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BlogHer Food 2014 Miami

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Miami Beach Chairs

This past weekend, I attended the BlogHer Food Conference in Miami, FL which brought together food bloggers of all levels (big time bloggers and newbies like myself) for learning, interacting and getting to see some really neat sponsors.

The conference was held at the Hilton Miami Downtown, and let me tell you, if I am ever in the remote vacinity of Miami, I will stay at their hotel. After 15 hours of traveling, cancelled flights, delays and a $100 cab ride, I made it to the hotel, in one piece, at 3:30 am. The lovely woman checking me in must really have felt sorry for me (who wouldn’t look like a mess after a day of dealing with rude gate agents) and sent me to my room saying ‘I think you’ll enjoy your room more than your travels.’ So I go up to my room, insert the key, and was wowed! This was the view at 3:30am:

Miami downtown at night

Then I turned the corner, and found there was a whole second room! Check out these stunning views from the day:

Hilton Miami hotel view

So after getting about 2.5 hours of sleep and running on pure excitement and adrenaline, I met up with the two lovely ladies I was lucky enough to hang out with, Abby and Karis, and we headed down to the conference.

For me, the entire conference and weekend in Miami  just flew by, and I mean FLEW! I feel like I blinked and was already having to decide which of the awesome Swag Bag items I was going to try and take with me.

Was it the lack of sleep? The fun I was having with Abby and Karis? The truly unique and amazing interactive sponsor displays? The lectures and panels? The South Beach outing? The Closing Party? I’m going to say it was a combination that made this conference very memorable.

BlogHer Food Miami Collage

Pictures from Top Left:

  • Abby, Karis, and I inside the Visit South Walton sponsor display, they had a looping feed of ocean waves and it smelled super good!
  • Cheers with Mojitos at the Closing party at the Wynwood Cafeina Lounge
  • Beautiful palm trees in South Beach as we made our way to Lincoln Road Mall
  • Abby, Karis, and I inside the CVS Abound Lounge. CVS is coming out with a delicious line of snacks this summer!
  • The three of us at Laduree…the worlds best best best macarons. I was told they are flown in from France!
  • Lastly, the beautiful artwork at Cafeina!

Miami art deco hotel

On our little afternoon outing, Karis (who happens to live in Miami) and her husband took us to see the Art Deco hotels along Ocean Drive, there was so much color and beauty!

Besides all the beautiful scenery and sun, the one inspirational I walked away with is one of the panels I attended where Jadah Sellner of Simple Green Smoothies said ‘you can’t compare your beginning with someone else’s middle.’ That really inspired me to keep on keeping on and work on improving my blog and skills!

Funny starbucks name

I’ll leave you with this funny picture from my travels home…I guess the Starbucks barista liked my pedicure and turned ‘Phi’ into ‘Feet’? lol

 

Sweet Sunday: Road Trip with your Dog Essentials

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Road Trip with your Dog Essentials

One of my New Years Resolutions was to take a road trip with our pup (Clover), and this past weekend we got the chance to do just that. During our road trip I made a list of the essentials I’m sharing with you for this weeks Sweet Sunday. Before we left I made a batch of Homemade Granola Bars because they travel very well and make a tasty snack, and if I had been better prepared I would have made a batch of Homemade Dog Treats for Clover but just brought along some of her favorite natural treats. I also created a list of 25 Road Trip Questions that proved to be very informative.

One really finds out a lot about ones partner by asking Road Trip questions-for example-when answering the question about favorite fast foods I asked what his favorite fries were and learned that my husband does NOT share my love of crinkle fries (Culvers anyone?) According to him crinkle fries are the ‘worst kind of fry because they’re always limp’ lol, but after really laughing I had to completely disagree!

I’m no stranger to road trips with pets. My best friend and I have always had pets (cats & dogs) and share some very fond memories about traveling and moving across the country with pets (for example moving from IL to NY with two cats that were both on motion sickness medication that wasn’t working and were in various states of sprawled out – one on my shoulder – I got quite a lot of odd looks, and one on the floor on top of my friends feet). Experience for me has been to skip the meds and just pack the essentials to ensure a fun road trip for both you and your pet!

Below is the list of essentials for a Road Trip with your Dog:

  1. Collapsible Metro Cooler Market Basket 
  2. Natural Balance Dog Treats – Sweet Potato and Chicken 
  3. KONG Cozie Ali the Alligator Dog Toy
  4. 25 Fun Road Trip Questions to ask
  5. Ray-Ban RB2140 Original Wayfarer Sunglasses 
  6. Canon PowerShot ELPH 330 12.1MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Black)
  7. Collapsible Travel Bowl for Dogs
  8. Travel Dog Kibble Bag
  9. Earth Rated Dispenser w/15 Bags and 120 Lavender Scented Dog Poop Waste Bags
  10. Animal Planet Ultra-Soft Pet Blanket
  11. Brita Soft Squeeze Water Filter Bottles
  12. Bell Plantation Peanut Butter Thins Crackers

Here are Questions:

25 Road Trip Questions

Here are some photos of our trip…or, photos of clover sleeping and lounging because that’s what she did the entire time!

Road Trip with your dog

Have you ever taken a road trip with your dog?

Disclaimer: please note that some of the above links are affiliate links and if you purchase through the links at no cost to you, the pennies I earn will go towards fun giveaways for the Sweetphi readers.  To see a list of Sweetphi Giveaways click here.

Up North Wisconsin

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Up North Wisconsin

Imagine driving north…far far north…and the further you go the more beautiful it becomes! This, my friends, is what happened this past weekend when my husband and I visited his grandparents in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, also known as ‘Up North.’ On the drive up I kept saying ‘look at how pretty everything is!!!!’ Even though it was freezing (literally, it was -10 degrees) being in front of the warm fire and enjoying the absolutely gorgeous surroundings of the Northwoods winter wonderland was spectacular.

‘Great Times Come with The Territory’ is the tagline of the Eagle River town website, and I couldn’t agree more! The highlight of this visit were threefold: blogging in front of the fireplace (ever been curious about starting a blog?), seeing the Eagle River Ice Castle, and having Friday Fish Fry from Pitliks Sand Lake Resort (it is my favorite Fish Fry that I’ve had).

The Ice Castle was truly a beautiful sight! The Eagle River Ice Castle has been constructed annually since the late 1920s by the Eagle River and Fire Department and local area volunteers. It takes more than 700 ‘man hours’ and is made out of close to 3000 individually cut ice blocks! Even thought we only saw it during the day, we heard that it gets lit up at night. While we were standing in front of the Ice Castle my husband played the ‘Let It Go‘ song from Frozen … it was pretty spectacular and I felt like Princess Elsa (never mind looks from passing my snowmobiles)!

Frozen Ice castle
Image Source {Designbolts.com}

Things to do in Milwaukee – Milwaukee City Guide

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Milwaukee City Guide

When I moved to Milwaukee a few years ago I never thought I’d fall so in love with this town, known as the “Cream City” – not named after all the amazing dairy the state of WI produces, but rather the unique cream colored brick from which Milwaukee gets its nickname.There are so many unique things to do, so I thought I’d put together a little list as a guide or some suggestions. As always, I’d love to hear your suggests or additions, so comment away!

Click Here for the Milwaukee City Guide PDF