ALIX: Howdy howdy howdy, it’s us again!  Last we left, the Altitude Design Summit had rocked our world with awesome speakers, a fab party and MONDO from Project Runway! And that was just Thursday. We woke up bright and early Friday morning ready and rarin’ to go for our Roundtable Discussion.

DOTTIE: We were so thrilled to be speakers…and I must confess, we totally decided to semi-coordinate our outfits for our big day! The theme? Black, white and red!

ALIX: Miss Dottie was super sassy in her red tights and fishnets….

ALIX: And she kindly gave me a pass with my blue tights!

DOTTIE: Well, they were too fabulous to say no to!

DOTTIE:  The presentation itself went smashingly! I must say, Alix made sure we were ready with this adorable booklet that was chockablock with clever bits of marketing and PR goodness. And we had the most adorable Modern Kiddo pins too!

ALIX: I can’t lie, I had this brief moment of panic thinking, “What if no one shows up for our round table??” But we had a great turnout—we even had to add some chairs! Our group was fantastic and asked great questions. There we are below. I’m in the red cardy on the left, Dottie-kins is in the middle in black. I’m sure we’re being reeeeeeally entertaining, spewing pearls of wisdom!

DOTTIE: I swear, I’m not giving that girl the stink eye!

ALIX: LOL….sorry, that’s my awkward photo editing skillz. You know, I think you’re actually looking at ME in that photo! Hah! OK, so after our presentation, we were a little slap happy and zipped on out to the hallway where we finally ran into our best girl Allison (Petit Elefant).

DOTTIE: Oh yes, and as always she was an absolute delight!

ALIX: It was time to check out the rest of the day’s sessions.

ALIX: First up, The Art of the Pitch with Heather Armstrong (dooce) and Neil Chase (of Federated Media). These two were ace. Always so damn funny and entertaining, that Heather! Then it was time for lunch, with DJ Spooky doing the keynote. My my my….what a charmer!

DOTTIE: I was just bowled over by DJ Spooky.  This man is not only dreamy to look at but dreamy to listen to! He was insanely smart on so many different topics. During his keynote he discussed Melies films, Antarctica, the Black Panthers and DW Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. Truly insane in the membrane.

ALIX: Lunch was grand—even though we got shushed by that guy at our table!

DOTTIE: Ooooh, the shush story! haha.

ALIX: We weren’t even really being that loud, but I guess Raina, Pilgrim, Dottie and I were whispering a little too boisterously for the tan, crabapple at our table…

DOTTIE: What was up with that guy? He totally snapped at us.

ALIX: Clearly he skipped the Ethics & Etiquette seminar. Harumph!

DOTTIE: No no… OK, so on to the next panel, The Best in Up & Coming Blogs!

ALIX: Oh this was such a goodie!  I found some GREAT new finds. I was so pleased to see my friend Teri of Giddy Giddy got a nod on Liz Stanley’s list ( Say YES to Hoboken). Liz had some really great recommendations and was cute as can be.

DOTTIE: It was one of my favorite panels. I definitely discovered some awesome new blogs to add to my reader! J’adore! Joselyn of Simply Lovely really is simply lovely and makes me want to move to Laurel Canyon and become one with boho chic glamour.  Oh and then there is Amy Turn Sharp, the mastermind behind those genius little wooden toys from Little Alouette (my favorite baby shower gift!). Brilliant, charming, devastatingly funny and whip smart and I can’t wait to see her again!

ALIX: Oh, and Liz kindly listed all of the recommended blogs on her site. Check ’em out here!

DOTTIE:  Well, the conference ended with a bang thanks to the brilliant final keynote from Swiss Miss, who basically broke down the whole experience of making blogging her full time profession. And with two kids to boot, which makes me adore her even more.  Go Swiss Miss!!!

image: ALT Flickr

ALIX: So now it was close to evening and time for the final parties—held in several suites at the hotel. HGTV was hosting one and Kate Spade & The Girl’s With Glasses another. Word on the Alt Street was that Kate Spade was going to have a super cool giveaway for people that were there early. Innocently, we thought that getting there 10-15 minutes early would be early enough, right?

[Insert foghorn.]

DOTTIE: Um, not so much—I think there were prolly uh… seventy people ahead of us!!

ALIX: We were kind of stunned….people were camped out in front of the door like it was Woodstock or something!

DOTTIE: We waited….and waited….and waited….

ALIX:  I love this next picture of Dottie! Please note that she is still standing in the hallway….somehow she and Pilgrim managed to procure cocktails while waiting in line!!

DOTTIE: What can I say, it’s a talent of mine.  Booze just flies into my hands!

ALIX: Look, Pilgrim even found one to match her outfit. Now, THAT’s fashion at its best!

DOTTIE: So the longer the wait, the more then anticipation built. I felt a little badly because NO ONE was in the HGTV suite.

ALIX: We kept joking that we could probably sneak in and nab a TV show deal while all the Spade mongers were in the hall. FINALLY they cracked the door open and we were allowed inside. Was it all worth it?

ALIX + DOTTIE: OH. HELLS YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALIX: The decor in the room was spectacular! We were met by a sea of colorful balloons floating throughout the room. Dangling from each balloon were little paper eye glasses. SO CUTE! There were fellas walking around with trays of champagne. The whole scene was so whimsical and colorful, it felt like a Kate Spade ad brought to life.

DOTTIE: So true! The tables were decorated with beautiful peonies and lollipops and gumballs. Just adorable as can be. Oh, and tons of black eye glasses for people to wear.

ALIX: Ah, here is the goodie bag that caused a near riot! We didn’t get one, but I have it on good authority that they contained all kinds of fun stuff including a little purse size bottle of TWIRL perfume.

ALIX: That last picture up there cracks me up. My eyes are so wonky—I look like a Picasso painting!!

DOTTIE: Oh, and FIE that we didn’t win the dang Kate Spade Handbag giveaway! It was so stinkin’ cute.

ALIX: I know, the elusive typewriter bag!

ALIX: In addition to the fab decor, there was an adorable photobooth run by Angela Kohler, the girl behind those fantastic stop motion, Kindle commercials. There were all sorts of fun hats and props for you to dress up with!

DOTTIE: I didn’t know that! It makes me love my Kindle even more! Those commercials were the best ones of 2010!

DOTTIE:  This one is my favorites with Raina, Pilgrim and our new friend Pam from Retro Renovation, which just happens to be on of my favorite blogs of all time! She’s a font of awesome information and a great gal to boot.  We love ya something fierce, Miss Lady!

ALIX: So of course the other highlight was meeting The Girls with Glasses: Summer Bellessa and Brooke White. Summer is a model and the editor of Eliza magazine, Brooke is a singer/songwriter (and a finalist on American Idol). They are seriously the two CUTEST girls ever. (Check out The Girls with Glasses video if you haven’t! ) Miss Summer is expecting a little bebe and she was just a gorgeous mama-to-be!

ALIX: Here’s the super darlin’ Brooke. She was wearing the raddest little sailor pants and an awesome red cardigan.

DOTTIE: And here we are with the patron saint of craftiness—Marie from MakeandTakes.com.  Oh, if I could just put her in my back pocket and keep her with me always!

ALIX: Dottie, you look so awesome in this photo!! hee. I love it!  Of course we had to branch out and check out the other parties. The Wilson Art room had the best cocktails and the HGTV room had an awesome pair of chocolate fountains….

DOTTIE: It’s true. That was just plain naughty. Dipping brownies in chocolate sauce?? Pure evil.

ALIX: We toured all the other rooms, but Kate Spade’s charming room kept calling us….as we walked back in Petula Clark’s “Downtown” was playing and I knew I had found my happy place!

DOTTIE: I couldn’t agree more! And you know, I think we can let these last photos speak for themselves:

ALIX: I would say Alt ended the weekend with a bang! We learned so much but the best part were all the wonderful people we met. SUCH a positive, cool crowd. I HIGHLY recommend you go next year if you can!

DOTTIE: The conference was over but we still had one more day of fun to look forward to—Saturday morning thrifting in Salt Lake City!