I've been writing for the Silicon Valley Mom's Blog for over three years. I will always give Jill credit for igniting a passion for writing inside of me that I never knew existed. As one of the original writers, I will always feel like I own a little piece of the blog's success and I will always feel like I owe the blog a lot of my own success. So color me happy when 50 Silicon Valley bloggers got together to have the ultimate swag party. As I walked out with my arms heavy from all the swag, after what felt like three very short hours, I knew that once again Jill and her team hit it out of the park.
The party was so professional. Each blogger was giving a card with each vendor. As you went around to each booth, you didn't have to worry about a vendor running out of goodies or feel rushed to get through it all. If you've ever been to a BlogHer conference, you know the adrenaline rush you get when walking into the sponsor rooms. There's not enough swag to go around. So people get pushy. And rude. And downright horrible. It was more than refreshing to be in a forum where you are talking to people who want to show you their product without all that competitive bullshit. It was awesome.
The Good:
The Wii Fit Plus game. We've played it in multi-player mode just once but already loved the new games. We plan on diving in to more of the fun on Thanksgiving when our extended family comes over the stuff themselves with our feast.
Custom leather bracelets by Dillon Rodgers. Now mine says Silicon Valley Mom's Blog which you may not like. But her jewelry is cool and quite the hot commodity in Hollywood.
The adorable puppy mittens by Zooni. Darius took one look at them and said they were "for babies" but I'm holding on to them in hopes that he'll change his mind.
The Fabulous:
Chevy gave us all Tiffany key-chains. I love pulling out my keys to show how classy I am. Shut up, at least I can pretend I'm classy.
Coffeemate gave us travel mugs and creamer, but more importantly a way to give back a little to our community. They collected 95 pounds of clothes to send to Dress for Success. COFFEE-MATE® will donate fifty cents to Dress for Success for every Cup of Confidence you send.
Tickets to see Wicked. I've been twice already and love that I can go again. The show is beyond great and really makes you think about how there really are two sides to every story.
The I wish I could afford it:
The litl notebook. It's a maintenance-free laptop. Perfect for a family computer or for your techno-challenged mother.
The Mole. It's a nanny-cam on steroids. Perfect to spy on your teenagers on while you take a weekend away or to well watch the nanny.
The Transformer Camaro. I tried to get the security guy watching the car to let me have a test drive. He was nice enough to let Lia and I sit in it for 5 minutes.
There were more sponsors too. I still have 2 bags of swag sitting in my living room, so I'm sure I'll have more posts in the future (and maybe even a giveaway). But in the meantime, click on over here to check out more stuff and get lots of coupon codes too.
Photo credit: Carla Duharte of babyjidesign. Go check out her flickr page for all the fab photos.
Disclosure: I received a lot of excellent products at the party. These were given to me FREE. Although there was a hope that I would blog about the products, there was no obligation to do so. The opinions expressed above are mine and mine alone. And no, Chevy didn't give me a Camaro. But if they did, I would totally promise to blog about it every day for the rest of my life.
