My awesome experience at the Sears Design Summit!

I was lucky to be invited to a blog conference on July 7th and 8th for Sears Holding Corporation and Kmart. I was so excited. Wait – I was THRILLED and honored .. for the lack of a better word! I have a confession to make to you all, and to Sears. I have two credit cards: One is a MasterCard, in which I keep at a zero balance to use ‘in case I need it’, and a Sears card. I have been a cardholder since 2000. More like 1976, when I was born, because I believe this is where ALL of my school clothes came from when I was growing up. This card (ahem) has a zero balance on it too. Not because I don’t use it, because I DO; but because I use it and pay for it, then use, pay, use – you get the idea.

Tuesday and Wednesday (July 7-8), I was in Chicago for the SHC Home Design Bloggers Summit. I was among a great group of bloggers!

• Stacy from Mom Central
• Christine From Dates to Diapers
• Jennifer from The Mom Salon & Mom Bloggers Club
• Erica from 5 Minutes for Mom
• Felicia from Go Graham Go
• Lori from A Cowboy’s Wife
• Stephanie from Adventures in Babywearing
• Piera from Jolly Mom
• Paul from The Smart Stylist
• Gabriel from Design Mom
• Liz from Cool Mom Picks
• Amanda from Mommy Mandy
• Janel from Apartment Therapy
• Louise from Mom Start
• Esther from FaintStartLite
• Miranda from Keeper of the Cheerios

I flew in to Chicago, and right away, I took the wrong exit door from the airport and ended up outside of Air Canada’s area instead of American Airlines. Go figure. The driver that picked me up was very patient and nice! He drove me over to the hotel, in which my jaw dropped – It was gorgeous!

Also, Sears and Kmart had a beautiful wooden crate arranged for us that had a gorgeous set of sheets in it with a picture frame and yummy candle!

I arrived early so I had plenty of time to relax and just sit there and contain my thoughts. We had a cocktail party later that was great! The food was divine, the bloggers were so nice and we got to mingle with all the designers for Sears & Kmart, as well as the fabulous PR firm that arranged everything for us.

Me with Amanda from Mommy Mandy.com

Once we got to Sears Headquarters, my jaw dropped. The building is simply gorgeous beyond words! We walked in to see a great set up of dorm rooms.

Then, on the other side, there were beautiful bedroom arrangements with a combination of Sears and Kmart bedding and product. I just wanted to lay down and soak it all it. Beautiful!

You see this? Its candy! Allll ours! MWAAHHAAA Sears and Kmart didn’t know what they were getting in to with us. We were like kids on Christmas morning!

Me trying to snag some candy that they had set out for us.

Another beautiful bed set that was set up. I think this was my favorite!

Me and Stacy from Mom Central

Pillow Fight with Stacy from Mom Central. Yes, the pillows were that soft! Well, I DID break a mug that was on a table at the end of the bed. By the way, why was a dining set in the bedroom? LOL

During break time, I turned around only to see Stacy teaching Theresa all about twitter. Theresa is officially hooked up now.

Back to the dorm rooms. What is GREAT about these, is that each was designed for under $500.00!

I am in LOVE with the ideas that these rooms had! Such space-saving and money saving ideas! I LOVE the baskets on the walls with food in them. Great for dorms!

And don’t you just love the cinderblocks as the head and footboard?

This was my favorite, I do believe!

This is Theresa- Chief Home Design Officer. She was exciting, fresh and SO full of energy. I love her energy and her overall sense. She was truly amazing and had such a perfect mind for her job! Aren’t the pizza boxes fab??

Once we took a tour of the dorm area, we were lead over to the home design area. I was in heaven! Beautiful! We learned so much about how the designs were born, where the ideas were sparked from, all the locations that they travel to, to get thoughts for new designs and SO much more!

What I LOVED about the entire design process is how the finished product is created. Colors are thought of, designs are put together and the end product is born.

This is Chris (Brand Director at SHC). He was great with showing us everything, including how the gorgeous Jaclyn Smith line is created.

I am a HUGE fan of fluffy towels, but an even bigger fan when the cost is affordable! Canon has what I think is the best towels and at the best prices. Beautiful!

We cannot forget Ty Pennington! I was so excited to see the new lines that Ty has come up with. Masculine, but oh so gorgeous!

Theresa said that Ty Pennington was such an energetic and full of life man. I would love to meet him!

I am SO utterly impressed with the progress that Sears and Kmart have made since I was in school. I am 33 and I can remember my mother buying our clothes at Sears, all our household needs at Sears and even Kmart. To be honest, I was really embarrassed when I was a child to tell anyone that we shopped at Kmart. They have grown SO MUCH in the last 1, 5, 10 years that anyone will be proud to shop there. The designs are gorgeous, the prices are amazing and the quality is PERFECT! Did you know that if you have any problems with a product, you can take them back to Sears or Kmart and they will gladly take them back and exchange them for you? For example: if you buy sheets and they fray, you can take them back to the store and they will gladly replace them for you. Talk about guarantee!

I have so much more to write about the fabulous Sears Design Summit that I feel that I need just one more post after this one! I had to share some of the great behind the scenes with you now!

On an end note, everyone was so great! Thank you SO MUCH Sears and Kmart for allowing me to meet you all, meet the awesome people behind the company and most of all, for letting me in to your hearts! You had me at hello!

Please visit http://www.mysears.com/ and http://www.mykmart.com/ for more information and great deals!

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