Trip to NYC with Better Homes and Gardens Stylemaker Party

This past weekend I attended a blogger workshop and Stylemaker Party with Better Homes and Gardens at the Humphrey in New York City! The last time I was in NYC was when our daughter, Abby, played violin at Carnegie Hall (last spring). And the time before that, my sisters and I attended the Food Network Food and Wine Festival. In fact, we stayed at the Eventi Hotel, where I stayed this past weekend. How fun is that?

I feel very fortunate that I was invited to this event, along with other bloggers from around the country, to spend a full day with the BHG editors. Melissa, from The Inspired Room, and I journeyed from the west coast, met up and roomed together, along with Stacy from Not Just a Housewife. When we got to the hotel we enjoyed the most amazing sunset!

Since we stayed in the Chelsea district, we walked down to one of my favorite NYC restaurants for dinner, Eataly. It was fun to introduce Melissa to such a variety of amazing Italian foods!

By the way, be watching for Melissa’s kitchen to be featured this spring in BHG magazine! I can’t wait to see her there! Below is Jen, from IHeart Organizing; Diane from In My Own Style, and Melissa.

The event was held in honor of the 2nd annual BH&G “Stylemaker” issue, packed with fresh ideas to inspire your decor, food, wardrobe and more. I loved meeting the editors behind this fabulous magazine–the one I grew up reading because it was always on my mother’s coffee table–and really get to know the behind scenes of the magazine.

BHG magazine is always my favorite to open and read cover-to-cover, as soon as it arrives in my Oregon mailbox!

We started with a very warm welcome from the Better Homes and Garden’s team and attended several workshops with different editors varying from “how to work with a magazine”, “designing and decorating a holiday tablescape with Eddie Ross”, “Trending DIY ideas and projects” and a variety of interactive round tables with other blogger’s feedback.

With Jen, Made by Girl; Michael, Inspired by Charm; and Melissa, The Inspired Room. Michael and Melissa (above) and Julie and Shelly (both below) are all coming to  my home in Oregon, in October, for a dinner party! I can’t wait to share more about it, so come back to RE in a few weeks and I’ll give you more details. :)

With Julie, The Little Kitchen, and Shelly, Cookies and Cups

I loved the session with Nancy Hopkins, Senior Deputy Food Editor, because in my group we talked about what is trending in entertaining right now.

As for my blog and message of RE, I always love the idea of “intentional entertaining.” You know, the kind where you have a plan of getting to know people more. Where it’s not always about a perfect table or the food, but the relationships that are forming around the table. I wrote about intentional entertaining here, awhile back. Nancy’s eyes lit up, as I know she has great goals for BHG reaching as many people as possible, messy tables and all.

The night of the Stylemaker party there were cocktails and yummy heavy hors d’oeuvres, plus a 45-minute panel with featured tastemakers such as fashion designer Kayce Hughes; Anna Last, Creative Director for Williams-Sonoma; and Eddie Ross, East Coast home design editor for BHG, moderated by Maxwell Ryan from Apartment Therapy.

Since I’m all about the food and easy entertaining, here’s me and Joanne from Fifteen Spatulas noshing on some of the delicious treats!

More  of my Instagram pics of Eddie Ross’s session, which got me all enthused and ready to start planning my Thanksgiving table!

The panel + good food + old and new friends … and then a photo booth. You can tell we had a great time!

One thing I know for sure, besides being really thankful to have been invited, the Better Homes and Gardens editors are a fabulous team and their hospitality and kindness was over-the-top beautiful in so many ways.

Thank you so much Better Homes and Gardens for a wonderful two days! And to Kaelin and Kenzie for inviting me!

And to all the editors involved!

BHG editors:
Gayle Butler, Editor in Chief
Oma Blaise Ford, Executive Editor
Kelly Kegans, Senior Deputy Home Editor
Eddie Ross, East Coast Home Editor
Nancy Hopkins, Senior Deputy Food Editor
Kylee Krizmanic, Deputy Art Director
Kaelin Zawilinski, Digital Editorial Manager
Beth Nervig, Assistant Digital Food Editor
Liz Frantz, Associate Social Media Editor

Most photography in this post is by Avi Gerver Photography, mixed in with a few of my Instagram photos.