Maurices Post-Harvest Weekend

As most of you know already, last weekend I hosted an overnight event with Maurices! Maurices invited four Michigan bloggers (and a friend) for a fun girls weekend outing. I brought one of my best friends, Laura. When I was like "why Michigan?", they said it's because they are well-known in the midwest and Grand Rapids seemed like a great fit to host an event like this. It's so exciting to see things like this happening here! It was all a bit surreal. At points, I was like… wait, are we still in Michigan? We started the evening off by meeting at our bed and breakfast. We stayed at The Leonard at Logan House, which is an amazing historic home turned B&B in Heritage Hill (my neighborhood!) It was so fun to stay there, and it felt so welcoming and cozy. (This post is sponsored by maurices. See maurices' real girl style in store or online at maurices.com.)

We had an amazing meal at Grove. I used to live one block from this restaurant, and I've never been before, so it was wonderful to experience it for the first time! We ordered drinks by the bar, and waited for our table. Once seated, we were able to choose our options for a three-course meal. I ordered pumpkin goat-cheese ravioli, fall squash soup and Otto's chicken breast with squash. It was a very fall meal which was just perfect for the theme of the weekend, Fall for Maurices! Afterwards, we headed back to the B&B. Some of the girls headed out on the town, but Laura and I passed out in our new pajamas. It felt so good to lay down, relax, chat and sleep!

The next day, we all woke up and met downstairs for the breakfast part of our B&B experience. It was so good! I loved their baked french toast. We chatted for a while, and hopped on a bus to head to the new Downtown Market. We attended a "Gift in a Jar" DIY class put on by The Canning Diva. We made a strawberry raspberry sauce, and a curry chutney. Both were excellent! I loved the strawberry sauce with goat cheese on graham crackers. The chutney was great melted with brie and served with crackers. I've definitely never canned anything before and I learned a lot!

After our DIY class, we hopped back on the bus to head to one of my favorite places ever, Robinette's Apple Haus & Winery. You guys have seen this place many times here on the blog! We ran over to the apple orchards to quickly take outfit photos, and then ran inside because it was chilly! First, we did wine tasting. It was my first-time ever wine tasting (a lot of firsts this weekend!) and I loved it. Usually I'm not a big drinker… I don't love the taste of alcohol, wine and beer included. But! I tried a passionfruit peach flavor of bubbly wine and I loved it. I even ended up buying a bottle!

It was wonderful to get to know a bit more about Maurices, and to meet a couple of new Michigan bloggers! This weekend was more than enough to get me to fall in love with the Maurices brand. Everything I received this weekend was perfect and I loved wearing this outfit all day. This sweater was so warm and cozy! A HUGE thank you to Maurices and Digital Brand Architects for asking me to host this weekend event with them! I'm still (even after 4+ years of blogging) so grateful for new experiences like this, and to take part in something fun, new and fashion-related. Also, be sure to check out the other bloggers in attendance - Ashley of The Sweet Season, Kayley of Sidewalk Ready and Jessica of Fab Cocktail.