A No to Yellow

Sorry for the delay in posting, folks. It was the last few days of school here this week and there was all sorts of craziness going on. I'm done before episode three is shown, so I'm still good!

Design Star Week 2 Recap: Battle of the Sexes. (The Women's Team had their own private battle, but let's not jump ahead.....)

The challenge this week was based on fashion. The designers watched a runway show of a unique collection of clothing. (Wouldn't it be the ultimate reality tv high if networks could get along and they used the fashions from Project Runway and then the judges had to work together to have a massive judgement of EVERYONE? People think Nina Ferrer is mean? I bet that Nina Garcia could rip Vern a new one before you could even say "Garanamals"!--But I'm fantasizing..back to Design Star!) Then each contestant selected their favorite fashion inspiration and create a room based on the outfit. But we know there is ALWAYS a catch, and this week's catch was that they would divide into two teams - Men vs. Women.....AND they had to design an apartment based on EVERYONE'S fashion selection combined.

The men seemed to be at a disadvantage on this one because Alex chose this ginormous fuffy wedding dress that was going to be hard to put together with anything, but bless these guys because they managed to pull it off by placing it in the bedroom with Dan's choice of these cute pink print pajamas. For the most part, the men seemed to be working well together. On paper, Alex had a wonderful concept for the headboard in the bedroom based on the wedding gown. When it came time to execute it, however, he proved that he was not a friend of the power tools and measuring and cutting. Dan seemed to come to Alex's rescue and help him out with this task. The other little glitch on the guys team was Trent. Trent did not seem like much of a team player for this one. The only thing he seemed to do was pick out these terrible wooden palm frond accessories (which Vern hated) to correlate to his Tommy Bahama outfit. He then seemed to space them out oddly around the room. Thankfully, Michael came to his rescue and repositioned them in a more attractive setting because they really did look bad the way Trent had placed them. Then Trent got all annoyed at Michael. That was pretty much all that Trent did to contribute to this challenge.

Michael sizing up the room

But the knight in shining armor for the men's team is Courtland. He paints a striped wall which incorporated a color from each of the outfits. For this he ends up being the winner of the challenge.

The ladies don't have such an easy time with this. From the get-go, there seems to be friction. Tera, Casey and Nina show a maturity and a willingness to function as a team. Stacey and Emily seem to be more resistant and while they are good at protesting ideas that they don't like, they are not offering any alternative ideas. They go rug shopping. Nina finds a rug that she thinks will bring the room together nicely and incorporate the fashions featured for the living room. Emily and Stacey want to wait and not buy the rug. They seem to think that they are on a leisurely shopping trip and forgetting that they are in the midst of a challenge. Tick, Tick, Tick - clock is running, girls!! Nina is all "This rug will be perfect! Beautiful!" They want to wait and see if something better will turn up. Nina keeps selling them the rug. This is where the waters will part around Nina. Some of you will agree with Emily and Stacey that Nina is "a bully" and doesn't let anyone else say anything. The rest of you will see that this is Nina's way. She's a Brooklyn girl and she's a very driven, competetive and determined woman. No one steamrolls over her. She wants to win this challenge and this competition and if her team mates don't have the chops to step up the game and run at her pace, she'll leave them in the dust. Stacey and Emily back off and let Nina buy the rug. (And of course, I also happen to think that the classic double standard goes into play here. Just for the sake of being the devil's advocate, let me say this: If Tom said the exact same things that Nina said when trying to convince her teammates to like the rug or to let her paint the mural on the living room wall, he could be called "assertive" and "confident in his style" because he is a man. When Nina says this stuff, she's called a bully and a witch with a "b" and I don't think that's fair!)

Their living room comes together nicely. I have to say, the rug really does bring the room together. Their downfall was the bedroom. The judges did not care for the butter yellow walls in the bedroom, which was Tera's decision to go with because it matched the outfit that she had chosen. Casey could get a giant "I told you so" here because she tried to explain that when she took color theory, yellow is actually an aggressive color. Tera decides to go with her heart and keep the color. She eventually gets sent home for this. The judges tell her that taking a color from a fashion and putting it on the walls is not enough to win a challenge. Um....OK, but isn't what they gave Courtland the win for? He took the color from each of the outfits and painted a stripe on the wall. Is it me or are the Judges all over the place here? The other person who ends up in the bottom two is Nina. The Judges aren't happy with her mural. She dodges the bullet and they end up sending Tera off, which I think is unfair. If you ask me, Stacey should have been in the bottom because she spent ALL STINKING DAY painting one chair. But the judges liked it. In fact, during the HGTV Twitter party for Design Star, Genevieve Gorder herself tweeted "I dug this Stacey chair, but a chair all day? Um, Not on my team, lady."

So the show ends. I head upstairs to my computer to see the HGTV Blog and find out what Heather "Dooce" Armstrong has to say. I didn't agree with her, but that's what makes our great world go 'round. She thought Michael was "nitpicking" Trent when he was rearranging the items that Trent had placed at far apart intervals on the windowsill. It reminded me of how you'd put an electric socket so many feet apart to meet the building code standard. Trent's style had no life to it. I say thank heavens for Michael because it looked better after he touched it! Then, what I really didn't like was that Dooce said that she wanted to spill her beer all over Nina's head to make her shut up. Really? This is the person HGTV has representing them? I understand that a certain amount of "smack talk" gets done around these reality shows, and the beauty of having your own blog is that you can say anything you want. However, I feel when you're writing a blog on behalf of a network, you should be, perhaps, a smidge more professional when critiquing the contestants on one of your network's hottest shows. Just sayin'.

So then the next morning, the amazingly talented David Bromstad (who I happen to love) puts up his video blog (or "vlog") to review the episode and jumps on the Dooce bandwagon and says that he not only wanted to pour his beer over Nina, but that he wanted to throw another one at Tera's face for her choice of yellow. *Sigh* I know we have exaggerated drama on the screen, but I think the throwing beer thing is really sad. The other thing that Mr. Bromstad said that made me go "What?What?" He said that he thought that Emily did a good job of taking her outfit and translating the look into the room. He said it looked fabulous. Um.....yeah....It did look fabulous with the rug that Nina picked out that Emily didn't want her to get in the first place!! Go figure!!

So yes, folks, we are all about the drama for this season on many levels!! I am so glad we have the whole summer to enjoy this!!! I can't wait to see how next week's challenge comes about. Rooms are supposed to be designed based on a particular music instrument or something? How are our design stars going to do THAT??? I have never in my life heard anyone say "I think I want to do my bathroom over in Oboe...." Can't wait until Sunday!! The DVR is already set!

p.s. - If you're looking to get a the inside scoop from the ladies team, Casey Noble gives a peek of what it was like on her blog:

http://http//www.iheartdesignbyavenue.com/blogs/news/1707102-yellow-fever