Monday, June 22, 2015

My 1st Britmums Live Experience | 2015 ♥

This weekend Jacek and I were lucky enough to attend the Britmums Live blogging conference in London for the first time, my attendance being sponsored by the wonderful people at My 1st Years. If you're unaware of My 1st Years they are a fabulous personalised gifts company who have the most beautiful gifts and items for children. We're a big fan of their products for our son and I have reviewed their products plenty of times on the blog before if you fancy a read! I went to Britmums with a surge of excitement and nervousness and was anxious to see what delights the conference held for myself and my fellow bloggers.

We were awake at half three on Friday morning to catch our flight to Stansted. We were both so exhausted that we couldn't remember our phone pin codes and blocked them - what a couple of ding dongs! After an hours bus journey and another hour walking up and down what seemed like the longest street in London we finally found our hotel. I was suffering from exhaustion and the aftermath of travel sickness from the bus and all I wanted to do was get in a quick power nap before the event began - luckily I was able to catch forty winks (literally!) otherwise I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the event at all. If you're ever attending Britmums I highly recommend going to London the night before so that you can wake up on the day of the event feeling refreshed and ready for all that's in store.

Picture ruined by my hair blowing across my eyes, but still, the Twirlywoos!
As we reached The Brewery the first blogger I bumped into was Kerry from Oh So Amelia who was attending with her adorable baby son Harrison. I was so happy to see Kerry as she's one of my favourite bloggers and even though we only spoke briefly it's great that I was able to speak to her in person. As we entered the grounds of The Brewery we were greeted by the Twirlywoos. I absolutely loved this as I'm always one for a photo op and Tyler Lee is a big fan of these guys and I was left singing their theme tune for the day! We even got Twirlywoos headbands to keep - can you tell I was excited by this?! I'm such a child.

After this we moved into The Hub where we got to speak to different brands and PRs. I have to admit that I thought this area would be much busier and that I'd see a lot more bloggers I knew, sadly I didn't but Jacek and I did get to speak to a lot of lovely PRs and really took our time with them too. We were given free wine by Lindemans and the PR for them who we spoke to, who was called Nathan, was one of the friendliest people we met at the whole event. The girls who were representing Beattie Coms and Parragon Books were super lovely too.

The lovely Helen teaching me how to knit.
We also spent a lot of time in the Lady Sew and Sew craft room which was was adorned with gorgeous looking fabrics and handmade items, all of which I wish I was capable of making! A lovely woman named Helen retaught me how to cast on in knitting and from their I was flying, it's funny how the art of knitting came back to me after thirteen years! I wish I had gotten a chance to crochet and make some bunting too but Jacek and I were starving so we had to go and get dinner. I had to take pictures of all the gorgeous crafts in the room as they really were laid out so beautifully. I love the look of the letter cardigan up above, I have to get my nan to make a 'T' one for Tyler Lee.

Vicki & I in the kite garden.
On the way out we stopped off at the beautifully decorated outside areas - the whimsical umbrellas and flower themed garden being my absolute favourite, it was so peaceful and sunny out there. In the colourful kite garden area I bumped into three lovely bloggers who I'm friendly with on Facebook - Vicki from Elliebearbabi, Andrea from Blogger Mumma and Gemma from Sunshine On A Cloudy Day Blog. I also met Lucinda from Teacher 2 Mummy who was in our group photo. All the girls were super friendly and we had a great chat. Funnily enough on day two of the conference they were the only bloggers I spoke to again but it didn't really bother me as we all got on so well.

Gemma & I in the beautiful umbrella and flower garden.
Myself, Vicki, Andrea, Gemma & Lucinda.
Day two was spent doing much the same things as day one but we had to leave a bit earlier to catch our bus back to Stansted to catch our flight. We were so exhausted and I really do wish we had taken an extra day in London so that we could have enjoyed our time there more, we both felt as though we were rushing around the whole time. I really wish I had spoken to more bloggers. I'm not one to just join in on conversations as I'm quite shy and that's something I need to work on but I've been speaking to a lot of bloggers online since the event so hopefully I'll get to meet them all one day.

Merci Mamam gave us all these beautiful eternity bracelets engraved with Britmums Live 2015 so that we always have a keepsake from our experience, such a lovely thing.

I would like to sincerely thank the wonderful people at My 1st Years one more time for sending me on this great adventure. Britmums Live was my first ever blogging conference and hopefully not my last. It was a great experience to have and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, The Brewery is such a gorgeous space to be in. Hopefully I get to go to Britmums again one day and hopefully next time around I would be less shy and a lot more sociable!

Were you at Britmums Live 2015?
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7 comments

  1. Didn't go as had a concert on but would love to go next year. but I dont think I'd go on my own though.

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  2. I really wish I had of seen you and had the chance to say hello. I hardly spoke to many bloggers either as i did not see many I knew and I never even entered the craft area as I am terrible at anything like that. Hopefully I will get to see you of we both go next year xx

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  3. It always amazes me after the event that there were so many people there that I didn't even get chance to see - but I guess with 700 people that is going to happen, isn't it?! Your photos of the different areas are a much better idea than all my selfies - v helpful to people wondering what it all looks like! Glad you enjoyed it and maybe we'll meet next time :)

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  4. It sounds like you had a wonderful time! Fab photos!

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  5. Everything looks amazing, sounds like you had a great time! I really hope to attend next years x

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  6. Wonderful photos that give a completely different perspective of Britmums, glad you had such a good time x

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  7. It sounds like you had a lovely time and Vicko, Andrea and Gemma are three of the loveliest bloggers! x

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