#bloggerblab RECAP

So over the past week or so.. Jamie and Nicole and I have become pretty great friends. We got to thinking and all three of us planned this freaking amazing thing called #bloggerblab. For something that was so quickly planned and put together... It came out absolutely incredible. I was so overjoyed with the turnout, there were so many of my favorite bloggers (shoutout to all my blogger buds and besties that came and chatted with us, y'all know who you are!) and I just couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my Wednesday night. The girls and I just wanted to do a recap of all that was discussed and share our favorite tweets and the best parts of the chat. Once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who joined and discussed everything with us. We didn't plan on this being a weekly thing (although I would LOVE for it to be).. you know scheduling can be tough, especially with school starting back soon and everything. BUT if you're a blogger you just might have gotten an email about #bloggersbts (If not and you're interested, let me know!) Nicole and I might do a #bloggerblab to discuss back to school things when the linkup starts up!! BUT I GOTTA GET INTO THIS RECAP NOW WHAT AM I DOING?!

So we kicked off the chat letting everyone know that we changed our icons blue for the chat so everyone could easily recognize when one of the hosts had tweeted! The whole time the chat was happening, the girls and I were talking live in a google hangout #behindtheblog or should I say #behindthetwitterchat and there was a lot of "Oh my gosh you guys" "Oh my gosh y'all" "This is incredible" "So exciting" "Aw I love them" ect. ect. ect. BUT WE LOVED EVERYONE BTW

We asked everyone to introduce themselves and link to their blogs so here's everyone:

Amanda // The Happy Arkansan

Ciara // The Clumsy Clover

Simone // blog coming soon

Faith // Faith's Girly Life

Gabby // Preppy Girl in PA

Gabby // The Little Thing of Life

Sydney // Sincerely, Syd

Madison // Mads Maybe

Ashleigh // Ash & Lane

Ashlee // Preperella

Abigail // Living the Gray Life

Daniela // The Bubbly Curls

Olivia // NC Prepsters

Jazmine // Happiness With a Side of Tea

Melissa // The White Corner Creative

Ruth // Really Truly Ruth

Brooke // The Pink Lyme

Alex // The College Life Stylist

Rebecca // Sunny Rebecca

Lauren // A Lil' Style

Cristina // Cristina on Campus
Rachel // Seashells and Sparkles
Rachel // Vintage Press

As you can see there were so so so many bloggers that joined us, and the girls and I were just so excited from the get go of how the entire chat was gonna flow! 

We had our first question: 

If you could work w/ ANY brand on office supplies (even if the brand hasn’t dabbled in this area before), who would it be? #BloggerBlab

— Jamie (@fashionnewcomer) July 30, 2015

And the responses were PERFECT

A1// Poppin because I love their supplies and colors #BloggerBlab

— Gabby Outlaw (@OutlawGabby) July 30, 2015

A1: I would love to work with Poppin because I just love their products and their pens are on point #BloggerBlab

— Gabriella Katz (@PrepGirlPA) July 30, 2015

*Totally agreed.. Poppin is AMAZING

A1: I think Lauren Conrad supplies would be gorgeous! #BloggerBlab

— Faith Allyn Dumais☀️ (@_faithdumais) July 30, 2015

I would love to work with @xoBetseyJohnson on office supplies bc I love her style & I think it'd be a really fun experience! #bloggerblab

— Madison (@madsmayb) July 30, 2015

A1: I would have designed my own set of office supplies! #BloggerBlab

— AlexandriaEisenhardt (@xocollegelife) July 30, 2015

SO MANY GREAT RESPONSES

So then Nicole and I started asking questions...

Do you prefer online PDFs or just creating your own organization? If you DIY, go to @classycathleen for the rest of the chat! #BloggerBlab

— Nicole (@empire_styles) July 30, 2015

Google Docs was mentioned a few times.. Faith mentioned that sometimes Google Docs aren't structured enough.. but it works for her and that's what matters! I was actually kinda surprised at how few people used online PDF's to print out. Many of the girls in our chat were pros at brainstorming and organizing on their own. Others said that they were still a bit unsure as to what works best for them, and still trying to find it, which I totally get! However many bloggers did agree that doing your own thing can be a lot of fun, which I would definitely have to agree with them on. I'm pretty big on making organizers and brainstorm sheets for myself and not using pre made ones. 

When Nicole asked what print outs bloggers used, if any.. We learned that the perfect one is difficult to find. Someone had linked to this Weekly blog post planner which would absolutely not work the best for me-- just how my brain works-- but it was still neat to see! Check out Pinterest if you're ever interested in finding more. 

I asked how bloggers organized on their own, and the responses were great!

I love making brainstorms (super duper colorful too btw) in notebooks, while I learned that others turn to helpful apps on their phones or websites to get organized. Evernote, the preinstalled notes on your iPhone, and Wunderlist. It was so fun to see how different we all were in our organization. While there were many tweets on Evernote, the topic of adding tons of color yourself with pens in cute little notebooks came up way WAY more. WHICH I TOTALLY LOVED BECAUSE I AM SUCH A PEN AND PAPER KINDA GAL MYSELF. But back to the printables and things.. I did get to see that other bloggers are on the hunt for the perfect one.. So I might at some point see what I can do and put together a collection kinda post IDK we'll see..

Planners were discussed A LOT. I love a good planner, and they definitely are good ways of keeping yourself organized and on schedule. 

List making was also mentioned quite a bit.. I'm the kind of person that carries a notebook or a scrap piece of paper so I can list things off whenever. It was neat to see that I'm not the only one who writes all these lists... 

I seriously have lists everywhere, whenever ideas come I have to jot them down before I forget! #bloggerblab

— Ashlee (@Preperella) July 30, 2015

Aside from the notes app, I like to write lists of ideas, schedules, and drafts in a notebook to have a hardcopy & easy visual. #bloggerblab

— Madison (@madsmayb) July 30, 2015

@Preperella I do the same thing! My desk is an endless jungle of loose papers with all kinds of things on them. #BloggerBlab

— Rebecca (@sunnyxrebecca) July 30, 2015

@Preperella LISTS EVERYWHERE YES!! That's my room AND MY DESK AND EVERYTHING 😍😍 #BloggerBlab

— Cathleen Slagle (@classycathleen) July 30, 2015

There were many wise words shared during #bloggerblab

Especially when we started discussing pros/cons of creating your own organizational methods..

Creating your own organizational method means you can find out and perfect exactly what works for you. #bloggerblab

— WhiteCornerCreative (@wcornercreative) July 30, 2015

@classycathleen everyone's minds work different so doing what is best for you will give your blog the best results! 💌 #BloggerBlab

— Cristina Mandujano (@cristina96x) July 30, 2015

I definitely think using your own method is the way to go because you can personalize everything to your liking. #bloggerblab

— Madison (@madsmayb) July 30, 2015

@classycathleen Everyone works differently, so I'd rather do what works best for me than what someone else planned for me. #BloggerBlab

— Lauren Ruzinsky (@lnruzin) July 30, 2015

By using your own ways to organize, you can create what works best for you, even if that means you combine a few ways! :) #bloggerblab

— Rachel Milne (@rachelmilnee) July 30, 2015

But seriously, how perfect are those benefits to making your own organizational tools and using your own methods.. Nicole asked how much bloggers are willing to pay to get organizational printables to use for their blogs. 

@empire_styles depending on what is included, I think $15 & under is key! #BloggerBlab

— Seashells + Sparkles (@_ssblog) July 30, 2015

Totally agreeing with Rach on this one.

Ooh and someone else tweeted a link to this fun printable: find it here 

@classycathleen sometimes it's hard to find something that works for you when you first start out! #BloggerBlab

— Cristina Mandujano (@cristina96x) July 30, 2015

Cristina brought up a good point too.. With making your own organization type of things in notebooks, it can be hard to find something right off the bat that 100% works for you.

I asked the gals where they store their brainstorms and notes and lists...

apps
agendas
notebooks
binders

I really loved hearing from those who keep all their lists and check things off as they get them done! That's something I really love doing, and I liked seeing that others do it too! So yeah, learning that there are other note hoarders out there made me happy. Also looking back on past notes and ideas can give new inspiration for bigger and better ideas.

There was a point where Evernote was being mentioned left and right

@ThePinkLyme @ReallyTrulyRuth NOW I FEEL LIKE IM MISSING OUT! When this is over, IM GETTING EVERNOTE #bloggerblab

— Cathleen Slagle (@classycathleen) July 30, 2015

THEN HERE'S WHERE T.J.MAXX AND MARSHALLS AND STAPLES AND HOMEGOODS AND EVERYTHING WAS BEING MENTIONED EVERYWHERE AND BECAUSE WE WERE ALL BLOGGERS WE WERE 100% FREAKING OUT!

It's where the chat got INSANELY fun because all it was was a bunch of bloggers obsessing over blogger things and it was perfect! We were planning group field trips to Staples and T.J.Maxx and Paper Source, and life was just good.

Then Ruth's tweet showed up in Indonesian, and #bloggerblab went international

And we all established that we all love organizing and pretty things to organize in

The rest of the chat was filled with thank you's to the wonderful hosts *takes a bow* and exchanging Instagram usernames so we could follow along, bloglovin' links ect. ect.

IT WAS SO SO SO MUCH FUN TO PUT TOGETHER! I'm Still in awe that it went so well! I would definitely love to have another #bloggerblab in the near future.. but we'll see how scheduling works and just be prepared if you ever see a totally random tweet saying that there's blogger blab that night.. just go. It's totally worth it I promise.

LOVED CHATTING AND LEARNING FROM YOU LADIES XX