Eating My Way Through BlogHer Food Conference in Austin

Normally I’m the photographer at conferences. This time, I’ll be eating – and live-blogging – and mic wrangling – and snacking – and watching – and listening – and learning – and eating some more. This blog conference is going to be different… because it’s for FOOD bloggers.

WARNING: I apologize to my twitter followers in advance… there will be food photos and food talk most of this weekend.

Shhhh – Sure, I’m a homeschool mom… but I’m also a closet foodie (can’t sit down to dinner without taking a photo of my meal for instagram / always trying out new recipes / swooning over my latest food crush). Seriously, I’m like Remy the rat on Ratatouille – freaking out over a new cheese and mushroom combination… picking an herb… thrilling over a finished soup.

And here’s a secret you might not know… My middle name is Colette! I wanted to go by that name, but my mother only used it when she was mad at me… so I eventually gave up and stuck with Heather. She still signs my birthday cards “Colettie”, though.

My kids quote Colette from Ratatouille all the time referring to me: “Keep your station clean … or I will KILL YOU!” I channel her character sometimes, I think.

Will you be at BlogHer Food? I’ll be the local girl with the Texas twang, y’all; in cowgirl boots, of course!

Apparently, all white girls that aren’t Pioneer Woman look the same, so here’s a recent, if orange, photo (orange is my favorite color, by the way) – which I also use on Twitter – so you can track me down easier:

Little known fact: I used to have a food blog. Yep – “Gathering Manna: A little taste of heaven every day. Food so good you might end up having to pick angels out of your teeth.”

Those recipes are all included here at Sprittibee.com now; I merged my food blog in to this blog when I moved to WordPress a year ago. I started that blog back in 2005, around the same time I started blogging at this one. I wanted to have all my favorite recipes online where I could easily share them with friends and family – and to have them available where-ever I was so I could COOK! I often take my laptop or iPad in the kitchen with me and let it get splattered on the counter.

One of my favorite things about conferencing is the people you get to meet and get to know better. I’m thrilled to be hanging out with a homeschool blog diva this weekend (I actually took this photo of her at Blissdom where we met IRL for the first time – though we’ve known each other online for ages):

Isn’t she pretty in polka-dots? Lisa (@milehimama) – who blogs at Milehimama.com and is the queen of the #TXbloggers weekly twitter chat. We have roomies on Friday night, too — can’t wait to recap the event and share more about them with you!

This weekend I’m planning on learning a lot. Food videos, food photography, technical recipe writing ideas, and more. I also plan to be EATING A LOT. There are private parties – at Stubb’s BBQ and parties sponsored by Whole Foods. I’m looking forward to visiting with friends and talking food, photo and blog shop.

Did I mention there will be food?

I have plans to lick a few plates clean. I’m assuming this conference will have better food than ALL the others. No pressure.

There will also be fangirl moments this weekend. Ree (the Pioneer Woman herself), Rachel Matthews – “deep-fried Southern Belle sweetheart” (who I adore like Texas itself), and Elise Bauer – *squeeeeee* of SimplyRecipes.com will all be there. Note: I’ve been following Elise since practically before I knew what a blog was. I just adore her… and she’s one of the NICEST bigshot bloggers I have ever encountered online. She’s such a sweet person. She’s the one who blessed my menu with the best cooked red-cabbage recipe ever. Life changing stuff. Mmmmm.

I’ll be leaving my husband in charge of four kids for the weekend. <– You know he loves me after a statement like that.

By Sunday, he’ll be needing a vacation (and I’ll be needing a diet) – just in time to go back to work. Poor guy. Good thing Father’s Day is the following weekend. Anyone have any good gift ideas? I’ll be needing them! I’m pretty sure he’s going to ask for lots of good food on the table when he gets home from work and free time to piddle in the garage. He’s so easy to please.

About me (for my new BlogHer friends who surf in for the first time)….

I love my kids: 2 teens, 2 toddlers. I’m a crazy homeschool mama. I’m one of those moms who doesn’t look forward to the end of summer to put the kiddies on a bus and get them out of my hair… and I’ll probably be texting them from BlogHer Food as much as I’m tweeting. { I do look forward to the end of summer for other reasons, though… try 100 straight days of over 100 degree weather. Austin, y’all. It has it’s negative moments, believe it or not. #yuck }

I’m a native Texan. I know some of the restaurants they aren’t including in the BlogHer Food line-up which happen to be just as good, if not better… so if you plan to stick around, and need a local opinion – DM me!

I blog about everything under the sun. Food included, of course. I piddle at organic gardening, too… and fight the fire ants for every tomato.

I’ve been to lots of conferences… and I’m a conference photographer, as I mentioned above. I’ve never been to BlogHer Food before, though.

Some random things about me you might find interesting:
I come from a long line of black sheep.
I have been blogging (and trapping Google searchers) since 2005.
I’m the founder of the Homeschool Post (which runs the annual Homeschool Blog Awards).

You can find out more about me at these links:
About Me
Faith
Homeschool Journey in a Nutshell

Enough of the I and me stuff.

So how about you? Where did you surf in from? What’s your blog link? How long have you been blogging? Have you been to any blog conferences yet? Will you be at BlogHer Food?

In Him,

Heather

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Credits: Texas flag pic contains artwork from Tacodeli (my favorite taco joint in Austin)