TxSC CAMP: you should probably go

f you've been around the blog for very long, you know that my favorite blogging event is Texas Style Council's annual conference.  I've gone to quite a few blogging conferences over the year, and while I loved them initially, after a few years the keeping up with the joneses, rat race, popularity contest aspect of it all started to wear on me.  I wanted something more meaningful and authentic, something more focused on relationships and community, which is what brought me to blogging in the first place.  Texas Style Council's conferences were so much different that the other blogging events I'd attended.  So much more low key, less focused on high fashion (which was never my thing anyway), and a lot more about making connections with other bloggers while still offering classes and workshops to help learn things you might want to know.

The last few TxSC events have been more of your standard conference style, but this year Indiana, TxSC's founder, wanted to pare it down even more to get back to the basics of blogging and really focus more on the relationships that blogging can create and sustain.  This year's theme is CAMP: Create A Meaningful Presence, and it's held at a girl scout camp outside of Austin, where everyone will be staying in cabins, eating together in the mess hall, and doing fun camp-like events, in addition to having a keynote speaker and a select few workshops and presentations.  I love learning, but honestly, I'm much more excited about the relationship building and so thankful that Indiana recognizes the importance of that aspect of blogging.  I love TxSC because it always gives me a chance to meet up with old blogging buddies, but also meet new ones.  In a conference setting it can be hard to go up to new people and meet them/start a conversation.  As an introvert it's definitely not my first nature and takes a lot of getting out of my comfort zone.  In a camp setting, I think that will be much easier and better facilitated by the fact that we're all staying in the same place, eating at the same spot, and while I love getting fancied up for fun events, it'll be nice that we're all casual and comfy, which I think is less intimidating.




I know there are tons of blogging conferences and events these days, but I truly believe that TxSC puts on the best.  It might not draw the biggest names, or teach classes on becoming a million dollar blogger, but let's be honest, not all of us are in it to make a million dollars.  Not all of us want to be famous, or get on Oprah, or have a decorating show on TLC.  I mean, those things would be cool, but I'd rather go to an event where I feel like we're all friends, and you can talk to people about #bloggerproblems and they actually understand what you're talking about, like really understand.  And you can share your goals to be on Oprah, or your goals to write a book, or your goals to just blog consistently, or your goals to do something other than blog, and everyone is supportive and excited.  And you don't have to wear designer frocks and talk about runway shows or magazine features.

 
 
I love Indiana's drive to create a conference that is truly valuable to the attendees.  After TxSC 2013 she writes,

"At the conclusion of TxSC 2013, there was this moment where I was thumbing through the program, marveling at all the people who had come. We had nearly 400 attendees, an amazing set of speakers, three very full days of programming, and incredibly supportive and well received sponsors. My staff was so hard working and so well balanced. We had found our stride. Despite the hard work and how personally I take every bit of criticism, I wanted to do TxSC14 for sure. 

But as the year came along, I couldn't find an answer to my annual questions. "How can we do it better and differently than what we just did? How can TxSC be different from what's already being done?". I had already scrapped the panel format. I had already provided smaller workshops. 

The landscape of blogging has changed a lot since 2010. The amount of resources out there for bloggers is astronomical. Aside from the networking part of the event, I couldn't figure out how TxSC14 could be something that added anything new to the conversation or provided anything of value to the attendees. There were other conferences out there doing what we did, but on a professional level."

As a gal who loves camping, I have to say I'm stoked out of my mind for the retreat.  With plenty of time for hanging out by the campfire with s'mores, as well as inspirational speakers like Jenny Lawson of The Bloggess, Erin Loechner of Design for Mankind, and Sophia Rossi of HelloGiggles, I know it's going to be a refreshing and invigorating weekend.  Yours truly is also leading a workshop type thing!




Since this year TxSC will be at a camp, the registration cost includes lodging and food, which is super nice especially because it's during SXSW, which makes it nearly impossible to get a hotel or cab in Austin.  Registration is a bit more spendy than in years past for this reason, but I think it's way more affordable than airfare plus hotel plus food plus taxis.
Registration includes:

♥ Shared, assigned lodging, based on registration type
♥ Five meals (Friday's dinner, Saturday's breakfast, lunch, and dinner, & Sunday's brunch)
♥ Four keynote sessions
♥ Your choice of Saturday workshops (choose three of nine)
♥ Access to blog mentors
♥ Friday night's Create + Connect mixer
♥ Saturday's Khaki Cool Jamboree (party!)
♥ Sunday's Badge Ceremony
♥ Digital headshot c/o Awake Photography
♥ Shuttle service to and from the Austin airport [arrives and departs around 3:00pm on Friday and     Sunday]*
♥ More camp swag than you can shake a walking stick at
♥ ... and a few surprises!

TxSC is coming up, this March 20-22, so if you haven't registered yet, do it!  Last year's TxSC sold out at it's 400 ticket max, and this year it's going to be smaller, with only 275 tickets available, so sign up while you can!

Indiana herself says that this isn't going to be a typical "blogging" conference.  "If you want to know how different the 2015 installment of Texas Style Council will be, I just asked a possible keynote if she could speak on the topic of "Blog Success is Mainly Luck and Selling Your Soul to Advertisers but is Mainly Just Luck So if You Ask Me How You Can Get More Blog Traffic, I Will Stab You." She hasn't responded, yet, but I'm hopeful someone can lead that talk...

Point blank: if you want to attend TxSC to learn how to be a "successful blogger" and to get more money and more followers, this is not the camp for you. But if you want to make connections with creative women who are all about building each other up, TxSC is the place for you. Plus... s'mores."

To that, I say:

cracklin' rosie

ne more outfit from Palm Springs!  When I spied this dress, it gave me such 90's vibes, so I styled it up with a plaid shirt around the waist (hello, that was like, my only outfit trick in the 90s.  All of the things tied around my waist), and a rad hat I got in Hawaii.  Also: boots.  I was hoping for a little warmer weather down in the desert, but we were more in the high desert, which meant pretty chilly temps.  I was actually pretty cold shooting these photos, despite how warm it looks!  It was wishful thinking.  Every time I go to the southwest I fall in love with the area all over again.  It's one of my favorite places, ever since my family went on a big RV trip around the southwest when I was a kid.  We planned on doing another similar RV trip because that one was so much fun, but so far we haven't pulled it together.  I've heard some whispers that it might be in the cards sometime this year though?  It'd be so fun to do it again as an adult!
  dress/courtesy of modcloth :: cardigan/ruche :: plaid top/courtesy of free people
boots/target :: necklaces/adorn by sarah lewis :: hat/brooklyn :: photos by Dan

favorite wedding images of 2014

 fell fast and hard for wedding photography in 2014, and I cannot wait to shoot more weddings in 2015!  It kind of took me by surprise how much I actually like wedding photography, I remember in the beginning I was totally freaked out by the one chance to get the shots and the high stress of weddings.  Thankfully, all my weddings have been low key and so much fun.  It's almost like being a wedding crasher, minus the binge drinking and taking a bridesmaid home, and plus getting to create photos of memories that will last a lifetime.  I'd say I come out on top.  No, but it's seriously amazing to get to create gorgeous images for my brides and grooms, it's such a privilege to capture the excitement and the intimate little moments between just the two of them on such a special day.
This is a sampling of my favorite wedding images from the past year.  With every wedding and every shoot I feel like I grow as a photographer and I'm so excited to grow this year.   I've already had an amazing wedding so far this year and a styled bridal shoot with some gorgeous gals in stunning BHLDN dresses.  I can't wait to share the images from those shoots in the coming weeks!  For now, here's a look back at what 2014 looked like!
































Images 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 17, 18, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31, 33 are a styled wedding shoot featuring some great local Tacoma models and vendors which I'm excited to share soon on the blog!
I'm excited to share

4 helpful fitness apps

or all it's pitfalls (oh Facebook, why do I just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling??), technology has a lot of useful applications for daily life.  This past year I started using a few apps that I've really enjoyed which are nice compliments to my fitness and healthy lifestyle goals, so I thought I'd share them!  I don't like using a ton of apps because it gets to be a little overwhelming and too much to keep up, so I stick to a few that I really like using.  Apps are nice because they not only help me track things, but they can give me motivation as well.  I love being able to visually see goals and check off workouts.  Do you guys use any fitness or health apps that you find you can't live without? 
Jawbone UP I'd say that one of my favorite apps is the Jawbone UP app.  I started using their UP24 band a few months ago and it's really awesome motivation to get moving!  Not only does it track your steps, it also tracks your sleep and lets you know how much light and deep sleep you got throughout the night.  You can set goals for steps and sleep and if you have the wireless UP24, it'll sync directly to the app throughout the day with Bluetooth!  I have an iPhone 4, which doesn't have syncing capabilities with the UP24, so I use my iPad mini to sync and then that is synced with my iPhone.  You can also link your UP app with other fitness or health apps, so I have mine linked up with my LoseIt! app, which I love!  The app itself is free, but you do need a tracker to go with it.  I got the wireless UP24 tracker, which is $149.  I like it a lot more than my fitbit zip, which I found difficult to remember to put on everyday and awkward to find somewhere to clip if I wasn't wearing jeans.  The UP is a bracelet, so I wear it all day everyday (except for wet situations like the shower.  I ruined one already by getting saltwater splashed on it when I was in Hawaii).  

LoseIt! LoseIt! is my favorite app for tracking my food.  Now that I'm doing Whole30, it's great for planning future meals too!  My favorite thing about it is that it makes me way more mindful of my eating.  Now that I'm doing Whole30 I have to be mindful all the time, but before that, it really helped me not just graze mindlessly and be intentional about how I fed myself.  I have the Premium membership, which allows me to sync to the Jawbone app, and also gives you the ability to plan meals ahead of time.  You can also join challenges, which is another fun way to get motivation, and they give you badges for eating well, working out consistently, and tracking consistently.  Who doesn't like little awards?  The app is free, but if you want the Premium account, it's $39.99/year.

Insane Tracker  For those of you who do the Insanity program, I found this little app which was a really nice way to keep track of what workout to do that day, enter your fit test results, and I liked getting to check off the workouts I completed!  Obviously you can do all this manually, but it's nice to have it all in one place, and it stores your fit test results so you can see how you did in comparison to the last one!  This app isn't free, but it's only $0.99 which isn't bad!
Nike+ Running I haven't been running in quite a while, but when I was a semi-consistent runner I really liked using the Nike+ app, which tracked my pace and route, miles ran, and would tell me throughout my run how far along I was.  Since I'm not an avid runner, this is the only running app I've ever used, but I really enjoyed using it!  It's also free!
 

ace up my sleeve

his past week I got to spend time up in Anchorage, which was such a great way to start off the year.  I shot a wedding on the 2nd, saw an Aces game on the 3rd, did a styled bridal shoot on the 4th, had a mini family Christmas on the 5th, and headed back to Tacoma on the 6th.  These photos are actually from our time in Palm Springs over Christmas, not to be confused, Anchorage Alaska certainly does not look like this in January.  For both the wedding and styled shoot we were working outside at temperatures around 8º F.  Brisk, to say the least!  I love traveling, but it is nice to be home for the next couple months with no travel, especially with Whole30.  Eating while traveling makes it much more difficult to find Whole30 compliant meals, so it'll be great to spend the month at home cooking for myself.  After 8 flights in 6 weeks, some stability will be nice, and a great way to get grounded for the coming year.  
In recent years I've chosen a word that I hold on to throughout the year, last year's was honest/genuine and it helped me let go of a lot of things that were holding me back, things that no longer served me.  I let go of goals that I had been holding on to just because I had them as goals in the past, but realized I didn't really want those things anymore (or that I wanted other things more).  This year, my word is Build.  I let go of a lot of stuff in the last year, which means that in some ways I'm starting afresh at the bottom.  2015 is a year for building.  I like that it's a word of action.  It gives me purpose and drive, and I need that this year.
Do you pick a word for the year?  If so, what word are you picking for 2015 and why?


jacket/modcloth :: dress/courtesy of lulu's :: necklace/francesca's belt/thrifted :: top/courtesy of modcloth :: photos by Dan