Easy Easter Mantle and Haven Conference Mentor

Friends. I’m a Haven Maven Mentor! I’ll tell the the details below, but first I couldn’t help but share my cute Easter Mantle today! Easter is coming so soon. Do you decorate much for Easter? I’m kinda proud of myself this year, I made a REALLY cute watercolor egg wreath with my four kiddos, AND I decorated the mantle {well, kinda} for Easter. 

Truth is, the only thing I added was an egg and a bunny from the Target dollar bin. But I feel like that was all she needed!  All of the sudden she looks super Easter-y! Am I right? Or am I right? 

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I dipped this bad boy using Mandi’s marbling technique, by spraying a little bit of spray paint onto the top of a large bowl of water and dipping the egg into the floating paint. It worked like a charm! I used Rustoleum Coral spray paint for those that may be wondering. 🙂 The project took less than 30 seconds to complete. 

**Warning** If you use this painting technique your bowl will be forever ruined. 

The darling colorful mini bunting is from Oh Happy Day’s Party Shop. Who says I can’t shop for household decor from a party shop, right!?! 

I’m in love with the simplicity and the color splashes. 

Ok, I told you I would give you the inside scoop about being a Haven Maven Mentor. I am PUMPED to be part of this amazing group of bloggers below: I mean can you believe it!?! If you want to get to know these gals {and you should}, check them each out on the Haven Maven Mentor Page. 

In my How to Start a Blog page, I  mention that you need four main things to run a successful blog:

1. A Passion
2. Determination
3. A Mentor
4. and Spellcheck.

I believe that 100%. If you have those four things, you can have a blog and be successful at it I PROMISE. 

I’ve been blogging for almost 7 years, and when I started my blog, I was a loner. I kept to myself, and I didn’t interact with many bloggers for awhile. My brother Court {who has taught classes with me at Haven Conference before} was {still is} my mentor, and without his encouragement telling me to keep going, I probably would have quit after a year or two.  Truth is, he was right… I was doing a good job, but I’m a girl who talks myself out of being successful sometimes. WHY DO WE DO THAT!?! 

I kept to myself at first, but I soon learned that I was making a HUGE mistake. I was nervous to meet people I had met or seen online. What if they were weirdos {I had seen the Dateline NBC Specials}!?! Remember this was 2009… that was a long time ago.

Plus, I worried I would make a fool out of myself. But, I took the plunge and registered for my first conference. It was AMAZING. I met five of my closest friends in the whole world at that conference. I wanted to cry. People understood how hard I had been working. People knew what I did all day. People were SO SMART TOO! I couldn’t get enough of the information. My motivation was skyrocketed. 

Over the years I have learned so much from conferences,  I cannot even begin to write them all down. I have learned a ton of useful stuff, but who wants to hear about that!?! 

Here are 10 random things I’ve learned while attending conferences {most of these are from Haven}: 

10. Helium intake should be monitored after awhile. {Disclosure: We were filling up balloons for a sponsor luncheon… not just doing this for the fun of killing brain cells}.

9. The Ryobi Boys are freakin hot. {Their job application must say “Are you an extraordinarily attractive male!?! Then working for Ryobi is the place for you.”}  Hopefully my husband doesn’t read this part. Hi HONEY! 

8. The Home Depot booth always has yummy treats and their team is SO friendly and normal. I love it.

7. If Traci Hutcherson tells you to dance, you better DANCE your heart out! “Blog about it…blog about it…”

6. Bubble parties are cool. 

5. I talk in my sleep and scare my roommates to death. Whoopsie. 

4. If you barge into a hotel room uninvited wearing a clown mask most likely you will be threatened to get the sh*t kicked out of you. Just ask Mandi. I wouldn’t know, I may or may not have ran away too fast. 

3. Grape face is essential to all conferences.

Are we still friends?  

2. All joking aside I always leave feeling empowered and inspired to be a better mom and wife also {not just a better blogger}. 

1. You can sleep when you get home. 

If you are on the fence about going to Haven Conference, I have one piece of advice…GO. Don’t make the same mistake that I made at first. You will love being surrounded by like-minded people. It’s a breath of fresh air! 

If I have one piece of advice about blogging in general, it’s to blog about life, don’t turn your life upside down for the blog. There is a significant difference, and for me that is the difference between a happy life and an unhappy life. 

In the past 7 years I have learned a bajillion things about life and a few things about blogging along the way. My four kids are proud to say that their Mom is the “Owner of All Things Thrifty,” and I’m proud of staying home to be a Mom to them. 

I hope I get to meet you in person at Haven! I would love to chat! If you bring me a Diet coke we are besties forever, it’s my rule. Plus if there are grapes around, you know what to do with them. 

xoxo,

Brooke

Now head to Shauna from Perfectly Imperfect. She’s a legit blogging rockstar. 

And check out the other mentor posts:
Day 1: Southern Hospitality | City Farmhouse | In My Own Style | Rooms for Rent

Day 2: All Things Thrifty | Perfectly Imperfect | Beneath My Heart | Sand & Sisal | French Country Cottage

Day 3: Liz Marie Blog | My Repurposed Life | Just a Girl | Bower Power | Thrifty Decor Chick