The show must go on!

This week I went to the The Nate Burkus show! I got four tickets and rounded up some friends that aren't slaves to a 9-5 and off we went! Living in NY I try to catch tapings of shows whenever I can easily score some tickets. In my days I have been to the Rachel Ray show, Dave Letterman, Montel Williams, The View, just to name a few. In this case all I did was go onto the website and hit request tickets!
But yes it can often be a time consuming event - all afternoon waiting on line, being shuffled from room to room and then finally earning a seat where we act like monkey's and laugh when we are told to laugh, clap when we are told to clap, and looked stunned and interested. But all in all it is always a good time - and that prospect of seeing my face on TV -is exciting! I have to say the experience at Nate Burkus show was probably one of the best -people were very nice and it was entertianing. DESPITE the fact that as we are on line (or 'in' line if you are from the west coast - as several west coast transplants pointed out to me as I retold this story to them) anyway - NY (or the whole east coast for that matter) was hit by an earthquake!

We of course felt nothing - but we were ushered to the other side of the street - where we were told we are avoiding a fire hazard. Anyway my friend on her way to meet us called and said - did you hear? There was an earthquake and they have evacuated all the buildings. I then look over to the building next to us and see all these people standing outside - ha! who knew!? Anyway I then jumped on Facebook - and it all poured in... let me share a few of my favorite Facebook posts from moments after the ground literally shook all over NY.
um....i just felt an earthquake


damn nature, you scary


what??? there was an earthquake? no way, i just thought Chuck Norris went for a run


pshhh, california WISHES they had earthquakes like this


I just felt my first earthquake. Not for me.


I was walking too fast to feel the earthquake. Or maybe it was the already-rattling of the overhead subway line


Earthquake survivor


Things Im mentally prepped for.. Stray bullet - Check, Stabbing - Check, Deranged Homeless - Check, Alien Invasion - Check, Zombie Apocalypse - Check.. EARTHQUAKE!?!? - Er, not so much...


Anyway reading all these helped pass the time of waiting and waiting until we finally got seated in the studio.

So this show isn't taped live and won't air until sometime in September - so there were several retakes and shifting of segments but kinda cool to see how it really works! We were entertained by the crowd pleaser comedian where we witnessed several dance off's, lots of trivia, all while the set was changed and prepped for the next segment. There were lots of these "in between" times but the segments themselves were entertaining. And we got gifts!!

We went home with this cook book by former model Christina Ferrare. And Nate did a segment on RUGS 101 - going over tips of placing and picking the perfect area rug for your living room or dining room. AND he gave us all $150 gift certificate to RUGSUSA.com -( future blog post may involve selecting a new rug!).

Nate's tips were - when placing a rug in a living room it is best to place the rug about a third under the coach, so that there isn't a slight gap of floor right in front of the couch. AND you don't want to put the run entirely under the coach - because well it can get nasty under the couch and how often is that really vacuumed? I can see how this tip makes sense BUT my first professor at FIT's interior design program, told us never to place furniture half on a rug - either put it all the way on the rug or all the way off, otherwise it looks off balance. So I am not sure who is right on that one - but I can see how that floor gap near the couch doesn't seem right. I found some tips online that seem to go along with Nate's advice here. And then here they agree with my professor either all on or all off. BUT they also say - "It's your home; if you like the look and the effect of a particular rug in your home, then it is perfect." So perhaps I leave the final verdict on that one up to you!


For the dining room Nate's tip was to make sure the dining rug is large enough to fit under all of the chairs even when the chairs are pulled out. Otherwise you could have some unstable dinner guests. And that could get dangerous especially if there is wine with dinner!


I gathered a few images of spaces where using both above theories where I think they all work - what do you think?

Sarah Richardson Design

In this one the furniture is only partially on all around. But perhaps the bold color/pattern of the rug gives it just the right punch that a larger rug would have been over powering? And well placing the furniture slightly on the rug can help to keep the rug in place.

Elle Decor

Here the furniture is all on! The rug is large enough to fill they space and put all of the furniture on it entirely and if it were to be half on I can see there would be an unbalance.

The final segment of the show was a spotlight on a blogger! Nate is known to feature bloggers on his show, fly them to NY and give them some TV air time - that will without a doubt help boost their readership! His feature blogger for this show was HannahKateFlora she was super cute and had some great  "street merch" as she called it - found treasures on the streets of NY. We were actually sitting in the audience near her boyfriend and roommates that came to support her. Her boyfriend (one of 5 guys in the audience) was quite the dancer and entertained us all!

 SO needless to say I am working my way to the Nate Burkus show ;)  you never know maybe one day I will be on stage and not in the audience!