Design Star Season Two, Challenge Three and the RSS SOS

It was the individual challenge showdown tonight on Design Star.

(SPOILERS AHEAD!)

Each designer had an identical blank three walled room which to decorate containing a generic couch, two end tables, a coffee table, lamp, ottoman and bookcase. The budget was $399, the catch was that, with the exception of two gallons of the paint of the designer's choice, the budget had to be spent at the Dollar Store. The rooms did not have to be practical, just well designed.

Not suprisingly, the winner of this challenge by at least a mile if not more, was iron man Todd Davis. His room, which he called, "High Tide Barrell" was a brilliant and inventive portrayal of an ocean wave overtaking the items in the room. I can't say enough about how clever and original this design is, so I'll just go ahead on and post a photo:

There you go. If that isn't the room of a design star, I don't know what is. MeOW.

Coming in second, third, fourth, and fifth were designers Christina Ray, Will Smith, Kim Myles and, damnit, the annoying RobB Mariani. I was happy to see Kim finally prove herself since she seemed to have just sort of blended in on the other challenge and then damn near got axed because of her involvement in the Neeraja tile debacle.

The final three designers, heads on the block were: Scott Corridan, Adriana, and ohmygosh, SPARKLE JOSH. SJ's room, "Celebuteen" was judged too sparkly, with too much going on. See for yourself:

Vern Yip was more forgiving than the other two judges and gave Josh credit for the candle sconces (on the left wall).

Next, Scott Corridan. Ya'll. Poor Scott. I really do think he is a good designer. But his room tonight? Looked like the Dollar Store threw up in it:

I mean, WTF? Seriously. Buh-bye, Scott. Thing is, I really do think this room would have been in the running if he had edited out about three-fourths of that unending kitsch. The paint job is really interesting (and approved of by the judges) and the color choices are very good.

Lastly, Adriana. Her room was just plain old boring. I have suspected all along she didn't have the right stuff, and tonight was her Waterloo.

Meanwhile, the show ended with Sparkle Josh promising to, "bring back the sparkle."

Let's hope so.

(You can see photos of all the rooms and get even more information here. SFW)

***

And now for something completely different...

If you're like me, you keep reading on the web about RSS Feeds. And when I read about that I think,

Self, you seriously need to figure out what an RSS feed is.

And then I remember I forgot to Swiffer dust my mantle.

Luckily, my good friends at Netflix posted a video that explains the whole ding dang thing. See it here.