Blog rockstars.

I completely nerded out at Sunday's TxSC panels. There were so many bloggers who I couldn't wait to hear from and meet that I think meeting the entire cast of Modern Family would've been less exciting than TxSC panels.

Ok, exaggeration. Panels is a close second to meeting Phil, Cam and the gang of Modern Family.

Blog Lesson 1: Jump and you will land.
Kendi from Kendi Everyday opened with an amazing keynote about being fearless and going for it, whether you land on your feet or face. It doesn't matter where you land, because you land. And that's much better than not jumping at all.

Let me just say, Kendi is a speaker like no other. Us bloggers are writers. Wordsmiths. People of the keyboard. Not speakers. But Kendi got up in front of a hundred of us ladies and talked like she was having a one-on-one conversation. I don't know where she got her speaking skills, but I need to have a sip of whatever she's having.

(Kendi, Kendi Everyday)

Blog Lesson 2: Our online lives are edited.
It's so, so easy to get wrapped up in the perfection of others' lives on the internet. Not just in the blogging world, but in the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn worlds too.

It's all an edited version of ourselves. We put our best foot forward, 100% of the time online.

Take Saturday morning, for instance. I was a madwoman. I stayed out way too late the night before, woke up and had missed two TxSC events that I'd been excited about for weeks. You would've thought the entire world was coming to an end. I was crying, freaking out, refusing to go to the rest of the TxSC events because I basically had ruined the entire weekend.

Who does that?! Thankfully, Robbie pulled me together (he's such a saint) and drove me downtown to catch the next event. Even on the way there I was being ornery and telling him I should just skip the events because I had already missed too much.

Never in a million years would I take photos of me being nuts and post them to my Facebook and blog. Geez, I'm embarrassed to even be sharing the story now! We're edited online. And while we should keep it that way, we shouldn't compare our entire lives to others' edited ones.

Blog Lesson 3: Quality, quality, quality.
Of course I was totally looking forward to panel two to see my girl, Tolly from Austin Eavesdropper, moderate "Think Local, Go National." While there were several fantastic messages that were touched on during this panel, the one that stuck with me the most was publishing quality, original content. Don't just blog to get 5 posts up a week. Write high-quality work that people will relate to and produce original content. Stand out with your own, beautiful writing, photography and ideas.

(Matt, Fashion Week Austin; Charmie, Rae Cosmetics; Jessie, Style and Pepper; Camille, Camille Styles; Tolly, Austin Eavesdropper)

Blog Lesson 4: It's ok to be different. In fact, it's encouraged.
Tolly said that she really had to hone in on what she wanted to do for her blog. She was explaining to her husband that she wanted to have a little TV show. Tolly started interning for a local NPR affiliate while keeping her day job as a publicist and began learning the ins and outs of making a show. Now, she just rebranded Austin Eavesdropper and began making webisodes called AETV! So awesome.

After the panel, I introduced myself to Tolly and she had some extremely encouraging words for me. I can't tell you how good it feels to have someone who's created something really great tell you that you can be great too. Thanks, Tolly! It was also kind of cool that she had seen my blog. Score one for Who's Austin.

Here's a blurry photo of the Austin Eavesdropper herself:

Blog lesson 6: Your blog is not your purpose.
This was a big one that hit home for a lot of people. You are not your blog. Your blog is YOU. You have a purpose that is so much greater than your blog. Find that purpose and run with it.

(Diya, In Her Stilettos; Veronika, Tick Tock Vintage; Julie, Orchid Grey; Kristina, Pretty Shiny Sparkly)

I love these wrap-up posts by fellow bloggers:

• Jenni at Story of my Life has some awesome quotes from the best panel speakers. Great note taking, Jenni!

• Michelle at Uncharted Style turned her quotes into awesome photo quotes. Beautiful work, Michelle!

• Tolly at Austin Eavesdropper (don't you just love her new site?!) wrote a thought-provoking piece inspired by Kendi's awesome keynote.

Decentralized Dance Party video coming your way. Get pumped.

Tonight, we are young.

It's ridiculous how much blog inspiration can be packed into one weekend. Meeting so many women who have the same exact passion as you do is like meeting 200 best friends all at once. I love that our stalker-like tendencies of following one another's lives via blogs was 100% totally acceptable and encouraged this weekend.

As I mentioned in my last post, I took the lovely Lety to the Poshmark Party Saturday night as my date.


Have I mentioned this on my blog yet? I gave up sweets for lent this year.

Which is a total bummer when I find myself in the presence of a cupcake tower.

The Poshmark Party had so many awesome sponsors, one of them being LuLu's. Lety spun the LuLu wheel and got a $10 gift card! Score!


I spun and got a whopping FIFTY DOLLARS! Lucky me! I've been scoping out a couple of adorable dresses on their website for summer.


Lety and I wishing we needed to wear glasses.


There was a photobooth outside and a Poshmark photo couch inside. Lety and I didn't quite make it to the couch (there were so many girls taking photos), so we grabbed some props and had our own photo sesh.



Because we're obsessed with Pinterest, Lety and I decided that we needed to have a Pinterest craft party and make this adorable framed necklace holder that we found at the Stella & Dot sponsor table.

We left semi-early because we had to to the airport to pick up Rachel, who was coming in for SXSW Interactive. As we were walking to the car, Lety and I saw a mob of people walking toward us with music blaring. We went over to check out what was going on...


Turns out there was a Decentralized Dance Party going on for SXSW. The leader of the pack, who had a giant, light-up Gandalf-like staff, led this giant group of people around Austin for a dance party. When the Gandalf stick moved to a new location, the people moved with it. Everyone had boomboxes that were tuned to the same station, so music was blaring. Lety and I joined in for 5 songs or so until Gandalf decided it was time to move on to 6th Street. We bid our Decentralized Dance Party people adieu and went to pick up Rachel.

Only in Austin, right?

I got some footage of the sweet dance party, so I'll be sure to share that soon!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the ladies at the Texas Style Council. You did such a fabulous job hosting the TxSC Blogger Conference and I can't thank you enough for all of the time and effort you put into making the entire weekend a huge success. Elissa, Indiana and the gang- you ladies rock.