Any guesses where these Volkswagen-loving kids were?
I'll give you another hint: 
Where we were
Chicago event introduces new expanded Bitty Baby line from American Girl
At American Girl, the message is about celebrating oneself and all the things that make us unique and special. In fact, they have a whole line of customizable 18” My American Girl dolls that are a perfect example of this. For the past few years they have been offering the award-winning My American Girl customizable doll experience where you can choose from different skin, eye, and hair colors and styles to best match your child’s unique features.
But, until this August, the Bitty Baby line was far less customizable. With only 7 options available to choose from up until now, the line was not all-encompassing by any means. There were many children, my daughter included, that didn’t have a Bitty Baby option for them.
My daughter has light hair, light skin and brown eyes, which I have realized doesn’t really exist in the doll world. Dolls with brown eyes have dark hair and oftentimes darker skin as well, and blonde haired dolls almost always have blue eyes.
Or, at least they did. On August 27th, the new Bitty Baby dolls will come in 11 options with all sorts of combinations of light and dark skin and eyes, which makes it far more likely that you will find that perfect doll as unique as your child. Like their My American Girl line, now you can pick skin tone, eye color, and hair color to customize your child’s Bitty Baby experience.
Lee Jeans rocked at BlogHer ‘13 Chicago
If anyone out there has never been to BlogHer before, you’d probably think it was ridiculous how much people obsess about clothing beforehand. I am along the lines of “if it fits” and I’m definitely in the minority at a big blogging conference like BlogHer. It’s not that I think those that plan way ahead are silly {I mean, there are literally thousands of socially connected women with cameras at the ready}, but high fashion has never really been my forte.
Really, I’m just a jeans a t-shirt kind of gal… unless it’s scorching hot, and then I’m a skirt and tank top kind of gal. And, this year there was so much talk of how hot Chicago is in the summer that jeans seemed a little silly. In fact, I almost turned down the chance to try out a pair of new Lee Jeans thinking that they would just be taking up space in my bag and I would never get a chance to wear them.
Thank goodness I didn’t turn down a brand spanking new pair of Lee Jeans, because Chicago turned out to be freezing in comparison to our Seattle summer this year. I wore a dress exactly one day of my 7 day trip, and was freezing that entire day. As for the rest of the time? I was rocking my Lee jeans and loving it. 
I wore my Lees with flip flops, wore them with sneakers, and wore them with my favorite new accessory – my Tieks by Gavrieli foldable ballet flats with the bright blue soles. I wore Lee jeans to a wine tasting, a dinner with one of my favorite brands, a boat cruise, a BlogHer session, and a whole bunch of private parties. 
This is me with Xenia from Thanks Mail Carrier {left} and Liz from A Nut In A Nutshell {right} at the Sheraton Social Hour that kicked off BlogHer. The strangers thing was a joke, I'm pretty sure we've been friends forever.
The Children’s Place holiday 2012 preview NYC event
We love The Children’s Place and are very lucky to be surrounded by numerous store locations so we can pop in frequently to see what’s new for the season. But, this year I got a bit of a sneak peak of the holiday line while in BlogHer and it was adorable.
The Children’s Place holiday preview was one of the many NYC events hosted by the amazing Nicole Feliciano of Momtrends. The event took place in the heart of midtown at the historic Bryant Park Hotel and just a short walk from the BlogHer convention.
Liz from A Nut in a Nutshell, Xenia from Thanks, Mail Carrier, and me. We were THERE! TOGETHER!
Coming in from a hot and humid day on the streets of New York, when we arrived on the Momtrends suite level, it made it immediately feel a few dozen degrees cooler. With “snow” drifts and winter clothing meeting us at the door, it was as if we stepped right inside a large snowglobe full of cute – with an amazing view of the city.
Back to school with Lands’ End and Momtrends NYC event
Recently, I went back to school with 200+ bloggers while at BlogHer. While we did load buses, take class pictures, and get report cards, this was a very different kind of school than you’re used to. For one, this school was co-run by two of our favorite brands, Lands' End and Momtrends, and passing grades meant you got an adorable backpack to take home.
As usual, I got straight As. But this time I can give some credit to the instructors who all did a wonderful job of teaching their “course” and for their very, very lax grading system that seemed to be mostly based off of attendance.
Friday – BlogHer’11 in San Diego recap day 2
Since Thursday night was a little bit crazy {*ahem, Clever Girls Collective*} I started off the day with some friends by the pool and then I was off to the newly opened BlogHer expo hall. After that, I met some new and old friends for a beautiful lunch at the Marriott. We talked about gardening, … Read more
Thursday – BlogHer’11 San Diego recap day 1
Having gotten into San Diego at 11pm on Wednesday instead of the 1pm we should have arrived, I was happy my Thursday BlogHer events started out slowly. We started off the day at the P&G Life Well Lived event that included some really amazing speakers, a nice brunch, and a really good opportunity to chat … Read more
BlogHer’11 in San Diego – A tale of good friends, swag… and recycling
On August 4th, 2011, thousands of bloggers descended on San Diego for BlogHer ‘11, the blogging conference to end all conferences. The last two years I had sadly missed out on the festivities so this year I was making up for lost time and trying to meet all the amazing bloggers I talk to each … Read more
The Help Movie pre-screening party in San Diego
While I was at BlogHer last week in San Diego, I had a chance to attend a prescreening of the movie The HELP that is based off the best-selling book with the same name. While it's been on my list for a while to read the book {as is getting rid of maternity clothes, organizing … Read more
Hoover at the Home + Housewares Show in Chicago
All of the Rave and Review crew have been in Chicago this past week as guests of Hoover at the International Home + Housewares Show where we got to see firsthand all of the new products for 2010. Hoover was celebrating the unveiling of their newest vacuums and cleaning units, as well as announcing their partnership … Read more