Celebrations at #SAMomBlogRelaunch

It was a very rainy day, but a few brave bloggers, PR and brand folk gathered for a great time at the Free Range Lifestyle Centre in Fourways. We were blessed to have a group of lovely people around to celebrate this amazing group with our #SAMomBlogReLaunch.

I was so glad to go back to Free Range – it is a venue where you can just relax and they will take care of you. There was minimal stress involved in this event and quite a few nice surprises.

Laura worked quite hard though baking us some delicious cupcakes in some very pretty holders. She put them in some lovely boxes with cream and green ribbons. It made into a sort of a goody bag (but not quite) with some awesome magnets from My Print Boutique (a company whom Laura will be reviewing shortly).

I did the name tags, sorting people into categories of blogger/PR or Brand.

The room looked quite inviting and cozy while the rain poured outside, with a sofa on the one end of a long table. There was also a little kiddies play area inside where the few kids that did come could make use of. I bet they were happy when the rain did stop so that they could play outside again!

I was very nervous about speaking in front of all the people, and I think my voice was a bit soft in the noisy restaurant. The most important things to take home in what I said were:

• gratitude for both bloggers for creating amazing content and for brands and PR for helping us also earn after the long hours we put into blogging.
• the amazing growth of SA Mom blogs: about 150 blogs on our database and a very active social media community. This includes growth of the partnership of Laura, and I am so grateful to have this hard worker with me. This woman is so passionate about blogging she actually was a bit tearful when she got up to say a few words. So yes, I’m glad to have a passionate blogger!
• our excitement planning our first blogging conference 20-21 May 2016 at Stillpoint Country Manor, in Fourways, Johannesburg.
• how mom bloggers work with a relationship of readers first before giving information from brands so that readers are receptive to that information.
• SA mom bloggers are mostly important because they inspire and uplift us, and cheer us on in the parenting journey. They are also some fantastic friends.

Remember I said that we had a few nice surprises? We had a total surprise in that Free Range was launching a new beauty shop and they were happy to chat to us and hand out some awesome dermalogica samples for everyone. What a bonus! It was the “nighttime recovery trio” with three great products to use at night.

Another lovely thing Free Range / the Lot restaurant did, apart from the lovely cappuccinos, was some awesome food for us. I absolutely loved the presentation of sprinkles all over the sweet food.  There were some delicious savory things too. But what really touched my heart so much was the cookies with names on them such as “blogger” “mom” “baby”.  Clearly these people go above and beyond to do special things for us. (Please go and like their Facebook page – they are such an awesome sponsor for us).

Otherwise it was good to just have some nice folk around. Below are some pictures of the few I managed to get. Bloggers Wenchy, Ursula, Jolene, Melanie, Christine, Natalie, Mike, Karen, and Victoire. PR people: Adelaide, Lesego, Nkanyesi, Raquel. Cute couple Francois and Anika (Brand). I did not manage to get decent pics of Lyndsay, Jillian (PR),  MeeA, Amy, Andiswa and Mirielle (Brand).