Tuesday, August 13, 2013

#TXSC13 Recap! :)

Haiiiiii.

Shay here. You know, the girl that supposedly runs this blog. Yeah, I know, I'm LATE...SUPAH Late with a capital "L" with my Texas Style Council recap. Instead of going into a full paragraph of WHY I have been MIA, you probably already know why, and so I'm just going to hop right to it! :)

Last year when Style Council happened, I remember my friend Jenni (you probably know her) going and telling me how much fun she had. I figured that because it was a "Style" Council Conference, I had no reason in attending since I wasn't exactly a "Style" blogger. I mean, I love me some clothes but I just can't keep up youknowwhatImeanvern? Anyway, over the past year, Jenni would mention the conference from time to time, and I'd get the "You should come" from her and a couple of friends but I just wasn't sure if I could go. When the tickets went on sale, I remember looking at the website and contemplating buying my ticket because 1) WHAT the heck was I going to wear? 2) I haven't been blogging as much as I'd like to and thought you had to be on top of blogging 3) I wasn't a style blogger. Duh. However, I still deep down wanted to attend.

About two and a half weeks before the conference was about to happen, I get a text from Amanda at about 11PM saying, "Are you free the weekend of August 4,5,6? BECAUSE I'm thinking about going to the TXSC and I could come in and we could goooo AND we could do GLOW stuff...WHAT do you think!?"

I was actually open that weekend (but had my nephews birthday party that Sunday) and that just never happens. I took it as a sign. "OKAY Amanda, don't pull my arm or anything."

I was sold and my happy bottom bought the ticket. And I'm so glad I did because y'all, I had SO much fun.

Amanda came in late on Wednesday night and we stayed up late chatting and catching up on life. On Thursday, we started out or morning with Michelle (an amazing local photographer) and her super awesome intern, Mad Rad at Mozart's Coffee. We even spotted "Miley" haha. Crazy right!? :) Thankfully she didn't start making out with baby dolls, or cutting off her fingers and spewing weird pink stuff. I did want to see her twerk though, I'm not gonna lie.



We spent the rest of the day shopping til' we dropped, running errands and of course- found some time to work.



On Friday, we got dressed up and headed on down to the Lulu's Swap downtown to kick-off one of the most fun weekends I've had in a long time! Lulu's sent me an array of beautiful dresses to choose from to wear. They have the cutest clothes and they fit me perfectly! Score!


This night was just too much fun. I got to meet so many awesome ladies that I've been friends with online for quite sometime, so meeting them in person was just awesome. Not only that, I met a handful of NEW friends. Everyone was so friendly, warm, and just fun. I was totally in my happy place. We started out at a social happy hour where I got to meet the sweet Jessie from Altar'd State as well as the sweet Alisha. I got to put my photo-bombing skills to work, and then we hopped over to the Lulu's Swap.

Of course, Amanda and I were first in line, smiling, and just excited about getting some new clothes! It was hot as all get out inside and there were girls everywhere looking for new items to add to their closets. I could feel sweat drippin' all over my body in the least sexy way possible, but I somehow managed to add two new additional favorites to my polka-dotted closet AND scored a new AMAZING coffee table book from the sweet ladies at Ruche. I also got to hug Tierney's neck from Lulu's. That girl is just adorable and loved getting to meet her! (Hi Tierney!!) 


As soon as we got out of the Swap, I had a moment of happiness because of that new book y'all - Design Sponge. I've been wanting this book FOR.EVE.RRR (saying it like this). The message that the Ruche girls wrote on the inside just made it that much better. When I saw this book at the bottom of a HUGE pile, you can bet I snatched that baby up quicker than a monkey would a banana. My eyes had hearts in them. I was so happy as you can see in the photos below.



 HA. So hawt.


After the swap, we went out with my sweet friends Michelle, Lauren, Amanda and got to meet Hilary, and Joanna. We had ourselves a good time with some good quality girl chat. I so needed that, and made some new friends in the process. I love my city, and the talented, inspiring ladies in this city. I'm just going to throw that out there. 

On Saturday, Amanda and I headed back downtown to support Jenni as she spoke for the first time at the conference. She did an amazing job and rocked her speech on Blogging 101. I was so proud of her!  We spent the rest of the day soaking up a ton of info from The Glamorous Housewife (she is hilarious, check her out), Style and Pepper, the fab Laurel with Trophy Boutique, and Hilary from Our Style Stories. I got to wear a new dress from Altar'd State as well that I absolutely loved! :)



It was a good day, yo! After our day of classes, we headed back to my house to get ready for PROM. Yep...you read that right. Prom. 

Amanda was my beautiful Prom date and we had SO much fun!!!

 I FINALLY, FINALLY got to meet my pretty neighbor Shanna from Because Shanna Said So. We live in the same city and didn't meet until PROM. WHAT the heck!? I know! It was about time! I loved her like I knew I would and we spent most of the night being taking silly photos with her phone. I also got to meet From Mrs. to Mama. She was a total babe and ROCKIN' her white tutu. She was so sweet and loved getting to hang with her for a bit! Like I said, this city is full of some amazing ladies y'all! :)



We spent the majority of the night with the fabulous and ever-so-sweet Ruche ladies in their booth. It was the place to be obviously. I got to hug the beautiful Mara's sweet neck (love her!) as well as the beautiful and precious Beth. I wish they lived closer that is for sure! :( It can't go without mentioning that I got to meet so many fabulous Texas girls (Kelsey, Alisha, Jessica, Meg, Sarah, Esther) and hope to see them again and SOON. They all pretty much are just sweet-as-pie (Texas-REP-RE-SENT!) and you should check out their blogs right meow. Don't forget to check out Stesha's blog too! She came all the way from Arizona and she is just a muffin and real life sweetheart. Love her so much! Dude...I'm a total cheese-fest over here right now, but I'm serious. I was in blog friend heaven.

 Not only was meeting all these wonderful ladies the best...BUT, you can imagine my face when Indiana came running up to me and handed me a ribbon saying I was nominated by RUCHE as the "Best Newcomer." My heart was so full. I couldn't even wrap my head around it. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART RUCHE FOR THE NOMINATION. I love you girls so much!

The rest of the evening was spent chatting, walking around to all the awesome booths.






At the end of the night they announced the winners, and to my surprise, I won "Best Newcomer!" So cool y'all! And so fun!!! Sweet Shanna was nominated for "Best Local Blogger" (GO GIRL!) and Jenni won "Best Local Blogger!" Amanda even won "Best Accessory" which was so awesome!!! How crazy that we all got an award! I got home that evening with a smile on my face from all the excitement, and all of the new friends I made. If you know me, friendships mean the world to me. New or old, that is where my heart is the happiest.







On Sunday, I only got to attend the first seminar with A Beautiful Mess. I loved listening to what they had to say and I even snagged a photo with them at the end. Yep. I was that girl, but no shame. No shame. My favorite quote from their presentation was, "Write a blog you want to read." Well, YEAHHH! I suppose I should get to work on that! :)  I wish I could have stayed and listened to all the other talented speakers that day, but family comes first, and I had a precious little nephew who was waiting for me to attend his 1st birthday party. It was the best weekend ever for so many reasons. I already can't wait for the next one! :)

 Oh yeah... I met a bird friend. He was pretty rad. (Jenni, I used the word RAD here just for you!) ;)





I'll be back with some styled posts from the dresses I got to wear that weekend this week. Other than that, this wraps up my time with TXSC13. :) If you are thinking of going next time...don't think anymore, just KNOW you have to go. I highly recommend it. See ya there! :)

XO!

16 comments:

  1. It looks like you had a blast Shay! You seem like you'd be so fun to hang with girl.

    xoxo,
    Chelsea & The City

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  2. Looks like you had SO MUCH FUN! :)

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  3. Love you and your recap sweet friend. I'm so thankful I didn't have to pull your arm too hard to go with me :) I'm also super thankful for your comfortable guest bedroom and your big, big HEART! love you to the moon and back!! xoxo

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  4. Eeekk! I can just feel the excitement & how much fun was had! No twisting this girls arm, I'm there next year! (As long as I don't have to be any sort of a style blogger! ;))

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  5. I dont even care that you are late on this post because it just made me relive that weekend all over again! Love you, & sooo happy we met! great pics my love!

    xxS

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  6. I was THIS close (imagine me pinching my lil fingers super close together) to attending TXSC! And now I am super bummed I missed it..looks like such a fun time everyone had...Next year..fo sho

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  7. Sounds like you had an amazing time! I was like you - super hesitant to attend, but so glad I did. My friend Nikol told me to look out for you because she loves your blog (she told me you were a cool chick). Sad I didn't get the chance to meet you, but I'm an Austin blogger too, so we should get a group together sometime - I'd love to meet more Austin blog gals to brainstorm/chat with :)

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  8. So many amazing ladies in one place. AH! So jealous! Glad you had so much fun!!

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  9. ughhh i wish i went. next year!!

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  10. Oh my gosh, you guys! It looks like A TON of fun! I need to stick around blogging and join you all next year!

    xo,
    Ana Paula
    {Visit me at Mommyhood, PhD}

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  11. Love this recap!! So fun hangin' with you at prom! Now we need another Texas girl meet up! I think since Amanda and I are in Dallas, maybeeee we can convince y'all to come here :)

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  12. Awesome recap, Shalyn! I'm really late on mine too....haha. So bad! I'm hoping to get mine up sometime this week, but we'll see! Anyway, I loved getting to meet you at TxSC and am really hoping to get to hangout with you soon!

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  13. All of your outfits are so adorable in this post, but WHERE did you get that yellow dress!? SOOOO CUTE!!!

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  14. This makes my heart happy!!! I loved getting to meet you!!!!!

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  15. This sounds like you had an awesome time! How cool is that that you got to take a picture with A Beautiful Mess!?!?!

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  16. It was so wonderful to meet you at TxSC, Shalyn! What a fun weekend full of great information and people! And don't doubt your ability to work your style, gal! :)

    If you'd like to get together and grab a cup of coffee or something, lemme know! Anytime!

    http://confessionsfromthevanity.blogspot.com

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