Good Day New York

This week has been amazing. Thanks to the Daily News article and NY1 mention on Monday, I received an email from Fox 5's morning show, Good Day New York and scheduled a 4- minute live appearance for Friday morning.

While I was totally nervous about doing a live show, I was utterly thrilled at the request and amazed and encouraged by the responses I had received earlier in the week from the newspaper/online article.

On Thursday morning around 11 AM, I received a call from the show's producer, who suggested that we tape an interview in lieu of the live appearance. She asked if Jodi Applegate and crew could film the interview at my office. I checked in with my office's PR Department and got approval from Kaplan, Inc.

Jodi, et al, arrived around 12:45PM, set up around my cubicle and began filming right away so as to finish taping within my lunch hour. It was such a relief to know that if I misspoke or stuttered or had a "wardrobe malfunction", all would be deleted through the editing process. After we completed the office portion of the interview, we filmed a few extra shots of me knitting on the subway. This was especially interesting because, as is the norm, people came right up to me right away to ask what I was making. Now, I did have a news personality and a camera on me so perhaps that added to the interest but I swear, fellow riders were not coached at all-completely unsolicited!



Because of this awesome week of publicity, I currently have only 1 more bag left in my inventory! If anyone knows of a way to mass produce my bags in an eco-friendly way (no overseas Asian factories), please let me know!

Thanks to my great friend Carter Evans, who was kind enough to TIVO my appearance and then upload it to YouTube. Carter is a freelance reporter and anchor for My 9 News (WWOR), CBS Newspath and CNN.

The Daily News

I've been delinquent with my blogging lately because I have had a few things brewing but wasn't sure they would pan out and I didn't want to jinx myself by informing my audience (my husband and sisters) prematurely.

This morning I awoke with red, irritated, swollen eyes and a dry, closed throat due to seasonal allergies. I made the mistake of walking the dog early yesterday morning and have been paying for it ever since. So after making the decision to sleep off the Benadryl-induced buzz, I turned on the TV to NY1, our morning ritual, to see how the weather would play out for the rest of the week.

Pat Kiernan was off today so Kristen Shaughnessy took me through the day's events and wrapped up with my favorite segment, entitled "In the Papers" where the host holds up the area newspapers and reads the headlines. To my surprise, Kristen highlighted an article entitled "She bags fun design idea that's boon for the Earth." I was interviewed for the piece by the author, Kathleen Lucadamo, via telephone and later photographed by Tanya Braganti last week but wasn't sure which day it would appear. (Note: The online version of the article is titled "Designer turns discarded plastic bags into fancy handbags"; hard copy version appears on page 22-not sure why the titles are different?)

It's only 12:33PM and Daisy's Bags has had 184 first time visitors and 284 page loads! While writing this blog, I received an email from a TV producer at Fuji TV who would like to film me creating a Daisy's Bag. Fuji TV appears to be one of the largest TV networks in Japan!

I owe all of this awesome media exposure to a work friend, Krystal Bowden, who was kind enough to show her boyfriend, a Daily News employee, my Facebook page. When I first started this venture, I had no idea whether anyone would look at my website, this blog or my Facebook page. As a result of today's events and Krystal's kind words, I vow to be a better blogger and to take you along with me in this journey!

Meet Daisy

This is Daisy, the namesake of my Plastic Bag Empire. We love her.

On my subway commute to work this morning, I was knitting a Daisy's Bag when a young woman tapped me on the shoulder to ask what it was I was doing. This sort of thing happens pretty regularly and has become a cheap way for me to spread the word and pass out promotional postcards to fellow straphangers (are we still using that term since the subway cars no longer have straps?) . It hasn't turned into any sales yet but I'm hoping that one of these times, Oprah or Donny Deutsch will be riding the #1 train alongside me.

So here's my dilemma-I sent Alexa Ray Joel a message on myspace and can see that she read it but has not responded. Do I send her a bag anyway? My problem is that they are so extremely time consuming to design and create that it's hard for me to part with gifting 2 bags (approx. $140!) to anyone unless it helps promote the company. I realize that I have to take some risks to get this moving but...

I will be putting together my promotional mailing this weekend so I apologize in advance for bombarding everyone with emails, messages, and now snail mail. Please pass the postcard on to others!