Let me start off by saying I took over 500 pictures of this chair, and I’m not exaggerating. I’m learning how shoot in manual mode, so I can improve the quality of my photographs. Capturing the magic of this chair had some unique challenges, most photographs are taken in the shade to avoid harsh shadows, when I put this chair in the shade all the sparkly goodness disappeared into the camera lens and when I tried to photograph it in the sun where it would shimmer and dance, the shadows were too distracting. I finally decided to photograph the entire chair in the shade and capture some the sparkly goodness by shooting close-ups of it in full sun.

I had so much fun shooting the video for this tutorial, of the 40 DIY video’s I’ve posted to YouTube so far, this has got to be one of my favorites!

Here are some tips not mentioned in the video…
-be sure to use a fine glitter, the Martha Stewart brand works really well, if you use a a large grit it will be scratchy when you sit on it.
-I was surprised to find that I only needed a small amount of glitter, before I started I estimated that I would need several jars, but I only used about half a container of Martha Stewart’s largest size.
- what you don’t see in the video is the first chair I attempted to glitter, it was a total disaster and I learned the hard way. I covered my first chair completely with glue and then dumped glitter all over it, the glitter didn’t stick and my house was a sparkly mess, and to top it all off, the chair was painful to sit on because I used the wrong kind of glitter

As you can see in the video my second attempt was a success! I hope that this post sparks a glitter frenzy and you all can benefit from my mistakes. If you end up creating a glitter project please let me know so I can post it on my Facebook page!

If you have any photography tips for me, please post them in the comments, I would love to hear them. I’m actually a little frustrated with the learning process right now.

I hope your day is glittery!
Sincerely,
Debi
linking up at, Miss Mustard Seed

Last Sunday I jumped on a plane, to visit the CeCe Caldwell Paint Factory in Prescott AZ!
I was on a mission to film a video, so I could share first hand how awesome this paint is, and why I love it. A few months back CeCe graciously offered to send me out and before I knew it several other retailers were taking road trips and planes out to Arizona so we could all meet up together!
I landed in Phoenix about the same time as the adorable Karen Berg of Redoux Interiors Karen was flying in from Northern California, I knew her through her fabulous blog. I was very excited to meet her in person, Karen is the queen of dumpster diving and transforming roadside castoffs into amazing projects! Do yourself a favor and check out Karen’s blog!
This is me in the airport waiting for Karen’s plane to land…

and here is a photo that I took of Karen on our trip.

Shortly after arriving at the hotel, Cece and her husband Eric were there to pick us up for dinner and we were off to meet the rest of the group!

There was one person in particular that I was dying to meet… Iggy.

This cute Little man is Lauren’s son, CeCe’s and Eric’s grandson, you can see him here at dinner applying a little chapstick, it gets really dry in Arizona, lol!
Iggy is charming! Here he is dancing with another patron at the restaurant, and he’s an awesome dancer too.

The next day happened to be Memorial Day which I thought was very appropriate for what we had planned. I traveled to Arizona because I wanted to share the remarkable personalities behind my favorite product and their story.
Eric, a.k.a. RT is the president of the company, he’s also a retired combat veteran who has bravely served our country as an attack helicopter pilot in the Army, and a sergeant in the National Guard, running combat patrols / route clearance in Iraq. In other words it was his job to clear the path of bombs and other hazards for the soldiers in very dangerous territory.

I’m not going to lie when I first met RT I was a little intimidated he has a very deep authoritative voice, it gets your attention and makes you want to stand up straight! But after about five minutes I realized he’s also got a great sense of humor and is very passionate and dedicated to his company.

This is a photo of RT and Dave… Dave is watching RT dance, little does he know he too will be dancing soon in a choreographed number for the video!
RT employs another veteran on his team who is still serving, he is pictured second from the left is in this photo and he goes by the nickname Speedy. (I think it’s because he’s a super fast painter like I am) in fact most of the guys in this photo packed up their families and moved from South Carolina to Prescott Arizona when the plant quickly outgrew its original headquarters.

I think this says a lot about how the company is run, how these guys are treated and how much dedication each member of the crew has for the product don’t you?

When I walked in the door this was the first thing I saw, and I felt like a kid in a candy store… Painting is one of my favorite things to do, I love being surrounded by it, I love seeing it stocked up on my shelves and I love sharing it with my customers, most of all I love watching others get excited about it! Cece Caldwell paint sells so fast that it’s difficult to keep in stock, so when I saw this, I wanted to snatch it all up and take off with it!

I think it’s fair to say that this company has been a godsend for me. I’ve been in business for 17 years and I operate on a very small budget, rescuing and rehabbing furniture is a matter of survival, however I spent the first 15 years in business dreading paint projects, I never thought my furniture looked good and it was so much work! Everything changed 2 years ago. My friend Anne gave me some Cece Caldwell paint to try and I was converted! Gone were all the toxic fumes hard prep work. As a person who has suffered from asthma and chronic fatigue using a paint with no VOCs or toxic chemicals, makes a big difference to my health. Best of all, suddenly I felt like an expert painter, my furniture looked beautiful, and it was EASY! I can paint four pieces of furniture in the time it used to take to paint just one. Soon I was selling furniture like crazy, this was really good news for my business, a much-needed boost in a very difficult economy.
I painted the front of my store with one quart of Santa Fe turquoise, the giant metal flowers and the trim are also painted with some of the other awesome colors, I have not applied a sealant or topcoat and it’s has been up for over a year.

OK back to work, We had a lot to accomplish in just one day, and 20 amazing people showed up tp help me, including CeCe and Tilda~the wonder dog!

photo courtesy of Karen Burg.

I had a BIG DIY project planned, Karen had a dance number choreographed, and there was a very important story to tell!
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at our video production,

Donna Haile is in the white tee, she is one of our distributors and an expert baton twirler!
You can find out more about Donna and her husband Wesley ( in the red shirt) by visiting, Doozie’s Corner

I wanted to showcase the fact that CeCe Caldwell paint is made in the USA and each color is named after a different place in America. I had the guys break down a pallet and we recycled the slats to form a map of the United States. This project would not have been completed without the help of Tall Paul, Wesley, Speedy and the rest of the crew!

This is CeCe’s daughter Lauren, she manages the front office and makes sure that everybody is well stocked up on the ‘liquid gold’.

Here is another shot of the crew and Susan Goodman of Paris Flea Market Susan is a retailer in Northern California. Find out about her fabulous once a month Events Here.

After a full day of work, the final scene is shot and it’s a wrap!

The best part of the day was the interview segment with CeCe and Eric they tell us in their own words what inspired them to start their company. CeCe spoke passionately about her desire to produce a product that will make the world healthier place for her grandson and for the next generation. I placed a photo of Iggy’s chubby little hand below as he was just as excited as the rest of us to get involved in the project… DISCLAIMER, there’s a lot of red tape involved to have a product certified for Children’s use, so I have been strongly advised to say that CeCe Caldwell paint is in NO WAY advertising their product as a child’s art supply, however if your kids happen to get their hands in it when you’re not looking just know that it doesn’t contain any toxic chemicals and cleans up with soap and water. This would also be a good place to mention that this is not a paid or sponsored posts. I do sell CeCe Caldwell products and teach classes at my store if you would like to find out more information about paint classes, click Here To purchase paint from me online click Here or to find a retailer in your area click Here

It’s time to say thank you to all of the people who helped me create this video and get back to editing, there were several who helped all day that were not mentioned, you will see all of them in the video! Stay tuned it’s going to be good!

Sincerely,
Debi

I have been told by other DIYer’s that Elmer’s glue will work as a crackle medium on furniture instead of various more expensive crackle products.
I had never tried this alternative as I had also heard that it works only half of the time, besides, if this were true, why are there so many crackle medium’s available in home-improvement stores and wouldn’t this little secret be out by now? I continued to purchase crackle medium thinking I did’t want to waste time with something that only worked sporadically.
In fact I wanted to start selling crackle medium in my store along with the other great paint products and brushes I already carry so I asked on Facebook what the best crackle medium on the market was? Again I was told that Elmer’s glue works as a crackle medium and there was no need to pay more for other products. At this point I decided to investigate, make a video, and put Elmers glue to the test.

I also wanted to try out CeCe Caldwell’s new Aging Dust. This is something you can use instead of dark wax, it comes in powder form and you sprinkle it into the detailed areas of furniture to get just a little bit of age into your project without having to wax the entire piece.

Here’s the video I created, demonstrating how Elmers glue transformed this $5 yard sale chair.

I was so happy with the crackle process that I also painted this end table.

Here are a few tips I discovered while experimenting with the crackle process…
-The thickness of the glue will determine how pronounced your crackling will be. A thin layer of glue produces tiny cracks and a thicker layer will create larger cracks.
- After you apply the glue and are going over it with your second coat of paint your brush will drag and feel funny, the temptation is to correct your brush marks, however you don’t want to do this as it will interfere with the crackling process, instead wait for your second layer of paint to dry completely, and then touch up your brush strokes after the crackling has appeared.
-If you end up with more crackling than you want, you can lightly add a wash of paint to make it appear more subtle.
-Although I have not tried other brands of white glue, I’ve been told they work as well Elmer’a glue. A friend of mine says she uses the white school glue from the dollar store all the time.

I will be offering a new class that will include some specialty finishes such as crackling, glazing and stenciling, along with my paint 101 classes this summer!

I am so excited about the new classes we have been offering at my store here is a photo of our outdoor classroom area!

We have space availbale in our paint 101 class this Saturday, all the detials are HERE

Hope you can join us, I would love to have you!

linking up here!

Redoux Interiors

Sincerely,
Debi

I am so excited to announce our May paint schedule! Our first class was a huge success and we have added two more classes for this month.

In this class you will learn the basics of painting and distressing!

Bring a small piece of furniture with you like a chair, a side table or a step stool and we will teach you how to create a two layer paint process, using CeCe Caldwell’s all-natural chalk and Clay paint!.

You will also discover the basics of water distressing, distressing with sand paper, using the aging waxes and the satin finish!

There are 36 beautiful colors to choose from!

I even painted the front of my store with Santa Fe Turquoise and Traverse City Cherry!
The giant metal flowers are painted too!

What color would you like to paint with?

Class info,

When?
Saturday May 11th from 10am to 2pm
or
Saturday May 18th from 10 to 2pm

lunch is included
class size is limited so reserve you spot today!
reseve your ticket HERE!
or call us Thursday thru Sunday at the shop, 858 755-7630
if you want to reach me when the shop is closed, send me a Facebook message, I try to check that daily
come wearing paint clothes and covered shoes!
class is held outside in our new paint workshop!

There are so many choices!

Watch for a new video this weekend, showing how to create a crackle finish with Elmers glue!
In case you missed this one, here’s a fun video showing some of the amazing things this paint can do and how to distress with water!

I would love to meet you and have you join us!
I know you will have so much fun with this amazing paint!

Sincerely,
Debi

I have made many seashell projects over the years, I love making these pretty seashell flowers. They have many uses, I have often added them to picture frames and seashell mirrors.

Here is the quick 4 minute video tutorial,

Here are a few details not included in the video,

Keep in mind that seashells are fragile, I wouldn’t suggest swimming, or doing any kind of athletics while wearing this piece.
If you do end up with a broken shell it is easy to remove with pliers and replace.

Here is a list of the supplies I used,

25 small scalloped shaped seashells, I used pink rose cup but other small shells will work too.
hot glue
small piece of felt
jewelry findings
jewelry chain
jewelry glue
needle nose pliers
wire cutters
a small rhinestone, pearl or decorative bead for the center of the flower

Have fun!

I am giving away a kit to one of my subscribers, to enter the giveaway, simply subscribe, share this post with a friend and leave me a comment letting me know how you shared it!
Sincerely,
Debi

Here is my newest video that Youtube posted on their blog! i would love it if you would watch, vote and help sprad the word!

Here’s the link to Youtube’s blog, you can go check out the competiton and find out more about the contestThe Youtube blog post click here!

Thanks so much!
When the winner is announced later this month i will let you all know!
A big big thank you to all of you who voted to nominated me a few months ago to get into the competitionQ

After a year of making DIY videos for my YouTube channel , this project was definitely one of my favorites! It took about three weeks to hammer this one out, we also have had unusually cold weather in San Diego, Most of the days filming were spent wrapped up in a sweater, jacket, hat and scarf on while trying to paint and put this project together, this why I’m all bundled up during the segment at the beach

Here is the DIY video, showing how we made our Buoy lights,

We shot the end of the video, with the sunset and the buoys hanging on the patio, at Bobby’s house, it’s a historic 1920′s cottage over looking the sea on the San Diego coastline.
Whenever I visit Bobby’s house, I feel like I’m on a movie set, it’s so beautiful and dreamlike that it doesn’t seem real. Bobby has found at least 20 of these buoys, not just buoys but many amazing things, his sea glass collection takes my breath away. He has buckets full all sorted by color and size and he has several red and yellow pieces that are super rare too.

( I’ve have been thinking about a sea glass project for a future video, and I have a few ideas that I’m pretty excited about but I never know if my ideas will actually work until I start putting them together, half the time what seems great in my head, ends up in the project graveyard… we’ll see what happens

Here are some of the tips that were not included in the video that you will need to know if you plan to make a buoy light…

-you will need a liner so that the heat from the lightbulb doesn’t melt the foam, Bobby and I spent a few hours at the hardware store experimenting with different ideas and we ended up using a plumbing coupler…

and a two part electrical socket, if you can find the exact items we used, they fit together tightly, we did not have to glue them in place and the socket does not spin around inside the buoy.

We cut the foam with a fisherman knife, I wanted to try an electric knife but we didn’t have one. It didn’t take too much time to carve out the foam, we just eyeballed it until it went in deep enough, making sure not to cut too much so that it was a tight fit.

We left about a half inch of foam under the coupling so that the light bulb would not extend past the buoy. We used sandpaper to make the cut foam look more finished and painted it.

The sales person at the hardware store assured us that a 40 watt bulb would be fine and it would not melt the plastic coupling, we tried it and although it didn’t melt the plastic, it was hot, so we opted to go with a twenty five watt flood light in the small size, this worked well and gave plenty of light.

Be sure to take proper safety precautions when working with electricity, I was told that it’s also a good idea to solder the wire before wrapping them in the electrical tape, there seemed to be mixed opinions on this, I was also told that the electrical tape is enough, however it’s always good to error on the side of caution.

And of course I used CeCe Caldwell paint because I love it and it adheres to styrofoam without any sanding or priming and it comes in all of the amazing colors that are perfect for this project! CeCe Caldwell paint is sold all over the world now, check their website for a location near you. (I also sell it in my shop and here on my website).

The final step is wrapping the cord with rope, I have a pet peeve about cords showing, so we wrapped rope around the entire 12 foot cord, this took about an hour and it ‘s a two person job, one person holds the cord taut while the other wraps, then we clamped the rope in place every inch or so and continued. After the cord was wrapped we coated it with tacky glue and tied off the end. You might notice in the video that only one light is wrapped in rope… hmm maybe the black cord didn’t look so bad after all, it’s kind of industrial chic

I am always amazed at what Bobby finds on his daily beach walks, I don’t seem to find much but thats probably because I rarely make it to the beach… (even though I live close by) If I do get there I’m running or sitting in the sun reading a book. I really need to make more time for the beach…
Leave me a comment and let me know what favorite thing you have found on the beach and if you make a buoy light please send a photo to my Facebook page!

Sincerely,
Debi

PS. Were selling the three buoy lights we made for the video, and Bobby said he might make a few custom ones, call the store for details, 858 -755 -7630
store hours are Wed-Sunday 11am- 5pm

While brainstorming for a Valentines Day project, I had the idea to make some conversation hearts out of polymer clay, whenever I get a new idea, I always search google images and Pinterest to see if anyone else has come up with the same or similar idea as mine. I found al lot of finished jewelry on Etsy made either from real conversation hearts or possibly clay and I did find one other tutorial on making hearts that is really cute but a bit different from how I went about it, here is the link to Adrianne’s blog and her super cute conversation heart charm bracelet , fun tutorial from Happy Hour Projects
I have had very limited experience with clay and I learned a lot from creating this project i will go into some of the mishaps so that you can avoid them.

Here is the video tutorial,

Here are some additional tips I discovered in the making process,

-Make sure the temperature is at the right setting, I baked mine at 325 for 20 minutes and I burnt them. I was told that 300 or lower is best for polymer clay.
If you do over bake your clay, you can sometimes erase the burn marks with sandpaper, much like scrapping burnt toast. I was able to salvage a few of mine but some were just a lost cause.
- The stamps I found were in the clay section at Michael’s, they were 7$ and I used my 40% off coupon. You can find stamps in the jewelry section as well, these are often very small, so small that I wasn’t sure If I would be able to get ink into them. There were also rubber stamps in the stamp section itself, but I was concerned that they did not have a sharp enough edge to go into the clay. I would love to know if any of you try using other types of stamps and how they work… or not. So if anybody tries an alternate approach, please let me know how it goes!
-the lettering is tricky, I tried a tiny paint brush and red paint but this was really difficult, I made a mess of the hearts that I did not burn and at this point I was in a huff and ready to dramatically toss all of my hard work into the trash. I had enough sense to take myself calmly back to Michaels to try a micron pen before giving up.
The pen did work but I did have a few mess ups with the pen too, thankfully I was able to wipe the unwanted ink off with water and a q-tip just as Adrianne at the Happy Hour blog suggested! Michael’s only had a #5 micron pen in red, I would have liked to try the finer tip #2 as this may has been the most ideal. I have also seen these pens at Aaron Brothers and art supply stores.

Over all I was really happy that I didn’t toss this project, I think they turned out really cute in the end!

Leave me a comment, let me know what you would stamp on a conversation heart, and if you make some please post a photo to my Facebook page!

Happy Love Day!
Debi

My birthday was last Sunday and as a reformed sugar-a-holic I can’t help but think about my favorite cake, angel food with pink frosting and sprinkles!
My grandma made this fluffy cake for me every year, and sometimes she made it for me just as a fun surprise!
This year I went to the health food store and bought an organic cake mix, I added organic whipped cream and berries to the top. I am not a baker at all… most of the time I eat vegan, no sugar and raw organic food so this was kind of a big deal! I wanted to make my own cake so i could use organic ingredients. I was hoping to make angel food cake but my mom said it was a very advanced recipe for someone with my limited baking experience. I invited everybody over for dessert at six, well for some reason the cake took over and hour to bake even though the box said 20 minutes!
I pulled the cake out after the timer went off and let it cool, ( I even gave it the toothpick test and it came out clean) when I cut the cake to serve, it was not cooked in the middle so we all stood around in the kitchen waiting for the cake to bake! this is probably why I haven’t baked in 10 years
I think it took so long because I substituted the oil and I used one pan instead of two… this is because I only had one pan.
Around 8pm everybody had a slice of birthday cake and it did taste super yummy, thank goodness… but I think I should stick to crafts!
Here is the video on how to make your shoes look like cake, much, much easier than baking!

and here is the cutest drawing that my niece Elle made for me, such an awesome copy of my shoes don’t you think? She even cut tiny bits of paper for the sprinkles to make it 3D!

and here is the card that my youngest niece Emma made!

They are growing up so fast, I need to get them in a video with me before they become too cool to hang with their aunty Debi!

Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite birthday cake is!… and if you make some shoes please post a photo on my FB page!
Sincerely,
Debi

PS. Thank you to all for the encouraging comments about Design Star and for voting for me! The voting is open until Feb so if you would like to vote if you haven’t already, the link is here vote for Debi!
Simply click the link enter my name Debi Beard, my subscriber count 3000 and tell Youtube why you think my channel should get exposure on the front page of Youtube. Youtube will not ask for any personal info from you
If i am selected this will be a wonderful boost for my video channel, thanks so much for following , watching and sharing!

I had a flood of customers in my store and on my website, people calling on the phone all day long it was wonderful!… and I was heartbroken at the same time.
As I described my memory of saying goodbye to my friend in the hospital, knowing I would not see him again, I felt the tears coming, but I didn’t worry too much about crying on camera, I kinda laughed silently at myself and thought well this seems like a total reality TV moment.
After that I quickly switched gears and answered the next few question. It felt like an emotional roller coaster ride, not scary just fun and challenging.
That interview lasted about 15-20 minutes and then I was given a 4 page design quiz, I had twenty minutes to answer all of the questions and write them out by hand, I felt like I was back at school, madly scribbling my answers down while the clock was ticking, my handwriting was a mess and I know I misspelled words, there was no spell check just good old fashioned pen and paper. The questions seemed easy enough, I recognized some of them because Kellie Clements described a few on her blog, Modern Whimsy, just a she said, I was asked to give the standard height of a table and the width of a bolt of fabric. but here is the question I liked the most,
Please describe the difference between decorating, design and styling… I giggled out loud when I read this question because there is so much controversy in the design world about the difference between a decorator and a designer… I would love to hear your answer in the comments and I will tell you mine in the next post.
I finished my quiz with about 30 seconds left. whole we waited for the next phase, I had a few minutes to chit-chat with the casting agent, she was a young producer, she told me that she didn’t know a lot about design and that she couldn’t answer many of the questions on the quiz, her passion is television production, she said she really enjoyed the creative process of making a TV show and watching it all come together from beginning to end.
I wanted to ask her a hundred questions, I’m fascinated with production and all of the behind the scenes details that go into film and television, that’s probably why I am giving you as many details as I can recall. I thought about how exciting it would be to be twenty years old, living in New York and working as a producer for HGTV. I asked her how many submissions came in each year, she told me that she didn’t know but that they see a lot of very talented designers that they want to use but they can’t because when the camera is turned on they stiffen up. I nodded and said a silent thank you that I was not among that group any more.
Lindsey comes back to take me to the next room where another casting agent is waiting with paperwork and a new challenge. After I finish signing more forms, she hands me a sheet of paper, instructs me to read it, and tells me when I was finished reading, If I had any questions, I should ask her before she started the clock, she says she can only answer questions about the instructions, she can’t give me any input with the challenge itself.
The paper says that I have 20 minutes to select various swatches from a long table, and pin them to a white board to create a room makeover/ design plan. There was a large picture of a very long dark, sad depressing looking basement/rec room sitting on an easel that I was to transform with my swatches. the last sentence said, be prepared to present your room when you are finished.
I thought to myself, yep this is exactly what Kellie said in her blog, you dork you shoulda prepped for this! Even though I had not practiced any kind of room presentation in my head, picking the swatches was easy, I have always been a lighting fast shopper. I regularly attend very competitive estate sales where you have to grab what you want quickly or some one else gets it. Often, the best items are gone in the first 10 minutes of a sale, and there have been countless mornings that I have gotten up at 4am, waited hours in line to be the first one in the door. If you hesitate for a moment, your item is gone and if you buy something too quickly and it’s a dud it doesn’t sell and your stuck with it. I have seen fights break out, and I’ve gotten my share of dirty looks because I grabbed an item before a competitor. I’ve been told that some of the other estate sale regulars have nick named me, and my friend , the deadly duo because we are so quick… (I like it).
I buzzed through the swatches and came up with a fun and colorful design plan, there were stacks of photos in every category, lighting, sofas, chairs, tables, barstools, pillows, hardware, tile, among many other things. Mixed in with all the design elements was a random picture of the Bob’s Big Boy statue, I smiled when I saw him and knew that he had to go in my stack, I wasn’t sure how I was going to incorporate big Bob into my room but he was something I would love to use in real life so I just pinned him up to the board. As I madly stuck all of the swatches and photos to my white board with little pins, I felt like I was playing a real life game of Pinterest!
Before I knew it, time was called! Yikes… I had a lot of great components that worked awesomely together but I had not yet decided where everything was going to be placed in my room. I tried to review my board as the casting agent was carrying it out and taking it across the hall where my final interview would be happening in a few minutes. I was a little worried but I remember thinking, oh well I can wing it.
As I was saying goodbye to my design board and begging it to come back, a new casting agent walked in and introduced herself as Jennifer, she seemed very professional. I figured that she must be the Jen, of Jenscasting, which was the header on all the emails I had received so far. Jennifer welcomed me and said we would be going across the hall momentarily, then a young hipster looking guy attached another microphone to me, the wires had to go down the front of my dress and out the bottom, he looked at me hesitantly and showed me how to attach the mic. Jennifer and I were headed across the hall, about to go into the final room when we were stopped and told to wait, I assumed the producers were inside reviewing my audition video. A few minutes passed and Jennifer says, ok were ready, we start heading across the hall, outside the doorway was a folding table with a few people sitting behind it, they were watching me and it looked like they were thinking here comes another one, wonder if she will make it? Jennifer said to me as we went in, ok Debi remember it’s all about the big personality! As I walked across the hall I said, “well I have one in here somewhere” and the woman behind the table gave me a look of concern, like she was wondering how it would go for me.
I walked through the door and inside waiting was a long table full of producers, I was told to stand about 15-20 feet away, next to my presentation board and another mega sized camera. Jennifer and Lindsey took a seat with the others and the door was shut…..

to be continued….

just kidding!

There was just one person asking all the questions and that was the man sitting in the middle of the very long table. As soon as i looked at him I thought…
A- he was totally super good-looking
and B- he was just one of the warmest friendliest faces I had seen all day.
It sounds weird to say but he seemed like an old friend and he immediately made me feel more at ease.
The first thing I was instructed to do was, state my name, where I live, what I do for a living and for how long. I answered the first two questions, “my name is Debi Beard I live in the northern coastal part of San Diego and I own a Store called, House Vintage, it is located in the middle of a very high end design district and I am like the Sanford and Son on the street.

When I said this, they started laughing and I was starting to enjoy the interview.
I was asked many questions that seemed like general warm up questions the man in the middle of the table seemed to sense that I was at ease and I could handle more direct questions, so he asked me, “so you have tried out for Design Star every year? Why? What is it about our show that makes you keep trying? I replied, “well it’s just one of those things that I feel I will regret if I don’t try, I went on… after being told no so many times you say to yourself well if this isn’t going to happen then I will find another way to make it happen myself. I told them that I started my Youtube channel out of the frustration of not getting cast on TV. I told them it was a blessing in disguise because it helped me develop on camera skills and confidence.
For every question I was asked, I had an over flow of words, I didn’t expect to have so much to say but being on camera, entertaining and inspiring people is my favorite thing to do and I could probably talk for hours about it. At one point the head guy says to me, “so what’s with the camera way up high in your videos?” I paused for a moment and said, “well it is the most flattering angle.” at that point everybody was laughing… and it’s true, when the camera is up high you look younger and thinner. Then I added that I use my iPhone to shoot my videos and putting the camera up high allows me to get more in frame and still have an intimate shot. This is also true, I don’t like it when the person on camera seems too far away and you can’t see any of the details especially if it’s a DIY video and you want to see what is going on up close.

I was asked what I thought I could bring to HGTV that they didn’t already have? I quoted Alton Brown, my favorite host on the Food Network who says, “a laughing brain is an absorbent brain” I told the table of producers that I hope to bring humor to the design community which was not seen very often and that I want to represent those who can’t necessarily afford the granite counter tops. I explained that I wanted to my viewers to be so inspired that they would get up and go make the the projects at the end of the show.
These were a few of the things I said, and the panel seemed to be smiling nodding and laughing through out the entire interview, so much so that I thought they must smile nod and laugh for everyone just to make them feel comfortable.
Just as I was feeling like the interview couldn’t be more awesome, the man in the middle said, ‘Ok lets see your presentation” At this point I had completely forgotten about the presentation board! It seemed like a long time had passed, I was enjoying the Q&A I just wanted to keep going with that but I had to shift gears and describe this room that I had given zero thought to…. this is where I fumbled, I started making stuff up as I went and it was obvious. Out of desperation I picked up the picture of Bob’s Big Boy and said, “ok I’ve got Bob here, you gotta love Bob, everybody loves Bob! The man in the middle is giving me a big smile, he’s nodding and and replying , oh yeah you have to love Bob! (later when I got back home I googled the man in the middle, turns out his Name is Bob Kirsh executive producer for Design Star…

I was not kidding when I said he was handsome right?
And here is a picture of Bob’s Bigboy that I was trying incorporating into my design plan,

At this point I realize that I should quit trying to fake it, I set the swatches down and say something to the effect of “look, i’m not sure about all the details of this room but I do know that when you design a room I’t shoudn’t be boring, especially on camera, it has to be big and bold, maybe I would build giant wooden letters that spell out the word family, and hang them above the pool table, the most important thing is that this room needs to reflect who the family is, and this is a fun active family, they like color and they like Bob!. I showed them my color pallet, red and aqua, I described the beach inspired elements in my choices, and then, Bob the producer, rescues me from my presentation and starts asking me more questions… yay and thank God!
Bob asked, how I would handle the conflict that happens on the show with the other designers, I told him that I would try to act like Columbo and if some one insulted me I would pretend that I didn’t know it. I explained that I am not the type to be disrespectful but I would take a stand when I needed to. I told the table of producers, that I would give them plenty of drama in my design work, but I wouldn’t be doing any name calling or insulting my competitors. I shrugged and added that I might cry if someone on the show was super rude, I just didn’t know for sure.
There were many other questions but this post is crazy long so I will wrap it up here, I left the room feeling 97% happy with my interview, although I did wish I had done a better job with my room presentation. Lindsay walked me out to the elevator and told me I did a great job! I asked Lindsey how long it would be before a decision was made and if I would hear back from them either way. Lindsey said I would hear something probably in a week, she said that’s how long it usually takes for the producers to decide but each year is different, she added that I would either get a phone call or an email, I nodded, thanked her and got in the elevator knowing that a phone call would be good and and an email would be, sorry thanks for trying…
I hailed a cab and headed back to JFK. The cab ride back was pleasant, a nice clean car, no scuffles, no gas fumes and it only cost 65$
When I boarded the plane and settled in for the flight back home all of the emotion of my HGTV adventure hit me, I was overwhelmed with gratitude I was fully aware of how much I had changed, I was no longer the girl who let fear invade life. I had given it 175% and it was fun! I started thinking about all of the things that my acting teacher had taught me, he had helped me more than he would ever realize and happy tears filled my eyes! I sent him a quick text before the plane took off telling him how much I appreciated all that he had done.
Then gravity washed over me… I had a real shot at getting on Design Star, I started thinking about the grueling competition, being sequestered for 6 weeks, cut off from family and friends and I started to plan how I would get organic food on the set.
When I got back home there was plenty of work waiting for me, my life is always jam packed with projects and responsibilities so the first few days I did not even think about the phone ringing…
I am a person who prays about everything, I beg God for stuff and I had been pleading with God for 7 years to help me get on Design Star, but now I could not bring myself to ask for it. I felt this overwhelming sense that I should just let what ever was supposed to happen, happen. My prayer was this, God you decide and let me be thankful for whatever the answer is.
Three weeks passed with out any word, every time my Phone would make a noise I braced myself for the email, and every time my phone rang I wondered if it was HGTV. Thanksgiving came and I sat at the table with my family, wanting to share my adventure but nobody knew about HGTV except my Mom and I.
The following week I got the email thanking me for participating and notifying me that I was not selected for season 8….
I did cry for a while, I emailed Lindsey back and thanked her, told her how much fun I had and please tell everyone else I had met that I really enjoyed my day with them.
So now I was finally able to share my big secret with some of my CeCe Caldwell friends, I received a flood of encouraging words from people I had never met telling me how much they enjoyed my videos and to keep going! I read all of the comments to my Mom as I sat wiping the tears away in her kitchen, she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and so was I. It wasn’t long before I was thinking about 2013 and how I would go about making my plans happen with or with out HGTV.
Days later I was looking at my Youtube account and I noticed a video, titled ‘My youtube Story, the video below is Corey’s inspiring story about being featured on the front page of Youtube and how it changed his life. Corey was homeless without money for food and making videos because that’s his passion. Youtube selected one of his videos and posted it on the front page. Overnight, Corey’s channel went from thousands of subscribers to hundreds of thousands. Corey made $10,000 in one month from the adsense revenue connected to his video and now he creates videos full time and earns a living doing so. This video is long but worth watching!

After watching Corey’s video it just confirmed how much I wanted to make videos full time, buy a real camera and produce a design show on Youtube that was television quality.
I did not hesitate this time to ask God to somehow get my videos on the front page of Youtube. I decided to come up with a schedule so I could post a new video every week, this is pretty ambitious for me, it’s often takes me a week to make one video and I have a full plate with my shop. I didn’t know how I was going to achieve this, I just knew that I needed to try to make it happen. A few weeks later Youtube announced that for the first time they were going to let viewers nominate their favorite channels to be on the front page! I read this and thought wow this could be what I have been asking for!
I decided to share my story in video form (the 4 minute version) and post it to my channel asking my viewers for their vote!

I posted this video today, and as I type this I am getting emails from viewers cheering me on and telling me that they voted for me! If you are reading this I am also asking for your vote, If you would like to support me all you have to do is click the link below and answer a few questions,
Enter my name,
check the box that says I have 1000-9999 subscribers
and then just tell Youtube why you like my videos.
The more votes I get the better my chances. If you would like to share my story with anyone you know that might be encouraged by my story please do so

click here to vote for Debi Beard !
Thank you all for reading this long post, and for your wonderful words of encouragement.
No matter what happens 2013 it’s going to be awesome, and my New Years wish for you is that you go after your passion and face your fears with victory!
Leave me a comment and let me know what your passion is!

Happy New Year!
Debi