Saturday was AMAZING.  Went to Cybher 2013 with Mum Friendly Jo.  Signed in and got a lovely (and very bright!) pink satchel.  Coffee in the exhibition area, and then to the ballroom for an introduction by Sian, and an inspiring keynote talk by Zoe Margolis encouraging women to make connections and support each other.  Met Jax who has inspired me so much over the last few years, as a home educator and as a blogger.

More coffee.  Lovely to see Monika again.  She is raising money for the Lullaby Trust by doing a sky dive in July.  Go and sponsor her.  I’ll wait….

Next, Jo and I both had a makeover.  Yes, really. Me with make-up on!  Here’s the proof.

Then off to a photography session with Mario Cacciottolo. The main thing I learnt was to think about where the light is and manipulate the subject, if possible, so that the light is on them.  I also took some photos of the session but they weren’t great.  The irony was not lost on me.  Sigh…

Lunch next and more time to talk with some of the other bloggers – so many fab people, so little time.

My highlight of the day was meeting Merry.  We have been friends for what feels like a very long time.  It was hard to believe we hadn’t met before.  She is just as lovely in real life!

Some excellent sessions in the afternoon, including Sian and Claire‘s really useful beginners’ basics session, and Jay‘s awesome inspiring talk about changing from Auto to Manual on your DSLR camera.  I don’t even own one (yet) but for me it was the best session of the day.  (I am now watching several cameras on Ebay!) I also loved Maggy‘s Google Plus session, so I’m going to have another try to get to grips with it.  Then a really useful session about how to make your blog pay (might have to think about doing this so I can afford to keep going to blogging conferences) and a closing session back in the ballroom.

Out for a quick meal with old and new friends, and then back to the cocktail party where we met even more lovely people, including some of the Collective Bias team.  I am feeling inspired and have lots of ideas for the blog.  It was a brilliant day and I just want to do it all over again!

On Saturday I will be going to Cybher with my lovely friend Jo.  It will be my first blogging conference and I’m really looking forward to it.  This time last year I had only just started blogging.  I remember reading Merry‘s tweets and blog posts about Cybher, and thinking it sounded like fun.  In fact, it was reading Merry’s blog over several years that led to me starting to write mine.  I wanted to help and inspire people who were thinking of home educating, as I had been inspired by Merry, Jax and other home educators.  I didn’t know how much I would enjoy being part of the blogging community which is full of friendly supportive people, and it will be good to meet some of them in person.  If you are going and want to say hello beforehand (okay, I haven’t left much time for that I suppose) I’m on twitter @readlearngrow.  And do come and say hello on the day, especially if you have any questions about home education.  Or maybe don’t push that button.  Depends how much time you’ve got 😉