Monday, July 12, 2010

Chivalry didn't die, but he did just get eliminated.

Yep, it was a surprise for us, too.  For the record I agree that the wrong person went home. I'm aloud to disagree with the judges and this time i do.

Dan.  Oh, Dan.  There's a lot of splaining to do, I know. And i know you guys aren't seeing what some of us have done design-wise so i will break it down for you, designer by designer (at least on my team).  There are still 9 people in the game, so they can't go into detail on each one of us, there's just no time - but I can.  ALSO, WE STILL WORK IN TEAMS!!!!  so yes, its hard to have a breakout design when all the decisions are made together and they HAVE to be made together in order to create a pretty room.....

OK.  Flower district.  Fischer and Page, i've been there 4 trillion times and am actually pretty friendly with Chris the manager (btw, hey single ladies, if you want to meet a man that works hard, can lift heave stuff, knows what is pretty, and smells good all the time, go to the flower district - the guys that work there are all awesome and done with work at noon).

We didn't have the world of flowers to choose from, but even if we did I would've chosen a wildflower because I love them very very very much.  They grow anywhere, don't need any care, are effortless, loose, are always sculptural and under used.....oh....and super cheap.  wild and cheap.  like i like my men.

After getting our challenge, we all get our flowers and get into the van and start conceptualizing.  I wanted to do a billowing curtain around the bed to create romance.  Yes, Nina wanted to do fake applied....WAIT!!! WHY DIDN'T THEY STOP ME FROM CHEWING GUM IN THE VAN!!!!!  good lord that is not a good look for me.  how embarrassing.    Anyhoo, i'm not the biggest fake applied moulding fan, its a bit store display for me.  But whatever, it did add impact to the room.  Fact is that art (purchased) is not an option because of clearances, etc, so you have to do some sort of treatment on the walls or they will just be painted, then empty.  It was very very time consuming, however.

Ok, so back at the apartment we formulate the plan.  I'm going to make the room divider, Casey's going to do the wall treatment in the bedroom, Stacey is creating an office, and Nina is doing a coffee table and a piece of artwork.  Dan talked about logistics and how its all going to get done.

We start shopping.  We go to Bo concept, Zarin's fabric, a really good furny store downtown that i'm forgetting, and Gracious HOme (Dear gracious home, i love you, why can't all hardware/home stores have your selection of great things?...seriously, why?ooh, also if you want to sponsor my blog I would accept, it's about time i put it out there)  We get back to the space around 8:30 and start taping and painting.  Everybody is working together.  Dan helped me put up my rod for the room divider, which was necessary for everyone and for the room.  He volunteers to help because he is soooo much faster at everything so I agree to do clusters of pillows for him.  We are all just helping each other, worrying about our individual designs later.

We wake up the next day and I have  a bad feeling about Dan.  Dan and I had a conversation in the kitchen where we talk about the fact that he hasn't decided what is specifically 'his' design yet.  He keeps saying that all of it will play to his flower and that he's not worried about it -not in a cocky way, at all,  just in a 'guy-who-hasn't-gone-to-elimination-yet' way.  He hasn't been grilled by the judges yet on what he individually has or has not done, so he doesn't understand how important it is to make sure that you can defend yourself.  We tried to explain it to him and he might have thought we were being dramatic (which I would've too, i'm pretty sure we said that going to elimination is worse than sitting in friday night west to east traffic on the ten which is the 11th circle of hell, 15 miles that can take 2 hours).

Anyway, he helped sooooooooooooo much because he's got mad skills and is fast, efficient, works hard and is insanely pleasant to be around.  He's the most chivalrous guy i know,  and insisted on doing a lot of stuff that he knows how to do so well - the hot macho guy stuff (he's getting married in two weeks and i had the priviledge of meeting the lovely bride to be - more on that this week).

 Here's the deal, its hard to stand out on teams (unless you are a mural person) so you end up kinda falling back and doing what you know you are good at.  I know that i'm good at fabrics, textures, accessories and sewing- so i sew a lot of the accessories. is that a copout?  I dunno.  I'm not sure what i would've done different.  Dan knows that he is good at implementing designs (and YES, he is great great great) so i think that he stuck with that.  AH, i hate thinking about it.  When the judges came into the room they asked us each what our flower was and how we implemented it into the room.  That was our chance to sell our selves and our flower (yep, i guess i talk like this now) into the room.  Dan didn't really know, so I think it tipped the judges off that he might've not had much of an individual design concept.  Again, the judges don't know what we do during the challenges, they only see the result (which is good and bad).

 I can safely say that he is the one person that I was legitimately shocked and sad about.  Everyone else so far seemed like it was their time, but for Dan....it was too soon.

I have to go to work.  i would love to call in sick and blog about design star all day long.  but money doesn't make itself and mama wants a new pair of APC shoes, so i has to goes to works.

Because i'm a die-hard, frankly obsessed, Design Star fan I will be blogging about it everyday this week.  i'll explain what each of us did in the space, how we got along or didn't and why Dan ended up in the bottom two.

I'll also post all the behind the scene pics which i don't have time to down load right now.  I'll answer any and all requests for DS info so if there is something you are dying to know, ask it and i promise to address it.

I also promise to never ever ever EVER chew gum on national tv again.  It is not helping my hillbilly reputation (although I had sweet, minty-fresh breath, yes i did).

16 comments:

  1. I was really sad to see him go. Seems like such a good guy and truly talented! Can't wait to hear more behind the scenes. I am kind of getting addicted to this show!:)

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  2. My favorite dolphin, what I'm curious about is hosting aspirations. Clearly, design is on the forefront. It's 9/10 of the airtime (guessing, here) and everyone is a designer...but who knows if anyone has any hosting experience.

    So, what about you? Do you want to host as an extension of your designing career? What's the deal?

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  3. You are allowed to disagree with the judges and I'm happy to see that you have. Dan deserved a better judgement.

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  4. thanks for the updates, I appreciate them

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  5. basing the final judgement on that brief hosting clip seems rather shortsighted. probably most if not all of the challengers have not had experience hosting tv programs, so will seem less than professional, especially if they're nervous. when the winner gets picked, i would guess that there will be a lot of coaching before the show airs. what they should be looking for is charm and talent. Dan got sent home too early.

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  6. i was soooo sad for dan to go! so here's a behind-the-scenes question for you: why in the WORLD do they make the judges deliberate in front of you guys? i mean, it's bad enough that they make the final decision about the hosting clips in front of the losing team, but having them do the walk-through in front of you seemed sort of lame. it was awkward how they had to speak in codes and whisper. what was that like? and how much could you hear?

    p.s. i'm SO glad they finally called meana out for her stupid "art." oops, did i type that out loud?

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  7. I have a question. When did all the filming of the show and stuff go down? I have been watching design star since season 1 and I haven't been able to figure out if the whole show is done ahead of time and then aired, or if they shoot and episode, then air it, then shoot another, then air it.
    I hope that made sense...

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  8. we are SO happy you are here--and there--and hoping you'll be "there" for a lot longer--what a great post!
    I agree with Wiggs (and commented before) about the whispering about who is eliminated. Why not do it a la Project Runway and critique you, send you back to the green room, talk openly and honestly and NO WHISPERING (I die whenever I see that...it's like second graders)bring you back, and then sharpen the ax. This way is so cornball.
    (I do realize that as powerful as you are Emily :) you were not in charge of production...but hopefully Mark Burnett is reading your blog!) We'll miss you Dan!!

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  9. Dan dishes here: a local interview, with pics. http://roomfu.com/2010/07/hgtv-design-star-season-5-convo-with-castoff-dan-faires/

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  10. hi, i have a question, did you know that the flower inspiraton apt. was supposed to be done to stage the space for rent/sale as candice said during the judging but did not state in front of the flower shop? so much info seems to be omitted this season ie: time, budget, the complete project outline etc. etc.? plus, inquiring minds would love to know honestly, how silly is it not to use color to reflect the flower of your choice. flowers are all about color! even if you picked a white one. these challenges are a bit bizarre.

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  11. I agree, Dan left too soon!! You are forgiven for the gum...did not even notice I promise! Still rooting for you!!

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  12. Finally caught up last night. It was sad to see Dan go, but, as with all reality shows that I watch (not that I watch more than one reality show, right?), if I really don't think someone is a contender to win it all, I try not to be too sad/outraged/indignant when they get sent home. Dan seems swell, but I have a hard time imagining him with a design show on HGTV (partly because I'm not sure what he'd do with an entire space to design, partly because HGTV design shows often make me cringe... have you watched Divine Design lately??).
    I know it's a significant premise for this show, but the challenges seem SO contrived and artificial. When in a designer's career is he or she asked to do that ridiculous show-my-individual-inspiration-in-a-shared-cohesive-space thing? Hope they shake it up soon!
    Also, I like that Genevieve seems to have taken a liking to you. She's definitely my favorite out of the three judges!

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  13. that rule changing crap was out of line. Sorry, Emily, but the guys room was more serene and stylish to me and was the clear winner. Nina's Magenta painting clashed violently with the more cool blues in the room and the faux striping just made it seem busy and cluttered. Had the guys won it in the agreed to formula, it would have come down to Nina and Dan for the bottom two. It would have been so EASY to ditch Nina in that scenario. Let me count the reasons! She's insufferable for starters..or at least that is certainly how she is being portrayed in the show. Being a New Yorker, it is hard to imagine her not getting beat up daily all throughout school! Instead with Vern changing the rules, it came down to Alex {again} and poor Dan. Alex has done alot of work in the bottom two designer feature. I feel for the guy. He is in over his head and clearly knows it, but seems to garner the sympathy from Candice and Genevieve. Vern just likes to be controversial and ornery...so Dan got the shaft. Glad you are still going and picking up steam in the show after the monk cell debacle. Good luck!!!!

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  14. I agree with Lashley, maybe Dan's better off not being on an HGTV show. I checked out his blog here: http://capsulefurniture.blogspot.com/
    its full of eclectic, rustic and sophisticated inspirations. I don't think he'd really be able to express much of that on hgtv.
    That said, it was totally unfair that he was eliminated. The judges are quite frustrating! Vern especially.

    But I'm so impressed by you Emily! I was thinking that maybe it was a blessing that you were in the bottom two the very first episode because it seems that you learned a lot about how to play the game from that. Ever since then you've been very consistent about having a clear inspiration and you've been able to articulate it to the judges every time which I think is half the battle. Great job!

    ps I voted for you on the fan fav site :)

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  15. If you haven'talready seen this blog, now you can it is a wow.
    http://www.houseofturquoise.com/

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  16. Dan shouldn't have gone home. He comes across as a truly great guy and a very talented one also. Everyone at our house felt very sad to see him exited. How very sad for him. He deserved better.

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