Friends, Fun and Learning- AWBU Recap

   This last weekend I attended Arkansas Women Blogger University, if you follow me on Instagram I’m sure you got the flood of pictures, in Hot Springs. It was my first conference and I wasn’t sure what all to expect and was a bit nervous going in. The ladies in this community are so kind, friendly and generous that they made me feel right at home and like I knew them all. It was great to finally meet in real life my favorite people that I follow and talk to online.

   My roomie and I headed up after work Friday afternoon and got there just in time to register and get ready for dinner. Dinner was so delicious; those potatoes were in a type of sauce that made red potatoes even better. We were entertained by the one and only Ronald McDonald who does some great magic tricks. He introduced our great leader and founder Stephanie aka The Park Wife, who is just one of my favorite people in blog land.  She introduced our speaker for the night Lela Davidson, author of 3 books. She talked on how to make your life look more like how your Facebook page makes it seem.  She had some wonderful tips that I will be implementing and sharing.

  Saturday was a day full of learning. At breakfast, the wonderful Rhea Lana Riner spoke to us on how she grew and developed her business. Yes, the Rhea Lana spoke to us, I was more than a little in awe! She had some incredible insights on how to make your dreams a reality. Keeping your first priority first and go at it in a professional manner no matter what were things that I really needed to hear.

   There were seven workshops over the weekend. I attended many writing classes which I needed. A couple I went to, to learn how to use specific apps and one to learn about apps that could make blogging and life easier. I learned so much from these sessions, I’m still soaking it in from my notes. 

   Lunch was a huge treat thanks to Riceland foods! Fried chicken, great green beans and some of the best mac and cheese I’ve had! The treat though was the Miss Arkansas Rice Blogger pageant. I learned a few things on rice and laughed so much. I’ll just let the pictures show the fun.

Miss Long Grain Rice, was the winner! 

  As a group we also gave back. We packed 10,836 meals at our Feed the Funnel party with the Pack Shack. These meals are going to hungry children in Hot Springs and Siloam Springs. I was so proud to be able to give back to the community. If you know me then you know that childhood hunger is something that I want to get rid of and it is one of the most solvable problems. I look forward to working more with the Pack Shack and other organizations to stop this problem in our state and country.

Hair net selfie! 

This lovely lady was someone I was glad to meet in person. We were teamed together during the party. 

   I cannot thank the sponsors and the ladies who put all of this on for us enough. I have never had such a great group of people who made me feel at home even when I was out of my comfort zone. I loved seeing my friends, making new ones and having great conversations. If your reading this though, Stephanie, Debbie, Rhonda, Ashley and everyone who planned this conference THANK YOU for caring and making this community! I can’t wait until next year in Fayetteville! 

I won a prize from Aromatique for Instagraming during the weekend.