck swam across the river twice

The wild hogs that live across the river

Weird Animal Sighting #2: Porpoises swimming in front of our house.  What's so weird about this is that our house is on the Colorado River, not the ocean.  It all feeds in together so when the tide goes in and out we get a crazy mixture.

We named this guy Everett and he was with us the entire weekend.

Weird Animal Sighting #3:  Baby hammerhead shark swam up on the beach


 

TONS of jellyfish, not spotted on the beach, but all over the river

Last but not least, Weird Animal Sighting #4: Scorpion!  I know these guys are around, but don't like seeing them.  We found him (dead) in the house.  Creepy!

 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Facebook Official

The Perfect Catch Blog now has a Facebook page!  Just another way to connect.  I look forward to seeing you over there! 

Hope everyone had a great, long weekend.  We checked out of town and headed to Matagorda to relax.  Lots of odd animal spottings that I can't wait to tell you about later this week. 

I'm still getting my life back to normal after my car break-in.  Still no computer or iPad, but both have been ordered...and in even bigger news, a replacement Erin Condren Life Planner has been ordered and should ship next week!!!  And to add to the good news, our AC has finally been fixed and my hair met a blow-dryer after 2 weeks of being on strike from extra heat at the house.  Consider me a one lucky girl this week...knock on wood please.   

 

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