Park City, Utah

I'm still trying to come off my ALTSUMMIT high.  Love reading the recaps from all the amazing bloggers.  Here's a few of my favorite posts:

I quit my job - You are so brave

My first Alt Conference - Great new LA connection

The business cards of Alt - Love my new friend Sheri Silver

Best cocktails - Available at the mini-party from @Vecco

A Guys Perspective - Love this post, so honest

Life Lessons - Emily is adorable

The inspiration keeps coming from all the amazing people I met. However, here's a quick tale of my Saturday at the ALTSUMMIT conference, well actually of Park City.  Saturday was a day of Design Camps and because of my late registration I wasn't able to get into the sessions that I thought would be most useful for me.  So instead I took a chance to see if I could hop on the Sundance Tour. This tour sold out on the first day of registration, but I decided to give it a try and see if there was room. Most likely because of the amazing mini-parties the night before quite a few people didn't show up. So there I was with 7 other people on a big rock star bus which included the amazing Stefan Sagmeister and his lovely fiance. SCORE!

After we arrived to a nearby hotel we took a quick shuttle into the main street of Park City and then basically we all went our separate ways.  Among this crew was Peggy Wong an accomplished Creative Director and Photographer who incidentally knew the same people I did in LA, small world. I so wanted to tag along with her and watch her work. She was at the conference shooting for Citizens of Humanity, she's a BIG deal and super nice. The other two girls Laura and Bree attend Alt and were newbies like me, I'm anxious to follow along their progress over the next year.

Below are few images of my explorations this day.

After all this exploring it was time for eats. I have to say the people of Park City are so nice, especially as once a year their little town gets turned upside down by Hollywood. I chatted with quite a few and the same place kept coming up as a reco. The High West Distillery. Whiskey, I was SO in. I walked down the street and got a seat at the bar.  Spaghetti Western rye whiskey, with short ribs was on my menu. Followed up by a butterscotch pudding and the local Wasatch brew to wash it down. Ok, so it was after noon and I did sit there a long time, but after all that and then walking up the hills of Park City's 10,000 ft above sea level I really needed and nap.

After food I continued my photo journey, trolley ride and shuttle down to the Library Auditorium for my very first screening of a Sundance file. Movie was "The Way Way Back." Was picked up by Fox and will be out in theaters later this year. Cute film and so glad I stayed, ate dinner with new friends and arrived back at my hotel at 11PM. Long day but all this was courtesy of Bing and I thank them again for the all-access pass and amazing day and evening in Park City. A local said to come back in spring it's lovely and full of flowers and great things to explore. I will be back for sure with SB in tow. Enjoy my little journey.

Stalker Sweater

AltSummit had many challenges and rewards, but the biggest challenge for me was the wardrobe pressure.  As many of you can clearly see I am not a fashion blogger. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE fashion. I make sure and watch the Spring, Fall and Haute Couture fashion shows online via Elle. My favorites are Chanel and Marc Jacobs.

Weeks before leaving to Salt Lake City I was on the hunt for fashionable clothes at a budget that I could easily afford.  My go-to stores are Anthropologie and J.Crew. I hit the sales right after the Holidays. I'd had my eye on the boucle sweater above. I usually buy a new black sweater every year as it's an easy quick layer for the chilly LA winter mornings. It's a basic for my wardrobe. While I'll was in New Mexico I made a trip to the local Anthro store to find this sweater. It was too small, even at my goal weight I'd never fit in that size. So I waited till I returned home to LA.

Here's where the stalking starts. On my day off I go into the local Anthropologie store. I run right to the ten sale racks. I go to the black sweater section, look all over for this beauty and well, it's not to be found. I had told myself I probably wouldn't find it, and I was ok with that. I said to myself  "you'll find something else you like just as equally."

So I go to the rest of the sales racks and scour them for fashion idea's and great looks. On my way out, low and behold is a lady admiring herself in THE sweater, it's my size I can tell. What would you do now? Wait? Say something to her? Let it go? I decide to wait and wait and wait, then it turned into hovering. This woman could not MAKE up her MIND! She tried it on, asked her mum, (she was English) and her sister and the mirror. After waiting a few minutes I finally spoke up. No I did not say "if you decide not to buy that I'd love to have it," because you know the moment you say that, they think it's a really special sweater and buy it, even when they are indecisive about it.  So I just ask "where'd you find that sweater?" She proceeded to point me to the rack, which I knew didn't have my sweater. SHE DID. So I continued to hover. Then in her indecisive mind she hands the sweater to her mum and says she'll be back, needs to visit the Loo (British remember).

Let me tell you she took a really long time. I looked at the entire top floor of Anthropologie, ridiculous, but I REALLY wanted this sweater. So I finally decide to sit down on a couch and Instagram away while I keep an eye on her, her mum and her sis.  Yes STALKING now. Finally, she returns, puts the sweater back on and off and on and decides to buy it. She gives me one glance as she walks away. She KNEW I wanted that sweater. Do I let it go. I tried, really, really, I did. No I didn't chase her down, but I did ask the sales clerk about the sweater, I pulled up the image above on my iPhone and ask her if she has any in the back. She looks, and no they don't. I sheepishly try to tell her I saw one in the store and someone just left to buy it (MY SWEATER).

She wants to help me out so she pulls out her mobile device connected to the store to see if it's anywhere. Oh did I tell you it sold out online, so the store is my only hope. No such luck. Super nice sales clerks talks with me about what size I want and asks me to follow her downstairs to look on the computers. Here it goes, you ready, are you really ready...as I am walking down the stairs, right there, on the landing, hanging on a rack, is MY SWEATER in the MY size. Yes my stalking paid off and the indecisive lady left me a little gift on the stairwell. The sales clerk was dumbfounded and hugged me, she was so glad I found it.

I tell you I had a shopping rush and ran right down the stairs so fast I practically knocked people down, ran right to the line and danced all the way home with my beautiful boucle 40% of the sweater. Stalking does pay, though I don't recommend the humiliation in admitting I did this for a black sweater. Enjoy!

Authenticity

I've been inspired, thus the new blog look and feel. This is something I've wanted to do, but thought better to wait till after the AltSummit. I'm glad I did. I'll continue to fine tune this space in the near future. Thank you @SquareSpace for being such a fabulous partner.

This past week I spent three days with some of the most genuine, uniquely creative people that I've ever been in one room with.  The #1 theme I took away from the AltSummit in Salt Lake City conference is "be true to yourself."  Just about every session made this abundantly clear.  Here are a few quotes from some of the power sessions and two of my favorite speakers, Jasmine Star (Personal Branding) and Karen Walrond (Finding Your Voice).

"stay true to your brand and audience"

"keep it real"

"take what you have, make it work"

"shake what your mama gave you"

"who am I, not who I aspire to be"

"what am I doing to capitalize on who I am?"

"stop comparing my insides to their outsides"

"curate my life"

"create my own story"

And Stefan Sagmeister, what to say about this uniquely witty, smart individual.  I heart him and his lovely fiance "Stefanie" I mean Vita! I was able to spend part of the day with them at Sundance in Park City on Saturday, amazing people. He was inspirational beyond belief during his keynote, a standing ovation, and that's not because he posted a full frontal naked picture of himself (gasp!). It was because he was an amazing speaker who inspired the entire room to greatness. Here are his top points to ponder on:

• Thinking about ideas and content freely
• Traveling to new places (you have to, to be inspired - me)
• Not stuck doing the same thing over again
• Working on projects that matter to me
• Having things come back from the printer that are done well (love it when I get a print of my photography and it's as beautiful as I imagined- me)
• Getting feedback from people (let me know what post moved you, what did you like/dislike about it - me)
• Designing a project that you feel is partly brand new and partly familiar
• Working without interruption on a single project

Once again I must thank @WilsonArt for selecting my counter post and giving me a ticket to AltSummit. I am beyond grateful. I have lists and lists of idea's, brands and people I want to work with, editorial calendars I want to create. I am giving myself one year to turn this blog around and attend next years AltSummit with idea's and much more confidence. Also with less lbs., love the photobooths, me, not so much. Might be inspired to write about that to, we'll see.

Trader Joe's

I have so much to share about AltSummit in Salt Lake City. This conference was beyond my expectations. I'm in the process of writing down the high points and action items for this space. I'll share more of that later.

Pre-Alt, well actually Wednesday morning, before our sponsored dinner that night I started planning my snacks. Everyone said you must have snacks during the day. I didn't want to pack snacks in my luggage and to take away valuable room for my wardrobe that I MUST have. So I did my research.

As many of you know who following me on Instagram (@itsweetsavory) I love Trader Joe's. The first thing I do when I get to a new city is look to see if they have a Trader Joe's. Low and behold Salt Lake City opened it's first TJ's in November. My plan was to go on Wednesday when I had all that time before the evening dinners. However, I got caught up in my explorations. Plan B was to get up early Thursday, 7:30AM walk to TJ's, it's only 7 blocks away, get my snacks, water, etc., and walk back to the hotel. Great plan right? Hmmm.

As soon as I embarked on my walk it started ice raining. I say that because as soon as the rain hit the sidewalks it was immediately turned into ice. So instead of walking to Trader Joe's, I skated to Trader Joe's. Oh and the 7 blocks, yeah not so much, those were LONGEST blocks I have ever skated.  Seriously, this was another one of my idea's that seem great and immediately went bad. By the time I made it to Trader Joe's it was 8:10, I shopped in 5 minutes and then asked if they could call for a taxi. I was not going to walk back, it was a blizzard out there. After waiting 15 minutes for the taxi, he called back and said he couldn't make it, traffic was bad because of an accident. I started to freak now, I was going to miss the opening of the conference and have to walk back in a blizzard.

What was I wearing you ask? Well I got dressed for the conference, while my sweater, jacket, hat gloves, and shoes were warm, my pants were paper thin Banana Republic. That equals frozen legs beyond anything you can imagine.

Here's where I praise the frozen city of Salt Lake. Despite the cold and gloominess, everyone in this city is extremely nice and helpful. The Trader Joe's staff were amazing. One of the employees, Erman (I know I'm spelling his name wrong), offered to take me back to the hotel. At this point I was desperate and willing to go with any stranger, I actually pondered asking a few of the soccer mom's in the store for a ride. But this employee offered me a ride and insisted I wait in the store till he brought the car up to me so I wouldn't get wet. Seriously, who does this, nobody in L.A. would do this (yeah I know it never rains in L.A). He drove me right up to my hotel and I insisted on giving him money. I told him "now you've put Trader Joe's customer service to a whole other level."