The Platefull Blogger Retreat

About a week ago, I had the time of my life at the Plateful Blogger Retreat. I was wined an dined along with 15 other food and lifestyle bloggers.

It first began with a beautiful invitation to stay at the Marquette Hotel downtown Minneapolis, so no flying ;). We stayed on the executive level and when I arrived to my room, a beautiful gift basket of goodies from General Mills greeted me.  Your girl was hungry but didn't want to spoil my appetite.  We would be heading to dinner at Zelo later that night.  So I just turned on the TV and read a few magazines to unwind. I also got a glimpse of the itinerary for the conference and couldn't help but be excited for what was in store.

We gathered in the lobby and walked over to the restaurant.  My mom had told me about this place years ago, so I knew it would be nice.

Our three course meal was delicious.  As we dined, we chatted with each other about our lives, blogs, and how we were dealing with social media while balancing our families.  Feeling full, we headed back to our rooms and prepared for an exciting day of pampering.

The next morning, a black Excursion stretch limo awaited us.  Oh yeah!  We were riding in style!  Blast Blow Dry Bar was our destination and blow outs were on the agenda, which was cool because I've always wanted one.  The place was beautifully decorated and buzzing with excitement as we all arrived to receive our day of pampering.  It started off with a wonderful head messaging hair wash.  Ooowee, that felt good!

Hair did! Now waiting for the makeup.

I took advantage of the time I had with the stylist to ask her a ton of questions about my hair.  You know I'm on this journey to figure out how to take better care of it.  She gave a lot of good advice too.  I've already been doing a few of the things she suggested.

While our hair was getting laid, a nice gal went around doing hand massages.  The last step was the makeovers. There was also a photo booth to mark the special occasion.  We even had a special guest, The Honey Nut Cheerios Honey Bee!

Before we left, we each received a gift bag that included goodies for our hair.  How sweet!  We were a beautiful bunch!  It had been three years since I had even got a haircut so you know I enjoyed myself!

Finished results.

Now, it's time to head to General Mills.  Stay tuned for part two!