In New York...

It was our first time out together (alone) since having baby Justin!  We hopped into the car...

... and headed into the city to see Eddie's window it in person (even better!):

Then we headed over to Buck House for a champagne toast ...

...to meet one of Eddie's best friends, Deborah Buck, below:  (images are Deborah's via The Peak of Chic.)

Deborah could not have been more fun.  She's got an amazing eye & is such a strong, determined woman.    And then we meet these 2 beautiful & sweet longtime friends of Eddie's, Debora & Ronny (below).  They both had this genuine way of making you feel incredibly special just by talking to you:

Above, you can see Eddie & Jaithan's good friend Austin in the background talking to Jaithan, and then Patricia AKA Mrs.Blandings showed up and I did not get a pic of her either of until later!  (I also missed Kay, who works with Deborah at Buck House---  I was so bad with taking pics!!)  Next we headed over to the cocktail party at Bloomingdales to celebrate Eddie's WIN!!.  (Below, me, Eddie & Dave!)  The dj played fun music and I was having trouble not dancing since it's been almost a year since I last went out & danced!

...Finally we headed out to an amazing Italian Restaurant with Margaret Russell & Matthew Talomie of Elle Decor Magazine.   Matthew is awesome & just so full of ideas.  He's incredibly creative & I can't wait to see all he comes up with.  Below is a pic of Matthew & Jaithan who we all know: 

And below, here I am with Deborah & Margaret, who was as poised & gorgeous as she always looks, and also very warm & open.  She's got a lot cooking in the next coming months with Elle Decor.  It was so much fun to see her & Eddie together after Top Design.  To say I admire her is an understatement.  I was actually really nervous to even meet her but she was so down-to-earth and nice that it went away quickly.  She was really interested in what everyone had to say and is very charistmatic.  (Like Eddie, but in a more subdued way.)   We all had some really interesting conversations but one that I wanted to pass on was about blogland rumors/ questions, etc.  As we all know, there are always crazy rumors going around in blogland about how much photo shoots cost, how advertising may or may not affect magazine content, etc. and Margaret would surely be happier to set the record straight than have us bloggers idly speculate.  If anyone ever has any questions about anything going on at Elle Decor or want information or photos for a post, I think she'd gladly answer them in an email.  As she also mentioned on The Skirted Round Table, when we use magazine photos for our posts, we should look for the watermarked images and make sure to credit the magazine and photographer. 

 

Here's the whole group below, & there's the famous Mrs.Blandings right next to Eddie up front:

And we closed up the restaurant and stayed way too long without realizing it...  I tried to convince Deborah & Patricia & Margaret to head out with us afterwards but it was LATE and I'm sure my plea of  "Let's go dance!" was not exactly enticing. 

I had so much fun & it was totally worth the drive!  Thanks so much to everyone for the experience & congratulations Eddie on winning the Big Window Challenge for Elle Decor!!

xoxo,

lauren