Haven Conference Recap (and a Wicked Good Fabric Giveaway!)

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Last updated: August 16, 2013

***This giveaway is now CLOSED. Winner announced here. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment and enter.

As you may know now, my colleague Kate and I spent five days last week in Atlanta among 350 do-it-yourself bloggers at the Haven Conference. Although we lost our voices, barely slept, and I missed my two little guys so much it hurt, every moment of being there was worth it. For many reasons. The “DIY shuffle” dance to Blurred Lines, and Traci’s accompanying and much-needed instruction on the dance floor. The profound closing speech by Bob of Habitat for Humanity. And most of all, just being surrounded by and connecting with so many intelligent, talented, passionate and genuinely kind people was awesome. The energy in and around that place was infectious. I can’t tell you how many came up and sweetly thanked us for the fabric we provided for their swag bags (everyone got one yard of burlap and one yard of a different Premier Prints fabric). In fact, we got positive feedback about virtually every little detail we had considered and worked toward in planning for that event. And those thank yous meant a lot to us.

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Rather than explain every moment of our time at Haven, here’s a visual journey. But before you venture through, we need to note the one regret we have from Haven: that we didn’t take OFS photographer Clara along with us! (She’s the gal who hand-drew the map and handmade hundreds of fabric flag pins to document where Haven bloggers came from). With the volume of people who visited our booth, who we wanted to take time to chat with, it was simply impossible to snap the amount (and quality!) of photos we had hoped to. Lesson learned.

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Had to throw this one in. It’s a shot as we were packing up 450 swag bag boxes filled with 900 yards of hand-cut, folded and stuffed fabric to ship down to Atlanta from OFS in Massachusetts. Phew!

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This was the official conference opening. Gracious Haven Conference leader Rhoda of Southern Hospitality introducing the keynote speaker, Ana White.

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This is our neighbors’ booth, Southern Accents. Their salvaged, rustic products were amazing and they were such nice folks: Lucy of Lucy Inspired (pictured on right in pic below) and Garlan.

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A little chat about Celebrating Everyday Life between its founder Jennifer Caroll, very sweet Beth of Unskinny Boppy and Lucy.

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Here’s a peek at our Haven Booth. We showcased some other OFS products including pillow forms, thread, upholstery supplies and Rit dye. We had two clothing racks of fabric hanging behind us that we welcomed attendees to come back, touch and see up close. And they DID! Enthusiastically. And um. They rocked.

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Lauren of The Thinking Closet, Shan of Family Brings Joy, Rachel of Lines Across

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KariAnne of Thistlewood Farms with Kate. I adored her from our very first exchange on night one, when she asked me, “Y’all have burlap?” Why yes, I believe we do KariAnne.

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Anne from Because Homes Should be Great

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Beth of Farm Fresh Vintage, Sonya of At Home with the Barkers and Christy of Our Southern Home

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Kate and Emily Clarke

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Amanda of Amanda Carol At Home, Sarah of The Yellow Cape Cod, Kristin of The Hunted Interior

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Me and Jackie from Teal and Lime

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Laura of The Turquoise Home

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Bridget and Casey of The DIY Playbook

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Kate, Jessica of Decor Adventures and Me

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Jennifer Caroll and Laura of Finding Home

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Dusty of All Things G + D

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Kate and Ashley of Simply Designing

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Finally got to meet Beckie of Infarrantly Creative! Remember her awesome tutorials?

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Kristin of Bliss at Home signing up to get info about working with OFS, and another unidentified blogger making her mark on the map (please get in touch if that’s you!)

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Jessica of Mom 4 Real

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Emily of Huckleberry Love (map winner!)

So that’s that. We just want to sincerely say thank you to all of the Haven conference organizers, speakers, bloggers, other sponsors, and to our OnlineFabricStore team who helped us prep swag and get it sent out. Haven 2014? No brainer.

And now for a little giveaway.
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In the spirit of Haven, both for those who weren’t there and those who did attend and just need another OFS fix. I’m putting together a package that will include a two yards of burlap and a yard each of the five assorted Premier Prints fabric pictured above.* I will also throw in some jute gift bags and $25 gift card to OnlineFabricStore. Simply share this post using one of the share buttons below and leave a comment below letting me know which you did. I’ll pick the winner next Friday. (You can find out who wins by entering your email in the top right hand corner and clicking “subscribe.” Good luck!
*Full disclosure, the Premier yards are not leftover from Haven but are ones that were set aside when we were packing due to very small marks being found on them.)
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