A Cuppa Sugar: Blog Sugar 2011 Recap

What a fun weekend.

And when I say fun, I mean EFF YOO ENN.

FUN.

Jessica, my sister and I headed south along Highway 5 to Valencia on Friday afternoon - to celebrate my dear friend Margaret's 21st Birthday {more on that to come!}.

And Saturday afternoon we headed southward to pick up Emily & Hayden and to meet up with our hostess with the mostess, Julie, along with a handful of other bloggity bloggers.

And by handful, I mean a giant ice cream scoopful.

{Is that even a description?}

My point is, we met up with some awesome people. Some who I had met before, and some others who I hadn't.

And I introduced myself as Kim. What I learned was, I should have introduced myself as "Cuppa Kim" - as I found out, in this whole bloggy meet up world, people really do know you by your blog or twitter name. Which I think is fun.  They also recognize you by your twitter and bloggy avatar - which means if you are rocking the curly hair in those, you should probably rock the curly hair when you meet up. {Sorry for the confusion!}

Anyway, I didn't take any pictures Saturday afternoon, except this one, of the beautiful room that Julie assigned to Jessica and I.

I may have seen that bed posted on a blog before. And like, became obsessed with it.
I apologized to a lot of you bloggers for being a geeky fan.
I should have apologized to the bed too. Because I totally was a geeky fan of it as well.
{See, I even took its picture, just like I took yours.}

And it totally lived up to the hype. I slept like a ROCK.

Anyway, Julie 100% for sure has been given the spiritual gift of hospitality, she was the most incredible host thinking of everything to make sure her guests were comfortable. Her house truly was a home. And she did it all with a huge smile on her face, and joy radiating from her heart. It was evident that she truly loves people.

Sunday morning, a few of us girls gathered around this table and sipped our coffee {or ice water} while we chatted carboloaded. After all, we had a BIG day ahead.

Like, getting pampered at The Dry Bar.
Which is basically my favorite kind of bar.

I ordered a Southern Comfort mixed with a Cosmopolitan.
Yeah. I know, right?

And then I had a Mimosa.

(Erin, Mel, Heather, Emily & Hayden, and Jess)

We killed a little more time at the mall, and then it was time for a serious Sugar Rush.

Outside, I finally got to meet my dearest blogging buddy, Hannah Singer. All the way from North Dakota.

Do you have any friends in North Dakota? Because I totally do. You can be jeal. 

Isn't she fun?

She is a little bit Southern.

And a little bit Northern.

She also is a little bit Eastern.

I think all the Sugar Bloggers are working hard to make her a little bit Western!!

Inside, this is what we found...

Yes, those are donuts on top of cupcakes.
Genius.

At this point, it was time to mix and mingle {to a jingling beat}. Which to me, translates as "do not let the crazy come out. do not be awkward. stay calm".

Hopefully, I maintained some of my composure.

After mix-y time, we had our first speaker. I listened to the lovely {literally} Heather Hamilton of Life Made Lovely. She shared about telling your story - the story that God is writing in your life. She has an incredible one, and let's just say that tears were in no short supply.

Then dinner. A lot of hugging.
And a lot of taking pictures with my bloggy friends.

Second session was with Lindsey of The Pleated Poppy - about the Juggling Act.

and my third was with Jeannett of Life Rearranged and Julie of Joy's Hope on using your blog for good.

These girls preached it.
They live, and BLOG the Gospel.

Jeannett challenged us, HARD.

When we meet God, what will we have to say when He asks us what we did with that whole "blog thing". Which goes for everything - what did you do with that Twitter, that Facebook, that person you met in the grocery store, that job, that difficult moment. Did you let it be God's? Or did you squander it?

Tough.
Good.

Then we went back to our tables, where we listened to Meg, who shared what was almost a mix of the three sessions I had gone to today. Blogging her story, how she goes about blogging, and how she has learned to use her blog for God's glory and not her own.

Afterward, I got to hug, and squeeze, and meet so many amazing women who have granted me a little glimpse into their lives and what the Lord is doing there through their blogs. Daily, I receive encouragement, from all of them.

They graciously let me pretend like I was at Disneyland asking Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck to take a picture with me. {Is swapping blog cards the grown up version of getting your autograph book signed? I think, YES.}

(From Top: Danielle of Take Heart, Ruthanne of Eclectic Whatnot, Jami of Call Me Blessed, Katie of Minivan Diva, Keri of Forever Folding Laundry, Erin of Bringing Up Burns, Heather of Angel Face Designs, April of Funky Vintage Lovely, Kate of Songs Kate Sang, Denise of Victory Road and Kristen of IdahoMom, Julie of Joy's Hope, and Jeannett of Life Rearranged)

And of course, Meg.

And slightly more less importantly, I wore Meg's shoes.
Is that weird?

Meg, if you think that is weird, I cannot let you know who said it totally wasn't. It most definitely was not your friend Kimberlee {who is awesome and spells her name the same way I do, which is obviously the best way}.  She would never encourage such weird shoe behavior. And she most definitely would not be the one who took a picture of this craziness.

No, definitely not her:

After a long exhausting yet day, we returned to Julie's, where I held the sweetest little sleeping baby boy for a few hours, while a few of us sat around that table and talked and talked (and did a little more carboloading, after all we had such a long day) until none of our eyelids would stay open any longer.


A huge heartfelt thank you to Rachel for being both a dreamer and a doer - making Blog Sugar happen - which in turn is an incredible blessing to myself and so many others.

Super encouraged, and linking up with Jami today: