Texas Style Council 2013 Recap, Day 3 (Sunday)
If Day 1 was all about reconnecting with old friends and Day 2 was about making new friends, Day 3 was about learning (and saying goodbye).
The conference started at 10:00 am on Sunday. While we were waiting for it to start, we got to chat with some new and old friends, and people who attended our session on budgeting.
Emma and Elsie from A Beautiful Mess were the Keynote speakers. They were great and really funny! They've been blogging for a long time and had a lot to share. Eric and I felt really inspired and energized after their session about where we're going with our own blog.
After their talk, Eric and I went to lunch with Linda at Freebirds. We knew we'd probably have to miss one of the sessions to eat lunch, and wanted to spend some quality time with her before we left.
When we got back, we attended a few classes:
- CREATIVE BRAND COLLABORATIONS by Camille of Camille Styles
- HANDLING YOUR CRITICS WITH YOUR HEAD HELD HIGH by Jen of Jen Loves Kev
- SMALL STEPS: SECRETS TO A START-UP by Kendi of Kendi Everyday & owner of Bloom
We were happy with all the classes we went to. There were a bunch of other classes we wanted to take but had to choose, so we're really hoping the videos turn out great so we can watch them all!
Me & Janette
I HATE THE GOODBYE PART. :(
After the conference was over, I had to say goodbye to Linda, and then we ran upstairs and quickly changed clothes before being whisked away to Driftwood for some BBQ with the Coulters! Jesse and her husband, Alex, and their son, Turner, took us out for dinner and it was way fun.
Also, how cute is Turner? He really made me miss Rooney!
Seriously, they are so nice. I firmly believe that blog friendships can be deeper than in-person friendships. Proof? We talked about rude blog comments, vaccination and circumcision. Yeah. It was deep. Also, they told us a hilarious story about Alex (almost) getting arrested outside their apartment complex - completely on accident. I don't ever laugh that hard. I almost cried. We really hope our paths cross with them again sometime soon!
Back in Austin, they dropped us off at the TxSC After Party at Garridos. One last chance to hang out with those who also didn't want it to end yet!
I was really glad to meet Kacie (I already followed her on Instagram) and chat more with Martha and Amy. We actually chatted for quite a while with Martha about faith. Isn't she the cutest?
me & Moorea (who is SUPER sweet)
We ended up leaving Garridos to go to dinner with a big group and ended up at Sully's Sidebar. If you ever find yourself there, get the guacamole. YUM.
Toward the end of the night, we walked back to our hotel with Jen, Kev and Elizabeth. I'm so glad Eric had a guy friend to hang out with all weekend! They really hit it off :)
We had such a great time in Austin! We flew out Monday morning and tried not to think about how much our hearts ached to be reunited with Rooney. Throughout the weekend we had gotten videos and photos of her from my family, but we were so busy with all the conference events that we weren't able to dwell on missing her. On Monday I could tell my tears were getting tired of being held back and I just kept praying that we would be reunited with her safely. And then, around 5:00 pm, we were...
Oh man, that was a sweet, sweet moment.
This is the end of our TxSC '13 recap! I hear next year's conference is going to be March 6-8! I'm not sure yet if we'll make it or not, but I would recommend it to anyone who is considering!