Hi all!!  I’d just like to introduce you all to my new title and share with you a little bit about my trip at the end of last week!  I was asked to participate Verizon Style Voices program and have been provided with a wireless device and six months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.  Along with that, I also got a free trip to Chicago where I got to meet the Verizon wireless team and a ton of other Midwest fashion bloggers.

I’ll preface this a little bit with the fact that I’ve been battling a cold for the past week and was not feeling my best but decided to still take the opportunity of a lifetime.  So basically, last Thursday, I packed up my things and headed off to the Windy City of Chicago.  I arrived in the afternoon and met up with a college friend to do a little Chinatown bubble tea drinking and a whole lot of shopping.  The day started off sunny and nice but slowly started getting colder and colder.  For dinner, I met up with a few other college friends as well and had a very nice dinner with them at Two restaurant (highly suggest it for anyone who is looking for a place to eat in Chicago).  Then, I headed back to the Hard Rock Hotel for some shut eye before the big day was about to begin.

On Friday morning, I got up and met everyone in the lobby — it was great to see a lot of bloggers that I’ve been following for awhile, in person, as well as meet some new ones.  It was freezing cold, but we headed over to the building where our day would be begin.  We had some breakfast, introduced ourselves, met the Verizon Wireless team and waited patiently for our devices.  A couple hours in and some guys came in and handed out our new Samsung Galaxy Cameras!  Say what?  Yea, I had never heard of it before either, as it had just recently been released.  It’s basically like a mini-Android tablet with a super high quality camera attached to it… a camera that can do 21x zoom and has a lot of fancy features.  Or you could think of it as a Samsung Galaxy phone — without the texting/calling capabilities, but with a nice camera.  And even better, that it was already hooked up to Verizon’s 4G service — soo fast and great service everywhere!

Once we got our cameras, as with any fashion blogger, we pretty much just stopped paying attention to anything else and kept taking pictures.  😉  We finished up the morning with some lunch and free time and Ruby Girl (love her!) and I took some outfit pictures for each other (of course!)

Blouse: J.Crew Factory | Jacket: NY & Co. {similar} | Skirt: Forever 21 {similar} | Shoes: Chromatic Gallerie | Necklace: Modcloth | Bracelets: Apple Of My Eye Jewelry, JEWELIQ| Purse: Rebecca Minkoff

I am pretty impressed with the quality of these outfit pictures including the close up shots as well, considering that they aren’t from a DSLR camera.

Then in the afternoon, we were invited to go to the SAIC fashion show in a covered tent.  There was some amazing collections put on, some that were like true art pieces and some that were totally wearable and fun!  We got to sit 1st and 2nd row and we just felt like we were VIP.  😉

Following the event, we went to Mercat a la Planxa for some dinner, chatting and more picture taking.  I have to say, one of the best parts of the trip, was meeting all the other amazing fashion bloggers.  It’s ALWAYS fun to meet other bloggers in person because we already have so much in common to talk about!  And although I wasn’t feeling my best the whole time (and partially lost my sense of smell and taste too), I am so glad I went for the experience and got a cool device out of it too!!