Business cards: Think outside the box.

Three day BlissDom conference requires three posts to recap. If you missed the other two (1), (2), go ahead and read them!

By day three I was all talked out. There’s only a so long an introvert can be outgoing around strangers. But I kept it goin’ and handing out my button business cards. I gotta say, it definitely helped having something other than a piece of paper to hand out. I received a lot of compliments on how unique it was, that I handed these out. nancy-button2

Finally! A photograph of the food I ate at the Delta Meadowvale. This breakfast was tremendous. Eggs, bacon, Tim Hortons tea, some juice.breakfast-day3

After breakfast I prettied myself up and put on some bold red lips from Annabelle Cosmetics. You know, since I’m doing the #24Day challenge and all. I told you the mirrors were flattering. HOLY why can’t this mirror be in every bathroom I enter? Flawless skin, if I do say so myself. Probably help from the philosophy skin care I used and foundation. Photo completely untouched. I think I may end up using it to update my headshot on my bio there, to the right.headshot-in-mirror

I changed my clothes and headed down to the Tim Hortons room to get more tea (I drank it constantly!). Earlier that weekend I noticed that two other bloggers who are also doing the #24Day challenge was at the conference. So of course we had to take a photo of us all together with the same lip colour: Monroe! Meet Michelle from Lipstick Rules, and Anjali from Rock That Look. Annabelle-24Challenge

The last day of the conference was all about learning, and listening at the sessions, and micro sessions. One of the three micro’s I attended was Kyla from Mommy’s Weird. I keep repeating myself. I was so happy to meet Kyla. She is hysterical, easy to chat to, down to earth, and dances up a storm at PJ parties ;)kyla-and-i

I walked around after my micro sessions, feeling so informed on how to grow my blog. Honestly, it’s so difficult to put into words on what I learned this weekend. The friends I met. The companies I can finally put a face-to-the-name to. The weekend flew by and I am sad that it’s over — but I will go back next year because I had such a blast.

Hallmark surprised us with a completely revamped set up. They were ready for Christmas and giving us all sorts of goodies in huge gift bags. Christmas-at-Hallmark

Lunch from Lentils. Spoiled with salmon, goodness. I’ve never had lentils before, and they didn’t disappoint! So good, you guys. lentils-lunch

After the last sessions, we had a closing keynote with guest speaker Drew that left everyone in tears (good tears) we had a three hour break. I was sitting on the couches in the hallway for most of it. Just relaxing. I got a tweet on my phone that I ended up winning a purse that I spotted at the Handmade Market Place earlier. I love it. It’s a small, yet practical passport explorer bag.  our-family-world-purse

Finally after about an hour of sitting on the couches after everything was over, my stomach got the best of me. I decided to listen to it, and feed the belly. Sliders and sweet potato are always a good choice.supper-at-delta-meadowvale

The PJ party was another highlight of the weekend.ready-for-the-pj-party

Sponsored by Cottonelle and PayPal Canada. Cottonelle had an amazing spa-like retreat for us where they set up manicure tables and gave massages all night long. I b-lined it to the massage table as soon as I walked in, and thankfully at that point there wasn’t any lineups. The massage was very welcomed after a blissful, long weekend. express-spa-at-blissdom

Brandy, Nicole and I. Brandy-Nicole-Nancy

Tatiana, myself and Shannon.pj-party

There was so much dancing, so much laughter and fun. I learned a ton this weekend. Not only about my blog, but about myself. BlissDom Canada and everyone involved has truly outdone themselves and I will be back again next year. I also want to give a special shout out to Chevrolet Canada once again for sponsoring me to go.

Continue Reading

BlissDom Canada 2013 recap

My first official day at BlissDom started off with an amazing breakfast which I’m positive I took a photo of, which inconveniently disappeared somehow. Either way I have way more exciting photos to share with your besides the food that went into my belly.

I actually couldn’t contain myself and the newcomers night, I popped into the Philosophy area and took all these great pictures. They had a cozy sitting area with some treats. I tried all of them out, naturally. Each day, Philosophy had a different gift basket to win. You betcha I put my name into their draw.philosophy-treats

I also didn’t “get” how CotyPrestigeCA, Philosophy and Veritas all were in the one same spot, under Philosophy. But Kim, who is the PR manager at Coty, explained it all to me. I was lookin’ a little confused ;) Isn’t she gorgeous? Super friendly too. I clearly didn’t know who she was at first when she came to introduce herself to me. But now I know the face behind the name. Tada, selfie time. Kim-from-Coty-and-I

I had a skin consultation the next day with Robin (taller woman) and told me I was a nut. In a good way. HAHA. She clearly knows her stuff. I guess she would seeing how she’s the director of international education and global press at philosophy. Hi Sarah too, yay!!philosophy-girls-and-i

She flew in all the way from NYC (can I be her?) to tell us all about Philosophy. The first thing she mentioned to me when I sat down to get a consult, was “Tell me what products you already have/know about from here.” I swear, I pointed out over 60% of the products. I think she suggested I sit back down after I was like “Oh .. and this too. I love this product.” She must’ve read my mind, because when I sat down with her she gave me a lot of information about the Miracle Worker with retinoid treatment. Something I’ve been looking to get into, but keep forgetting to read about it, or ask people about it.

philosophy-tree

Philosophy even had this pretty decorative tree in their area and asked you to write on these pieces of paper #WhatReallyMatters. What matters to me? My family in Newfoundland. Can I receive a collective “awww” please?

I walked around to most of the sponsors that were there and just chatted with them. As much as I thought I’d be intimidated being at the conference by myself, it actually pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me walk up and chat to the sponsors, and bloggers. I definitely got comfortable with being uncomfortable. In fact, I felt so outgoing this weekend, that I even chatted to the housekeeping woman on the floor I was staying on. Her name is Mira, and she was very sweet. We bonded over talks about me being a housekeeper at the hospital in Newfoundland. Then told me I was very friendly, and it must’ve been because I was from Newfoundland. Found out one of her co-workers was also from there. Mira, like the nice lady she is, hooked me up with handfuls of more Philosophy goodies for my room. YES. Delta Meadowvale uses Philosophy at their hotel. I know!!mira-cleaning-lady

Next stop was over to the Collective Bias suite where I hung out and drank copious amounts of Tetley throughout the weekend. I balanced it all between this room, and the Tim Hortons room. I also met a few more people that I’ve been dealing with over e-mail for the past 2-ish years. I mean, Bailey flew in from Arizona USA to come up to BlissDom. Amazing, right? I also put a face to 3SP Media, and it was great to meet those two men. We had a bit of an awkward encounter when I introduced myself. I said, Bonjourno. Then followed up with a “uh. Wait. Don’t talk french to me. I only know English. Not that Bonjourno is French or anything.” One of the men laughed and told me no, it was just bad Italian. Ha ha ha.cbias-room-and-tetley

Once I had some more caffeine in my system to keep me going I spotted Lena in the hotel lobby. I’ve never met her before, and I swear I was more excited to meet her than I would’ve Oprah. I didn’t keep my cool at all. I had a complete fan-girl-alert meltdown. I know, right? What was I thinking? I hope she doesn’t think I’m crazy.listen2lena-and-spiffykerms

MC DONALD’S  SPONSORED LUNCH. Holy craperdoodles. Can I come back every year to BlissDom? As you guys know, if I’m a fan of something I rave about it. Constantly. Sometimes I do it subconsciously. Like I do with McDonalds. I mean for heaven sakes, I go there for Valentines Day with the Boyf each year. It’s been an 8 year tradition! See? and oh… see? mcdonalds-lunch

Jared, the guy behind McDonalds Canada on twitter came up to me over lunch. He was in a suit. I didn’t know who he was. I mean, why would you? He didn’t look like Ronald McDonald. He introduced himself and told me I was their biggest fan, ever. BAHAHAHAHA. How embarrassing. But true, none the less. I told JB I was surprised I wasn’t fat from eating it all the time. Which, now that I think of it — probably wasn’t the best thing to say. Anyway. He surprised me and told me that it’s probably because I do so much CrossFit. WHAT! I know. McDonalds knows me. Crazy huh? I was impressed. Not only that, he had this awesome Australian accent. And? Scored some more free McDonalds coupons. Heck yea I ain’t sharin’. Sorry I chopped off your head Jared.jared-mcdonalds-man

I knew Brandy, one of my “readers” (I find it funny to type that) was going to be at the conference and I couldn’t find her for a day and a half. Her and I were tweeting back and forth trying to meet up with one another but ended up crossing paths as I was heading back to the hotel room! Soo glad I met you B! Like everyone said. I love your voice, it’s so cute :) I hope you had an amazing time at BlissDom!brandy-and-i

My belly was satisfied from eating a Spicy Thai Chicken Chili wrap, some apple slices and 2 cans of coke (don’t judge). It was time to walk it off. But not at the gym. Ain’t nobody got time for that, especially when I could be writing cards to my friends. I sent two Hallmark cards, one to Kaitlin at Chevrolet Canada for sending me to BlissDom, and one to Philosophy. Of course. Thanks for supplying us with goodies, Hallmark! Fun!hallmark

At one point throughout the day I went to the Tim Hortons suite. Probably drink more tea and sit on their massive bean bag chairs. Tim-Hortons-Room

They had a decorating your own donut contest. I can’t think creatively on the spot like that so I just made mine to be a dipped chocolate donut with some candy. I surprisingly didn’t go overboard with the decorating. The white chocolate donut next to mine in the upper right hand corner actually says something on it. Can you read it? It says Lazy Day! Justin made it, and I thought it was brilliant. And talented. tim-hortons-at-blissdom

I met Justin and his wife Dayna the night before and they hooked me up with a bunch of swag from Chapmans. You betcha I was their first swag-receiver. Ice cream calls I’m the girl that’s first in line. Thanks so much guys! I swear I was in their hotel room a good hour or more, just talking to them about blogging. They were great, really.chapmans-icecream

More ladies hear the sounds of icecream and came up, too! @ASweetBaker, @MyDustBunnies, Me, @TransformTheNow, and @FanofPreemies.chapmans swag

They weren’t the only folks handing out swag. I put together little packages of Make Up For Ever mascara minis to give away to 11 lucky people at the conference. @Mom2Michael, @alimentageuse, @ThisBirdsDay, @FanofPreemies, @LSSocialEngage, @InSearchOfYummy, @JacEarnst, @MyDustBunnies,  @LazyDayCA, @ASweetBaker, and @TransformTheNow.make-up-for-ever-gifts

I knew the Great Canadian Outdoors Party was later on in the evening, so I decided to primp and prime my hair by getting it done with the The Beauty Team. Fitting name. My hair never looks good, it had to be documented. By the way, yea — I totally lived in my MPG hoody all weekend long. I was known as the coral hoody girl at some points.curly-hair

Two red carpets in one day? (McDonalds had one at Lunch). I feel spoiled. Supper was provided by Maple Leaf. There was a tent set up outside, and everything was bacon themed. Can’t say no to bacon, am I right?tent-for-mapleleaf

It looked luxe with the chandeliers and fire thingies (technical term).fancy-tent-area

Bacon encrusted chicken strips. Bacon and cheese wrapped around a hot dog? I’m in my element, right here, right now.maple-leaf-supper

Once the sun went down, we had some musical entertainment for the night. Tenille, an 18 year old country singer set the stage. Tenille-at-BlissDom

Up next, was Jully Black. You know the song Seven Day Fool? That’s her!!!jully-black-blissdom

Sarah & Jesse LaBelle (you’ll know him from the song Heartbreak Cover Up) was also at BlissDom, sitting in on one of the panels about Cyber Bullying. jesse-labelle

The night was SO much fun. I met Julia aka NuggleMama that day and was thrilled to finally meet her in person!, that we took a ridiculous amount of pics together :) No harm in that.jac-and-julia

Dayna‘s make up looked great this night!dayna-and-i

I don’t know how many glasses of wine I drank, but I finally needed to just go inside and sit down. This is when I met Julie Nowell, who gave me a huge pep talk on my blog. We have similar personality traits and I feel like she reminds me of one of my cousins, it was so easy to talk to her, and spill my guts about stuff. Plus? SHE LIVES ON A FARM! Chickens and ducks. She needs to get some goats. julie-nowell-and-i

Next up… the final day at BlissDom with Lentils, PayPal and a PJ party.

Continue Reading

1 Chevrolet Sponsor, 11 cups of Tim Horton’s tea and 9 white wines later…

BlissDom recap: One Chevrolet Sponsor, 11 cups of Tim Horton’s tea, and 9 white wines later…I’m back from my weekend at BlissDom Canada blogging conference. I’m not even exhausted. Especially surprising since my liquid intake this weekend literally consisted of just white wine and an assortment of Tim Hortons, and Tetley tea drinking this weekend. I’m currently hydrating with the cute Philosophy water bobbles as I write a recap here. I also took an extra goody bag from Philosophy to give to you guys in a later blog post. ;)

philosophy water bobble

Towards the middle of September I decided I wanted to go to the third annual BlissDom Canada conference and I made it happen. This weekend is will truly be hard to recap into a few blog posts just how great the weekend was. If you’ve been following my twitter for the past weekend, you’ve probably been bombarded by me tweeting pictures of everything with the #BlissDomCA hashtag. I’m not even going to apologize at how annoying that may have been for some of my followers because I LOVED BLISSDOM.

And can I be honest for a minute? I really didn’t think it was going to be THAT awesome. Sure I thought I’d meet a handful of people, and talk to my favourite companies that were sponsors there. But my expectations were completely blown out of the water. My eyes even watered up at some most of the sessions, and I wasn’t really expecting that. I’m not a crier/super emotional person. Unless you can classify super excited doing a pee-dance all the time, emotional. Whatevs I may have had a few fan girl moments (meeting Lena, Kim & Sarah from Philosophy & Coty, Jared from McDonalds, and Kaitlin from Chevrolet) on more than one occasion this weekend. Not embarrassing at all.

When I walked into the Delta Meadowvale hotel, I didn’t have a sickly feeling. I didn’t want to walk right out of the hotel feeling overwhelmed.lobby-at-delta-meadowvale

I just felt like I needed to be there and I was. I was completely myself, I wasn’t shy (which is strange), and I walked up to people who were standing by themselves so they wouldn’t feel out of place or lonely in this huge unknown place.

Once I spotted Kaitlin, I did a happy dance and gave her a huge hug. She’s from Chevrolet Canada who sponsored me to attend and hooked me up with this sweet hotel room for three nights. kaitlin-from-chevy-canadaOh, and provided me everyone with candy. candy-at-chevrolet-canada

It was very swanky, and fancy hotel room I had. I felt like a million bucks when I walked in.Delta-Meadowvale

Making myself at home.Delta-Meadowvale-Hotel-room

The bathroom mirrors must’ve been one of my favorite spots about the room. K, wait. That sounded far more vain than I intended it to. But look at the ring of light around the mirror itself. It gave off a perfect glow to the bathroom and I gotta say, made me look preeee-tee flattering. I took a few selfies in that mirror the past weekend ;) bathrooms-at-Delta-Meadowva

The first night was the newcomers welcoming party which was sponsored by 19 Crimes wine. Love the marketing. Ha ha.19crimes-mugshot

Free wine? Don’t mind if I do.
19-crimes-night

The place was beautifully decorated. I LOVE white everything (computers, accessories… COUCHES..) and it felt so incredibly fancy. It’s the only word that comes to mind, so I apologize. Everything was fancy to me, haha. Shannon and Jennifer gave an introductory speech and welcomed us all to the event. shannon-and-jennifer

The first person I met at BlissDom was Paula from Product Junkie. Funny that we were neighbours at the hotel the entire weekend and didn’t realize it until the very last night. product-junkie-and-i

From all the free white wine I was drinking, I obviously had to use the bathrooms at some point throughout the night. What I didn’t know was that Cottonelle was one of the main sponsors, and sure enough they pulled through and decorated the bathrooms appropriately so. #LetsTalkBums folks.cottonelle-sponsored-bathro

I ended up going to bed fairly early throughout the entire weekend. Never a night past midnight. Does that mean I’m getting old? I’d like to just think it’s because I was stoked to use all the Philosophy products provided in the hotel. Betcha can’t guess which is mine, and what the hotel provided. Do it. Dare you.philosophy-at-delta-meadowv

Makeup already out the first night. Had to photograph it, the shelves and the products alone were just photo-worthy.philosophy-products-in-the-

I’m going to get really cheesy here for a moment. But I really couldn’t have done it without you guys supporting my blog. Commenting on all of my posts, and growing with me — it gave me the confidence to actually go to a blogging conference. ALL BY MYSELF. I knew no one! And I’ll do it all over again in a heart beat.

Look at the blogging business cards I picked up from 3 days. I counted them. There’s 51 of them. That’s not just passing them out to anyone/everyone because who just passes a card to someone and walks away? I managed to talk to each and every one of these bloggers and sponsors. I don’t even know what overcame me. But I was feelin’ chatty and met a shiz-ton of new friends who I have grown to cherish over the weekend. What a time, BlissDom Canada. What a time.
business cardsCome back tomorrow for a recap of the second day!

Continue Reading