One of the best decisions I ever made was signing up to go to this Confererce. Our Maker Life is a wonderful community that brings makers all together for advice, for fun, and for awareness.

I had seen a couple of the artists and makers that I followed on Instagram were going, and upon more research found that it was an all day event: with presentations, crafting, and donuts (yum). So I bought myself a 50$ ticket. It was a bit steep at the time (still is tbh, but so is everything), but it was SO worth it.

I walked into the event thinking it would be a larger conference with ladies in pant suits taking notes (like in the movies). Nope. It was about 30-40 of us, mostly women, all younger ladies, many of whom were wearing thier own knitwear. I myself wore this bow shirt.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Nearly all these women had been crafting semi professionally for years. They had tens and hundreds of thousands of followers on their instagrams (I think I had just broken 500 at this point). But I tried to play it cool and fake it til i made it. Not only did I listen to makers who had been there, done that, learned from their mistakes, but the cumulative experience was so illuminating and hopeful. Go to their blog to see what I mean. Everyone was so friendly, and I got to meet a bunch of ladies who live right near me (and from all over)!

That's all of us below at the end of the event (I'm in the back right corner). The event came with a couple sponsorships, one of which was We Are Knitters, who were very generous with their yarns... that's what we're waving around in this picture.

The entire event was fun and interesting, but probably the best thing that came out of it for me was meeting my friend Alexi from Two of Wands. She has been absolutely invaluable to me as a mentor (more on that later), a support system, and a networker. She's friendly, she works hard, and she knows what she's doing.

I didn't know yet then, but we would continue to be inspired by the community, get together to drink and knit/crochet, and think about making our own community events...

7-30-16 Our Maker Life 2016