I met Naomi a couple of years ago when I went with my friend and fellow event planner extraordinaire, Marley Majcher to work on a gig on Martha Stewart Sirius Radio.  Naomi, who just so happens to be the Supervising Producer for Martha’s Sirius channel 112 (yeah, she’s that good) gave me the heads-up this morning about an amazing FREE cookbook from Martha that you can download right this red hot second.  Catered to your Thanksgiving needs but certainly appropriate year round, how very generous of Ms. Stewart to offer this free five chapter cookbook of goodness!  (Click on the photo above to view and download.)

Just another thing to be thankful for!

The adventure continues:

Immediately following our time at Siriuswith Mario Bosquez at Martha Stewart Radio (click here if you just tuned in and need to be caught up!), we were onto the next event; that being preparing for the TV segment on WABC the following morning.  We headed to Kate’s Paperie for what ended up being the innagural brainstorming event that we have since decided MUST occur at least once a year from now on.  Our goal:  to create clever ways to celebrate the Fourth of July.  On a budget.  While being Green.  Ummm, yeah.

Always up for a challenge, we took the approach of using what you have, in your style of choice and tweaking it.  No stars and striped bunting here, folks (not that there’s anything wrong with that!).  To say that the smoke emanating from our collective ears was blinding might be putting it mildly.  We took every style we could conjure and made it applicable to an Independence Day celebration. 

You like Asian?  A large sheet of gold and red butterfly imprinted Asian paper was paired with small white gossamer butterflies, red pebble filled glass cylindrical vases and gold accents.

More of a traditional, French country kind of gal?  Pair your blue toile inspired dishes with centerpieces created by stacking square red boxes and silver serving pieces.

(Ummm, did I mention we were having a BLAST???)

Off to Dylan’s Candy Barto create edible centerpieces (multi-purpose is soooooo eco-friendly, yes?).

Our brains in need of a rest, we enjoyed a magnificent dinner at The Spice Market (as Marley would say, “Help me, hurt me!”)….so good.

Back to the hotel for a couple of hours of dry-run set up before a decent night’s sleep.

We needed to be at the ABC studios at 6:40am on Saturday morning and we were there with bells on.  As the production assistants ushered us nonchalantly to our “set-up” area , they showed us our tables and told us they would be back to move the table to the news set in an hour.  As they left and I took a good look around the dimly lit area, I realized we were standing on the Live with Regis and Kellyset!!!  I had about 30 seconds of pure, uncontained excitement and then we had to get to work.  I tried very hard not to be distracted by the fact that my bag was sitting in Regis’ chair or that there was a cue card near the table that read “up next:  more with mike myers”.

The segment was terrific.  It went so fast it is really just a blur.  Marley did great, the cameramen and production crew could not have been nicer.  The whole experience was very educational and it is great to get positive feedback from people in “the biz” who have seen it all and are, by nature, brutally honest. 

Oh, and once it was all over…..yeah, we totally did the photo op thing on the Regis & Kelly set! 

My FIRST appearance on the show!! 

Day One of the NYC adventure:

Arrived in JFK on JetBlue (great airline, btw) Friday at 8:30am. 

Got to the Four Seasons Hotel (3 words:  Fab.  U.  Luss.) to see my dear friend Marley Majcher (aka The Party Goddess) in our lovely room on the 23rd floor. 

We arrived at the midtown Sirius station before noon and had to go through several levels of homeland security to get up to the studios.  Every wall on the entire floor is basically glass, which means that you can watch what is going on in all the studios, whether it be a band performing live or just a renowned (in)famous shock jock (ie, Howard Stern).  Very Jetson-esque. 

One huge main wall is signed by all sorts of famous and not-so-famous guests who have been in the studios.  Very cool.

The interview was done with Mario Bosquez, who has a show on Martha’s channel (112) called “Living Today“.  The topic was Green Entertaining, so we were ready with lots of ideas of how to be eco-friendly when throwing everything from a wedding to a birthday party.  They also took a few calls from listeners which was fun.  I sat at the ready, pen and paper in hand, throwing notes to Marley faster than she could think. 

We are a great team, I tell ya! 

Everyone was very nice and welcoming, from the security guards to the receptionists (2 hip young girls who we enjoyed helping complete a crossword puzzle from a People magazine….those always make me feel sooo smart!).  The producer of the show, Naomi, and the engineer Chris….everyone was super cool and answered every question (of which I had many, of course!). 

(Clockwise from R:  engineer Chris Hauselt, producer Naomi Gabay, Marley & host Mario Bosquez)

Several people have asked the obvious question:  “Did we meet Ms. Martha herself?”.  Sadly, we did not, although we didn’t anticipate it, as it was Friday and we are pretty sure she heads to the Hamptons or someplace divine for the weekend!  Maybe next time! (wink wink)

We did hear back from the publicist who said the interview was a big hit and the feedback has been nothing but positive. 

(Robyn Bomar & Marley Macher at Martha Stewart Radio)

Coming up tomorrow:  the TV interview and working on ”Live With Regis & Kelly”!  (whaaaat?!!!) —– How’s that for a tease? 

I am thrilled that my friend and fellow party planner, Marley Majcher of The Party Goddess in L.A. has asked me to join her in Manhattan this weekend!  She and I have been consulting/brainstorming/researching for the past week for a segment on Martha Stewart’s channel on Sirius radio as well as on the ABC-TV affiliate in NYC.  I fly out on Thursday and will try to blog while I am there.  I hope to have TONS to share when I return!  For those who know me even a little bit, you know that New York is my-all-time-favorite-place-in-the-whole-wide-world as it is, so to have this amazing opportunity….well, I’m just over the moon!  If you are an Event or Wedding Planner (or someone in the biz), or you know someone who is, send me an email or leave a comment….I’d love to meet up while I’m there!!!

OK, off to pack….

source 1, 2, 3

We are SO excited to announce this amazing opportunity!  We want you to tell EVERYONE you know about this incredible giveaway!  Here is the scoop:

I have a dear friend and uber-talented colleague, Marley Majcher (aka The Party Goddess) who let me know about this super cool movement called “29 Day Giving Challenge“.  Their mission is to encourage everyone to be cognizant of the ways in which we GIVE to others each day and to search for new ways to do so.  Because this mindset is right up our alley here at Mix Mingle GLOW, we knew we needed to jump on the bandwagon.  But the more we worked on it, the more it became clear to us that we could do so much MORE than what we had initially thought!!! 

So, we are hosting a GIVEAWAY for our event planning services!!!  FREE FREE FREE!  No ulterior motives, no fine print.  We do know that we will be able to offer this giveaway for MORE than 29 days…in fact, we are giving away one event per month!!!!  WOW! 

(Seriously, even as I type this, I feel the need to breathe into a paper bag for a few moments to keep from passing out from excitement!!!) 

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?: Glad you asked!  We hear over and over again how many Brides WANT/NEED/WISH FOR a wedding planner but due to the current economy, their budgets have changed and they are having to make sacrifices.  We often hear the same from people planning other special events.  After all, we all only have so much to spend and right now, things are tighter than they have been in a long time, making it harder than ever to plan any type of special event or gathering of any size.

Our mission has always been “No matter what your budget, you should be able to design an event that is stylish, fabulous and a perfect representation of who YOU are!“. 

Whether your budget is $25,000 or $250,000, whether you are planning your Wedding or Sweet Sixteen, Graduation or Family Reunion, Baby Shower or Retirement Party, we have done it ALL and we know that EVERYONE needs a helping hand to assist in design, coordination and planning so that you can actually ENJOY the party!  Now, thanks to some very generous sponsorship, we want to hear YOUR stories and offer that helping hand, without having to charge you a single dime!!!!!!

Applications and a complete list of Rules will available on Monday, May 19, 2008 on this website.  This contest is open to everyone, regardless of your budget or type of event, but for NOW, we have to limit the applicants to the Southeast Region of the U.S. (more details to come!).  (We are just so excited we couldn’t wait a single day longer to share the news!!!)

We hope to have more sponsors join us in the very near future.  Good luck to everyone and I encourage you to visit the 29 Day Giving Challenge and join in the giving!!  There is NOTHING better than the joy you experience when you GIVE!!!