July was a series of conferences and vendor fairs for me, very fruitful ones but also feeling very imbalanced. Finally today I am feeling more settled and getting ready back to the normal everyday life as a stager.

Before all the chaos started, I did sneak up to Vancouver to meet Jackson West, a very talented stager in Vancouver.

Jackson was very kind to show me around Vancouver when I arrived and we gabbed about real estate and home staging over dinner. He also showed me his staged properties. They were AWESOME and beautifully staged.

Jackson told me that there is an urban legend associated to this building… It was designed by a heroin addict… Believe it or not? See the entrance yourself.

The IAHSP (International Association of Home Staging Professionals) Convention was very successful, I spoke during all 3 days of the conference (ASPM panel, Meet the Pro sessions and Keynote) and all went off without a hitch. I still can’t believe people want to listen to me talk and my sessions were full. I enjoyed meeting new faces, and feel very honored to finally take the same stage as my staging idols.

I also caved into my inner tourist and rode the ducky in Seattle. (It’s a tour “boat” that drives on land and in water.) I used to live in DC and saw these all the time at Union Station but never occurred to me to ride one. But after seeing the duckies around Seattle in troves, I caved. I think the best part about my tour is that my duckie captain talked about the floating home real estate in Seattle. It was a very fun ride.

Rebarcamp was fantastically fun and great to finally meet my online friends in person.

(photo via the very cool Mr. BradCoy)

Inman’s Blogger Connect was interesting to see all the famed real estate bloggers in actions and sharing their words of wisdom.

(2 of my favorite people, ActiveRich & ActiveBrad of Active Rain)

One of our clients, HGTV, threw a party at Inman. I was lucky to meet HGTV’s Sabrina DeSoto before the crowd swarmed in. It was very nice to meet her. She is very personable, she is exactly how she is on her show. We also chatted a little bit about her background: She is a real estate agent, and her mother was a stager.(I still haven’t had a chance to put up photos from our HGTV shoots, but will do so soon! Also our episode already aired. You can see the re-run schedule here)

I also went to the Gift fair here in San Francisco and made connections with many great vendors that we can add to our staging arsenal and inventory. There are also cool products that are in the works, so keep your eyes peeled!

Our very own chalkboard candle! These will be in stock soon.

All and all, IT’S FINALLY NICE TO BE BACK TO BLOG & STAGE!!! There is truly NO PLACE LIKE HOME! This week is finally back to normal. I finally got my act together and figured out all the configuration of our welcoming and reception area, as well as the conference room set up. 50% of our office furniture are roughly assembled and coming along. (I will do video blogs on these soon ) Our used rackings all got processed, de-rusted, re-primed and finally up! Now we just need to run to Lowe’s to get plywood for the shelves part (::GULP:: writing a big check).

The most beautiful (and perhaps daunting and tedious) part will be photographing, writing up descriptions, and barcoding *every* item in our inventory.
(you can also read my additional notes on the photo via flickr)

So happy to be home and be staging again!