Sit back…I have a lot to catch up on!

After IronGirl last Sunday I promptly went home and took a nap. Later that afternoon my mom and I attended the Junior League of St. Petersburg’s Annual Tea Party and Fashion Show.

What fun! I attended last year, but this year was even more impressive! It was held at the Vinoy and the room was decorated beautifully. There were also lots of awesome raffle items that my mom and I put in tickets for, but we didn’t win anything The fashion show was also amazing. It was so fun to see all my Junior League buds rockin’ the runway in cute outfits!

Later that night Ashley came over and we made dinner. She provided a delicious mushroom merlot ravioli from Mazzarro’s, while I sauteed some spinach. We ate dinner while watching This is 40, which was much funnier than I expected!

Monday was Running for Brews, where we dedicated our run to Boston. Afterwards, I had dinner with Lora, where she had prepared an awesome plate of dill potato salad, green beans and blueberry cornbread. (Black bean burger for our protein.) Veggies were all fresh and organic!

Later that week I attended Social Fresh, which is a social media conference that was in Tampa.

It’s noted as “the social media conference you’ve always hoped for.” And boy, was it ever! I learned SO much over those two days and got to meet some great people. My favorite part was a pro-bono campaign we did. We were asked to separate into groups and come up with a social media campaign for Southeastern Guide Dogs to help turn their Facebook fans into donors. You all know my support for Southeastern Guide Dogs so I was so thrilled to be able to do this for them.

One overarching theme from the conference was to “be a real person”. I’ve heard this before, and it’s my own social media policy, but to hear it again is always a nice reminder. Don’t be afraid to be transparent on your social media accounts…people want to know they are talking to a real person and it helps elevate your brand. There are many good examples of this (JetBlue was a big example) and is something you should remember for your own brand/company.

Friday night I was pooped, but rallied to go to a friend’s house for Girl’s Night. Although, boys were invited to this Girl’s Night since apparently they felt left out last time It was a fun group of people and we ended up watching The BodyGuard, which I had never seen before.

The next morning I got up bright and early for our Junior League Leadership Retreat. This is something all of the board members and chairs need to attend. Even though I went last year I still learned some new things this year. Our speaker for the day was Dr. Mimi Hull and she is amazing at leadership training! It was a fun day and it was nice being able to put faces to names of incoming chairs.

It was a Junior League kind of weekend because on Sunday I volunteered at Mainsail Arts Festival. One of our committees, Kids Create, does craft tables at community events, and Mainsail is one of them. It’s one of my favorite events to volunteer for. I mean, hello? Making crafts with adorable kids all morning? You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face if you tried. My table was making marble art, which is where we put a piece of paper in a container, put drops of paint on the paper, put marbles in and let the kids shake the container around to make a cool piece of art. Way fun!

After Mainsail, my friend Ashley and I went to the Rays game for Bark in the Park!

It was a bit overwhelming at first…there were TONS of dogs and people. Once we got settled in our seats it was a bit better. I didn’t really have my full attention on the game…too many puppies to ohh and aww over! Maddie was such a good girl. She didn’t have any idea what was going on, but had fun sniffing other dogs and trying to eat spilled nuts and nachos on the floor.

This is my “Maddie is not impressed” photo

Later that night we had dinner at Sea Hags, where a certain somebody had prepared a delicious special.

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Corn Salsa and a Roasted Red Pepper Sauce. Yum! And to think almost got a burger…

Whew! It was certainly a long and busy week, but FUN. This week is a tad more low key, but still busy. Lots of work stuff going on and this is the busiest time of year for Junior League as it’s when we start transitioning into our new roles for 2013-2014.

Hope you all are having a great week!