Candyland

Week 6

June 24-28

Goodbye last week of June--hello July! As the temperatures began to rise, so did my workload. Don't worry, I'm not upset about that, I'm thrilled! I love being busy and it makes the day go bye quickly. Good Housekeeping was inundated with shipments on shipments of items for the October issue! We were busy checking in sweaters and coats and long sleeve shirts, a very strange thing to do considering it is almost July! We began to gather price requests for a Solve My Style Problem spread and for the gift list for the holiday issues. We also received gift cards from one of the shoe companies that we work with and I took home a pair of navy blue oxfords with hot pink soles. It is nice to see the closet start filling up with clothes again--it looked much too bare after September! On Wednesday, I attended an event for Good Housekeeping at Dylan's Candy Bar. You certainly did not have to ask me twice if I wanted to go! The event was held in the top floor of the store which is a café, bar, and ice cream parlor. The event was a Holiday showcase and featured specialty items for Halloween, Hannukah, and Christmas. Of course I sampled basically everything and at the end we were given gift bags with some goodies inside as well as an empty jar which we could go downstairs to the main part of the store and fill it up with any candy we wanted for FREE! I know, I know, basically the best event I've ever attended.

The week continued to get crazier as it continued. Wednesday at Creative Communications we were busy scheduling photo shoots and bugging Hearst employees that had not responded yet. The first shoots are scheduled for this Wednesday, July 3, and I am really excited to see how they go! We had an unfortunate mix-up where the other intern, Hanna, and I had a miscommunication with the events team and it ended with us emailing the new CEO directly. Luckily, the situation did not get too out of hand and it turned out fine, although the CEO is unable to participate in the shoots, much to my dismay. I think it would have been really cool to say I was in charge of a photo shoot in which the Hearst CEO participated! We finally placed the order for the Infiniti premium items for the Pebble Beach Event and are just waiting to hear back about the shirts. I also worked on another significant project where I had to look up recipes for the holiday issue of the small food magazine, Delish, that is published about 4 times a year and is packaged with Hearst magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Country Living, and Redbook. I was in charge of finding recipes and good pictures of the food in the recipe. I had to find recipes for appetizers, drinks, side dishes, winter fruits/veggies, Thanksgiving leftovers. Overall, I really enjoyed researching and hopefully some of my recipes make it into the magazine!


xoxo,

Becca

Celebrity Spotter
Roberta Myers (editor in chief of Elle magazine, Hearst building)

 

Every good Jew loves a Hannukah candy display!

 

Tables filled with gumballs at Dylan's

Another colorful candy display at the party

Biting into the Big Apple

Week 5

June 17th-June 21st

The second to last week in June sped by, just like every other week. At Good Housekeeping, we began to request items for the October issue. A big project that I had to do was for the September credits. We got the mockups of the fashion spreads and had to identify what every item was on the model and have a credit request for that item. A credit request includes manufacturer, price, fabric contents, and where you can purchase it. The spread looked really great and it was cool to see the looks come together on the models when we had seen the fashion director picking out all of the clothing in weeks prior.

At Creative Communications, we were busy preparing ourselves for the portrait revealing next week. The infamous easel finally arrived and Hanna and I put on our construction helmets and went to work assembling it, which turned out to be much more challenging than we had imagined. Part of this was due to the very sketchy directions included. After 2 hours, the easel was assembled. The next morning when I came in the easel was still in tact and hadn't spontaneously combusted while we slept, so I definitely considered that a win. For the portrait event, the programs came so I assembled them as well. The program consisted of a small version of the portrait with a vellum overlay giving a background on the artist. Both of these elements were sealed with a custom sticker in a small silver pocket invitation. The other major event that is rapidly approaching is the United Way Campaign. This week, all the emails congratulating the recipients on being selected were sent out. Slowly but surely we have started to get responses and have started scheduling photo shoots. So far, some major people that are participating are Ann Shoket, editor-in-chief of Seventeen, Anne Fulenwider, editor-in-chief of Marie Claire, and Jack Essig, the publisher of Esquire. I am very much looking forward to these shoots and continuing to work on the whole campaign in general. I continued work on the Infiniti event that is to take place at Pebble Beach. I also got to go shopping, which I must admit is always a plus. Basic tees, tanks, and button downs in neutral colors were needed for the Dove Hair shoots taking place next week. I picked up these items at American Apparel, Gap, and Banana Republic.

Another busy week in the life of an intern has come and gone. Each week has brought new adventures and I am excited to see what else is in store for me. Although the time has gone fast--I cant believe its already July--I still have more time here and will soak up each and every experience.

xoxo,

Becca

Celebrity Spotter

• Joanna Coles, editor-in- chief of Cosmo (the 43rd floor of Hearst when I was running an errand)

In-Vince-able

Week 4
Monday June 10- Friday June 14

I cannot believe we are halfway through June already! Working everyday really makes time go fast. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least I'm never bored. This week at Good Housekeeping was slower than usual because we are in between shoots and issues. We sent back all of the clothes and accessories for September and the closet looks so empty! Next week I believe that we will start requesting things for the October issue, so we will once again be busy getting in new shipments. This week we researched scarf and bag companies and created a list of winter fashion advice questions. An example of a question was: "What type of cute, fashionable shoe can I wear in the winter? I always wear my leather boots but end up ruining them." The fashion director will choose questions that she thinks will be great for the issue and then come up with solutions for the questions. Yet, the most exciting part of my two days at Good Housekeeping was going to the Vince Camuto store opening on Tuesday! Our director couldn't go, so she offered up the invitation to Alena and I who immediately jumped on the chance to go. The store was opening on Madison Ave and we gave our names to people dressed all in black at the door. It was really cool to have our names on the list! The crowd inside was a mix of fashion industry people both young and old and other interns who were there for the same reason we were or to interview the guest of honor who just happened to be Victoria's Secret model Adriana Lima. After deciding that it would not be totally lame to get a picture with her, we stood in line only to find out that the line was for interviewers only. We thought on our toes and quickly came up with interview questions about her favorite summer beauty trends. Adriana was really nice, absolutely beautiful in person and more than willing to take a picture with us. All in all, it was a really cool event that Alena and I were glad to have said we attended and look forward to more events that our director passes up on in the future!

On the flip side at Creative Communications, we are starting to get into planning the United Way campaign. Hanna worked on it last year and filled me in. Basically, Hearst selects people in the company involved in the United Way. We set up photo shoots for them and then create elevator screens demonstrating their involvement and a quote that will run through the month of October. We work with the photographer and the honorees themselves throughout the entire project. We are also working on assisting with an event for Infiniti that is taking place sometime this summer at the famous Pebble Beach in California. We are in communication with both the event planner and the vendor in which we have to place orders for the event. Another big project is Frank A. Bennack's (who I learned this week is called FAB) retirement book. For his retirement, a beautiful Smythson book was made in which people wrote in, wished him luck in his future and thanked him for his services to the corporation. However, the signatures did not take up as much space as was hoped and we are re-making the book so that it looks more complete and full. We would like to add commemorative photos of the luncheon that I worked on my first week and special documents that FAB's team has gathered. We have to figure out what would be the best method to re-create this book, taking it apart and adding the new pages, or creating a whole new book that is exactly like the original.

With that, another week comes and goes before I know it and I find myself here blogging again. Until next time my friends,

xoxo,
Becca


Celebrity Spotter
Adriana Lima (store opening of Vince Camuto)

 Invite to the Vince Camuto store opening!

Good Housekeeping Interns with the guest of honor-Adriana Lima

Livin' the Good Life

Week 3:
June 3-7

And begins week 3 of the summer of my dreams. I can't believe its my first week already! It's going so fast and so much is happening that I have to force myself to remember to blog so I can recall what I did all week for myself and my loyal fans (ok-- you caught me, I don't have any yet, but I know some of you out there will become loyal fans, or at least I'm hoping!). This week also contained a lot of firsts, actually it seems that every week has a lot of firsts and when I look back its exciting to see how much happened in one week! This week at Good Housekeeping was enjoyable as always. We were preparing for a follow up story for the shoot that was shot last Thursday so we had to send out a lot of credit requests for the clothes and accessories via email. My hearst.com email address was definitely worn out by the end of the week. I feel so official using it, and no one really knows that their fate rests in the hands of an intern. A very exciting thing that also happened was that it was the first time I got to participate in a giveaway. Basically, everything that doesn't get sent back or that has been in the closet for awhile is put on a rack or tossed in a box and anyone in the Good Housekeeping offices are allowed to take for FREE. Alena and I rooted through everything and were actually able to find some pretty cool stuff. I got a pair of Hudson jeans for my mom, a stack of bangles, and brand new New Balance running sneakers. Pretty good loot for my first time! The rest of the week was spent organizing the closet so we can send back the clothes after the fashion story is done for September and watching a run through with some of the editorial staff including the creative director and the editor in chief.

At Creative Communications, the week took on a whole another role. Once again, I have to appreciate how lucky I am to get such different experiences this summer in both internship roles. I love working every day and it keeps me busy. The big job this week was to find an easel. Yes, I do realize how strange that sounds. Basically, at the end of June there is a ceremony presenting the new CEO with a portrait that was recently done of him. For the reveal, the portrait needs to rest on an easel. Therefore, it was Hanna and I's job to find a high quality easel that was worthy of a CEO's portrait. We contacted everyone and their brother. Well not really, but by the end of the week, it certainly felt that way! We called prop houses, antique stores, auction house, even custom woodworkers. It was a very long process and hopefully an easel was chosen, even those it might end up costing the corporation $1500. We also had to deal with how to reveal this portrait. Covering the painting in cloth was not an option because the staff wanted to get more creative, so a tri fold board with the Hearst logo was created to hide the painting. This reveal turned into quite the elaborate process, and just like the old CEO's retirement party, I was very interested to see the extravagance. I added to Flikr and also flipped through competitive magazines to find P&G ads and any other advertisement for our records. I'm totally fine with being asked to flip through magazines as a means of work. I mean, who honestly wouldn't be? Finally, reminiscent of the ribbon debacle, I had to run to a bunch of paper stores around the city in order to find invitations for another event for the CEO. I picked up a bunch of samples and am waiting on approval on which one we will be going forward with.

On a social note, I finally made friends my own age! Can I get a whoop whoop? I went to this Ed2010 Welcome to NYC Intern get together on Tuesday evening. A bunch of interns I knew were going and I decided to go and planned on leaving after an hour. I actually ended up staying for three. I met people from all over the US interning at different places all over the city. It was really cool to share stories not only about college but about our internships as well. So far this week, I've met up with them a bunch of times already and I'm really excited to spend the summer with everyone in the city. This is what I dreamed of -- interning during the day and hanging with friends on weekends. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but if this week is any indication of how this summer will go, I'll fully on board! Anchors away!

Celebrity Spotter:
Glenda Bailey, editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar (lobby of Hearst building)

xoxo,
Becca

Some of my new friends and I at the Boat Basin reppin' our sororities!

 (and yes--those are twins)

 

 

The beautiful Hearst building on my walk to work one morning.

My free loot from the GH closet!

Competitive mags-working hard or hardly working?

Summer and the City

Week 2:
May 28-May 31

Week 2 came and went quickly! Since Monday was Memorial Day, the week felt shorter than usual. On Tuesday I reported to work at Good Housekeeping. Alexandra, the fashion assistant was away so it was only Alena and I to tend to the fashion closet. We got a lot of new clothes and accesories in and we were busy unpacking them. The giant crisis of the day was an incoming delivery from Bloomingdales. The fashion director needed it by 1pm for a run through with the editor in chief later in the afternoon. I spent the majority of the morning  speaking to the Hearst Delivery Service asking them numerous times where the delivery and messenger was. Finally, the delivery came in at 1 exactly, but I had to go down to the delivery center on the 2nd floor to get it because it would take another hour for the messengers to bring it upstairs! Crazy. It was mayhem down there. Orders were flowing in from every which way and messengers were everywhere. After I picked up the Bloomingdales order, the last thing I heard before I left was someone shouting, "SOMEONE HAS TO GO TO LOUIS VUITTON!". The rest of the afternoon was mildly tame and it was interesting to see the editor in chief,Rosemary Ellis, go about the run thru with our fashion director. On Thursday there was to be a shoot in the meatpacking district for the fashion spread. Although I couldn't make this one, I'm hoping to go on one in the future!

At Creative Communciations, I met the other intern I would be working with, Hanna. She had been there last year so it was cool to get her perspective on things. We worked well together and a lot of the tasks we completed using teamwork which made them soooo much easier. Apparently, the luncheon that I had worked on the previous week went swimmingly and everyone was really excited about the successful outcome. The party planners even brought in a box of maccaroons to our office to celebrate our hard work. Hint for the future, maccaroons can and will be an exceptable form of payment! Hanna and I received one of our big projects for the summer- or at least the time being, which was Flickr, the online photo database. Basically, we had to catalog previous ads that the department made onto the website so that they can show it to potential clients or reference a past work themselves. We then had to tag each photo with various words that anyone could easily type in and find the ad on the site. Besides that, I organized completed projects that the department had finished into a filing system and paged through magazines looking for specific ads our department made to tear out and put into binders. Obviously, I was not too bothered by looking through magazines such as Cosmo, Elle, and Harper's on the job. I can definitely live with that. On Thursday, I had lunch with Hanna's friend and some other girls who intern at Seventeen. It was interesting to talk to other interns about their jobs and generally our love of working in the building, for the company, and in the industry. After another week of pure fabulousness, I could get used to this life. Just wait NYC, my journey is just beginning!

Xoxo,
Becca

Celebrity Spotter:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Somewhere on the West Side after dinner)

Washington Square Park after an amazing dark chocolate peanut butter and banana sandwhich at

Peanut Butter and Co. Check it out: http://ilovepeanutbutter.com/