I made a HappiMess in Chicago

I hope you’re following me on Instagram or Facebook because if you are you know that I’ve been in Chicago. I flew in Tuesday morning and was in Chicago by 9:30am. Kyla and I immediately settled into the Marriot on Michigan. It was AWESOME! The staff was so friendly.

Shortly after arriving we headed to Lou Malanti’s to get some Deep Dish Pizza, I’m from NY so the first time I tried deep dish pizza I was a little skeptical. Could it REALLY be good?! The answer to that is an OVERWHELMING yes! Seeing two March babies together was as sweet as ever. They did so well at the table just eating and of course making a huge mess. But they were eating and they were good so even though there was a mess they were happy. Our first HappiMess of the day!

(insert picture of Kyla and Jude)

After lunch I got Kyla and I ready. She was heading to a dear friend and I was headed to the historic Merchandise Mart aka Merch Mart. When Merchandise Mart opened in 1930 it was the largest building in the world at 4,000,000 square feet. It was surpassed in 1943 by the Pentagon. Inside it houses wholesale architectural and interior design vendors, a Delta Faucet Showroom, plenty of stores like The Chopping Block and the Chicago campus of the Illinois Institute of Art. To say it’s massive is an understatement!

Our first stop was the Delta Showroom. It was pretty awesome because almost all the fixtures have running water so not only did you get to SEE the faucets you got to use them too. At first you may not think that’s a big deal but you’d be surprised! I know for me that I was using different faucets in the bathroom area and absolutely had a preference!

The ARA with Channel Spout was my clear preference as far as look and water flow but I was really obsessing over the the Touch2O technology in the bathroom. I have one for my kitchen and I LOVE it. The one for the bathroom is just as cool! You can just touch it to turn it on but you can also turn it on just by putting your hands around the fixture (a 4 inch radius). So now when you’re brushing your teeth you’re saving WATER. Why? Because when you put your toothbrush under the faucet to rinse it the water will come on. When you bring your toothbrush up to your mouth to brush it turns off. Water saved.

Another great feature of the Delta Showroom is that you can actually test out the different shower heads they offer. This was probably the coolest part.

The showers on the left have H2Okinetic® Technology. The water rotates and spins as it comes out making you feel like you’re getting a better shower than a standard head while using LESS water. The difference was amazing!

After getting to try everything out for ourselves we headed to The Chopping Block where we had a cooking class with Gale Gand a fantastic Chicago based pastry chef, cookbook author and television personality.

When we arrived there was amazing appetizers set out for us including an Asian Noodles with Edamame Beans on a fork. I easily could have eaten every single one on the plate!

And then things got really amazing, we got to make a bunch of HappiMesses while we cooked with Gale Gand. She taught us some of her secrets like the perfect way to “smear” Pea and Garlic Humus onto a Crostini.

I think I pretty much perfected it if I do say so myself! Check out my handiwork

Then we created some custom grilled cheeses. Being picky classic with my grilled cheese choices I helped to create an extra cheesy grilled cheese with beef on it. It was AMAZING!

Finally we made a Sea Salted Caramel Brownie that I didn’t even get a picture of which should speak to how delicious it was. I couldn’t even pause to take a picture, I had to inhale it immediately.

It was a messy job cooking all this food but luckily they had Delta Faucets with Touch2O technology so there was less clean up involved which is a HappiMess if I ever heard of one!

I had such a blast visiting Chicago, learning more about Delta Faucets and meeting and COOKING with Gale Gand! She was amazing, so down to earth and personable! And now I’m signing off because I’m about to make a HUGE HappiMess with my kiddos in the car!

Why do people treat mess like it’s a bad thing? It’s actually the evidence of a life well lived. When you’re out there making, creating, doing and playing, embrace your #HappiMess and let Delta kitchen and bath innovations help clean up so you can do it all again tomorrow.

Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Delta via Mode Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Delta.