PlannerCon 2019

I spent this past weekend at PlannerCon.  It was an interesting experience, especially as a first-time attendee going by myself!

Technically I found out about it because of the Penguins 🐧 When I went to Michaels to get supplies to make my sign for the Penguins @ Sharks game, I discovered Wonton In A Million on one of the endcaps.  Of course I bought some stuff, then looked them up online to see what other products they had.  The online store was temporarily closed with a message to check their Facebook group for updates.  After joining, I saw a bunch of posts of people asking the creator if she was going to PlannerCon.  It was coming up soon and only 15 minutes away from my house… so why not?

Friday I stopped by after work to register and check out some of the vendors.  I tried to browse some of the shops set up downstairs, but it was in the same room as the Planner Prom that was going on, so it was dark and also pretty crowded.  I ended up not staying too long due to this – which is probably a good thing or I would have spent even more money than I ended up spending!  Good thing I hadn’t discovered the shops on the second floor yet.

Saturday and Sunday was speakers, workshops, shopping, and lots of swag.  The speakers got pretty honest and personal, which I appreciated.

On Saturday, I took a lettering workshop from Kelly Creates, and a bullet journaling workshop from Plans That Blossom.  Sunday’s workshop was lettering and doodling with Mommy Lhey. (I can never take a picture without the cats wanting to be in them, so I let Dragon stay 🙄)

This is what I ended up buying over the weekend… I lost track of how much I spent halfway through because I was trying to use cash as much as possible and didn’t have receipts 🤐 I’m going to start a 2-month no spend… Though my estimate is about half of what Jack thought I spent when I said “I spent too much”, so it can’t be that bad!

And this is the swag from vendors, speakers, and the convention itself.

Finally, there were a lot of kind people that were giving out goodies!  I didn’t make anything to swap, but they just enjoyed sharing. (This time I couldn’t get Juggernaut out of the picture)

As a side note, I had made a spread for the March doodle challenge from Plans That Blossom that I saw on Instagram but forgot it was the same person from the workshop I was taking… I remembered it when she mentioned the challenge during the workshop and asked her to write a note in the spread 🥰

February: Workshops and Roadtrips

The first weekend of February, I took a giant knit blanket workshop. It was a fun small class (6 students) in a cute little local store, and we made them laid out on a table without any knitting needles. The blanket came out really soft and fluffy… So fluffy that Dragon just tries eat it if I have it out (well… it may also be because of the sheepy smell of the yarn). Unfortunately I haven’t really been able to use the blanket due to this – anyone have any suggestions for how to handle a cat that eats your blanket???

The second weekend, I took a watercolor lettering workshop. This one was a larger class, filling all of a coffee shop that closed early just for the workshop. It came with a coffee drink, dessert, customized tote bag, and the watercolor palette and brushes to take with you. I wasn’t quite happy with my lettering by the end of the class, so I took the card supplies home to make later rather than during the workshop. And yes, my final card did include the word “poop” 💩

The third weekend was the long President’s Day weekend. I decided I wanted to tour a cheese farm, and discovered one near Mendocino that was having a special brunch and tour that weekend. At that point I figured I might as well just do Mendocino for the weekend… So we had a weekend of wine tastings, pregnant goats, beautiful ocean views, and a soggy waterfall hike.

Finally, this last weekend we took an overnight trip to South Lake Tahoe with some friends. Jack’s snowboarding has improved a lot this year (even just from when we were in Vail at the end of December), so there was less of me skiing ahead and waiting for him to catch up (or waiting until he got far enough ahead before I started skiing).  It was a lot more fun!