Bloggers in New York!

Well, enough of my bloggy friends have posted their pictures now, so I can finally steal their pics and share my post about our whirlwind NYC trip as well! ;)

I was there for less than 48 hours, but crammed a crazy amount into that time. The evening I arrived, I joined the group of bloggers at the Rue Magazine launch party – it was held at Atelier in the New York Design Center, and I must admit, us DIYers were looking around at the fabulous decor and pointing to things we could totally do on our own:

Doesn’t that look familiar? ;)

I was thrilled to finally meet the infamous Eddie Ross and Jaithan:

(Left to right, Jaithan, me, Rhoda, Eddie, Camila, Marianne and Cristin.)

I was SO excited to finally meet Camila – she is a doll and she worked so hard on pulling so much of the week’s activities together for us!

Many of the Design Star contestants were at the party, and I grabbed a quick shot with Michael:

I have to say – I felt so incredibly out of place at this party! OH my goodness. I’m a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl, and you pair that with having just traveled for five hours, and I just felt SO…thrifty.  ;)

The next day was pretty much dedicated to The Nate Show – but we started out by meeting up with Beth and her friend Kathleen, and were able to take a quick walk over to the beautiful Central Park:

 

Rhoda, Beth and I were perfectly color coordinated!:

Beth was absolutely as sweet as can be – and just like every blogger I meet that I “know” through blogland, I felt like I had known her forever! There are no awkward moments, just immediate friendship!

I LOVE BLOGGERS. :)

Speaking of bloggers I love, we met Megan from Modern Bird before the show:

Um, she is hilarious and FUN! I knew she would be.

I was looking forward to meeting Janell all week!:

I finally met up with her in line before the show and yet again, we felt like instant friends! And did you hear? She taped a segment on the show! With NATE! I’m so thrilled for her – she is such a lovely person and an incredible designer.

The photo shoots continued outside with Lakeitha and Erika:

How cute are they? How is it possible that every. single. blogger there was that gorgeous?

We didn’t have to wait in line for long outside before we were ushered in…but then the real wait started. ;) We waited for about two hours in separate rooms, so everybody was scattered. The staff was SO friendly and kept checking in with us over that time. I was impressed with their patience with us and their professionalism.

Our room was finally ushered into the studio, and Rhoda and I were bummed that we were quite literally some of the last few into the room -- which translated to what were probably the worst seats possible. :)

It ended up being OK, because, of course, the cameras are everywhere, and at one point or another I think everyone ended up watching the big screens above so they could see what was going on.

You may have seen that some bloggers were less than happy with The Nate Show producers and the fact that us, the bloggers, were never mentioned on air. I have to tell you that I never even thought about that – in between segments, Nate thanked us in general and those who had helped to promote his new show numerous times. He was obviously very grateful.

I guess it never crossed my mind that he would say anything about us on air. I mean, the producers did ask us to send in some of our projects, so I wondered if they would highlight some of those, but overall I never expected us to get a shout out.

I found him to be sweet and engaging, and after the show he took time to answer questions from many of the bloggers in the audience. He mentioned that he never does that, so it was a lovely gesture on his part:

Before the trip, I was obviously excited to go to the taping, but the real reason I was so looking forward to going to NYC was to meet and spend time with my blog friends – who are now women I consider friends in real life. The Nate Show was just an exciting extra of the trip!

And seriously – is he not the CUTEST?? Really.

After the show we stopped for some New York pizza:

(My friend Kate and I, deciding between cheese pizza and extra cheese pizza. ;) )

Then walked through Times Square to a subway station:

Darn it, we didn’t see ONE rat!! I was hoping Rhoda would get to see one. ;)

After a very quick stop in at a party sponsored by The Nest, we headed to Little Italy for some dinner, and then a bunch of us went to check out the view at the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center:

My new and old blog friends: Cristin, me, Kate, Rhoda and Janell.
We had a blast!

I have to give an extra special shout out to Rhoda, for inviting me along with her – she is amazing and a blast to hang out with. And my roomies Emily Clark and her friend Katie (I can’t believe we didn’t get a picture together!) were the cutest and sweetest. Between the three of them I was surrounded by southern accents for days and I was all “y’all this” and “y’all that” when I got home.  ;)

I cannot stress what a blessing blogging has been in my life. I have met so many fantastic, strong, smart women. I have had some amazing opportunities because of this blog. And I am ever thankful and overwhelmed by all of it.

P.S. We have no idea when our episode airs -- we were told to watch online, so I’ll keep my eye out and let you know! :)