freshvintage

What's in YOUR Drawers?

Chris brought home these card file drawers a few weeks ago from an auction. I saw a photo of them on the auction's website ahead of time, and asked Chris to bid on them if they were less than $20 for all three. I figured that I would clean them up, maybe re-paint them and sell them in the shop or use them in our office/studio/guest room.

Chris didn't even look in the drawers before he bid on them and won. When he brought them home, we looked inside and saw a bunch of random junk.

Handles, curtain hardware, keys, extension cords, a container of Metamucil...

that, ironically, is labeled "Wood Plugs".

But as we kept digging though the junk, we found more and more gems.

At least twelve cast iron and brass hooks:

These remind me of tribal masks. Or freaky rhinoceros skeletons.

Heavy door handles:

Here are some escutcheons and drawer pulls, including that beautiful brass Eastlake bin pull on the top left.

 

Chris read this post before I published it and asked me "What the hell is an escutcheon?", so I am linking to a definition.

These two-inch-high cast iron escutcheons swing open to reveal the keyhole:

Fancy dresser drawer pulls: (I love the ornate set that is painted light aqua.)

This would make a nice handle for your naughty panty drawer. Every time you think of wearing that sexy g-string, you are reminded that you will surely burn in hell.

This one has little crosses all over it.

Yes, that's for the giant-grandma-panty drawer.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since we are talkin' panties, I thought I would share some of the Google keywords that have brought people to my blog. Inadvertently, I assume.  I've shared some wacky keywords in the past, and they always beg the question: MR. GOOGLE, WHY ARE YOU SENDING THESE FREAKS TO MY BLOG? I know that some of these words are in my blog posts, but c'mon....

 

♦ vaginal diagram of a goat

♦ a horse made of lemons

♦ the allisons who started the thrift store movement [From here on out, I'm totally taking credit for the existence of thrift stores.]

♦ "her maxi pad"

♦ peter put your nappy and your pink plastic pants on

♦ old lady who makes molds of actors penis'

♦ amish men get freaky

♦ my excellent metal lawn chairs need a little refreshment [I love that they used the word "excellent" in their search. Must be a very optimistic person to think that a website contained those exact words.]

♦ antiques orgy

♦ aprons matron fetish-vintage

♦ homemade sex videos of women of boyertown last ten years [That small town is close to where my sister, Erin, lives. Do these people know something that I don't know? Erin, you slut!]

♦ arab circus poster looks like penis

♦ why does my cork board stink

♦ he saw me in sanitary napkin and belt

♦ chenille dander creates mucous in my lungs? [Note to self: never snort a vintage bedspread]

Alphabet Frenzy and Funny Google Keywords

I like letters. Anything with letters. Not just one or two letters. LOTS of letters. And numbers. Remember the metal stencils that I bought at Renninger's a few years ago?

And these Spanish flashcards?

And these flashcard letters?

Well, here are a few more recent additions to my alphabet frenzy:

This is a BIG box filled with letters that are used for display signs.

Each letter has pins on the back for attaching to a board.

They are very similar to the Mittens Professional Movie Titlers that I wrote about in my post on creating fabric-covered corkboards.

Well, I bought another set of those on eBay.

I couldn't resist!

Speaking of eBay...did you ever see a photo of something on eBay and you imagined that it was a certain size, but then you won the auction and got it in the mail and realized you were waaaay off?

That's what happened when I bought this set of rubber alphabet stamps, called "Aristocrat Sign Marker". I thought is was a small wooden box filled with tiny rubber stamps.

Nope. The stamps are huge. The box is over two feet wide. Even the wooden ink pads are six inches across. Don't get me wrong - I am glad that it is bigger than I imagined.

That's what she said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every once in a while, I look at the keywords that people type into Google in order to reach my site. Most of the time, it is words like "fresh vintage" or "fabric-covered corkboards" or "yard sale blog". And then there are phrases like the ones below. The people who typed these definitely weren't looking for a yard sale blog...

shit smells like copper

my sister the family hooker

where to find hookers in warren, ohio be honest

i could see her maxi pad thru her white pants

using pee jar for bedwetting son

why is alexis stewart hateful to martha

sexy fun in lancaster, pa

vintage barn sex

boobes firnicher   [looks like something my 5-year-old would type]

where do i sell the collection of cock socks that i have designed

big tits and white aprons

rods like moses for sale

everyone's yelling at me because i'm super duper drunk

have you seen my sanitary napkin belt?  [No, but I am certain that Mr. Google can find it for you!]

Antiquing Orgy, Part III: Avoiding Cat Fights

I'll assume that you already read Part I and Part II, correct? Don't make me do a recap, bitches.

I thought I'd dedicate a post to the touchy-feely part of the antiquing orgy weekend. No - it wasn't that kind of orgy. I know what you were thinking, Mom. God - she is such a perv. So embarrassing.

Anyway...the best part of the weekend (besides the friendship, camaraderie and post-junking happy hour on Saturday) was having instant feedback about potential purchases. A quick nod or shake of the head told me whether or not I should take the plunge. Then, we would quickly discuss what the price would be in our shops. Of course, we have different customers with different styles, so we all had our own opinions on how much to pay for something and subsequently, how to price it.

Whenever I shop with other dealers, particularly those with a similar style as mine, there is always the looming fear of getting into a tug-of-war match over something that we both want to buy. But that didn't happen. We all held to the general rule of antique dealers on the hunt:

Whoever sees it first gets dibs.

And if two people see it at the same time, they fight to the death using bakelite-handled butter knives.

There was one instance where Allison, Sue and I saw a $25 retro kitchen table at the same time in an antiques mall in Adamstown. It was shabby, but it was priced right. And we all wanted it (if it fit in our vehicles). But the more we looked at it, we all decided to pass. Cat fight averted.

Other highlights:

I met Steph from everythingvintagesteff at Renninger's in Kutztown. She was selling lots of cool stuff that was right up my alley (if you ever make it there, be sure to visit her inside the pavilion at booth #116). Her aunt sells PRISTINE vintage linens in the space next to her. She must have the patience of a saint to soak, iron and fold hundreds of tablecloths, napkins, runners and hankies. Bless her sweet soul.

We met up with Michelle from Perch Home and her friend Sandra from Find and Go Seek. It is funny, since the first time we ever met them was at that very same market in 2008 when my sisters and I were selling our vintage finds at Kutztown. Michelle and Sandra bought all of our best stuff that day! Such good taste, those ladies.

And here is the kicker - I knew that Michele & Sandra would be visiting Kutztown on Friday, so I emailed Michele on Thursday night to ask if she was shopping for anything special. Because I was sure that whatever she was looking for at Kutztown could easily be found in my looks-like-an-outtake-from-Hoarders garage. Michele frantically looked at my blog, picked out a few things and I loaded them in the car. I arrived at Kutztown on Friday morning, delivered the goods to her Find & Go Seek bus, and collected my dough. I was not planning to make money during my flea market weekend, but it goes to show you that never hurts to ask!

And so I started that first day of antiquing in the black instead of in the red for a change. Of course, that money was quickly squandered on everything that you saw in my last post.

And now I will leave you with one last tip...

Since there were several of us shopping together and we wanted to cover as many dealers as possible in a limited amount of time, it became increasingly necessary to have a means for bypassing certain dealers who were out of our price range.

We needed a key word that would notify everyone that it was time to move on to the next dealer. Like, now. What was the key word, you ask? It was "Rod", of course. Whenever one of us entered a dealer's space whose prices were too high for resellers like us, the first person to notice the outlandish prices would casually say a sentence with the name "Rod" in it. That would be the cue to immediately haul ass out of there and try to find a cheap-ass dealer who we could actually buy stuff from.

Some examples:

Hey look! I think Rod has one of these.

Rod would love this stuff. (Definitely the most popular among our group.)

Rod just called. He said to meet him at the sausage factory at 2:30.

Rod just texted me. He wants us to pick up some snoose.

I heard that Rod's insurance company just approved his penis reduction.

Thanks for following along with my three-part antiquing orgy posts. I hope that you are able to benefit from my sage advice.

Lisa Leonard Giveaway on freshblogtips!

Hop over to my other blog, freshblogtips.com, for an interview with blogger and jewelry designer Lisa Leonard.

Oh, and we are giving away one of her fabulous necklaces!

Martha Stewart Show Wrap-Up

Did you watch it!? Did you follow my sporadic tweets and Facebook updates? If you did watch the show, I'm sorry to say that you didn't see me in the audience. Even if you think you saw me or my sister, Erin - you didn't see us. Those damn camera men stayed away from our section like we were lepers. Were we in the ugly section? I don't think so. There were a lot of attractive people sitting near us. Maybe our boobs weren't big enough, you ask? No. There was certainly ample boobage.

Regardless. we had a fun time. If you missed the show, you will be able to watch the segments on Martha's website: The Blog Show. The videos should be on the website by next week.

Here are my favorite parts...

Roger Smith Tweetup

On Wednesday night, Erin and I went to our first Tweetup at the social-media-lovin' Roger Smith Hotel, hosted by @katjapresnal and @erikalehmann. Erin was worried because she doesn't even have a twitter account. We thought she might get beaten with an iPhone and left in the alley to die. But, no. We survived without tweeting even once.

I met up with lots of Philly-area bloggers and Jennifer from Savor the Thyme (remember her and Tim Gunn from BlogHer?) and her photographer-friend Kim. We chatted with many new-to-me bloggers - I'm still compiling a list to share with you. Makes me want to have a Tweetup in my neck of the woods. Of course, Twitter accounts would not be a requirement for entry.

The Blog Show Guests

Brian Williams was supposed to be a guest on the show, but he was in Haiti. He was replaced by Jennifer Koppelman Hutt and Alexis Stewart from the Whatever radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio (Alexis is Martha's daughter). I listen to their show on occasion so I was excited to see them. Jennifer was very funny, particularly when she jokingly referred to one of the guests as a Martha stalker. Some of the audience members were surprised at how bitchy Alexis acted towards her mother - but since I'd listened to their radio show, I knew that her personality can seem a little abrasive.

The other guests were Jeff Blumenkrantz, who has been cooking all of the recipes from Martha's Cooking School book and Pim of the Chez Pim blog. We all received a copy of her new book, The Foodie Handbook. It was way better than the carrot-flavored hand cream that I got at the last show.

Martha Shows Off Her Slutty Shoes

After the show finished taping, Martha answered some audience questions. The final question was about her shoes. Martha immediately threw her leg up on the craft table and showed them off. She then proceeded to make a rather unsettling comment along the lines of "they are great for you-know-what".

I think she was inferring that they are great to wear during sexual intercourse!

GASP!

Here they are on the monitor:

It's all fun and games until someone loses a testicle.

Speaking of Media Whoring

Still high from the Martha frenzy, I decided to extend my brush with media stardom. On the way home from New York City, I called into the Whatever Radio show with Alexis & Jennifer. What can I tell you? It is a long drive home and I was all alone and I wanted to talk to someone about the blogging show. I had already squeezed out every bit of conversation with Erin, so I figured, "Hell! I'll just call Jenny & Alexis since they were there, too."

I was the first caller they spoke with. We chatted for a few minutes and I didn't memorize the complete conversation, so here are the highlights:

Me: Hi! I was in the audience at the blogger show today.

Jennifer: No way! What is your blog?

Me: freshvintage. I write about the antiques and stuff I find at yard sales. It's like Antiques Roadshow on crack.

Alexis: I just looked it up. I like your vintage fans. And the baby shoes. You have cute stuff.

Jennifer: Say your blog name again?

Me: FRESH VINTAGE.

{as the words were coming out of my mouth, I was picturing the traffic chart on my Google Analytics dashboard spike up like the heels on a talk show hostess gettin' her craft on.}

Jennifer: What did you think of the show?

Me: I thought you were so funny. And, Alexis -  the best part was you...the way you disagreed with everything that came out of your mom's mouth.

{Oh - yeah, I know. I don't know what the hell came over me. Don't worry - it was all said in jest and with a smile on my face. We were all laughing about it. I think.}

Alexis: Colleen, you don't know how much hate email I got today. Am I just supposed to agree with everything my mom says? Sometimes she says things that aren't right. Sometimes she is mistaken. I'm not allowed to tell her she is wrong?

Colleen: I know...we all disagree with our moms sometimes. I think the reason that people feel the need to send you hate mail is that we NEVER hear anyone disagree with Martha. Everyone always agrees with her. You are the only person we've ever heard disagreeing with her.

Alexis: Well, me and Andy Rooney from 60 minutes. He disagreed with her once. And she HATES him now.

The Lost Photos of 2009

I've rounded up a collection of vintage finds that I bought in 2009, but never shared with you. It's not that I don't like you. It's just that I didn't have the time to write a blog post, or I didn't have anything witty to say. I know - how can that possibly be?

So...more electric fans. Maybe I didn't write about this photo because I knew that you were all sick of my damn fans.

I bought the table/desk for a steal. But now that I have it home, I realize that is smells like my Great Aunt Marion's house (RIP). Any tips for getting the musty stink out of furniture?

This mantel mirror is one I had never seen before:

It is a La France Art Company Jacquard Pictures Mirror. There are jacquard tapestries on both sides of the mirror. This label was on the back of it, but it fell off a few minutes after I bought it. Oops.

Here's a funky handmade zip-zag corner shelf. (That's me in the reflection. Glad I had my shirt on that day.)

I found these all at one yard sale. I think I spent $12 there.

There are tiny baby shoes in those boxes. The soles are so clean - they hardly look worn. I guess these babies never jogged in the mud or stepped in gum. Lazy-ass babies.

This pale yellow winter coat by College Towne Classics was at the same yard sale.

Isn't it darling? A little Michelle Obama + a bit of Sgt. Pepper + a dash of Morton Salt.

It looks like a child-size coat, but it is probably a woman's size small. (It doesn't have a size on the tag, but I felt like the Incredible Hulk when I tried it on.)  It has a few stains, but I am going to take it to the dry cleaners to see if they will come out. Either way, I will probably sell it on eBay.

At some point in 2009, I took a picture of my new favorite Chardonnay by Cupcake Vineyards. But I never wrote about it because I was paranoid that my family was going to stage an intervention based on all of the booze-talk on my blog and Facebook.

I also didn't want to write about it because this wine is nearly impossible to find in my area. The Pennsylvania Wine & Spirits stores ("state stores") are almost always sold out of it, and I can't find it in the nearby Delaware liquor stores. I fear that if I talk about it on my blog, then demand will surely spike and I will never taste its buttery deliciousness again.

But I will sacrifice for you, my dear readers. Go forth and drink the Cupcake!

Here's to all of the fabulous finds that 2010 will bring!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Psssst...one more thing. I'm headed back to the Martha Stewart Show next week (Jan 14). I applied to be in the audience during her upcoming Blogging show and I was selected! My sister Erin will be joining me - we are heading to NYC on the 13th and staying in a hotel. So extravagant! I just wish Martha would foot the bill.

We will be blogging and/or Facebooking during the show. I found out today that fellow blogger/antiquer Melanie from The Old White Cottage will also be in the audience. And lots of local Philly bloggers will be there, too.

Martha had a blogging show last year, and Perez Hilton was one of the guests. The only guest I know about this year is Andrew from Martha Moments (think Julie & Julia but with Andrew & Martha). Any guesses as to who Martha's other guests will be? I'm almost certain that she will announce during the show that I am one of her favorite bloggers, and will invite me to chat with her at the big kitchen island.  I will bring my crocheted peter heater just in case there is a lull in the conversation.

Eco-Friendly Ornament Storage

The beer has been guzzled...   

and its remnants put to good use:

I had a revelation as I was putting away all of our Christmas decorations: Take advantage of our over-indulgence during the holidays, and store those delicate vintage ornaments in all of those empty six-packs! Duh.

How do you store your ornaments? In empty wine boxes or tapped beer kegs!?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'd like to thank all of the blogs that wrote about me or linked to me or added me to their blogroll this year. These are the top 25 blogs that sent the most readers over to my site:

1. A Cottage Industry
2. Vintage Rescue Squad
3. Robolady
4. Bake It Pretty
5. Stephanie Howell
6. Apron Thrift Girl
7. Poetic Home
8. Yard Sale Bloodbath
9. Jane's Apron
10. Magpie Ethel
11. Such Pretty Things
12. Go Go Abigail
13. Cherry Hill Cottage
14. A Thing for Roses
15. PamKittyMorning
16. My Vintage Soul
17. LilyBean Paperie
18. Young House Love
19. Queen of Fifty Cents
20. GeorgiaPeachez
21. Vintage Pretties
22. Beyond the Picket Fence
23. The T-Cozy
24. Elizabeth Holcombe
25. monkeybox

And, here are a few strange key words that readers typed into search engines and, magically, my blog appeared in the results. Don't ask me how!

• what to say so a boy can have boobys
• vintage sister in law sex tapes
• a website that would let me read great grandmother gourd book for free!
• www.doctors hot mother tushy chek up .com
• fresh sex tube
• what are those big wooden things in urban outfitters stores called?
• sexy girls with pecans
• can i have wine after a hemorrhoidectomy?
• men who collect chenille bedspreads
• what state forbids the storage of cake in a glass jar by law?
• mommy! have you seen my box of kotex?
• lowe's and home depot in yakima wa are bullshit companies to work for
• old crap that is worth money
• ungodly tits clips

And, my fave:

• shitting in the neighbors yard

I have too many nice neighbors to do something so horrific!

(And I damn well would not write about it on my blog if it really did happen.)

Happy New Year, Everyone!

BlogHer Celebs & Swag

I saw a few celebs while I was in the Windy City for BlogHer.

Chicago's own Rick Bayless (you may have seen him on Top Chef Masters):

Here is Jennifer from Savor The Thyme - the only freshvintage reader (that I knew of) who was at BlogHer . We didn't want to stand in line to meet Tim Gunn, so we each took pictures "with" him. We were hoping that Tim would notice Jennifer's adorable fabric flower and pull her out of the crowd and rave about her style and want to go out to dinner with us because we are so cute and hip.

No such luck.

I listened to the beautiful and talented Brooke White (American Idol season #184) sing & play the piano at the Lucky Strike BowlHer party. I didn't meet her, though.

Here I am with the lovely Paula Deen, who was at BlogHer courtesy of Walmart. Their stores will soon be stocking a selection of packaged desserts based on her recipes. I sampled the Walmart version of Paula's Ooey-Gooey Butter Cake, which my mom has made using Paula's recipe on many occasions. I was shocked at how good it tasted. But that shock was probably just my arteries crying out for help, since I'm guessing there is a half-stick of butter in each piece of cake.

I only talked to her for about 10 seconds while someone took this fuzzy photo with my camera. (Bastard.) I told her that I loved her on the Kathy Griffin show. She told me that it was a blast, and we laughed about how fall-down, stinkin' drunk her assistant got during the filming of the show.

Here I am with Mrs. Potato Head. Mrs. P told me that she was still a little embarrassed by her behavior at the previous night's cocktail party. That purple-hatted hussie got down and dirty with the Sobe Lizard on the dance floor to "Baby Got Back" (sung by a BlogHer attendee during the Karaoke cocktail party).

In addition to the swag I mentioned in my BlogHer- Day 1 post, I received lots and lots of other stuff including a free pair of Gap jeans, Croc flip-flops, Mr. Potato Head, ELF makeup and a $50 gift card to ProFlowers.com.

Sponsors like to give stuff away so that people will talk about their brands. I explained to a few over-eager PR reps that I write about antiques - not consumer products. Unless they have a time machine and can manufacture original 1950's floral tablecloths or bakelite buttons, it is not likely that I will participate in their product reviews.

I'm not complaining, though. Who doesn't like free stuff?

Yes, I really did learn things at BlogHer. I'll get around to it - don't worry!

I brought home two suitcases that weighed 50 pounds each. (But that includes the vintage goodies that I didn't sell at the Swap Meet.)

The combination of these four items stood out the most. A Chambord shot glass, Colgate Wisps, a condom from Planned Parenthood and a Go Girl ("Female urination device" that helps women pee standing up).

 

Sounds like a fun night in the woods, doesn't it? Almost makes me want to bust out the camping gear.

BlogHer Recap - Swap Meet

Here's me behind my half-table at the BlogHer Swap Meet . Thanks to my new friend and fellow vendor, Lotta, for taking this picture. More on her later.

This was my oh-so-nice neighbor, Amy Turn Sharp, who didn't even scream as she witnessed what looked like a flea market barfing all over the other half of her table. Amy and her husband own Little Alouette and make baby teethers & rattles out of locally harvested wood in Ohio.

Amy is a blogging superstar, and was selected to read one of her posts at the Community Keynote. Yes, the same keynote for which my posts weren't selected. And after listening to the bloggers who were selected, I realize that I need about 157 more years to hone my writing skills before I would try again. One of my favorite humor pieces was one by Danielle from Knotty Yarn. Here's the video of her reading (it is not safe for work, which is my favorite kind of video).

I took your advice and packed a vintage suitcase stuffed with linens, tiny jars of buttons, vintage coloring books, goodie bags of vintage price tags and so much more. I attached a clothesline across the front of the table (which was already covered with a tablecloth and draped). It was pinned with those freaky flashcards and the horse show prize ribbons. 

I sold the flashcards individually ($2 each or 3 for $5). They were definitely a best seller, along with the sex books and medical journals.

I sold six out of the seven books that I brought. Thank god for all of the twisted and perverted bloggers who purchased books from me (especially that one who bought three books - you know who you are). Those books were too damn heavy to lug back to the airport.

My Moo business cards were a big hit, too. Throughout the conference, I had some bloggers ask to see all of the cards, and then pick the one that they liked best. It was a fun and easy way to let people know what I blog about, since there didn't seem to be any other antiques bloggers at BlogHer (at least none that I knew about).

I met some other vendors that were really sweet, including Velma who blogs anonymously at A Smeddling Kiss. I was fascinated by the fact that she doesn't use her real name on her blog and that her extended family doesn't know about it. The funniest was when she walked out of a session called "Blogging Identities and You", which was a panel discussion about blogging anonymously, and she randomly ran into someone that she went to high school with (and hadn't seen since). Of course, her first question was, "Why does your name tag say Velma? That's not your name."

I found a vintage soul mate in Lotta from Mom-o-matic, who makes jewelry out of vintage buttons. I traded some of my junk for two pairs of totally hip earrings and two hair pins. I love how she uses old photos as the backing for her earrings. And tiny flashcards for her hair pins. To top it off, Lotta packages her items in vintage-style peanut & popcorn bags. So freakin' cute. Lucky for you, she has an Etsy shop that she frequently updates with new stuff. I double love her because she bought my blue vintage suitcase to display her wares at craft shows and whatnot. One less thing that I had to bring home.

Make sure you click on the picture to see the adorable pink & white hair pin with the pair of jitter-bugging dancers. I wore it to the fifties-themed BowlHer party at the Lucky Strike Bowling Lanes on Saturday night.

Here I am with my new friends Gwen and Lotta on our way to the BowlHer party. That was the first time that I'd bowled in over 15 years. Bowling balls are a lot heavier than the Wii remote. Thankfully, all of that heavy lifting didn't keep me from doing the running man on the dance floor later that night.

We had so much fun at that party that I can't even share the photos without getting explicit written permission from them first. And I doubt that will happen.

But here is one of Lotta at a different party with a blow-up doll. Just my luck...the one party that I missed had blow-up dolls!

I'll have much more about BlogHer in my next post. Perhaps I will eventually get to the part where I learned stuff. Or maybe not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For your reading pleasure:

Lotta has her own crafting column at Try Handmade.

Read Gwen's About Me page - she grew up in the jungles of Indonesia. She only had electricity for three hours a night. And I thought I had it rough because my mom wouldn't let me watch The Newlywed Game or chew Bubbalicious.

BlogHer Recap - Day 1

Day one is done! Here's the view from my window at the Sheraton. Not bad, huh?

Today was a free day - the actual BlogHer Conference doesn't start until Friday morning. This is my first time in Chicago, so I walked around for a few hours before the pre-parties started. Here's the ferris wheel at the Navy Pier:

There's a beach in the middle of the city!

I walked along the Magnificent Mile. (Did you hear Oprah's voice while you were reading that? I know you did.)

While all of the fancy people were at Ferragamo and Armani, I visited the Lego store:

After my long walk and a personal-size deep dish pizza, I went back to the hotel to get ready for the first party. There was a knock at the door. "Delivery for you!". For moi? It was a vase of flowers courtesy of Colombia, Land of Flowers and a totebag from ivillage:

All of the BlogHer attendees staying in the hotel got them. Swag-mania has officially begun!

The SocialLuxe Lounge party was at the Hyatt down the street. I caught up with two great Philly mommy bloggers, Whitney from MommiesWithStyle.com and Colleen from ClassyMommy.com. There was one other famous person in the Hyatt, but we didn't get to a chance to chat:

Yes, he was in the building.

But back to the party. You could get your nails done there!

Upon arrival, I received one drink ticket and one raffle ticket. You know that my drink ticket was gone in the blink of an eye. And then the party hostesses started pulling tickets out of a hat and calling the numbers for the raffle tickets. While I was busy trying to figure out a way to steal another drink ticket, they announced my raffle ticket number! Yay! I won a prize from shopbop.com:  

I couldn't believe all the stuff in that bag. A shirt, a dress, three pieces of beautiful jewelry and a $100 gift certificate!

These are the three lovely ladies from shopbop.com - they were so friendly. Kelly (in the middle) was nice to me even after I told her that I had never heard of shopbop. They drove all the way from Madison, Wisconsin to come to ONE party and then had to drive all the way back. Too bad they couldn't stay and hang out. But, it worked out for me, since they didn't need their drink tickets. ; )  Thanks so much, ladies!

Before leaving the SocialLuxe party, I received a stuffed-to-the-gills oilcloth swag bag to take home:

Here's one thing that was in it:

Okay. I think I could get used to this. It is the Kodak Zi6 HD video camera in Red Rouge.

For some reason, I was equally excited to get this pack of girly office supplies from Office Max:

What a loser I am.

It's time for me to get ready for a full day of learning and schmoozing. The swap meet is at lunchtime today - I will let you know how it goes!  I might be tweeting occasionally, so be sure to follow me on twitter. Twitter is free to join, and you don't have to interact with people if you don't want to - you can just "follow" people and read what they have to say.

And if you want even more inside scoop, do a search for blogher on twitter. There are 1000+ women tweeting about it all day and all night!