What an exhausting, overwhelming, intimidating day Thursday was. Just standing in line at the Registration area was crazy. I felt oddly out of place, and not that that doesn’t happen often, it just seemed even more pronounced with all of these women from out of town who all seemed to know each other.  They were all shrieking and hugging and giving air kisses. I am not in NYC anymore. It was more like Kansas. I sheepishly picked up my badge and headed to dinner with my family. We checked out the swag in the bag and noshed on our Cosi sandwiches and said goodbye. I was off to my first event. #MarthaBlogger. The Martha Stewart party. As you know, I love Martha Stewart products. Even though I don’t think she is all that warm and fuzzy in person, I do have a lot of respect for all that she has accomplished and created (prison time aside).  The set up at the party was supposed to be on their rooftop deck, but because it was nearly 100 degrees they had it indoors in their offices. There were long tables set up in a fairly narrow hallway with displays from all of the different projects-party favors, wedding dresses, stationary, cake decorating and others. Everything was in perfect “Martha Stunning” order.  The hallway led to a larger room with more tables around the perimeter manned by the OmniMedia staff.  There, featured Martha products from the cleansers to the pet food to even her crafting projects were highlighted. You received a “passport” to be stamped at each table that told you about the top 10 places in NYC to find their “Best of” recommendations.  There was champagne and exotic basil drinks to be tasted. The highlight of this party came from the Paul Labrecque Salon. They gave me amazing fake eyelashes! I will definitely try that again. They were very cool but fell off the next day in the shower despite my best efforts to save them.

Thankfully I met up with my dear friend Holly of The Culture Mom Blog at this party and we not only hung out for the rest of the night, but we palled around all weekend. It was great!  She also introduced me to the amazing Rebecca of Beccarama and darling Monica from Macaroni Kid NYC who we spent some time with as well over the weekend!

I absolutely loved the swag bag from Martha with her Punch Around The Page, the stationary samples and every magazine she publishes. It was beyond heavy though! Yet I was determined to carry it and not lose anything! We also received a bag from Kraft foods with bottles of Mayo, their new Mac & Cheese Homestyle and other assorted treats.

After Martha, we headed uptown to attend  NYCityMama’s party at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. This is one place that most NYers never get to because it’s so touristy. And true NYers avoid tourists at all costs! I was grateful to be invited since I know I never would have had this experience otherwise. There were some really fun sculptures.  We bumped into the sweet Maria from New York Mom  but quickly lost her at the Scream movie exhibit which we thought was going to be super scary but it wasn’t at all. The girl manning the entrance stayed in character the entire time even when we were asking her a ton of questions.  I would have to say that it was more fun than I expected but was highly disappointed that the museum chose to have a sculpture of Yassar Arafat, a known terrorist among it’s repertoire. I just didn’t think that depiction, especially of someone that supports terror activities, was appropriate for a “fun” NYC museum.  It was a bit upsetting.  But I do thank NYCityMama for the invitation and the awesome Bratz doll. My daughter loves it!

We left the museum and headed uptown to the Hilton for the final party of the night.  By the time we got there, we were spent. Both Holly and I just hung out at a table and chatted. We were exhausted and overwhelmed!  I took a train home from Penn Station wishing I had stayed in the city that night. I was slated to go to a breakfast Friday morning at 8a but knew I wouldn’t make it since I still had to pack. I fell into bed at 2am and slept fitfully in anticipation of what was to come…

 I arrived at the hotel by 9:00am with my suitcase packed to the gills hoping my room would be ready.  It wasn’t , so I left it in the luggage check. I somehow still had time to grab a little breakfast at the buffet and headed off to my first event, “Getting Gorgeous” at the Warwick Hotel hosted by the already gorgeous Audrey McClelland and Vera Sweeney .

What an AMAZING event!  Not only did we learn about some awesome products, we actually took home a lot of them!  I can’t even say which was the best because they were all so incredible! The MiracleBody jeans really do perform miracles. They are stretchy and very comfortable and they do seem to take 10lbs off your figure. They look so good on!  I am so happy to own a pair now! The Remington Pearl curling and flat irons, the Hanes ultra comfy socks (which my daughter absconded with) and bras, the very stylish Kmart Design and Land’s End scarves and the Tide Swash were all great items!  The ELF cosmetics and AgeLoc  were really cool and the Lia Sophia jewelry was beautiful! I met Liz Lange (Yes, the same Liz Lange who makes maternity clothes for Target. She’s like a rock star!) and Jane Wagman. They were there talking about their amazing website, Shopafrolic.com. I tried on Sketcher’s new Shape Ups and entered into several contests. Another one of the best things I took home from this event (and there are many!!!) was the Powermat. I am forever misplacing my chargers and this mat takes any device and charges it just by placing it on the mat!!!  There was not one thing I brought home that I wouldn’t use. 

Right across the hall there was another event that we stopped into and I met with many manufacturers and brought home lots of items that will soon be going as give aways here on Ma Vie et Ma Joie! Stay tuned!

Holly and I ate some lunch back at the Hilton and we dropped everything in my room so we could continue on unhindered by weighty bags of swag. My room became the “home base” for the weekend. We kept doing swag drops and freshings up there.   I waited until my luggage arrived to pull out my flat sandals because I while I loved the platforms I had on, they became extremely painful by 1pm and I could no longer walk.

I had made an appointment for the early afternoon to meet with Cynthia Sass, the nutritional director at Prevention Magazine and coauthor of The Flat Belly Diet at the Soy Joy booth in the Expo hall. She gave me a :15 minute consultation to help me tweak my diet. I hope her suggestions work because I really want a flat belly!

One of the highlights of the event for me was winning a pre-event contest on Blogher.com from P&G’s Home Away From Home campaign. I won a $500 grant for my children’s art department from Bounty!  So I went to the booth to accept my “big” check and have my picture and a little video taken. I hope I can find where it’s posted!

I spent some time wandering the Expo hall and made it back to hear my first session of the day, which turned out to be the last session of the day. Family Foodies: Creating a New Generation of Gourmands.  It was moderated by Stefania Pomponi Butler from CityMama, Sarah Caron from Sarah’s Cucina Bella and Danielle Wiley from Foodmomiac. While there was some useful information, the bulk focused on getting kids to eat healthy and what to do for picky eaters. I was hoping it would have been more food blog related, but it more kid related which was completely fine just not exactly what I was interested in. I wanted to go to the How to Take Great Pictures lecture and probably should have.

I really enjoyed the Community Keynote:BlogHer Voices of the Year. So many amazing women spoke, sang and shared their stories. They were all extremely moving and informative but some of my  personal favorites were Amy Windsor from The Bitchin’ Wives Club  as she sang The Popular Blogger, Marinka from Motherhood in NYC read ing Fantastic News, Lissa Rankin from Owning Pink reading  What? We Can’t Say Vagina?, Liz Rizzo from Everyday Goddess reading Phone Karma, Karen Green from The Kids Are Alright reading Miami, and last, Stephanie Roberts from Picture of Hope showed and read about the Pictures of Hope project.

After these incredible speeches, we were treated to an art exhibition with pieces created based on the speeches of these women (and one man) we had just heard.  They were amazing and beautiful and I wish I had enough money to buy some of this art. There were some stunning pieces and some very emotional pieces. I left feeling exhilarated to have witnessed some of their greatness.

Holly and I left the Hilton to attend another event called “Sweets in the City” being held at the Sheraton Hotel just up the block. We met an incredible and inspiring woman there named Reyne who was a Toy Trends Specialist for the Toy Industry Association. She was really terrific and we were so happy to have met her. It was nearing 9pm and we made one more stop to an event in a lounge where we met up with Maria again from New York Mom and Karen from A Child Grows In Brooklyn.  While quite fun, it was very, very loud and neither Holly nor myself had eaten solid food  since lunch and we were famished and rather tipsy from all the cockails!  Fading fast, we left to grab some sushi at Blue Fin. My eyes were much bigger than my stomach and I ordered way too much but it was so delicious.

I managed to get back to my hotel room after I had gorged myself full of spicy tuna rolls and warm goat cheese and beet salad.

And that was only DAY ONE! Are you as tired reading this as I was in person living this?

The next morning I awoke with a dreadful headache. No it was not a hangover. I think I was just exhausted and hormonal (I get monthly migraines). And maybe a little hung over. I popped several Excedrin and Holly met me back in my room. She invited me to come along with her to a Scholastic brunch. We rode an actual school bus down to their SoHo office space to dine in their corporate dining room with outdoor terrace. We had the pleasure of sitting with Monica from Macaroni Kid NYC, Heidi at Coast2CoastMom, Suzanne from Momconfessionals, and Nikki at MommyFactor.

Scholastic  had three wonderful speakers, Tracy can Straaten, the VP of Trade Publicity who clued us into new releases coming out  by age and genre, Carol Marchesano, VP of Book Clubs Online who talked about all the wonderful Scholastic Book Club activities and Francie Alexander, Chief Academic Officer who spoke about the Top Trends in Education. They had an excellent moderator, Billy DiMichele, the VP of Corporate Productions & Creative Services. It was really an informative and very interesting brunch. I was very interested in learning about the new books coming out and learning about what is going to happen with standardized testing over the next few years. As a takeaway, they gave several books and other items as well as a gift certificate to use in their store. I cannot be trusted in book stores because I just love books. Just after I had finished paying for my 50lb bag of books, a lovely, nameless lady, accidently dropped a book right on the one toe that happens to have a broken nail about ¾ the way down and refuses to fall off. I nearly fainted from the pain, but after a few minutes it was fine, but it became a running joke the rest of the weekend. (I did call the Podiatrist and he said since there was no nail under it yet, they couldn’t take it off due to possible infection etc. The whole toe business is gross. I just keep getting pedicures with dark colors!)

We made it back to the hotel just in time for lunch, but being stuffed still from breakfast we just grabbed beverages. We met up with the incredibly witty and smart Shari from DustyEarthMother who also stored her swag in my room for the day. It was kind of a party in my room!

We split up for the afternoon.  I wandered the Expo hall on my own and got caught up in a taping for the Rachel Ray Show at the Jimmy Dean booth with Chef Wes (Stump the Twitter Chef) and Chef Cat. Since I also have a food blog, this was so much fun for me. I was actually interviewed and I got to be one of the bloggers that tasted what he made with his tweeted ingredients and his turkey crumbles. It tasted surprisingly good. I hope it doesn’t make the cutting room floor and we actually see me on TV in the new season! Fingers crossed!

I made a Milk Mustache picture and had a Hallmark picture and a Chicken of the Sea picture. I made a J&J Video that you can see on YouTube here. My :43seconds of fame!  All of these things are completely out of character for me. The wall flower that I am.  I let go and opened up and had a really great day. Despite, or in spite of, the headache!

But because of this fame gluttony , I missed the next session that I wanted to go to but I don’t feel so terribly bad because I had such a great time! And I was carrying a lot of swag! (When did I become such a swag hag???)

Holly and I met back up in the third breakout session of the day, ROYO-Little Fish in a Big Pond: Understanding, Accepting and Loving Your Small Blog.   It was nice to hear other small bloggers and either their acceptance of their small blogs or their aspirations and goals to make their blogs bigger.  We met the sweet Erin from Mommy On The Spot during this session and unfortunately did not get to spend very much time with her as she was leaving to head home.

We sat in the Closing Keynote:How to Use Your Voice, Your Platform and Your Power featuring Alison Stewart, Marie Wilson, Gloria Feldt and P. Simran Sethi. I would have to say that while each woman was intelligent and inspiring, I was completely blown away by P.Simran Sethi. She was incredible! She left me feeling very empowered and I had visions of Norma Rae in my head. You should look her up if you haven’t heard of her already. A remarkable woman. I wish I had her strength and voice.

I was sad to say goodbye to Holly as she left to head home after the Closing Keynote. She is a real life friend and I am so grateful for her letting me tag along with her this weekend. She introduced me to so many amazing women.

Shari and I enjoyed a light supper in the Executive Lounge and  I was sad that she headed home as well.

Even though I my first instinct was to crawl into bed, I ended up going to the Sparklecorn party at the Hilton hoping to see Ri from Music Savvy Mom  and AmethystMoon from Life Music Laughter. But my dreams of meeting them in person were shattered. Neither one ever found me. Next time for sure!

I did, however, sit next to two really interesting and super nice ladies, one of which I ended up chatting with all night , Sandra from Albany Kid. She was really sweet and we shared the love of the music playing, and even though we were dancing in our heads, neither of us actually got up and danced.  I lived vicariously through my Twitter friend @thenextmartha as she danced the night away.

I lasted as long as I could but left the parties and headed up to my room to take the hottest shower ever. There was so much steam in my room, it was actually raining when I was done. I hit the hay and in the morning, my headache had not subsided at all so I called my dear husband to come and rescue me and bring me home. I reluctantly skipped the “Taste of Lowes” brunch and the “Soy Joy Healthy Eating” brunch in favor of some Imitrex and my own bed.

We each took a half dozen bags of swag and dragged my suitcase to the car, departing the hotel.  And that is how I rolled  this BlogHer’10.

Looking back, there are so many people I met that I would love to see and talk to again. There are so many people who inspire and use their voices for good and are so much more eloquent than myself. But I am inspired to try and emulate them. I wish the sessions were more informative in terms of making my blog better and I wish there were dedicated days just for sessions and just for the Expo hall, the suites (which I totally missed!) and the extra, outside events. I hated missing most of the conference itself, but I really enjoyed the other events too and I learned about a lot of new and exciting opportunities and very important causes.  

I cannot wait until next year!