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No Friday Fives Today, I’m Heading To Chicago For The Housewares Show!

March 9, 2012 By

This weekend is the International Housewares Show at McCormick Place in Chicago, and I was honored to be invited for the third year in a row to attend as a member of the Internet Media (sounds so fancy, doesn’t it?).  What makes this weekend even better is that I spend it with my dear friend Lisa from My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings (and about a bazillion other blogs too, that girl is a blogging beast).  I’m forever grateful to her family for letting me basically take over their basement rec room for three nights so I don’t have to spend a fortune on a Chicago hotel room!

Lisa and I always have a blast at the Housewares Show.  It’s hard to describe just how huge McCormick Place is to begin with, then to fill up three humongous expo halls with what is probably a million different things to look at? It’s crazy and exhilarating and exhausting and eye-opening and well, FUN!

 

Because our email addresses are available to exhibitors, Lisa and I start getting emails about a month before the show, inviting us to stop by certain booths. We try to stop by every booth that invites us personally.  You’d think half a day on Saturday, a full day on Sunday, and a few hours on Monday would be enough, but it won’t be!

Guess who we have appointments to meet in person? It’s two very famous celebrity chefs, and I’ll give you a hint – one of them likes to say “BAM” when he cooks :)   That’s right, we are meeting EMERIL LAGASSE!! We are also meeting Curtis Stone, who is such a hottie that I’m going to have to try to resist the urge to just stand there with my mouth hanging open.

I’ll take as many photos as I can (only Internet Media people can take photos, which makes us feel even more special!), and when I get home I’ll start rounding up my favorites on MomReviews and MomCooks. I’m hoping I’ll be able to do some fun reviews and giveaways, too!

So, wish me luck and keep me in your thoughts and prayers please as I drive the 217 miles to Lisa’s. I can’t leave until after Chris gets home from his business trip to California! He lands at 3:30, I pick up the rental car, and then I hit the road. Chicago, here I come!

Filed Under: Blogging Events and Conferences Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Nearly Wordless Wednesday – Why Being A Mom of 3 Is My Special Occasion

August 17, 2011 By

At BlogHer, Hallmark had a booth in the Expo Hall with these shirts to customize and then they took your picture for a virtual mosaic. I stood there for a minute, thinking about what exactly in my life is a special occasion, and the answer came pretty quickly.

Chris and I were sure we didn’t want kids, maybe because we were still kids ourselves when we first started dating. Neither of us had any experience at all with babies, and when we tried to imagine ourselves as parents, we just couldn’t, so we agreed that kids were not in our future.

And then I had an unplanned pregnancy that ended in a blighted ovum, and I realized with much shock that I had actually been excited about having a baby, and it turned out Chris knew just how I felt, and a year later, Ryan was born.

From not wanting kids at all to having THREE of them, and doing a pretty okay job of raising them, makes the fact that I’m a Mom of 3 a special occasion every day! And so, the caption on the shirt :)

Filed Under: Being a Mom, BlogHer '11, Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: , ,

BlogHer ’11 Friday Continued – Old School Bloggers Session and Two Parties

August 9, 2011 By

Read this post first.

So I left off having taken some Immodium (thanks again, Robyn!) and deciding I was up to doing at least something conference-related.  I found the room for the Old School Bloggers session where I met up with some of the bloggers I’ve known since BlogHer ’06!  Here’s  TwoBusy, LaurieWrites, and IzzyMom:

And here’s Jenny, SJ, and Sarah:

On our way out I snapped a photo of three women who have been there for me since the beginning, who I think of as part of my blogging family – Jenn from Mommy Needs Coffee, Liz from This Full House, and Elizabeth from Busy Mom:

From there, I went to the MomCentral and Johnson & Johnson cocktail party, which was wonderful because there was actual FOOD and not just tiny nibbles grabbed from passing trays. I stuck to a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri, got lots of hugs from the MomCentral reps, sat and chatted for a while, then a bunch of us left to go to the Cheap Sally Dance Party, which was AWESOME.

The party was at a bar in the Gaslight district called Stingaree, and we had it all to ourselves until 9:00 pm! They laid down a red carpet for us to walk in to get inside, then there were three floors all for us, each floor had a bar (with free drinks, woo hoo!) and REAL FOOD again (penne arrabiatta and a sourdough roll, so good). On the rooftop though was the real party. This was the first thing I saw:

Yeah, just a little freaky. So, all around the perimeter of the rooftop were these cabanas, and inside each one were couches and chairs, a table, and the sponsors. Free drinks were flowing, there was a DJ spinning great tunes, and lots of great people to meet! I learned about Gordon Ramsay’s new line of kitchen appliances, got some cute flip flops from SearsStyle, posed with a cardboard cutout of Roseanne from her show Roseanne’s Nuts on Lifetime at the Lifetime Moms cabana (I hope someone posts that picture!), and scooped up a ton of Smarties (excellent choice for a sponsor!). I also chatted with the folks from Big Fuel, a social media agency, about joining their Mom Network that connects bloggers with large brands, it’s called momentum.

And yes, I did let my hair down a bit! I did a little dancing (yes, really) and then caught a Pedicab back to the hotel. A Pedicab, if you’ve never been in one, is a person on a bike pulling a cart with two bench seats. And while it feels weird letting a person do that, they must do all right because everywhere I went, if I stepped even close to the curb, a Pedicab rushed over to see if I wanted a ride.

Our driver (biker?) had a stereo, and he blasted Rapper’s Delight as we flew down the street. What was awesome is that people we passed would raise up their hands and yell “whoooo!” and start dancing along! One guy ran down the sidewalk next to us for half a block! It was definitely an adventure.

It absolutely sucked not having a camera. My cellphone camera’s not great, and while the tablet does do okay, I didn’t always have it with me. I’m hoping in the next few weeks I’ll pop up in some pictures on Flickr or Facebook that I can grab and share.  Next up, BlogHer ’11 Saturday!

Filed Under: BlogHer '11
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