South West Blog Social 7/6/2014

Recently I attended my first ever blog event. There were less than 100 bloggers attending the event and I was travelling up with my sister Issy so I wasn't throwing myself in too deep.

We arrived in Exeter a little early, both very nervous and not sure what to expect. We had a quick look around some shops just in case we fancied a break later on then headed back to The Oddfellows Bar which was situated just outside the town centre and looked incredibly tiny! Once inside it was clear the bar went back and had an upstairs, so it wasn't too bad.

We collected our coloured bands and attempted to settle ourselves in, pretty much failing! We both felt very overwhelmed and contemplated leaving there and then but strangely for me, it was I who insisted we stuck it out. So we perched our bottoms at a spare table and watched the goings on. It was clear a lot of people were arriving in groups, or at least couples. A lot had met before and were greeting each other like old friends. I'm not going to lie, it was incredibly difficult and I realised if I was alone I would've been out of the door quicker than you can imagine. Sliding up to people or trying to poke your head into a circle of chatting women is so very difficult and I'm not sure people are aware of how it looks to those of us who are more quiet and anxious. There were plenty of smiles exchanged my way and everyone was totally friendly, so it really does just rest on a confidence issue.

Pretty soon we were joined by fellow Lifestyle blogger Aimee (Twenty Oddball) who we chatted with about blogging and family amongst other things. Shortly after we were joined by the lovely Jenni and Louse from Quiz Clothing (check them out! Seriously lovely clothes an a lovely site!) we spoke about Quiz and briefly about other work they were doing at the event before receiving a cute biscuit each and having our photo taken.

We sat down to eat a bit of lunch which was very nice. Being Free From it's always a worry and it may have been chips and salad but it was a lovely portion of homemade chips and a fresh salad with a yummy dressing on top. I was nicely full before heading upstairs to catch the first chat (and briefly bumping into the lovely Alexander from Medicated Follower of Fashion) by Maria. This session wasn't of personal interest to me, I was merely sitting in to take notes for a friend but I was really drawn into the discussion and some interesting questions were asked. I stayed for another session then headed out for a breather when I realised I just wasn't able to mingle very well. My sister and I ventured out to browse a couple of shops and settled in a book store (heaven) with a hot chocolate!

We returned a little later to grab the ending of a speech which included some good tips on being yourself and organising your blog management. I've made a Pinterest board inspired by the talk titled 'What makes me, me' do stop by.

I went downstairs after the talk because there were a lot of people in a fairly small room for the raffle draw and unfortunately that was a recipe for a near panic attack. All held together I browsed the business card section and signed a big pink card with my blog name in the media room. I thought this was lovely and I'm glad I had the quiet time to look through all the cards properly. Little did I know I won a gorgeous set in the raffle!

The day ended with an overall positive feeling, possibly helped by the break we took. We took home a fabulous goodie bag each which I will blog about separately because this post is long enough already!

All those goody bags!

Massive thank you to the hosts of this event, A la Jode and Dippywrites who were both so friendly and did an amazing job. A big thank you for bringing something closer to Cornwall!!

Cupcake Mumma