Skimbaco, Blogging Friends and Trump

One of the wonderful things about attending events such as Blogjam, is meeting up with people you know from the internet.  Sounds sketchy, eh? I know.  But, let me tell you about this amazing circle of supporters!

The year before last I attended Blogjam and meet up with some amazing people and learned about some great resources for bloggers, bloggers specifically from the East Coast.  Well, I’d be foolish not to tap into that.  So, for the last year or so, I’ve been interacting with and been inspired by this circle of women, with a guy or two thrown in for good measure.  Attending this round of Blogjam was like meeting old friends and expanding my circle of East Coast bloggers.

Right on the heels of Blogjam was an event hosted by one of these bloggers, Katja, who has the blog and online magazine, Skimbaco Lifestyle.  She extended the invitation to come to her home and work on some Christmas crafts and gifts so she could photograph it for the Christmas issue of Skimbaco and we could make some goodies and blog about it all ourselves.  I was quite happy that I was available to go before I even saw what we were doing or before I knew the hospitality that would be offered to us.

I was unfamiliar with the area of the city I was heading that Wednesday morning, so I did what any country folk would do before heading to the big city…I googled where I was going, of course!  One of the nice features of Google Maps is that you can have the street view, so I knew what colour and style the house was that I was looking for, and I couldn’t wait to see more after the tease Google provided.

Katja’s greeting was so warm and welcoming, and her home was just the same.  Katja’s accent made me want to listen to her talk all day!  Her house was very unique and bright, filled with many things with a story and a sense of history.  The south bank of windows, with the woodsy view in the middle of the city was completely enchanting.  It would be fabulous to watch the seasons change from that vantage point.

There were already a few other bloggers there and so we chatted and ohh’ed and aww’ed over this and that.  When everyone arrived, Katja put us to work in the kitchen, whipping up some tasty treats for later in the morning.  And then we started the crafting.  After crafting came making some special bath & beauty products, complete with pretty packaging.  I’ll show you more of all that wonderfulness in another post.

As much fun as we had and as wonderful as the projects were, for me it was connecting and getting to know these personalities that I only really knew from the world-wide web.  And it seemed like we all needed an extra boost on this particular Wednesday, as it was the Wednesday we all woke up to a world were Trump somehow got himself elected to be President.  So to be surrounded by strong, inspiring women who are making a difference in their worlds was exactly what we all needed that morning.  Being spoiled by Katja was the icing on the cake. Speaking of cake….

I’m glad I took the time to drive down to the city and hang out with these amazing people.  They are part of the reason why I plug away here on my blog.  You guys reading this are one of the other reasons, too.  Besides the fact I love to write and tell my stories.  If you love to read blogs, especially blogs with an East Coast spin, you should check out these:

Katja at Skimbaco

Colleen at Curtains Are Open

Laura at Valley Family Fun

Laureen at Tempered With Kindness

The other Laura at My Life in the Sun

Heather at Mmm… is for Mommy

I’m going to slip this little picture in right here:

Colleen and I have the same camera and she picked mine up, not knowing and snapped this picture of Katja and I.  I’m always the one behind the camera { honestly, quite happily, too } but it was a fabulous surprise to find this when I was scrolling through the pictures afterwards!

So, here is to fellow bloggers who are rocking it, to new friends IN REAL LIFE and to making time to create!!  Cheers!!

I’ll follow this post up with a post with some of the fun things we made…hopefully soon!

To be continued,

Lori