What to expect at BritMums Live
I'm sat tucked up in crisp white hotel bed sheets, with the crumbs from the complementary dual biscuit wrapper crumbling into the laptop keyboard, and thinking I wonder whether anyone else is up now, if anyone is going to BritMums for the first time and nervously dreaming of what to expect?!
Well be prepared for noise. Walking into the main room at BritMums is like battling through a joyous cacophony of excitable women, equally excitable men, all sharing reunions, first hugs and squeals and anxious anticipation.
It can be everything you want it to be. You just need to harness those nerves and be yourself. My advice to anyone gong tomorrow is say hello to as many new faces as possible. This is the one event where everyone "gets you" they're all on your wavelength and they all want to talk about nothing but blogging!!!! Bloggers - you will be in heaven!
It's a chance to connect in person with people who feel like your best friends on the internet. Make real life friendships to take away with you, even if the next time you see each other is in a year's time, back at this very same venue. I will be missing some of my best pals this year - girls, I wish you were there!
I packed the boot to bursting with wallpaper samples, paint chips, buckets for flowers and scrap book papers. I hope there is something for everyone!
I am in awe of all the preparation. I finally arrived in the loading bay (yes it was just as glamorous as it sounds) at 8.30pm tonight, over 4 hours since leaving home in Somerset. I crawled out of the car almost in the same driving position as I had sat in for 125 miles and cricked my neck and back a few times as the kind staff from The Brewery helped me load up the trolley with all the props for the Define Your Design Session tomorrow.
My boxes were added to a room full of boxes, all waiting to be revealed tomorrow afternoon.
Everyone who is going - you are in for a treat.
Hats off to the organisers who have clearly worked around the clock. It's one of those Pretty Woman moments where I want to say to Jen, Susanna and the BritMums team "If I forget to tell you later, I had a really great time tonight."
I checked in to a very stylish and spacious room and I am going to soak up every bit of modern luxury before heading home to our very old, very dusty, very in-need-of-renovation 300 year old house. Queue wriggling my toes excitedly under the tight hospital corners. I am going to enjoy the pristine white tiles in the bathroom, and collapse into the tower of pillows topped with a foiled wrapped chocolate.
This weekend I am representing Boots and their great campaign #SummerGoodTimes. I am so excited to see their stand, after hearing a sneak peek earlier this week. The Boots team are looking forward to welcoming all the bloggers to this year's event, so make sure you stop by! Some of the longest lasting relationships in the community between brands and bloggers are formed at BritMums Live.
It really feels like Summer now, I walked back along the main road from the pub that connects to the hotel at 10.30pm tonight and the air was balmy, people were walking past me hand in hand and it felt like a Friday was already here.
Good luck to everyone in the BIBs this year, it is an amazing achievement to get to the final, I will be so proud to see my name on that big screen but I feel I had my moment last year, stepping out onto that stage and being blinded by the lights, feeling so loved and so grateful. I shall be whooping for all the winners tomorrow night. Every single one deserves to be one that stage, how do the judges decide?!
So it's time to crash out now. Dream of my talk for the design session, practise it as I'm in the shower (Please tell you someone else has taped their notes to a shower door before and it's not just me?!) and wake up excited for the first day of the 2015 BritMums Live conference.
Ready steady go!