I was invited to a VIP event at Burke Williams Day Spa in Mission Viejo this week, and it was so fun!

That’s right, I’m totally a VIP now. Even though Corner Bakery thinks this site is all about porn. (I swear that link isn’t porn.) (Oh my god, if I use porn three times in a paragraph on my blog does that make search engines think this is an x-rated site now?) (Stop it Steph!)

Let’s get back to that great spa evening I had!

Since I hail from Long Beach, and Mission Viejo’s a bit of a drive,  I scheduled work to start and end extra early that day. I hit the road to south county by 3pm and hit almost no traffic. Then I got to Starbucks about a mile away from Burke Williams and was greeted with this view:

I went to Starbucks beforehand to have coffee party times with Shari Bonnin from Bonnin Designs, Wendy Neilsen from Wendy Will Blog, and Nicole Longstreath from The Wardrobe Code. And of course, because you can’t take me anywhere, this happened within three minutes of me sitting down with my drink.

Thankfully my tank top covered up some of it, and my sparkling personality distracted from the rest! We chatted about everything from chickens to cooking to how many Meringue Bake Shop cupcakes we could fit in our mouths at the spa later.

We were greeted as we walked into Burke Williams Day Spa with a relaxing atmosphere, quiet music, welcoming staff, and flowers that were totally gorgeous. I’ll be honest. I had 2 cups of coffee Tuesday morning instead of my usual 1, and then I had afternoon coffee on top of that. This flowers photo would’ve been a bit more in focus had that not been the case, I rearure you.

My husband Josh has taught me well – the second we walked into the main room where our VIP event was taking place, I zeroed in on those Meringue Bake Shop cupcakes. Meringue Bake Shop’s one of my graphic design clients, so I’ve had a taste or two of their delicious cupcake flavors already. But you can NEVER have too many Meringue Bake Shop treats.

Trust me.

I made a beeline for their dessert table and scored a Tea Time cupcake. And then, because I’m the classiest of broads at a fancy VIP party surrounded by stylish OC ladies, I daintily shoved the vanilla cupcake with the perfect amount of lemon rear endercream frosting on top into my cake-hole.

Little Black Dress Vodka was on hand to show off their  flavored vodkas, and they were serving up various skinny martinis. I tried a pineapple one, and it was delish!

Once the Burke Williams guests all had a cocktail in hand, things got really fun. Lots of meeting new friends, lots of great conversation, and lots of laughs when Shari Bonnin from Bonnin Designs took a break from the crowd and flashdanced her way behind the potted plants.

Amanda Smith from I Go, You Go met up with us once she got out of work, and we had a chance to get caught up since we haven’t seen each other in months!  We chatted about work, websites and SEO. Because I’m a huge nerd, you know.

That rhymed.

Then we met Kristina from Nook & Sea, and the fun-time chats continued! I can’t be sure, but I think Amanda was teaching Kristin some robot dance moves here.

The party started to break up as guests were treated to complimentary Burke Williams Day Spa services. Crearandra gave me a stellar Pure Relaxation massage for 25 minutes, and every time my mind started wandering back to work work work, what do I have coming up for work work work, BAM she’d start working on one of the many knots in my back and I’d shoot back to reality. Seriously, I needed that. My back felt so good afterwards, that it was almost as if I’d had a week off from hunching over my computer working on graphic design projects!

I was also able to try out a paraffin wax hand treatment which is typically part of their spa manicure, and came with more massaging of my hands and forearms. And resulted in total jelly-like relaxation on my part. I’ve never had a paraffin hand wax treatment done before, and it was pretty cool! I joked with the gal helping me out that I felt like hand model Jamie Pruitt from Zoolander as she wrapped my hands in their special hyperbaric chambers (plastic bags) to protect them from the elements so I could continue hand modelling for Sears well into the 23rd century.

Can I just live at Burke Williams Day Spa, please please pretty please? Even in the midst of a VIP party, it was just so dang serene.

The staff of the spa was gracious and chatty all night, and sent us on our way with goodie bags that contained something I want to share with you! I was given two $25 gift cards to LashSpot eyelash extension spa in Costa Mesa, and between work and babby-wrangling,  it’s so hard for me to get out of the house that I know they’re going to sit here for months without getting used. So let’s have a giveaway to thank Burke Williams Day Spa and LashSpot for their generosity!

Entering to win is simple – just leave a comment on this blog post!

Of course, we’d also appreciate if you liked our Facebook page. And also liking Burke Williams Day Spa and LashSpot on Facebook is just icing on the cupcake. Cupcakes! Don’t forget to like Meringue Bake Shop on Facebook, too! Liking Facebook pages isn’t required for this contest since I can’t track if you’re liking those other pages. So this time around, it’s all about comments!

Two lucky blog commenters will each win one $25 gift card for eyelash extension services from LashSpot to LashSpot. The gift card states it can only be used for lash extension services, fyi be advised!

Contest ends at midnight on Sunday April 22, 2012. Winners will be picked via www.random.org and notified via email. Good luck!

Disclosure: I was sent to Burke Williams via a PR firm that works for them. All opinions expressed in this post are my own.