Berkus and Bloggers

Sunday night...in two days, I will board a bus at 7 am with my friend and fellow blogger, Yvonne, to go to a taping of the Nate Berkus Show in New York City.  It all started innocently enough.  Yvonne sent an email asking if I liked Nate Berkus from the Oprah Winfrey Show.  To be honest, I've seen Nate on Oprah, but that was years ago when my work schedule allowed time for afternoon TV viewing.  My friend Tina recently purchased a condo in Manhattan.  On a visit this summer, she went on and on about how Nate lived in the neighborhood.  She is a total fan!  But, a Nate sighting still hadn't happened.  On our last day in New York, on the way back from a flea market, who did we see standing on a street corner???  (three guesses...the first two don't count!)  NATE!  She asked if we could take a picture of him and in 100 degree Manhattan heat, he graciously said "sure".

Nate - so cool on a hot summer's day!

Back to my friend Yvonne.  She said the Nate show was doing a special taping for design bloggers and would I be interested in going.  After some debate with myself on the practicality of going to NYC and back in the same day,  I said "sure".  So I watched an episode of the Nate Berkus Show which debuted this week.  He is warm, engaging and I LOVE the way he picks up flea market finds and turns them into treasures!  Recycle, reuse, repurpose!!!  He's got my vote!

A Blogger who was invited to the show,  got a list of the email addresses of all the audience attendees.  (I heard Twitter was abuzz with tweets about the show.    I don't tweet, so I was semi out of the loop.)   Within two days, we had everyone's email and blog address, a directory of attendees complete with headshots  (Thanks Chanee!), organized get-togethers before and after the taping (thanks, Camila), and invitations to an HGTV luncheon and a launch party for Rue Magazine!  Emails were being sent fast and furious - "Anyone need a ride?  A hotel room?  Anyone want to hang out Monday night?"  Connections were being made...friendships started.  Had we known all this at the beginning, we would have planned on three days in the city!!!  Oh well...no use crying over missed parties!  We will attend the "before" event and the taping.

All this got me to thinking...design shows...HGTV...I don't watch them!  A designer who doesn't watch design shows??  I tuned in years ago and caught a show where this designer hung half a bicycle on a wall and called it "art".  Everyone around him oohhed and aahhed and called it "genius"!   For me, not so much.   Actually, for me...NOT AT ALL!!  Another show I watched glued all kinds of fabric and trim to a wall.  THEY HAD CHILDREN for goodness sake!!  That would have lasted about five minutes before one of the little ones realized that all they had to do was grab a corner and pull!   Not based on reality and everyday living so I stopped watching.   Well, now I decided to see what the new generation of design shows bring to the table.

In my next series of posts, I will first tell you all about "Nate Day" in NY.  (Can't wait to meet these other bloggers!)  Then I will review some of the current shows on HGTV.  Let's see if they offer some practical design ideas or just more "genius"!

"I didn't know this was going to be my calling, I just knew I was sensitive to surroundings."   Nate Berkus