My Weekend In The Capital For BritMums Live 2014!

So a week ago today, a rather anxious, excited, nervous, ecstatic, happy, upset, extremely upset, confused and terrified mummy set off to London for BritMums Live 2014, all thanks to my amazing sponsor's! If it wasn't for those two amazing sponsors, Popagami and MAM, I would not have been in the capital and I surely would not have been feeling so many emotions at once! Also, a huge thanks to boohoo for sponsoring my outfits for the weekend!

Popping a few paracetamol's into my bag, apart from the scheduled sessions I knew I wanted to attend, I didn't really have anything planned! It was to date the longest time I had ever been away from Spud, and my gosh didn't I know it! Dropping him off to school on the Friday morning, and not seeing him again until the Sunday afternoon, I was grateful for FaceTime and simple telephone calls which we take for granted so much more!

Spud was in perfectly fine hands by the way, he stayed with his auntie Paula (my sister) on the Friday night, and spent the Saturday with his grandad (spell checks making me check the spelling of grandad a million times over, even though I know it's spelt right!) and nanny). Being picked up by my dad and Spud on the Sunday could have been a scene from a budget movie, but to me, it was the best, I was reunited with my beautiful baby!

Friday morning was just the usual chaotic rush, the day of the week I'm most looking forward to out of the five weekdays, because I know I'm more than likely to have a lay in on the Saturday but it had carnage thrown in with the chaos too!

Nothing could go simple, could it? After losing my hair straighteners (I don't have time to straighten my hair any more, they're like the special necklace that sits there for years waiting to be used!), and cursing the imaginary ghost for playing hide and seek at the worse time possible, I was pleased to see Claire from 20 Something Mum pulling into my car park with her hubs and their two adorable children!

Nabbing a lift to the train station was the best yes I've said in a while, I was in a pickle, and sweating with nerves, if I had to of faced a bus, I would have ended up at the nearest pub and not in the capital itself! Me and Claire then met Alice from My Life, My Son, My Way aka Alice from AmazingLand and we set off to BritMums Live 2014 (yep, yes, and yeah I just wrote 2015!!!).

Fast forward the pre-meetup organised by Claire, which was fab at All Bar One, and the checking in of the hotel (because no one wants to hear my complaints of how heavy I had packed!), it was happening, I was sat under a huge and beautifully decorated canopy at BritMums Live! 

There was a list I wanted to stick to (not literally), filled with sessions I wanted to attend, people I wanted to meet (because for just one weekend I wanted to know them by their names and not their blog's name), and so much more but thing's didn't go to plan! Interrupted, but not rudely by the amazing Ceri from Ginger Warrior my nerves dropped instantly!

Who the eck was I trying to impress with a scheduled timetable stuck inside my purse? Here strides in this woman with so much confidence, I was questioning myself stupidly as to why I was so nervous! Always one to let things go with the flow, I potted around with Alice and Claire for a while, and then went off to meet some fellow lovelies including Hayley from Sparkles and Stretchmarks, Angela from This Is Life, Hannah from A New Addition, Laura from the Life and Times of the Working Mum, Lilinha from Lilinha Angel's World and plenty of more but unfortunately very briefly!

I attended sessions such as a keynote session with Emma Freud (Comic Relief), Writing Block (because I've suffered from that more than once), The Do's and Don'ts of Blog Giveaways, SEO session, Collaboration, How to Instagram Better, and of course, the BIBs and the bloggers keynote. I learned a lot, not as much as I'd liked too, because sometimes sessions clashed, and as much as I'd love to have another one of me (I'm kidding, I can't handle one of me sometimes, let alone two!), unfortunately, my magic powers ran out!

I have got a suitcase full of notes from the sessions I attended (I kid you not - but it does have some other bit's in there too!) and even receipts that have been written all over that I need to have another read through. My favourite session was Instagram by far, I've already started putting my newly learned knowledge into practice, and I'm enjoying it so far!

I missed Spud horrendously, and contemplated at one point to just travel back home on the Saturday after the event had finished, but I decided otherwise because although he had not attended (only babes in arms are allowed to attend the event), I know that me attending was and is going to better both of our lives!

After the event had finished, and I said goodbye to all those I had met, I took most probably my slowest walk ever back to the hotel thanks to the generously sized goody bag I was carrying, trying to carry back with me! My feet were aching, I was hungry, possibly a little bit too hot, very thirsty but very happy! Seeing the hotel bed there waiting for me deserved a star-fish, and so it happened - I star-fished the bed, for the first time (that I can remember of) in 24 years!

I waited for my friend Lauren (who's not a blogger, she's just another crazy Reading woman!) to awake from her nap, that was actually a sleep because naps are never that long and we went for something to eat and explored the local surroundings! I was a tourist in my own country, and nearly went as far as taking a picture of myself next to a London bin, I thought I'd save the selfie for another moment!

I stayed in the Travelodge, which wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be! After staying at The Hoxton last year, which was like a hotel palace, I was expecting the hotel to be as budget as it's London price, I judged a book by its cover, and got proven wrong! Never again (well until next week)!!! Oh and the all you can eat breakfast was fabulous for the price!

We walked from Islington to Shoreditch and even further than that at one point, in a fast pace walking kind of world, which is how most London folk live, it wouldn't of usually of took the 30 or so minutes that it took me and Lauren, but after both being on our feet for so long, we decided to take a slow walk and have a catch up.

We found a Nando's and knew that was where we would be eating, Lauren didn't know this at first but I purposely wanted to go there, just because I wanted to tick at least one thing off of my 'scheduled' list! Plus who can turn down their noses at some Nando's chicken? Who, who, WHO???

We stayed in Nando's until we were ready to move, well actually it was more like when the staff wanted us to stop taking advantage of the free drinks so they could get locked up, cleaned up and get home (or out to the pubs and clubs, because if I had not forgotten my ID, I so would have done a London pub crawl). On arrival back to our hotel, we some a beautiful little firework display, and embraced the happy moment like two little girls, and not the two single women we are supposed to be.

Cue, we now know why both of us are single, jumping around and squealing at the sight of loud bangs and pretty lights in the middle of London was sure not going to find us a guy any time soon!

Taking the train back home was one of the best parts of my weekend away, because I was to be reunited with Spud, however it was also the saddest. Blogging is not just something I do for fun, it's not just because it's actually my job too, but it's part of my life. I don't go a day without checking on my own blog and other blogger's blog's, I don't go a day without talking to fellow bloggers, some of the ones I talk to know more about me than myself, I've made friends for life here, and what a journey it has been!

I don't think I can wait until BritMums Live 2015, so I may just have to arrange, or co-arrange some sort of meet up soon! I missed Chelsea epically, and only wished she was there! I hope she can attend next year, and I was really sorry to not of met so many lovelies including Leta and her newest addition, and of course everyone else I missed too!

I've got to say thank you once again to my amazing sponsors, because without these two wonderful companies, this post will never be!

To my amazing clothing sponsor boohoo who allowed me to look fabulous in their plus size clothing range (review coming soon), and who helped put many blushes on my face from the compliments I received!

To my big brother Paul, for fixing my hair, eyebrows and lip before the big day, because without him, my hair would be showing a mixture of colours, split ends and dullness! My eyebrows would not have a separation, and I would have looked like a female with a moustache! 

Also a huge thank you to all the team from BritMums, Jen and Susanna especially (the founders), you do a great job every year and try your very hardest to make the event the best!

Until next time,

Jada x