My weekend at the Housewares Show in a Nutshell

So I am home, my house was still standing when I got home, the kids were nestled snug in their beds and I crashed hard.  I wanted to post and tell you how it was but I just couldn’t.  I tweeted to some new friends that I made it home and then went to bed.  Now I am up and my head is still swimming from all of the information I received and contacts I met.  Here is my trip in a nutshell I will elaborate on more in another post.

Saturday I laid down to sleep at 8:30 because I had to be at the airport at 4 am so I needed to get up at 2 am but then with the time change I was loosing an hours sleep too.  At 11:00 PM Maddisyn woke up and started to cry and that woke me up so I got up at 11:00 and watched some tv and puttered around the house.  Then i showered and was off to the airport.  Got the airport at about 4:00 and just waited, made it through security with no problems at all and got on the plane.  First ride was a little bumpy towards the end when we ran into rain but other then that it was smooth.  I landed and had to run for my connecting flight because they forgot to get my luggage from under the plane before they went to park another plane so i waited 30 min.  Made my connection and landed in Chicago at 9:20.

Once in Chicago I took the Airport Express to the Affinia Hotel where we were spending the night and was met in the lobby by two of the most amazing PR reps I have ever had the pleasure of working with.  We received a little welcome present which was so nice.  The present had in it a few snacks, a bottle of water and the most luxerious pair of slippers from Bear Paw Shoes.  I had to wait a bit because the hotel was full the night before so my room was not ready, I got checked into my room on the 28th floor and then it was just time to wait a bit before I got to head to the Housewares Show for the day.  I got to go the Hoover booth which was the purpose of my trip and why Hoover brought me there and I got to see some of their great vacuums all of which again will be getting their own post because this one is getting too long already and they deserve the spotlight.

Headed to the lobby of the hotel to catch the shuttle to the Housewares show.  There was only 7 of us going on the bus, 5 bloggers and two people there from Cleaning for a Reason the most amazing foundation ever and one which deserves and will get its own post entirely to itself.  The bus we took was a HUGE charter bus we had to laugh at how big it was.  We got to the show and navigated to the media room and got signed in for the show and dropped off our coats in the coat check room.  The media room contained media kits for alot of the vendors that were there that way if we did not get to talk to them all (and there was no way we would have) we could contact them or write about them anyhow.  They had boxes from FedEx there and were offering free shipping for us to send them home, I sent home two and am excited about all the great products I will get to talk to you all about.

The show was huge and again is going to get its very own post so I am not even going to try to touch on it here.  I was at the show from about 1:30-5:30 when I caught a shuttle back to the hotel.  I went to my room and called home to check in on the kids and talked to them for a bit which was great.  Then I went and visited with Jen from The Mom Reviews and Cheaper Then Therapy-The Mom Jen.  Then we were off to meet the shuttle and all the other bloggers in the lobby for dinner at 7:00.  We went to Hub 51 where the food was amazing we had a whole bunch of stuff off the menu and ate family style, I am a fairly picky eater but I can say that I loved the pulled chicken nachos and the pulled chicken tacos.  There was other stuff like fish and beef but i did not eat it so I don’t really have anything to say about it.  Then for dessert we had Brownies and Carrot Cake and oh my, I have requested that the PR Rep that brought us all together and was actually sitting at our table with us to mail me some haha it was that good.

At dinner I sat with Jen, Lee from Moms Without Blogs, the PR Rep, Etosha, and another blogger whom I feel like an ass but her name has escaped me at this point.  We all talked about our lives, our families, our blogs, our successes and our failures.  The PR rep asked some very great questions to help them have a great relationship with bloggers and help understand us and what we do better.  We finished dinner and headed back the hotel at about 10:30ish, now keep in mind that at this point I have been up for 24 hours and am not sure how I am still surviving or walking lol.  Went back to my room and called home, talked to Lee and went to sleep.  Up at 7 am got ready and went back to the Housewares show at 8 with the rest of the bloggers that did not get to go the day before.  I toured the show with Jen and Cat and then it was back to the media room to get our stuff and head to the airport for 1:30 to catch our flight.

The weekend was one huge whirlwind and I wish we would have gotten two days at least at the show but I am so grateful to Hoover for the time I was lucky enough to be there and I totally hope that I get invited to go again.  I got to meet some really great bloggers like Cat from 3 kids and Us, Jen from The Mom Reviews, Julie from AngryJulie, Holly from June Cleaver Nirvana, Lee from Moms without Blogs, Kelly from 3 boys and a dog, Mel from Mel A Dramatic Mommy and I know there was more but my brain is not functioning I will for sure add more names to that list though.  Oh and as a quick rub in I got to see Paula Deen and Michael Symon.

I know this post was super long but this was the nutshell version there is so much more that I want to share and will in separate posts over the next couple of days so as not to overwhelm you or me with all the posts and information.  I will be getting up some more review and giveaway posts soon and of course will be heading to Great Wolf this weekend and then next week will be our all about traveling time where I will blog about the great trip and products received to help make our mini-cation easier as well as a few product giveaways in the process.

Here are some pics I wanted to share with you from the weekend, I do have a bunch more but I did not want to slow this post down from loading.  You can see pictures of my hotel room HERE, I forgot to take a pic of the view from the 28th floor.  You can also read my Hoover post HERE.

Hoovertinis at Hub 51 with Lee, Jen, Me, and Ruth (picture is from The Mom Jen)Hoovertini's thanks to Etosha

Etosha our amazing PR Rep

Carrot Cake Dessert from Hub51 MMM!!!!!!!

Brownie Dessert from Hub 51

Sneak Peek at Hoover Vacuums they will have their own post soon