Haven, House Crashing, & Obligatory Weirdness: a house log
You ready for a post full of embarrassing photos (of me and Katie B) and adorable photos (of Clara and Will) with a few house crashing and shopping-on-the-road sneak peeks mixed in? Oh yeah. Let us do this.
The crazy thing is that even though this little recap of our four days spent in Atlanta has over 40 photos in it, it is simply the pointer of the iceberg road trip, so we will be back with a few detailed House Crashing posts, a pleasant juicy window-shopping post from on the road, and a thrift store video that Katie and I cobbled together all in one take (yes, someone comes up to chat with us right in the middle of it). Simply gotta go through our 1000+ photos and make sense of everything. So there is that to look forward to. But for now let us focus on trying to encapsulate the remarkable/embarrassing/inspiring/delicious/nerve-wracking lovefest that was Haven. We had a blast. And to the people who organized it… I cannot even imagine how much work went into it. It was so much lively to simply show up and wander around with tons of fellow Hands-on and journal-lovers.
Pic above from Rhoda.
We were asked about a year ago to be the keynote speakers and we agreed before we could get too nervous and second guess ourselves. Then we had a whole year to think about how not to make a fool of ourselves. Did it work? Of course not. Somehow I worked the word fart into at least five sentences. You had to be there. Seriously, who has a video of that, because no amount of explaining will do that justice. But amazingly, we heard some quite kind words from the organizers, sponsors, and attendees when it was all over. So I am calling it a success. If you are consumed with curiousity about how the word fart slipped in there, you can check out a fairly detailed rundown of our chat here.
Pic above from Sarah.
Did we know we would be speaking to a room of hundreds of people? Nope. But we tried not to think about it or say the word fart (only 50% of that plan worked out). We had put together a little slide show about the 11 mostly-subconscious “decisions” that had steered the course of our journal, so we in short simply got up there and talked about everything that we think got us to where we are today – from deciding how frequently to post to how we accidentally became a business. And every time I looked out at the crowd expecting someone to be yawning or texting I was greeted with a smile. Seriously, we felt the enjoy in that room and it was excellent. I think it is why John and I felt so comfortable and a little fart or two slipped out. Wait, that sounded wrong. Of my mouth. A mouth fart. This is not getting better.
I totally could not have done this without John. It was in fact kind of lively to go up there with him because we could simply be dorks together and sort of chat and keep each other feeling comfortable. And apparently from certain angles I enjoyed hiding behind him.
Pic above from Debbie.
I certainly did that thing where I locked eyes on a few people throughout the whole chat and sort of smiled at them/creeped them out. So thanks to you folks, for not crying or getting up and leaving when I gave you my crazy too-long gaze.
Pic above from Rhoda.
And as you likely saw over on Katie’s journal, she hung out with my bean and her tinkler up in our hotel room while we got our chat on. Are they not the cutest couple ever? Not that I am biased.
Pic above from Katie.
Then we all came downstairs and mingled. Weird things like this scene from an eight grade dance ensued (that is Dusty from All Things G & D, my new real-life friend – she’s hilarious and remarkable and Katie and I simply let it all hang out with her).
Pic above from Katie.
There were truly excellent and inspiring sessions, like one from Builder/Temptress Ana White (she was so pleasant in person, I could not stop giggling around her). Let me simply tell you, that girl knows her way around a drill and a pair of stilettos. Consider me impressed (and substantially less coordinated). We also checked out Layla and Kevin’s photography/styling session and I learned a ton.
Pic above from Katie.
We also got to meet people that we feel like we have known forever- like the lovely and especially sweet Kate from Centsational Girl.
Pic above from Katie.
The folks (John and Katie’s husband Jeremy) took off with the children so we could attend those sessions, simply because two crazy toddlers and an eight pound chihuahua (yes Burger came with us too) were not exactly straightforward to wrangle in the crowds. And something happened to me and Katie when the children and spouses left. It began feeling like ladies night out. Which explains that picture of us gyrating against Dusty two photos up.
There was a fairly sweet cocktail hour at the end of the day, complete with shrimp, brie, and those little triangular pastries that taste like croissants. Good times. This is when I got to meet a ton of people and simply chatted and hung out and laughed and my mouth hurt at the end from smiling.
Pic above from Katie.
Now I will admit something to the internet that I did not think I was going to: I worried people would be haughty. Or standoffish. Or sort of like Mean Girls but grown up. I do not know, I am a nerd, so I simply went into it worrying people would be clique-y and closed off. SO NOT THE CASE. I do not know what I thought conferences were like, but this was nothing but eating, drinking, and being merry.
Pic above from Katie.
And at the end of the night, we somehow ended up shutting down a restaurant with four other excellent Haven chicks that had us at wanna-go-to-dinner-together? (Dusty from All Things G&D, Beth from Unskinny Boppy, Kent of Peachy Keen Designs, and Colleen from The Restarter Home). Apparently the place closed at 9 but the waiter did not even tell us until after 11.
Pic above from Katie.
Can I simply tell you the last time I shut down a restaurant. Never. And after a little dancing outside of the hotel to Low by Flo Rida (yes, $herdog was in the hizouse) we somehow found ourselves in another teenage pose. This time, of the prom variety. I like how we are all holding each other and Katie’s holding her baby.
Pic above from Katie.
As for what our children were doing while we were being fully responsible and not at all embarrassing parents, John kept me posted by sending little iPhone pics like this:
And then the next day Katie ended up taking us all to a truly lively public pool with all sorts of suped up stuff (lazy river? check. water slides? check). It was excellent. And it was lively to spend time with the children/family after a day of “business and lady-bonding” at Haven.
I missed mah man the day before, so it was pleasant to be reunited. Oh yes, cheesy but true. I guess when you work together all the time, you notice when your other half is gone. Thank goodness I had Katie B as my wifey-for-the-day at Haven.
Speaking of Katie… dude, the girl has a waterproof case for her Flip camera. Consider me amazed. Apparently amazed sufficient to add a caption to this picture in third person. Totally normal, right?
Yup, we all recorded ourselves going down the water slides. Except I was wearing shorts (yes, I have a fear of standing up with a giant swimsuit wedgie after many childhood experiences on water slides) so I went about one mile an hour down the slide thanks to my not-slippery-like-a-bathing-suit shorts. It was hilarious. I think people might have thought I was stuck at one point.
These next three photos are Katie’s but they assist demonstrate a few key things. For example, this one’s the best we could do with our kids in our lap. In other words: our kids be wiggly.
And this photo is to hopefully squash pregnancy rumors (I am talking to you, Mom). They tend to start when I am blocking my belly with something, like plywood or a kid (see above). I am not gonna lie though – I am totally sucking it in. Not an imaginary baby, simply a leftover-from-Clara roll or two.
See, I told you I was the cool kid at the pool rocking jean shorts to block water slide wedgies.
This photo is simply to demonstrate how ruggedly athletic I am. Never mind that I am not in fact swimming and am simply resting my belly on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool.
To keep the water theme going, Beansie had the best time down at the creek behind the Bower’s house with Will. He was a little explorer and she followed behind him dutifully.
The next day we hit up Zoo Atlanta. It was the best. I feel like I am saying everything was the best, but it was a series of lively days, so bear with me. Or lion with me. Hmm, that was a smoother pun in my head.
I enjoy this picture. So I am fighting my instincts to make an even more terrible pun like “my daughter likes to monkey around.”
Oh and we went on the train at the zoo, which was easily Clara’s go-to part- except for the “scary, scary tunnel.” She made it through like a champ though. I think it helped to know she had her man behind her to defend her.
Then it was carousel time. Clara liked it, but I enjoyed it. Nearly all the photos are of me with my mouth open too wide. What can I say? Too Excited is my middle name.
The next day it was Georgia Aquarium time. The whales? Excellent. I have no words. Except excellent apparently.
It is a truly interactive place, so Clara had lively climbing into little nooks and bubbles to peer at all of the cool fish swimming around her.
She especially liked spying on the penguins.
And peering up at the fish as they swam by overhead in the underwater tube where you could see creatures of all shapes and sizes on all sides.
But her go-to specimen was still Will. Here she is inching over…
She’s a close talker, simply like her mom.
Oh my gosh, and this is my go-to room there: the giant tank with all the whale sharks. I think we stayed in there for a good half-hour, simply staring.
Oh and I guess the whole Clara-liked-all-the-nooks-and-bubbles-she-could-climb-into was a like-mother-like-daughter thing. Because this series of embarrassing photos was shot in plain sight of anyone walking by at the time. First there is me growling and trying to do some kind of water aerobics by incorporating a sexy side lunge:
But then I inexplicably switched gears, stopped growling and made a fully nondescript face, and brought in jazz hands.
We thought it was fairly funny to see a Home Depot logo in the middle of the aquarium, so you know we all posed like the big Hands-on dorks that we are. Except for sweet Jeremy, who was glad to take the picture, wrangle Will, and pretend he did not know us. Haha.
Check out the hair situation I have going on here. A giant chunk of hair shooting over my sunglasses like a wave = a sure sign of a good time.
Of course it was not all lively and games bacon and Bower lively. We in fact squeezed in more than a few house crashings. Woot! So here is a little taste for ya from two houses that could not have been more distinct (which is totally why we enjoy house crashing – there are so many distinct rooms to snoop around, snap, and share):
Simply know there is more where that came from. Cannot wait to get those images organized and uploaded.
Oh and we did a little window shopping too, first at the Pottery Barn Outlet in Gaffney, South Carolina…
… and then at Mary Jo’s Cloth Store right outside of Charlotte, NC. I in fact got two yards of awesomeness, so I will have to share more shopping details whenever we can throw together a window-shopping rundown.
And we cannot forget our little trip to Goodwill to record another annual thrift store video for ya (like this one of yore).
So between the current Hands-on projects and updates, we will be sprinkling in some lively little ATL adventures over the next few weeks. Anyone else do anything lively this weekend? Any other Haven attendees with hilarious (slash highly embarrassing) photos to share? Any big road trips coming up for you folks? I gotta say, we dreaded 8.5 hours in the car each way with a toddler and a dog, but it was not that bad!
