Where In The World Am I?

I feel like I’ve been so disconnected from blogging the last couple of weeks. Sure, I’ve posted a recipe here or there but that’s just because they were scheduled.

Summer is a busy time for everyone. My summer was too. I don’t think I stayed in one place very long. That’s how it felt anyway. Right now I am home for two days and I have so much to do I could have just ignored the blog once more and kept going on about my hectic business, but since this blog is my business that seemed a bit backwards.

So here’s a quick update and an apology.

I just returned from Toronto late last night. I was working alongside Maggie from SheLetThemEatCake.com at the Attune Foods booth during the Gluten Free Expo that was held over the weekend. We had a blast, met some awesome folks and talked about Attune’s Erewhon gluten-free cereals all weekend long. It was my first time in Toronto and I enjoyed the city immensely – I’ll be back for sure.

I was home for two days to do things like laundry, cuddle my loved ones and my animals, do some work for our plumbing business and repack. I should probably try to shave my legs in there somewhere too. You know, the important stuff.

Where am I going tomorrow? I’m headed to Seattle! Oh Seattle! One of my most favorite cities.

Why Seattle? I am so excited to be headed back for another round of amazing conference learning at the International Food Bloggers Conference – or IFBC. You may recall I attended IFBC 2012 in Portland last year. It was by far the most enjoyable conference for me. I knew that I’d attend IFBC again in 2013 and how exciting to learn it was being held in Seattle.

I’m especially excited to catch the photography sessions with Andrew Scrivani this year since an early flight out of Portland last year prevented me from attending his session. Since I whine constantly about my photography skills I figured I had better go and learn something to improve them. I am sure I’ll pick up some really useful tips from his sessions.

Looking at the list of attendees it looks like I’ll be meeting a lot more new folks! I love it. Of course, there’ll be some of the great friends I made from last year there too.

IFBC 2013 will mark my fourth food blogger conference that I’ve attended in the last two years. With each conference my confidence and self-esteem in large groups is building and so I am hoping this time I’m not as much of a wallflower as I was when I went to my first conference – BlogHer Food ’12 in Seattle last year. I was a timid thing. So if you’re attending IFBC in Seattle this year expect me to come up and say hi. That’s my goal: Say hi to as many people as I can. It would help me a ton if you’d say hi back. (Which I know you all will because you’re food bloggers, and we food bloggers are a nice bunch!)

Seattle is a great place and I’ll be doing other fun things aside from IFBC.

I’m also excited to have lunch with another blogger, Shalini, who I have followed for a while and chatted back and forth with on Twitter who happens to be from Seattle. She’s not a food blogger so she won’t be at the conference but we’re going to meet up on Thursday and grab lunch and meet in real life. How cool is that?! I am a huge fan of her blog and her sense of humor. Check out her blog at ReadingAndChickens.com.

Needless to say I’m excited about my travels lately but I am sorry for not posting more or engaging more with you all on social media like I like to. I can promise that I’ll be posting a few times about my trip to Seattle and IFBC during or shortly after returning home from the conference. I can also promise that I have some amazing recipes that are in the works that aren’t yet scheduled to go live. Some of those recipes include the bounty of tomatoes that I harvested from my little garden.

I’ve also got a little recipe collection that I’m compiling for all those big feasts that happen during the fall season. It will be especially handy for those who don’t know what to cook for a gluten-free and/or vegan guest at their dinner table at Thanksgiving. I don’t know exactly when that’s going to be ready to download but it’ll be sooner rather than later, hopefully.

On that note, I better get busy and get off the computer.