Holy cow, it’s been a long time since I posted!  I have a good reason though, I’ve been out of town having quite an adventure!  Last Saturday morning, I packed up and drove 4 hours to Oak Lawn, Illinois, where my friend Lisa lives. The next morning, we drove together into Chicago to attend the International Home + Housewares Show at McCormick Place downtown.

We spent eight hours Sunday walking up and down the aisles of one and a half buildings, visiting probably 300 vendors displaying everything from cleaning products to coffeemakers.  When our feet couldn’t take another step, we went back to her house to collapse, then got up Monday morning and went back! After another half a day of walking, networking, shaking hands, passing out business cards, accepting free samples, and pitching my services as a review blogger, I got back in my car and drove the four hours home.

And left my laptop in Lisa’s living room. Oh yes I did.  Try to imagine the panic I felt last night in the few minutes between realizing I didn’t know where it was and waiting for Lisa to get back to her house so she could call me and tell me if it was there or not. The good news? It was there, and she’s overnighting it to me today.

So, anyway, I got to visit my friend and her family AND attend an absolutely fabulous event! Imagine a building the size of the average Wal-Mart, except there are SIX HUNDRED individual booths to visit. And now multiply that by THREE buildings.  I didn’t visit all the  exhibitors, but I walked past probably two-thirds of all the booths.  I would guesstimate that I talked to somewhere around 300 individuals and handed out close to 150 business cards (most booths had more than one person).  I brought home two huge bags full of literature and samples, plus shipped home a small box!

Who did I see that you might be familiar with? Well, how about MR. CLEAN?

I’ve got more photos up on Flickr, and I”ll keep adding them as I go through them. It was an amazing experience, and I’m so grateful to Jay Kelly from the media relations team for the show for inviting me! He and his team did an incredible job putting everything together. I plan to attend next year for sure!