We rocked Chicago for the Scentsation. It rained buckets the entire time, I guess the remnants of Ike — an inch an hour on occasion — with those umbrella-grabbing winds shoving us up and down Michigan Ave. We were a little worried Saturday morning that nobody would show and we’d just have to eat all Musette’s brownies ourselves, but midwesterners are not easily cowed by a little weather, and the turnout was excellent. Patty’s got some fun pics of us looking (variously) fab or sopping wet as we worked the itinerary, ending up with some fine food and mebbe a little too much to drink at the after-party. Special kudos to travelers like Tigs who came from Canada, and our Ohio contingent, esp. Emily whose car broke down in Indianapolis, making her trip just that much more exciting. We had a little drama getting out of Chicago on Sunday at the end of a busy convention week, I heard a bunch of flights got cancelled at O’Hare due to flooding, and so they all rolled over to Midway, and the scene there was pretty chaotic. Thank goodness for Midway and my reservation there on Southwest Airlines.
Tune in on Weds. for my report with the details (yes, as usual I took notes in my handy dandy notebook), including the sugar binges, some non-perfume retail therapy, getting thrown out of Hermes, and a surprise visit from a Veep Candidate! Yup, we have the photos to prove it. They will be up whenever Patty gets home, dries all her stuff out and uploads them, stay tuned. In the meantime it’s late, the kids are needing mommy for some snuggles, and then I’m going to unpack and go to bed, I am whipped. But I smell marvelous.
Just got back to Cowland – first time online since Friday – let me just tell you how honored I am to have met all of you! What an incredibly lovely group of people. My sister, who thought I was completely insane for doing this prior to meeting all of you, now ‘gets it’. I am sure there will be lots of yakking about the event tomorrow but I just need to throw out some ^:)^@};-<:-p^:)^ to the following folks, who made this come together for us: Shelley(*), no words can express it xoxoxoxo Laura Palermo^:)^: a more incredible woman I don't think I could ever hope to know - and that's saying something just considering the women on this blog alone! She organized not one but TWO major store events (Neiman's and Nordie's) and made us feel so welcome! Marti Walsh (Caron - an elegantly tough cookie, she fought to keep thost vints in-store until our Event) and Joril Westlund who manages the Beauty/Fragrance dept @ Nordstrom - Thank You for your gracious hospitality! Bigelow: what a lovely reception. Thanks, Ande! Kristina @ the Malles in Barneys, lovely, kind and generous with samps and great knowledge - in fact, everyone at Barneys was gracious, as they tried to figure out who the heck we were, bless their hearts!!! Patty and I found a kick-a@@ new hairspray. Andrea @ Chanel was sooo nice - we came in there like a pack of drowned kittens and they couldn't have made us more welcome, though Shelley did get 'profiled' because she has 'lowlife' and 'psycho shoplifter' written all over her.... =)) Darcie and her lovely crew @ L'Artisan started our day off with such graciousness. Those women ROCK! Roseanne and Andy @ Saks - could you be any more wonderful? I think not! ^:)^ My beautiful women at Outsider, Melanie and Amanda (and the phenomenal Jackie)....day-am! Thank you !!! (okay - I can hear the orchestra breaking into this already:-) Just a couple more people: David/Neil @ Neil Morris - sorry you couldn't be there but thank you for sending the incredible list of testers - everyone was SO excited to try them! And Liz Zorn and the vaunted Mr Z, who DROVE IN FROM CINCINNATI AND WENT RIGHT BACK THE SAME NIGHT! Lawd. Thank you so much for coming and sharing your lovely scents with us! Hope the brownies helped keep you awake, Mr Z!!! Okay, that lovely lady is onstage and is gracefully leading me away, as I try to shout out a thank you to my third grade teacher... (I'll let March and Patty tell you about b-( tomorrow (though I do want to say there were two lovely salesfolk in there who were extremely gracious. Glad you made some sales, Jose!)
^:)^=d>=d>^:)^=d>=d>
FanTABulous, Musette!!!
<:-p@};-@};-@};- Now, go off stage, into cozy caftan, and enjoy ~o) (alas, no martini icon...)
Thank you to all for organizing such a great day. Yes, it poured with rain, but on that kind of a Saturday afternoon the only other thing to do is watch bad movies & eat too much popcorn. I’ll take lots of new things to sniff, lashings of chocolate any day (I’m still slightly astonished by both the number of samples I acquired, and the never-diminishing mound of brownies), as well as the wonderful people I met. 😡
I just posted my trip report and a few pix at my usual base of operations:
http://community.basenotes.net/showthread.php?p=1308487#post1308487
I’m here to join the chorus of thank-you singers. Merci beaucoup for an unforgettable day. And I’ll echo moongrrl’s opinion about the conversation. Actually, I think I enjoyed it most of all.
Thanks! I’m glad you could make it through that amazing weather, it was so much fun for all of us. :)>-
Joy,
I hope your trip back was less eventful than your trip in! You are too cool! and I’m glad you made the trek in for what has to be one of the WETTEST events on record!
So glad I wore a floor-length dress/coat…what was I thinking? Soaked to my knees!;))
am jealous!! Can’t wait to hear the details- why you got thrown out of hermes etc..:)
and about the Veep Candidate-if it wasn’t Biden- was it Tina Fey dressed up as Palin?..:D
Close!!! Very, very close on your Veep guess! 😉
Becca and I had a BLAST. I’m still trying to process everything I smelled (and drying out my clothes!). My poor husband’s eyes popped out of his head when I dumped all of the samples out on the table at home. He wondered if we had plundered the stores instead of just visiting them. Hah!
Everyone there was so interesting and accomplished on top of smelling fab. Even if I hadn’t been interested in smelling a thing, I’d still have been entertained by the conversation.
Musette, Shelley, et al.: Thanks for organizing this!
I unpacked my stuff last night and everything was soaked and damp and ugh! At least I made it home with all my swag, yay! Great meeting you, and please chime in on Wed. in the comments with anything I forgot.
Gosh, I hope all you Texans are safe and sound. This weather is scary!
Musette and Shelly, et al, you guys ROCK! What a posh event!
And no, it wasn’t Biden…
OMG, Hermes DRAMA!
And has anyone ever been brought to tears by a perfume before?
Oy, we should get Girl Scout Merit Badges for trekking through the MONSOON! (scurrying off to upload pix!)
You and your posse were so great! And the brought to tears will be in the post. Hope that’s okay, it was wonderful. @};-
My mother really needed a LIFT like this weekend. She’s been directionless since my dad passed away last year 🙁
. Thanks to all who helped make this so special for her and us.:x
Vida,
Your mother is one of the warmest, loveliest, most delightful women I’ve ever met, with an inner beauty that eclipses her incredibly abundant outer beauty. It was such a honor to meet her and share the day with her. Such a lovely lady. I’m so glad she enjoyed it. Her enjoyment was a sparkling highlight to the day!!!
xoAnita
It was a wonderful event indeed! Musette, Shelley and all our hosts conjured up a truly special occasion out of a chill grey day. I can’t wait to read the full post on Wednesday and see what everyone else’s most memorable hits/misses were. (And maybe by that time, the vintage Nuit de Noel parfum will have worn off my arm. Goodness, that’s some tenacious stuff!)
Good thing we had all that ~o) to see us through. And I hope you didn’t get any of that Caron on your clothes. [-x
I want you all to add your faves on Weds.!
Yes, and who was it who worked the magic to actually get that vintage bottle open? Big smiles from me…the opportunity to sniff the vintage Carons were my carrot dangling on a stick since I found out about them in early August.
Musette thank you so much. I had an awesome time meeting everyone, and the day was really well organized! Thanks to Shelly too, and anyone else who helped with the planning.
It was great meeting you, and thanks for coming! <:-p
I was happy to be able to help…especially when the day actually developed! What a great bunch of people; it was a delight.
Getting thrown out of Hermes? March, you are like Oprah…or was it Condoleeza?…or Mariah? Anyway, you are now an It Girl. 🙂
Pretty sure it was Oprah. And this was handled with just about the same level of grace by Hermes. :@)
Thank you so much, Anita, March and Patty! It was a marvelous day–even with the downpour. And a special thank you for allowing hubby to accompany me at the last moment. You know–I think he left the event with a much longer wish-list than I did!
I can’t wait to read the write-up and see the pictures! Have a good rest and snuggle with the kids.
You’re welcome! I’m typing up for Weds., it was great meeting you.
I would LOVE to see that collection! I’m thrilled you had a good time!
xo
I can’t wait to hear all your stories! I’m in Chicago and let me just say…you guys are hardcore. I barely left my soggy house this weekend.
We were DRENCHED! One of our lovely ladies was walking around barefoot, sparing her shoes.
Agree w/Olfacta. Can’t wait to hear the Hermes story! I hope that you did not go quietly into the night (day?), but instead left puddles of water and smears of chocolate in your wake.
Um, you do not want to pi$$ Anita off, is my feeling.
You got thrown out of Hermes? Do tell!
Yes, yes what Olfacta said! Dish, girl!
I know! I’m dying! :((
Full report on Wednesday! Muwahahaha. A$$hats, they are.
yay! can’t wait to read all about the event! and the photos, oh my…
OOOOO I am sooooo jealous! Can’t wait to hear (and see) more! 😡
Hey, doll, sounds like a real blast, and rather than feel 🙁 for myself, I am thrilled you had such a good time. I do have a cure image of you (I hope Patty got this shot) slightly plowed, with chocolate smeared across your chin, playing with a pretty atomizer 8-|
Midway’s a marvel, isn’t it. I’ve snuck out of there many a time.
Huge hurrah to Musette and her wonderful elves (heya Shelley!) for pulling off a great event 😡
;;)
Sniffing and drinking and rain…oh my. Sounds like a blast; can’t wait to hear and see more.
Ooh…I can’t wait to hear more and see the photos!
You guys actually met Senator Biden? I’m guessing it must be him, because Illinois, especially Chi-town, is going for their hometown man, Senator Obama, so why would Senator McCain and Govenor Palin even waste their time there??? 😉
Love ya, babe! I am so happy you had a great time and that it was a success. Sounds like Musette did all of us perfumistas proud!
Hi, you 😡
Hi, doll 😡
Ooh, VN, too much love? My computer got stuck ; )
It’s never too much coming from you, darling!
Hugs and much love!