One of the things that I love most about blogging is the community of like-minded fellow bloggers that I have met over the years. I have blogger friends all over the world who write about everything from design to food to fashion to sewing. These creative souls have become an important part of my life and a support network that inspires and encourages me to no end.
So you can imagine how ecstatic I was when a few of them arrived in Italy a few weeks ago to attend a little face-to-face event called Blago that I organised.
I came up with the Blago concept after attending The Hive Blogging Conference last year and realising that I really loved spending time with all these creative and amazing women that I have been friends with online for years. It’s great having these online friendships but even greater when you can take it into “real life”.
So a few days after arriving home from The Hive I sent out the first Blago pitch to some of my favourite blogger pals. Luckily I received really positive and enthusiastic responses from all of them immediately. My idea was for us all to meet up here in Italy to spend a few days visiting Milan Design as well as the lovely lake region that I live it.
And because I’m a big nerd I named the event Blago which is a mix of the words lago (lake in Italian) and blog. I figured if you’re going to organise an event with fellow bloggers you’ve got to come up with a catchy title (and hashtag too – check out #blago2014 on Instagram!).
And of course being a blogger also meant I needed to come up with a cool official invite to the event. Luckily, I LOVE that kind of stuff. Like seriously love it.
After a lot of contemplating and looking through my stash of craft and sewing supplies I decided to make a linen envelope (the leather version failed miserably). I used a really pretty Max Mara linen with map print for the outside and a gold linen for the inside. I even added a little tag which I always find makes a hand sewn item look a tad more professional.
Inside the fabric envelope I included an invite with the official Blago logo (designed by the talented Judith who was an attendee) and a little bag of my favourite Italian candies.
I’m a lover of anything to do with snail mail so I was so excited to get these into the mail and to their destinations (which actually took longer than expected due to the fact the local post office accidentally sent half of them back to me).
I’ll be back soon with more details about the actual event (which turned out to be a big success). And yes, I am already mentally preparing the next Blago get-together (and it’s going to be a good one!).
Jillian In Italy 
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