This weekend’s She Speaks Conference was both a surreal and a “coming home” sort of experience. Surreal, in the sense of hanging out with well-known bloggers, writers, and speakers; comfortable in meeting other women - the bloggers - who are interested in and familiar with the same things that I am. In how many social settings could I engage in meaningful conversation about IP addresses? You tell me.

The day started with a four hour drive, arriving just in time for a lunch date at Chili’s with Robin, Valerie, and Lisa. We got our I-don’t-actually-know-anyone jitters out of our systems, a perfect ice-breaker before heading to the conference.

Robin and I have emailed back and forth a lot and even talked on the phone once, so I was psyched about getting to meet her. We recognized each other immediately and really clicked. Amazingly, we were signed up for exactly the same sessions throughout the weekend.

Friday afternoon’s bloggers’ reception was the perfect way to put faces with fellow bloggers (around 100 of us) in the sea of 560 conference attendees. I met 14 ladies whose blogs I’ve designed, as well as 4 who are presently in my queue. Sophie (BooMama), Shannon (Rocks in My Dryer), and Melanie (Big Mama) were the featured speakers for 3 blogging sessions throughout the weekend.

Shannon and I are originally from towns about 40 miles apart in Arkansas. We could have Called the Hogs, but that might have frightened people.

Renee Swope (The Journey of My Heart & HeBrews Faith Cafe) was one of my earliest P31 clients.

Sophie was every bit as sweet and Southern as expected. What a precious and witty woman, capable of using the word “organic” intelligently in a sentence without referring to food items. She brought the house down during the Blogging Q & A when she referred to “pimping your post”!

Being Lysa TerKeurst’s blog designer is certainly one of the claims to fame of my little SAHM web design business, Barefoot Blog Designs. After all the calls and emails, it was a sweet meeting. Not only is she an inspirational speaker, she has a gift for making others feel special and valued, and that’s no small thing.

This is a group shot, and in order from left to right are yours truly, Shannon @ Rocks in My Dryer, Jo-Lynne @ Musings of a Housewife, Big Mama, Annie Downs, BooMama, Robin @ Pensieve, Valerie @ Valerie at Home, Lisa B. from Simply His, and Sarah @ Genesis Moments.

There was a block of time on Saturday afternoon when the speakers and writers had meetings, but we bloggers were at loose ends. What it created was a perfect opportunity for the “seasoned” bloggers to pull together some tables, pick each other’s brains, and discuss topics that would have been beyond the scope of the sessions.

Oh, and to gab, too. Bloggers have more than the average share of words per day, which is why we blog some of them, thereby sparing our families.

My husband confiscated the laptop for the weekend, telling me that I needed to be a normal person. In this crowd, the absence of a laptop was not normal, so that one backfired on both of us.

Heady with new friendships and a touch of silliness, we hit the local outlet mall, where we tried on outrageously expensive shoes in Off 5th. From left to right: DeeDee @ Fiddledeedee, Missy @ It’s Almost Naptime, me, Tina @ Antique Mommy, and Robin @ Pensieve. I don’t know about the other ladies, but I couldn’t have lasted 5 minutes in those painful-but-pricey heels

I have to tell you, meeting Tina was a thrill for me because she is one of my favorite writers. Missy was cute as can be and totally tops me in the childbirth category; she has 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-year olds!

DeeDee and I snagged a last minute photo op with Marybeth Whalen and realized that all of us are scheduled to speak at the Heart of the Matter Online Virtual Conference. [At this point I could probably say we're scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention and no one would notice since I've probably lost 95% of the people who started reading this increasingly long post.]

Marybeth is my ticket to this P31 ride. She contacted me a week and a half before last year’s conference about designing her blog, and the rest has been blessing upon blessing showered upon me by these kind and generous women.

We had a relaxed visit in my room Saturday night with our feet propped up and our hair down, so to speak, which is entirely natural considering how much we have in common: homeschooling moms, well-known authors and speakers, lots of kids, authors for the Homeschool Blog Awards, Southerners. Meeting her was one of the great treats of the conference for me.

My calendar is marked for next year’s conference.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the blogger portion continues to expand. Wouldn’t a blog conference for Christian women be an amazing thing?

For more summaries, visit the blogs of the other She Speaks attendees.

A big factor in my lack of recent blog activity has been the site design I’ve been working on for the Homeschool Blog Awards. This is an exciting time for us, as we’ve added 5 new authors, too! Please stop by and visit, and grab the code for this button out of our sidebar to help spread the word about the HSBA on your site.

The Cates at Why Homeschool are looking for some graphics to represent the Carnival of Homeschooling. They really liked the button we used for the Homeschool Blog Awards, so I took a clean and simple, less-is-more approach. The mediums have a 140px width, which should fit nicely in most sidebars (the HSBA button is that width, as well as the new Hearts for Homeschooling Top 100 button in my left sidebar). The large buttons (the “whatever” size category) are 300px in width, which is too large for a sidebar, but could be used for an individual post graphic.

Medium:

Large:

This completely violates my clean and simple approach, I just love these colors. [I had forgotten the 2 entries per category rule, so I guess this one is the most likely to go!]

If you’re looking for a Christmas blog design for your Blogger blog, please visit my design site, Barefoot Blog Designs. You’ll find links in the top of the sidebar for the 4 Christmas templates that are available. Here are previews of each; if you click on the image, you’ll link to the information about ordering that design.

Thank you, and Merry Christmas!

Sisterlisa at Apples of Gold Ministries is hosting a Christmas blog decorating party. Submit a link on this post if you’ve decked your blog for Christmas. This is kind of fun for me since I got my diary girl all spruced up just in time for the Homeschool Blog Awards. This year, however, the HSBA team members removed ourselves from the polls and nominations list.

I sincerely appreciate the nomination for Best Blog Design, and so in the interest of good fun I’m conducting my own poll:

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I finally did something I’ve been meaning to do for months: redesign the Barefoot Blog Designs site.  I’ve started to do it many times, I just didn’t have a clear idea of what I wanted.  Go take a look and tell me if you like it!

I don’t often write about my design work here, but I am very excited about a blog which debuted today. For the Least of These chronicles a trip to Ecuador by members of the Proverbs 31 Ministries mission team, and the little girl, Mery, whom they sponsor there. I have been very focused on completing it because a magazine article featuring the trip and containing a link to the blog was due out any day. We made our deadline with not a minute to spare - the magazines arrived today. There is a link in the blog’s sidebar for Compassion International, if you or someone you know is interested in sponsoring a needy child.

My youngest girls and I took a breather this afternoon in the park while the older kids were at band and chorus lessons, and wouldn’t you know, I just happened to have my camera with me.