Why? Ohio Blogging Association and Whole Foods!

***A bit of blogkeeping: Remember that you can still enter to win 2 tickets to the Great Big Home and Garden Show. Contest ends at 11:59pm on Sunday, January 22. Check it out!

Also, today only you can save on your Jump Back Ball tickets by using the discount code YCLE. Click here for more details.***

On Wednesday night, the Ohio Blogging Association met for our monthly meet-up at Whole Foods in University Heights. This is where we had our first meet-up ever last January and I was glad to see the same smiling face that greeted me last year as our hostess:

Alicia from Poise in Parma and Lisa from Whole Foods did a fantastic job making us feel welcome. It’s always exciting to see how the OBA grows at each meet-up and this was no exception.

There were a lot of new faces in the mix. In attendance were bloggers from:

Adventures of a Trapped 300-pound Man and Ohio Festivals

Big Shot Dot the I

Clue Into Cleveland (read her recap here)

Cooker Girl

Eat*Drink*Cleveland (read her recap here)

Health Insurance Issues with Dave and Again? Really?

Hungry in Cleveland

Lane Baldwin Photography

Poise in Parma (read her recap here)

Reiki Awakening

ROJ Running (read her recap here)

SMITTEN…in Cleveland (read her recap here)

The staff at Whole Foods allowed our creativity to run wild with a pizza throwdown challenge. We each could select the toppings, sauce, and cheese for our own individual-sized pizza. Our pizzas were made in Whole Foods 600-degree brick pizza oven, which fires up tasty pies every day (and Tuesdays are BOGO pizza day!).

Being the nice bloggers we are, we ended up making a “pizza buffet” to share the creations.

My pizza had garlic and olive oil, mozarella cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, artichoke, and eggplant. Yum! There were some interesting creations, such as Hans’ (Mr. PIP) pizza with bacon, sausage, pineapple, and blueberries. By far my favorite of the night was from Kristian of Ohio Festivals who had ham, apple, and honey on his pizza. Sweet and delicious!

Whole Foods also generously gave us growlers to take home with a $1-off coupon.

Kimberly from SMITTEN…in Cleveland, Julie from Wearing Mascara, Hans (Mr. PIP), and I were unable to resist filling ours before we headed home. Kimberly chose the Thirsty Dogs 12 Dogs of Christmas Ale (always a tasty choice) and I selected the Bell’s Expedition Stout. I had a sample at Whole Foods and I think it’ll be a perfect wintry-night beer!

I always have such a great time at the OBA meet-ups! From seeing people I’ve known for over a year now to meeting new bloggers, I never fail to leave smiling ear to ear and knowing I’ve both made and strengthened friendships.

We have an awesome blogging community in CLE and I encourage you to check out the next Ohio Blogging Association meet-up, happening February 21 at Wine & Design in Tremont. See the OBA Facebook page for more details. Have a great weekend, CLE!