Home from CAMP

I spent the weekend in the Texas Hill Country, just outside of Austin with a group of marvelously creative women. We were all attending CAMP: a Texas Style Council blogger's retreat. I was definitely one of the camp "elders", but their verve and vitality was really infectious. (Listen to me, I sound like an old rickety vampire sucking the youth juice from bypassing fashion bloggers).

The grounds were beautiful, although mostly cloaked in sheets of rain for the weekend. But we made the best of it and huddled around fireplaces, craft tables and iPhones. The camaraderie was certainly the highlight of this weekend of sisterhood, but the breakout sessions were also a nice bonus. I was also able to connect with my dear friend, Valerie, whose baby I helped deliver here in Dallas 3-plus years ago. She was my bunkmate, along with the extraordinary best-friend-team, Savannah and Jenny of Maiedae.

Photo by Chelsea Laine Francis

Every morning we were met with coffee, provided by TOMS and some sort of a social mixer or class. There was yoga, fireside chats and early morning lab sessions with the talented Angela Cruz from Squarespace. I've been hoping to unify my work, art, blog and art shop all in one place, and Squarespace is going to help me to do that! In the next few weeks, you'll see some big changes here at La Maison Boheme - and all for the better. Now I won't be spread across 5 separate platforms! No more bouncing between Blogger, Big Cartel, Tumblr, Paypal and Passionfruit Ads. Squarespace is a one-stop-shop and I couldn't be happier to be making the transition.

In addition to the social networking and crafting, we had a few wonderful keynote speakers who talked to us about thinking big, honoring your own voice, fearlessness and emotional breakdowns. The speakers were Jenny Lawson of The Bloggess, Bethany Joy Clark from TOMS, Caroline Recktor of Unfancy, Jess Lively of The Lively Show and Sophia Rossi of Hello Giggles.

We finished our time together with a really beautiful trust exercise. 

Sisterhood. It's so important.

Now I'm back home in Dallas with countless business cards, Instagram feeds to follow, all sorts of new inspiration and best of all, the creation of a cohesive blog and art website. (Sigh). Thank you to Indiana Adams, founder of the Texas Style Council, for one lovely last hurrah at CAMP. You and your team of volunteers did a beautiful job!

Me and Valerie