Haven Conference Recap 2017

The Haven Conference is a place to make friends, gain inspiration and set the vision for your blog. 

The Haven conference was held last weekend in Atlanta for two days at the Grand Hyatt hotel. It’s a conference for DIY and decorating bloggers to come together to learn how to become better bloggers. We also have the opportunity to create real life friendships with fellow bloggers and partnerships with brands. I attended my very first conference last year and it was so awesome that I had to make it there again this summer. One of my favorite things is meeting new people and you meet a ton of new folks at this conference. It’s totally my jam. 

Before leaving for the conference, I struggled with the direction of my blog. You see, I don’t have an interior design background. I really only started to play with the idea of decorating about 5 years ago when we purchased our home. After I started to play around with styling and doing projects in our home, my hidden passion started to come alive. It was like a part of myself had been tucked away and all of a sudden, there was freedom to explore, grow and emerge from that shell. I do think it’s funny looking back because God has a funny way of timing things the way he does. He must’ve deemed that season was appropriate for my emerging from the cocoon because that’s what I needed during that stage in my life. There have been some hard things that we’ve endured as a family the past few years, let alone this past spring and these projects as insignificant as they may have seemed, brought an insurmountable depth of healing, restoration and confidence to my heart. 

I think it’s pretty obvious that I love sharing my projects, faith, recipes and everything else that I’m passionate about with you guys. Now, that the kids are getting older, I’m excited to explore career opportunities. I am so thankful that my husband has been working so hard so that I could stay home with our kids since my oldest was one. Because of the blog, I’ve starting working part time independently staging homes and decorating for clients. Honestly, it has been good for me after many years of not working outside of the home. My heart will always be first and foremost for my family but it’s been good for my soul to stretch areas that I had no idea were there for stretching. If you’re in a similar stage of life where I still am as a stay at home mom, know this. Whether you’re staying home or working, you are truly doing a good work. It’s a thankless job most days but your investment into your kids is something that will last a lifetime and for generations. There will be a day that season will pass and you will get to focus your energy and life into other things. Ask God to show you what that will look like and I’m confident he will reveal that to you in that rightful season.

Okay, sorry to get all cheez whiz on you but all that to say that the conference really helped me to set my vision and path and I really hope to implement some of the valuable things I learned there. The biggest thing I’ve reminded myself is that I can be of value to someone else who wants assistance in creating a home for their family. I’m super passionate about that and am so thankful that I get to put those gifts into practice.

Upon checking into Haven, we received our swag bags. The a plethora of sponsors that come to Haven to represent their brands provide tons of awesome DIY swag every year and this was one of four bags I took home from the conference. 

Since it’s conveniently held in my hometown, I arranged to pick up my roommates from the airport since they coordinated similar arrival times. Unfortunately, I only picked two of them up bc Jen from Girl in the Garage, had a delayed flight from bad weather in Chicago. Mysha, Brooke and I laughed all the way to the hotel and had some time to get to know each other before getting ready for the welcome reception. It is such a relief when your online friends are exactly the way you think they’d be in real life. We instantly clicked and had too much fun in such a short period of time. 

Haven assigns a mentor to each group of bloggers and I was partnered up with Kate from Centsational Girl. I am a long time follower so it was so cool getting to know Kate. She is a talented DIY-er and I totally consider her a seasoned blogger. Here are some photos from the welcome reception held in the terrace. Yes, it was hot and humid because that’s GA for ya. 

B Patrick Flynn, designer extraordinaire was at Haven the first night so Mysha and I got a quick photo with him. I love his eye for design and he’s also based in Atlanta. Plus, he’s straight up cray. 😀 I snapped a quick photo of Sarah from Life on Virginia Street interviewing Flynn.  

The conference is a full two days of classes so we started off bright and early Friday morning ready to attend classes. It’s a mix of both DIY and business classes to help grow your blog. I always make sure to mix in DIY because you can only think about SEO so much! However, all the classes I took including SEO were phenomenal. 

Rachel Kate was the key note speaker and we all loved her because she was so down to earth and genuine. She has been featured on HGTV and I love that even though she’s an interior designer, she’s not afraid to get down and dirty with DIY projects. 

I learned a ton at the conference but my favorite part by far is growing my relationships with fellow blogger friends. It’s so fun when virtual friends become real life friends and I love that this community is always cheering each other on in their personal journey. If you’re passionate about DIY and decorating, I would highly recommend going to this conference. Next year, it’s actually going to be in Charleson. Looks like I’ll be flying there next summer!

Thanks for reading, friends. Hope you have a great weekend!

Yuni

Let all that you do be done in Love. 1 Corinthians 16:14