Toronto Design Bloggers Meet-up and a Giveaway

Last night I attended the Toronto Design Bloggers meet-up.  It was great fun and I'm so happy to have met such interesting talented women and found some great new blogs.  

The event was held at the Hotel le Germain in Toronto. It was the perfect venue - modern, cool and very hip - much like me!  Just kidding, but have a look at the pretty shelves in the lobby.  I love the mirrored backing, the square shape of the shelves, and the restrained placement of glassware.

Over 50 bloggers attended, which was a bit of shock to me that there were that many bloggers in the Southern Ontario area.  Now a few of us design-wannabe bloggers, like myself, attended as well so it wasn't strictly design bloggers.

Thanks so much to Vie from Verdigris Vie, Daniella from Dress Design Decor, and Jennifer from Rambling Renovator and anyone else I missed, for making this such an outstanding evening.  They found sponsors for the evening, including GK hair (the representative who spoke had the most gorgeous hair) and Delta faucets (who have a new one-week old blog called Beige is Dead).  Greenery, decorating the tables, was provided by Coriander Girl and photos were being taken by Natalie of A Bit of Blue.  There were also giveaways and lootbags, but more about that later.

I have to confess that for weeks I have been both excited and nervous about going, but as the event got closer I got progressively more nervous.  When I entered the room and did the old look-around-to see-who-I-know, there was nobody I recognized.  I almost turned around and walked out, but I convinced myself to stay for ten minutes and if I didn't find somebody to talk to I would leave.  I'm so glad I stayed as look at all the cuties I met and chatted and laughed with. 

Kelly from Jax does Design, Tara from The Cinnamon Post, Vanessa from Decor Happy, Emma from The Marion House Book,  Jennifer from Rambling Renovator, and Lindsay from Aubrey+Lindsay

See here's proof that I was there (well along with the somewhat blurry photos I am posting due to the low light conditions).

Lindsay from Aubrey + Lindsay, Sarah from White Blossom, and me (do you like how my shawl matches the room decor - see the drapes in the above photo.  Does that make me a wallflower?  Just kidding)

As I mentioned before there were giveaways like hair products, showerheads, design books, and cookbooks. I even won something, which I'm very excited about:

Looks like I'm going to be dressing up and partying with the cool kids in Toronto.  I had no idea this was going to be such a season of stepping out for me.  I'm totally pumped about it.

There were also sweet lootbags.

Look at all the loot we got - there is a ticket to the One of a Kind craft show, a coupon for 10% off Pistachio Eco Essentials store, a free alphabet print from Lindsay at Penny People, some GK Hair hair products and hair brush, and the Christmas issue of Canadian House and Home and Style at Home magazines.  Amazing, eh?

I'm a bit of a magazing junky so I already have these two magazines (thanks Mom and Dad for renewing my subscriptions every year for Christmas).  Sooo, I was thinking I would pass these two magazines on to some of my readers.   

Here are the giveaway details:

I will give the magazines to two separate people so let me know in a comment which one would you prefer to get (and if you both want the same one I'll have to do rock-paper-scissors with myself to pick).  I'm going to limit this draw to Canada and the USA because of shipping costs.   All you have to do is leave me a comment below, making sure you leave me your email address so I can contact you, and I will select two winners on Friday, November 26th (that way you will get the magazine in time to enjoy it before Christmas).  You're in for a treat as these are both outstanding issues!