BlogHer16 in L.A.

Another year of the BlogHer Conference has come and gone! It surely is so bittersweet. I've gone to the conference 3 times now and each time I take away something different than the time before but nonetheless, it's always something great and inspiring! Last year walking around the conference and having people recognize me from my writing was pretty huge and awesome!

This year, going in, I was pretty uninspired with my writing and where life was taking me. While I love my work-at-home life, somehow I can't get a handle on time and therefore my writing has been pushed aside. Every time i do try to write, I feel like it's crap...hence the entire month of July going by with no posts from me. I went to BlogHer looking forward to reconnecting with my blogging peeps, connecting with new blogging peeps but most of all I went hoping to feel motivated to write again, you know once summer is over and my kid goes back to that lovely thing called SCHOOL.

BlogHer always does a great job with providing inspirational women to come talk to us about how they're doing life and they also do a great job of setting up classes that we can attend throughout the day; a place where we can ask questions about writing, talk to others who have published and maybe just learn how to get some of that sparkle back into our words.

I think I went into it expecting to hear some magical session of words, something I've never heard before, something that someone else figured out and wanted to share...I was looking for something that hasn't been said/done before. During one of the breakout sessions, I was sitting with a dear friend, listening to 4 other women talk about writing. They gave me my ahhhh-haaaaa moment and I was taken back by how simple it was, yet so excited that their words hit me in the way it did.

"Write what's in you and don't second guess your worth"

So simple right? And pretty sure that's what all of you tell me all the time in a 'round about way. I don't know why it hit me so hard but I'm so glad it did. They talked about not worrying who our audience is and stop worrying what others will think or if they're going to judge. Write what's in you and forget about everyone else. Write for me. And publish things even when you think they are crap...because there will always be someone who thinks it's great!

So along with a couple other great sessions and some fabulous speakers thoughts and words, that was the biggest thing I took away from BlogHer16.

Pretty much from here on out, I'll let the pictures do the talking. I would like to give a shout out to a few of my favorite celebrities that were there this year, who gave some extremely great interviews and who were actually incredibly inspiring:

Sherly Crow - she talked about surviving breast cancer and also talked about being a full time single mom, while touring and doing what she loved. Very beautiful lady!

Lori Loughlin (Aunt Becky from Full House) was at an event sponsored by Staples Back to School. She talked about being a mother of teens and how she handles the crazy schedule of being an actress and a full time mom. She was awesome and so genuine. And also, if you didn't know this, Staples offers a 110% money back guarantee that they have the lowest prices for school supplies. If you find it cheaper somewhere else, bring your receipt to them and they'll give you your money back, plus 10%. They are in the business of making school shopping easier, y'all.

Mayim Bialik (Blossom or Amy from Big Bang Theory) She was hands down the best interview at the entire show. Oh my goodness, she is the most real and down to earth. She talked about everything from motherhood to acting to getting her Ph.D to be a scientist. She was so funny and moving...I can't say enough about her! I laughed and cried during her interview, she really is a genuine human!

Freddie Prinze Jr. is on my favorites list because, duh....it's Freddie. He was pretty much my first jr high crush so I was in girl crush heaven! Pluuussss he was taking pictures and signing his cookbook to the first 200 people. I was 14th in line. He was actually really nice and down to earth. Oh and he was taller than me so you know, I had all the heart eyes!! ;)

Without further ado, here are my pictures.

{Conference pics first}

Lori Loughlin

Gabrielle Reece

Yes, that's Kim K. She wasn't in my favs list. ;)

Sheryl Crow

Heart Eyes

Mayim

After the conference is over, there's always a closing party with alllll the drinks and dancing! This is typically where we also take all the selfies and they get more and more questionable towards the end of the night. See how pretty everyone was before things got started? :)

Things go downhill after this

Also, our DJ was 13 and he killed it.

I had a couple days to chill before the conference started so one day I just hung at the pool and the next I went into Beverly Hills (because all the Pretty Woman) and Hollywood. The rest of the pictures are from that and other miscellaneous things. Oh and outfit pictures!! I almost forgot about those, they'll be down below as well. If you followed along on IG or snapchat while I was gone, thanks for all the likes and sweet comments! It was a trip for the books for sure! :)