Last week Dottie and I were thrilled to participate in a very special event, thanks to our wonderful friends at method. They are one of my very favorite cleaning products, with a line that is as stylish as it is smart & eco-friendly. When they approached us about working with them, Dottie and I knew it was a perfect fit. Dottie is especially concerned with finding cleaning products that are tough on dirt but are natural and eco-friendly. And I’m a packaging victim who is dazzled by pretty colors. Just kiddin’. Sorta. If you follow us on instagram (@galexina & @missdottie) then you might have seen some of the photos we posted! It was a unique 2 day event for a small group of bloggers from all across the country, and man oh man did we have fun!

Here’s what went down. The kind folks of method flew everyone in on a Thursday. That night we had a lovely “getting to know you” dinner and then went to the groovy Hotel Monaco to call it a night. Yep, even though Dottie and I are local, they booked us each a room so we could relax and be a part of the whole event without having to dash back and forth. It was pretty luxurious staying at a hotel in your own home town!

The next morning we all hopped aboard a little shuttle bus to head on over to method headquarters to meet the team and start our day. As we turned a corner, we suddenly heard gasps coming from the ladies seated at the front of the bus. We craned our necks to look out the window, and saw the entire company lining the streets with balloons—clapping and cheering for us. It was so thoughtful and charming and unexpected, and definitely a sign of  great things to come!

The day was spent immersing ourselves in the method culture. We learned about the company’s history, chatted about the importance of great design, smelled oodles of yummy new fragrances, talked at length about how important sustainability is and how being “green” infuses everything they do. It was an action packed day filled with a real passion and warmth that was completely infectious! I was a fan before, but I really learned SO much that day. The most impressive thing were the people. This wasn’t a hard-sell, schmoozy crowd. These were funny, real, awesome folk who truly believe in what they do. They shared their many success stories but I was impressed that they also shared some of their failures—explaining what they learned from things that didn’t work out the way they planned.

Oh, these are the two cool guys behind the entire method family, Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry:

The other awesome part of our weekend was meeting up with so many other fabulous bloggers. There were lots of familiar faces and many new wonderful friendships made.

(ok, Victoria {sfgirlbybay} isn’t exactly new….but she *is* one of our favorite SF pals!)

above: with bloggin’ cutie Dani Hampton {sometimes sweet} below: and lovely Liz Stanley {say yes to hoboken}

left: the gorgeous girls with glasses brooke & summer and the sparklin’ jordan ferney {OhHappyDay} // right: the supah sassy susan peterson {Freshly-Picked}

We got to experience lotsa product—including their latest fragrances:  lime + sea salt, coconut grove, and daffodil bouquet. Here’s my gal Dottie washin’ her hands and experiencing the different fragrance “notes”….yes friends. Soap has NOTES.

Ahhhh. watch the bloggers come clean:

above: the fab EZ Pudewa {creature comforts}, the stunning Denene Millner {MyBrownBaby}, darlin’ Dani, and the adorable Illana Wiles {Mommy Shorts} // below: Dottie scopin’ out some early product designs right outta the method sketch book.

How cute is this?? mickey smelled like lemonade, minnie smelled like strawberries.

Then we got a little sneaky peek of things to come, thanks to Mekanism—the geniusy agency who created their new campaign. It’s as colorful, quirky and cool as the people of method….we can’t wait to share it with you.

Yes, that wall lit up. And no, it’s not affiliated with any bright lite toys of the 70s (ahem) but it was reeeeally cool.

The vibe was really one of positivity and fun and I think all of us “Method Mavens” (as the team dubbed us) were kind of grinning from ear to ear the whole time. Of course the main focus of this event was to learn more about method, but I have to tell you people…..these guys really spoiled us silly. Apologies if this next part sounds a little braggadocious, but it’s more about wanting to share with you how generous and thoughtful these guys were. In addition to our wonderful opening night meal, we had a fun photoshoot (see above), completed a DIY project with Danny Seo and got to check out the latest method book on a complimentary Kindle Fire. Yeah. We each got one. Wowzers.

As if that weren’t enough, on Friday night we were treated to a “clandestine dining” experience. The Stag Dining group is a collective of chefs that host traveling dinners, in unique locals. Method asked them to base our 5-course meal around some of the method fragrance profiles (water+ citrus, herbaceous, fruity etc). And holy moley, it was a meal unlike any other!!

Did I mention it was held at the William Westerfeld House? It’s an infamous, huge Victorian that used to be the Russian Embassy. The place was four stories of decadent Victorian maddness. With ornate chandeliers and taxidermy for days, I felt like I was in a real life version of the board game Clue.

At the end we went around the loooong dining room table and were asked to sum up the two day’s experience in one word. I think they were hoping for things like “informative” “inspiring” “designy”…..but truly friends, I had to bust out this one:

So what does this all mean? It means that in the coming months we have lots of awesome goodness coming your way. We’ll be sharing more fun stories, talking about the importance of cleaning with products that are better for the environment (AND you & your family), plus test-driving new products. We’ll even be giving you guys the chance to try ’em out for yourself and would love to know what you think. As for us:

A special thanks to dani //sometimes sweet for letting me snag some of her photos for this post.