The week before last I had the good fortune to attend Altitude Design Summit in Salt Lake City. If you follow all the wonderful design blogs I do, I’m sure you have read all of the gushing, unrestrained loving, and endless Alt praising by now. Some of you may be thinking, “Really? Was it really that amazing? Maybe if you’re a blogging rock star it was. What about everyone else?” To those that wonder, my answer is an emphatic YES! Yes, it really was that incredible. So I thought (finally) I would share my own Alt story:

First, I would like to thank twitter. Without twitter, I may not have heard of this wonderful event before it was too late. So thank you twitter. You are SO not a waste of time. As soon as my curiosity was peaked by all the Alt tweets, I clicked over to the Alt site, read the homepage, checked out the list of speakers and was sold. Three days in gorgeous Salt Lake City with my blogging heros? Where do I sign?! The next best thing that happened was receiving an IM from my good friend Ben Silbermann which read,”i was thinking about going to that conference you twittered about.” From there, we bought our plane tickets, booked a hotel and headed over (grateful that I had a travel buddy to keep me company and calm… I think I may have social anxiety disorder and a definite flying phobia).

It didn’t take long for my fears and anxiety to start melting away. Right off the bat I got to listen to Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely, Allison Czarnecki of Petit Elefant, Jaime Derringer of Design Milk and Karey Mackin of Mackin Ink speak about their favorite design sites. Something about the way they spoke about their own love and admiration for other blogs and bloggers (some they knew personally, others they did not) made me realize some important things. These women are just like me! They admire the work of others and sometimes wish they had so and so’s great eye or writing style or photoshop abilities. They don’t have superhuman powers or large teams of people working for them. They do what they do because they love it and they do it at the highest level possible for them.

Lesson 1: You don’t have to have superhuman powers to excel at what you do. Passion will get you far.

That night began with some speed networking and ended with a glamourous opening party that included delicious food (I should say delicious looking, I was too nervous to eat), live music, and an open bar (dangerous!) I arrived to the speed networking session at the same time as Jean Aw from NotCot. In fact, we chatted a bit about how we were both very unsure of what we were supposed to do there. I decided to play it cool (like I didn’t know that it was Jean Aw from NotCot) even though I was thinking, “omg! I’m talking to Jean Aw from NotCot!” I know, I’m such a dork. The opening party was tons of fun! I got to meet the people that would  become my “Alt clique” for the remainder of the time: Mackenzi Farquer (Site Design NYC), Sara Jensen (Lost Bird Found), Aaron De Simone (I Heart Media Inc.), Mat “with one T” Thorne (who was there to speak on behalf of Blurb but is also a very talented artist), and of course my travel buddy Ben (Pinterest). With them, I was able to courageously approach Joy from Oh! Joy (Aaron was so red) and eventually make my way over to Maxwell of Apartment Therapy (who, btw, I had a a big Alt crush on). It’s comforting to know that he probably doesn’t remember the slightly tipsy little Latina girl that was stumbling over her words and staring way too wide-eyed at him. Maxwell, if you ever read this, will you consider my apartment for your next Apartment Therapy book? It’s worth a shot, right?

Lesson 2: Everyone has someone that makes them nervous. Generally, most people are actually quite approachable. Trust in your friends to get you through the uncomfortable times.

The remainder of the time was a huge blur of excitement and inspiration. Keynote breakfast with Grace (Design Sponge), Heather (Dooce), Jean (NotCot), and Maxwell (Apartment Therapy)… inspiring! Panel after panel listening to my blogging heros talk about how they do it… inspiring! Lunch with DJ Earworm… inspiring! Wait, this is starting to sound like that Priceless Mastercard campaign. Maybe because I actually got to hang out in the Alt Lounge having casual conversation about the time I lived in Berlin with Jeroen Bours, genius marketer and creator of the “Priceless” campaign! And yes, chatting about Europe in a beautiful room with Jeroen Bours… PRICELESS!! Did I mention I stopped in the doorway on my way out to chat (again) with Jean Aw and she actually remembered a post I had contributed to NotCot? Priceless! (geeking out again)

Lesson 3: Opening yourself up to inspiration can help you do things you never imagined you would and sometimes, you can even inspire yourself.

I have to say, some of the best experiences I had at Alt took place during the downtime. The little moments in between chatting with some of the most interesting people I have ever met, the dinner I had with my Alt clique, the evening I spent sitting in the lobby with my new friends listening to an awesome string quartet playing Kids by MGMT, and the conversations in the hotel’s Gibson Girl Lounge. I got to share a cab to the airport with Joy from Oh! Joy and laugh THE ENTIRE way home with Victoria of sfgirlbybay (I think we were high on Alt) and my amazing friend Ben whose energy and brilliance inspires me everyday. Ben, btw, won the ultimate grand prize of the weekend… drumroll… a trip back to Salt Lake City! Awesome.

Lesson 4: Always enjoy the little moments in between. They’re the BEST!

Thank you to all the hard-working, kind and generous people that made Altitude Design Summit possible. This experience was exactly what I needed to finally make some big decisions and commitments to my own business, LAMA. My newfound motivation has enabled me to make some enormous progress since I have been back to work. I have finally made the decision to take LAMA in a new and amazing direction (details to come at another time).

I can’t wait to go back to Alt next year!

Lesson 5: If you think it might be worth doing, DO IT.

** all photos taken from the Altitude Design Summit flickr page Next year I’ll bring a camera! **

A HUGE thank you to Oh Joy! for the wonderful mention on your blog today. I couldn’t be more excited about this! Check out the post here.

Check out the travel accessories featured here at LAMA!

Need to have your gift wrapped? Just ask! We would love to make your special purchase look like the gorgeous gift it is. Want to send a special message along with it? Yup! We’ll do that too! Happy Holidays!

I bet you didn’t know we had so many fantastic, environmentally friendly products! Check out some of our favorites below. The eco-conscience individual in your life will love these great gifts!

Based on customer feedback, we have decided to handle orders from Canada in the same way we handle all international shipments… on a per order basis! Originally, we thought it would be best to charge a $10 surcharge on shipments to Canada (shipping to Canada can get expensive) but we have come to realize that this isn’t best for all orders. SO, from now on, if you are a customer from Canada and would like to make a purchase from LAMA, let us know what you would like and we’ll send you the best possible shipping rate we can find (no more surcharges). Yay!!

flickr photo from meddygarnet

Thank you to our Canadian customers for your kind feedback and suggestions. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to make us an even better LAMA. LAMA loves Canada!!

Yesterday I was saddened to learn about the demise of yet another Shelter Magazine. The latest victim? Another personal favorite of mine, Metropolitan Home. This is the ninth major shelter magazine to fold in the past two years. The first eight being Domino (still not over this loss), House and Garden, Southern Accents, Cottage Living , InStyle Home, Blueprint (why?!), O at Home, and Country Home. It is with a heavy heart I bid Metropolitan Home a farewell. Adios Metropolitan Home!

Aside from my personal feelings of sadness at seeing one magazine fold after another, and knowing how many talented and creative people suddenly find themselves without a job, I’m also a bit concerned about what this means for small retail shops like LAMA. I know for myself and many other shop owners I have spoken to, nothing gives us greater joy or feelings of excitement as seeing a mention of our store or a product featured in print. I attribute much of LAMA’s success last holiday season to a mention we were fortunate enough to receive in Lucky Magazine. It gave LAMA the opportunity to be seen by countless numbers of readers and resulted in sales that have sustained us throughout this turbulent year. So what happens now when our chances of being seen by a new audience of shoppers are being significantly cut every few months? What do we do now? How do we continue to bring new shoppers to our sites? The answer may lie with the emergence of online publications like Lonny Magazine.

I found Lonny Magazine’s mission statement to be quite hopeful. “In a time when shelter publications are turning their last pages… Our mission is to reopen the doors to accessible design.” I was blown away with Lonny’s premiere issue. The stunning photography and design tips were everything that I loved about Domino. In addition to the wonderful articles, I was able to discover a bunch of new stores and websites that I have now added to my favorites folder. I can’t exactly throw a copy of Lonny in my bag and head to the park for some afternoon reading, but I can still read about interesting individuals and their gorgeous spaces, find inspiration and advice on decorating, and discover the best shops around.

While nothing will ever replace the pleasure I derive from sitting down with a great magazine in my hands, Lonny is truly the next best thing. As a lover of independent shops and boutiques, and an advocate of shopping off the beaten path, I look forward to reading about Lonny magazines sources for unique and beautiful objects. I feel some comfort in knowing that small shop owners still have an opportunity for exposure through new publications like Lonny.

After repeatedly writing “create flickr page” on every to do list since early 2008, I’m happy to report that I can finally cross that particular task off my list. (*applause* *cheering* *whistling*) I think part of me realized that it was going to be an enormous undertaking, (seeing as how I suffer from extreme camera happiness), but I could never have imagined what I was taking on. It’s taken me a full work day to sort through and post about half of my photos. I haven’t even started adding titles and captions! On the upside, it’s actually been pretty fun to go through my LAMA journey again. It’s kind of like going through an old yearbook.

I can’t wait to finish up this enormous project with new photo sets with travel pictures (divided by country), blog post photos (I try to take my own pictures when I can), cutting room floor photos (you would be surprised at how many pictures you can snap during the course of one photo shoot. I think out-takes are interesting), Miles the shop dog (cutest dog ever), etc. I can’t wait to finish uploading and organizing so I can add titles and captions! Oh no, I think Flickr might just be my new obsession. Click here to view LAMA on Flickr. Be sure to check back! There’s so much more to come…

On Sunday I decided to head out bright and early with some friends to check out Oakland’s Dia de los Muertos celebration in Fruitvale. It was a little difficult to shake off the previous night’s Halloween festivities but after polishing off a yummy pupusa, I was good to go. Although the Oakland celebration was scaled down a bit from previous years due to the nasty “R” word we don’t speak of here at LAMA HQ, spirits were high, food was fantastic and we had a great time. Check out some of the gorgeous sites from Sundays festivities!