Le Maiden Voyage: The Austin Bleet-Up!

Oh hai, it's me!

So confession. I have been walking around all day long with a dopey cartoon grin on my face, because I was SO thrilled about how last night turned out. I got to meet the most interesting people at the Austin Bleet-Up! Music gurus, fashionistas, foodies, one man documenting his year of free pizza from Home Slice, this amazing t-shirt design shop / blog, South Side Sanctuary. FOR SERIOUS, you guys put this blogger to shame! I am so impressed with the creativity and talent out there!

The always lovely Michael Barnes stopped by and snapped a few photos, and well-prepared, camera-ready bloggers like Lani Rosales and Texas Betsy took pics as well. For me, the whole thing was like a blogger candy store, running around to each different face saying, "you blog about fusion cupcakes? Dude." "Whoa - you blog about guerilla painting?" "Shut the f-- up, you blog for Ben Kweller?" And still, there were tons of bloggers I did not meet, which only makes me excited for the next time we do this.

Of course it was also nice to clink glasses with old pals, too. Cory Ryan - our AMAZING event photographer - has now posted her photo booth album from last night on Flickr. Early-ish on in the night, the lovely Tiffany Diane from Austin is Burning and Amber Deitrich (who encouraged us to do this whole thing at TRIO!) of AmberDemure joined me in blowing bubbles!


Jake Holt - another badass Austin photog - is looking quite pimp here.


I believe I wandered off at this point.

John Gross of Party Ends and his incredibly lovely lady, Emily...

Texas Betsy - CLEVER!


My awesome editor Tom Vale from The Deli!:


Oh........hold up. Someone call a fire truck 'cause it just got haute.

That would be Gary Gaston and Andrew Rutkowski of birthday party pinata fame, as well as new friend Andrew Greene, who shall heretofore be known to me as "Google." (He works for Google.)

The Better Than The Van guys, making their aristocratic faces!

Amanda Garcia and Rose Reyes, Austin music czar and role model to me in more ways than one:

Matt Swinney, who just got finished throwing Austin Fashion Week:

Nicole Carbon, of Fabulous Drinks Austin (this pic is so freaking ADORABLE):

Lyssa from This is Life in Austin and her cute visiting pal:

Pink Sun Drops!:

Event-planning and publicity phenoms, Candace Carlisle of Electric Promotions and Claudia Blanchette of Giant Noise, as well as Kim Sae-Eua, who was featured in the Statesman yesterday!


I LERVE this picture. Do512's Kristin Owen, Amanda Louie, Lawrence of Covert Curiosity and Aaron Robert Hall:

Indiana Adams (coolest name ever?) of Adored Austin plus husband:

Laura Dobberstein and the EatDrinkAustin crew (Liz Groh, Wade Treichler, and Breanna Rollings, my colleague / pal / also of OneLegAtATime fame!):


At some point I stumbled back....significantly tipsier

Am a huggy drunk.

That's Zoe Cordes Selbin by the way, who will essentially be running this town in a few years. Girlfriend isn't out of school yet, and has interned for Giant Noise, Transmission Entertainment, and is about to start up with C3! (Correct me if I got that order wrong, Zoe!) Oh, and her father is one of the most beloved professors at my alma mater, Southwestern. (Don't make fun of me for hyperlinking my college).

Next, grabbed R. ("Husband of Blogger"):

And then, Rene! I think we are performing a magic trick here:

I'll leave you with just a few more goodies:



Peter from FoodingBlog, and Tasha and Hans from RushMonkeys:



And one non-booth shot, so you can see the lay of the Bleet-Up land. A million thanks are owed to TRIO of Four Seasons, who made this little idea a reality:

FINIS!