Day Out at the Southern Women's Show

The Nashville Southern Women's show is underway, and today was the day I planned to go. The weather was a bit crazy, and finding a parking spot was a nightmare, but I didn't get rained on too badly. My hair was a fright wig by the time I got in the Convention Center, and would you believe that not one of the flat iron vendors offered to fixed it for me? Then again, they're trying to sell a product, not a miracle, and my hair is probably too far gone for any of those things to do any good.

There's so much to see at a vendor fair that big, and it can all seem a bit overwhelming. I didn't want to miss anything, so I headed to the far corner and made my way up and down the rows of booths until I was back up to the front. When I first got there, I turned right after walking in and made my way up the far side. Jay Qualls has his booth in that corner, next to the celebrity cooking stage. There was a pretty long line of ladies waiting to see him, and I had only just arrived so I decided to go back to his booth later. I'm impatient like that.

Quite a few booths interested me. I pretty much skipped over the shoes (although there is a stall there selling Danskos), handbags, home decor, makeup, and those type of booths, but don't worry, there are plenty of them if that's your thing. Not to mention, TONS of jewelry booths. You'll also find a gourmet dip stand or two on each row. For real, I think there were more of those than anything else. Too bad none of them thought to bring gluten-free crackers or chips for people to taste their dips on.

I found myself stopping at the Balancing Act/Balance Your Life Road Tour. I really just wanted one of the bags they were giving away to put my other stuff in. I got to spin a prize wheel and won some contact lens wash solution something-or-other. I explained to the lady that I don't wear contacts, nor do I know anyone who does, expecting to get another spin. I didn't, and neither did she give me my prize.

I visited the Lemon-Aid booth, and that stuff smells awesome. I really liked their lotion/moisturizer so I bought some. Plus, I'm a sucker for a sale, and it was buy-one-get-one-free. The facial stuff looked interesting, but it was out of my price range.

A rep at another bodycare products company stopped me a few minutes later, and shoved some tube of hand cream under my nose and asked if I'd like to try it. It smelled like artificially scented buttercream candles, with a mocha twist. She said it was almond scented, but it smelled nothing like almonds to me. I asked what was in it, since the ingredients weren't listed on the tube, and she had to go get some huge product binder to look it all up, the whole time insisting that it was all-natural and whatnot. Turns out the product contained parabens, so I moved on.

I then had a nice discussion with one of the reps at Solutions For Life. It's a women's health thing, so I stopped by out of curiosity, not necessity.

I saw quite a few bra booths. There was a sports bra with a drawstring mechanism (or something) to keep everything still, a bandeau-type thingy, and a bra clip that I looked at for a while and still couldn't really understand. It looked like some kind of jewelry for your bra.

There were several alternative health booths. One had a group of women with their feet in some kind of mucky goo getting their bodies detoxed. I got a free neck scan by a chiropractor and found out I'm more tense on my right side. But I kinda knew that already.

The salt lamp lady has a really cool one I want that's in the shape of a horse's head. But it's way too expensive. For those who don't know about salt lamps, they're basically big chunks of natural salt with a lightbulb inside. Somehow they release negative ions into the air and make everybody happy.

The Second Glances photography studio has an interesting portfolio. Kind of like Glamour Shots, only more upscale, if you want to have some fancy pictures made

At least two gutter cover companies were there, and I spoke with one of them. The gutters on the back of our house are totally clogged because they're too high up for me to reach with our ladder. I'm not a fan of heights and would be happy to never clean gutters again, so I was interested to see how these things work.

I also found some sheets that I really like. They're super soft and only $22 a set, tax included. I only bought one set, and I'm curious to see how well they hold up. Hopefully well, because I had a hard time choosing the color, and I wouldn't mind having more than one set.

There was also Pampered Chef, Tupperware, Kitchen Knives, that no-water cookware, and those sorts of booths you usually see at shows like this.

The Water Marbles impressed me the most. I'm no gardener, so I don't know how useful or effective these are from a practical standpoint, and the website isn't the most visually pleasing, but if you're at all into house plants or decorative vases and stuff then check these out because I think they look seriously cool.

I never got to test drive a Camaro, but the weather was pretty nasty anyway. Oh, and I did go back to meet Jay Qualls and got an autographed picture. He's a really nice guy and demonstrated some molded gum paste flowers. He also let me taste some Buttercream flavor Satin Ice. It does taste like buttercream flavoring and reminded me of the foul smelling "Almond Pie" lotion that lady tried to squirt on my hands earlier. I definitely prefer the Vanilla Satin Ice.

Anyway, I'm glad I went. This was my first time to go, and I had a great time. I wouldn't have minded more swag, but maybe the exhibitors are saving the good stuff for the weekend crowd.

Southern Women's Show and Tickets Giveaway

Entries are now closed, and the winners have been selected (thanks to Random.org) and contacted via email. If you're a lucky winner, please reply to the notification email within 48 hours so I can get your tickets to you! Also, if your circumstances have changed and you can no longer attend the show, please let me know so I can pass the tickets along to somebody who can. Thank you to everybody for participating, and maybe I'll see you next week at the Nashville Southern Women's Show!

This one is mostly for the locals or those who live within reasonable traveling distance to Nashville.

The 25th annual Southern Women's Show is coming to the Nashville Convention Center April 14-17 this year. That's right, this will be the 25th anniversary of the Nashville show! To celebrate, the first 25 visitors each day will receive a prize. Also, anyone who is 25 years old (must prove it with a valid driver's license) will get in free, and they'll be giving away $25 in "show bucks" every hour. Pretty cool, huh?

But there's so much more... With over 500 exhibitor booths featuring all things of interest to women, including fashion, health, beauty, travel, boutiques, and other products and services, there truly will be something for everyone. Not to mention, several celebrity appearances are scheduled, including local cake decorator Jay Qualls who was a contestant on TLC's The Next Great Baker, as well as the winner of that competition Dana Herbert, who will be there on Sunday, April 17th. Radio host Dr. Josh Axe will also be there in addition to a beauty pageant winner or two and somebody else who will be giving make overs. Good stuff!

I'm personally looking forward to the events. Like the Firefighter fashion show, live cooking stage, and test driving a Chevy Camaro or perhaps even the new Volt (don't tell my dad though, he's an avid Chrysler man). I'm also hoping to meet Jay and may even get up the nerve to ask him for a job.

Okay, so now that I've talked it up, I'll get to the good part. Tickets are normally $10 each, but the awesome folks in charge of promoting the Nashville Southern Women's Show have graciously supplied me with TWENTY tickets to this year's event to give away! I'm giving the tickets away in groups of four, so you can attend all four days, go just one day and treat three friends, take your best friend to the show for two of the days, or however you want to use them.

So, who wants to go to the Nashville Southern Women's Show? Just leave a comment on this post letting me know you want to go, and you'll be entered to win one of the five sets of tickets. Please also leave your email address so I can contact you if you're the winner. This is the mandatory entry, by the way.

If you'd like to rack up some bonus entries, feel free to do any or all of the following, just be sure to leave a comment on this post for each entry so it counts.

• Visit the Southern Women's Show Nashville website and let me know something you're interested in seeing at this year's event.
• Like the Southern Women's Show Nashville page on Facebook.
• Leave a comment on the Southern Women's Show Facebook page. If you're feeling really generous, you could even mention that you're hoping to win tickets to attend from Darla's Cake Blog.
• Follow Darla's Cake Blog via Google Friend Connect (if you already follow, just leave a comment letting me know).
• Follow Darla's Cake Blog via Networked Blogs.
• Like Darla's Cake Blog on Facebook.
• Tweet about this giveaway, up to once a day. Please include @cakedarla, and a link to this post in the tweet. Example: Enter to #win 4 tickets to this year's Nashville Southern Women's Show in @cakedarla's giveaway: http://bit.ly/fkxZjq

This giveaway will end at 11:59 CDT on April 4th so I have enough time to get the tickets to the winners. FIVE winners will be chosen at random from all the comments using random.org. Please remember to leave your email address in your initial entry so I can contact you. Winners will have 48 hours to claim their tickets. Good luck!