Haven Conference 2013-the details

Oh my!  I knew I wanted to go back to Haven Conference after last year, but I forgot how much fun it was!  From the moment I got there through the very last evening, so much talking, hugging, and giggling!

I was surprised to walk into a hotel room and hear music playing… but when I looked around to see where it was coming from, this is what I saw.

 

The room was fabulous!  So luxurious and roomy.

 

 

I picked up my swag bag and name badge as soon as I got to the Hotel.  The Ballard Designs bag came in handy throughout the 2 day event.

 

 

Ana White was the opening speaker on Friday morning.  She’s just so darn cute, and oh so smart!  I have followed her from the beginning, and she thanked me for that on Thursday night.  Yeah, I was smiling from ear to ear while talking to her!

 

Ana had tons of tips, mostly comparing our blogs/sites to brick and mortar stores.  Things like “keep your shelves stocked”.  Meaning, have great content on your site, always restocking with more great content. She also compared comments to real life – saying you would never ignore a verbal compliment and just walk away, so why would you do it online?

 

One of the first sessions I attended was the Advanced Painting with Marian and Shauna.

 

The room was all set up with supplies at every table. I sat with some new “friends” and got my “paint on”. 

 

 

I learned some things from these two gals! They really worked well together, you can tell they are of the same mold.

 

We painted on three different pieces of trim.

 

After this point, I got so busy, I didn’t take any pictures of how my pieces turned out.  I really enjoyed using all of the great ASCP and MMS products.  MMS has a great new “white” wax that I fell in love with!  Serious love at first site.

I have to tell you that it’s so fun for some random sweet young lady to say… “you don’t know me, but I KNOW you”.  Say hello to Candace from Vintage News Junkie.   I’m so glad to have met Candace, I wish we would have had time to chat more.

 

I was so happy to finally meet this lovely lady.  I have been emailing with Laura for a couple of years now.  She’s the rep from HomeRight that I work with.  If you were there, and had a chance to meet her, I don’t have to tell you how sweet she is.  Even though HomeRight sponsored me to go to Haven, I would still say nice things about them even if they didn’t.  I love their products.  If I happened to have been in the booth when you passed by, I’m sure you felt my enthusiasm as  I talked about my favorite Finish Max.  LOVE it, I tell ya!

You can see that all of my photos are from the second day.  The first day I was just so busy catching up with everyone and visiting all of the vendors/sponsors.

 

Katie from Sew Woodsy.

I had a lot of fun hanging out with Catherine from Freddy & Petunia.  I first met her earlier this year as she was traveling through Louisville. We got together to have a bite to eat and do some thrift shopping.

 

Diane from In My Own Style—she’s a great friend. We’ve ran into each other several times over the last year and a half.

 

This wonderful lady was so kind to me at dinner at Haven last year (as was Diane).  You see, I’m such a picky eater, and we went as a large group to a mexican restaurant. She was so helpful trying to find something I would eat.   Thank you so much Cindy (My Cottage Love) for being so friendly and accepting!

So, I told you I took the Advanced Painting Session. What other sessions did I take? It’s a blur!  The best session I took was for bloggers, it was Google Juice with Brooke and Court.  I didn’t know either very well before last weekend.  They are brother and sister, and as cute as can be!  Not only cute, but VERY smart.  I’m trying to remember and implement many of their tips.  What I took away from them?

• Do NOT ever delete pictures from your blog. EVER.  (oops, I’ve done that!)   If you want to update an old post, add better (larger) or watermarked photos.  Collect all of those original photos and put them (as small thumbnails) at the bottom of your post.  The reason?  They are logged into google image searches.  People WILL find your blog through them.  Delete them, and lose possible traffic.
• More picture tips—Don’t have your picture clickable so that it opens up in the dreaded BLANK window.  How many times have you clicked on a pin and been taken to that type of page. If you have a clickable image that does that, someone will pin from it.  (In windows live writer click the picture to turn it on, then look in the tool bar it will probably say “link to source picture”  change that to “link to none”.
• Meta Descriptions—huh what?  Yeah, that is the little snipped that google shows when you are googled.  Google will take the snippet it feels holds keywords, but you can write your own description (in wordpress)   I’m not sure about google.  It’s sort of the hook that actually gets folks to click on that link and actually visit your blog.  It’s your time to invite them, and tell them why they should visit. PLUS- I just noticed that FB pulls up the meta description when you leave your link on your fb page or someone else’s.  BONUS!
• Anayltics-If you see “not provided” in your traffic, it’s because it was someone who was signed into Google (blogger, gmail, etc)

To get lots of great tips, follow Court’s site

The Blog Builders

or

How To Start a Blog

.

That’s my Haven 2013 wrap-up!   Thank you HomeRight for the opportunity to rub elbows and share hugs and giggles.  If Haven 2012 on a scale of 1-10 was a 10, Haven 2013 was a 15.  Stay tuned with MRL and HomeRight as we move forward in our relationship!

Please visit my friends at

HomeRight

when you’re looking for a great product to improve your DIY!

gail

I’m sharing this post in a link up at

HavenConference

—check out all the other great roundups from your favorite bloggers there.

Disclaimer:  I’ve made no secret that I work with HomeRight and they sponsored me to Haven 2013. I truly love their products and feel comfortable recommending them to you. Your experience may vary.