I'm back from Vegas. And exhausted. It was an absolute whirlwind trip. The 3 hour time change was really hard to get used to and my body is still trying to figure out what time zone I am in. I had a great time at the TpT conference but it was a jam packed few days between the sessions, meetups and networking. I never even saw the pool. I didn't leave the hotel the first two days. It was crazy! So while it wasn't a super relaxing vacation, it was super productive and inspiring. I learned a lot and got to meet a lot of the friends that I've only know online the past few years. I was proud of myself for pushing out of my introverted comfort zone and meeting new people. I missed my little ones like crazy so I am going to take a break for a bit and just focus on them and creating and updating some products. Before I take a little break, I wanted to share with you about our meetup in Vegas and thank our sponsors.
On Wednesday afternoon, we hosted The Real Housewives of TpT meetup. When we first were kicking around the idea, we thought we'd have 5, maybe 10 teachers turned stay at home moms get together for lunch. We were blown away to be in a room with 75 other TpT authors that are for one reason or another full time on TpT or planning to be soon. It was awesome. Everyone keeps talking about finding your tribe...your people...your support team. Well this, my friends, is mine.
Elissa (Mrs. Jones Creation Station) and Jennifer (A Dab of Glue Will Do) started planning this a few months ago. I offered to help behind the scenes and secure donations. They eventually asked me to co-host with them and it was definitely a joint effort to pull it off. We even needed additional helpers to put together all the swag bags and extra goodies. It takes a village!! The whole meetup is kind of a blur for me. I felt bad that I didn't get to meet and talk to everyone individually but I guess that is what happens when you have a meetup that size and you still have to help keep things running behind the scenes.
We started with talk at the individual tables and a chance to come up with questions about working at home and advice for others.
Then we had an amazing meal served by the Grand Lux Cafe. We also got the chance to Skype with Lara Galloway, author of Moms Mean Business. She answered some of our questions and gave us some tips for working from home. Everyone got a copy of the book in their swag bag and we have plans for starting a book club about it (stay tuned for details).
Thank you to the following people/companies for their donations. It really helped to make this a memorable event:
- A+ Images/teachershirts.com - they were AMAZING and donated shirts for the whole group with our logo on it and even came in during the meetup with more freebies and prizes
- Becky Higgins and the Project Life team
- Martha Moore (Jamberry)
- Teaching Blog Traffic School
- Melonheadz clipart
- Educlips clipart
- Graphics From The Pond clipart
- Tieks
- Teaching in the Tongass clipart
- Glitter Meets Glue clipart
- Tailwind
- Miss Squirrel's Shop
- Chalk and Apples
- Whimsy Clips
- Yellow Bee Boutique
- Apple of Their Eye
- Amanda Vargas with Rodan & Fields
Thank you to everyone who attended our event. We look forward to continuing to support one another through our Facebook page, blogs and upcoming events like the book study.
I can't say enough good things about A+ Images (aka teachershirts.com). When we decided we needed to make shirts with the real housewives logo, I jokingly thought I could whip it up for a few of us on my Silhouette machine. But as the numbers grew, I knew that wasn't an option. I started looking at ordering the shirts. Jennifer had the brilliant idea to contact Doug at A+ Images. He had made our blog shirts for free. Yes for free!
We thought it would be fun to do a little giveaway for some of the Real Housewives that couldn't join us in Vegas. Do you want to win one of the awesome shirts donated by A+ Images? To enter just fill out the rafflecopter with your name and then leave a comment below telling us what makes you a real housewife of TpT?
