Once Upon an Internship....

Week 10:
July 22- July 26

As the end of July nears, I am attempting to wrap my head around the fact that my internships are almost over! This summer has gone unbelievably fast and I have enjoyed each and every moment of it (well, most of them at least!). This week at Good Housekeeping we were still prepping for November. We began to assemble the looks for the coat story and the belt story. Our fashion director returned after a vacation in Italy and was very pleased to see the new and improved, but mostly clean, closet. We began checking into our inventory shipments of boots, hats, mittens, scarfs, and an odd assortment of items and trinkets for our holiday gift guide spread. The other intern and I also continued to work on our project of updating the massive contact list. The list, like the closet, was new and improved. It was very exciting to see our hard work come together and the fashion assistant applauded us for a job well done.

Although the United Way shoot was over a few weeks ago, we still had items that needed to be taken care of at Creative Communications. We received the last few quotes from the participants. This process was quote painful and involved the Hanna and I stalking the participants who had not yet given their quotes. You may think the term 'stalking' is a little extreme, but it sure felt like this was what we were doing. We sent them emails on emails, called them, until they finally caved and we received their quote. Some were way more difficult than others. At this point, we still do not have Anne Fulenwider's quote. Her assistant keeps dodging us, but don't worry, the super interns will prevail! We also began to send the photos from the shoot to the participants. They wanted to use the photos for other purposes such as Facebook, LinkedIn, or a monthly column. Some were very happy with their final picture, and others...not so much. One of those unhappy campers just happens to be the assistant to Joanna Coles. He made his unhappiness extremely evident when he telephoned me asking me to change his photo or he will (and I direct quote here): personally hunt me down. Let's just say that the situation was taken care of. Other than the United Way, we continued to work on the Infiniti event. The coffee cups and sleeves were delivered and the VIP wristbands are on their way to Pebble Beach. After much deliberation, the jackets and polos were approved and are being completed hopefully as we speak. Besides major projects, we worked on recipes for the fall edition of Delish magazine and the new CEO, Steve Swartz's celebratory gala in September. For this, I contact a calligrapher to address the invitations and am currently working on finding either a wax or faux wax seal for the envelopes. On Friday, I also worked on the FAB retirement book, a project we had started earlier in the summer. I was in charge of scanning FAB's personal documents so we can put them in the book. I thought it was going to be a normal, uneventful scanning session, until I scanned a personal letter from Jimmy Carter ( YES--that Jimmy Carter) to FAB. Let's just say that this was the highlight of my day.

xoxo,

Becca

Celebrity Spotter
-Does a note from Jimmy Carter count? (much to my dismay, I didn't think so either)

Say Cheese!

Week 9
July 15- July 19

As usual, I was excited for my two favorite days at Good Housekeeping. This week, Jasmine was in Italy on vacation and Victoria was busy going to PR open houses to see trends for fall, so Alena and I were alone for most of the day in the closet. No worries, we were busy as every and started a few new projects. Victoria wanted to clean out the closet as a surprise for Jasmine's return. Alena and I and the other interns took turns tackling different parts of the closet, some that looked like that had been untouched for years. By the time we were done, the place looked amazing. We cleaned out a ton and were able to send some stuff back that had been lingering in the closet for far too long. For the things we could not find homes for, we put into a giveaway bin. I'm excited for Jasmine to come back to see her reaction about the closet and most of all to approve the things in the giveaway bin so we can start rummaging through it for ourselves! Alena and I also started to update the contact sheet. We started a new doc on Google that everyone can access and began with contacting various contacts we have listed on our current sheet. We have learned that a lot of the contacts are really outdated. Hopefully, by the end of our time at Good Housekeeping we either fully update the contact list or have at least made a dent in it!

At Creative Communications, it was a happy but sad day on Wednesday as we finished our last day of shoots for the United Way. We had a full schedule and were booked solid from 9:30-5:30. As with the past days of shoots, we got to meet more really interesting Hearst employees and our photographer Phillip made the shoots a blast. The last person we shot was the editor in chief of Marie Claire, Anne Fullenwider. Her shoot took 45 minutes. She also had a personal make-up person who touched her up every few minutes. It was all quite extravagant and gave Hanna and I a good laugh. The next two days after the shoot were spent collecting quotes about the United Way charities that people had not yet given us and sorting out items for the Infiniti event that is rapidly approaching. We were able to check off a few items on our list that have been already delivered to California, however, the polos and jackets have proved to be very difficult. Every time we get a sample of a new item, the embroidery is not perfect and we have to get another sample. We are beginning to run out of time to see any new samples. Hopefully, these two items can be approved and we can move on so we can place the order so we do not have to panic in the next few weeks leading up to the event.


xoxo,
Becca

Celebrity Spotter
Joanna Coles, Hearst building, hailing a cab (yes even editor in chiefs take public transportation)
Anne Fullenwider, United Way shoots

 

Joanna Coles EIC of Cosmo, hailing a cab

 

The new building at the site of the twin towers

 

Phillip with EIC Anne Fullenwider of Marie Claire

Christmas in July

Week 8:

July 8 - July 12

It is mid-July here in NYC and the weather is hot hot hot! This weather definitely does not match what we have been getting in at Good Houskeeping. We are already working on the November issue and have been receiving shipments of coats and other cold weather clothing. We are now working on a coat story in addition to the belt story so we have been busy checking things in. We have also started to clean up the closet and send back things that should have been returned a long, long time ago. Some of this stuff we cannot find an owner so we get to put it in the giveaway box aka it's for the taking! We also continued to find credit for the celebrity spread and the teacher spread.

At Creative Communications, we are still hard working on the Infiniti event for this August. We have been in contact with various vendors for the premium items and for t-shirts and jackets. We are trying to get samples of the products so we can approve them but also figure out an exact delivery date for the items to be sent to Pebble Beach so we aren't in a panic when the event rolls around. We didn't have a photo shoot for the United Way on Wednesday, but we still worked hard on it, getting staff member's quotes, scheduling more shoots and rearranging the schedule. On Thursday and Friday we had more shoots and they were both a blast. I really enjoy meeting the all the different types of people that come to get their photo taken. Some of the most memorable was the assistant to Joanna Coles, a editor at Harper's, staff from Food Network Magazine, and Ann Shoket from Seventeen. On Friday I worked the shoot alone and was able to manage well. Our last day of shoots is this week and it makes me sad that such a big project we have been working on has come and gone so fast! I want to end this post by giving a big shout out to whomever brought Baked by Melissa Cupcakes to the office on Friday. This was a much needed Friday treat.

xoxo,

Becca

Celebrity Spotter
-AMANDA BYNES (in front of Hearst after work, and if you can't tell, I'm going insane about this spotting)

Red White and Bloomingdales

Week 6:

July 1-July 3

What a way to start off July then with a super short week! This week was the 4th of July so it was basically a long holiday weekend which was really nice. At Good Housekeeping, we had a run through on Monday for our big fashion spreads for the October issue. One spread is for Solve My Style Problem. This problem for this issue was to find cute ways to dress for teachers. The other spread focused on 4 celebrities: America Ferrera, Oprah, Mariska Hartigay, and Martha Stewart. We found pictures of looks from them and then chose similar items so the readers can dress like the celebrities. The editor-in-chief chose the looks she liked and edited out the looks she didn't. We were then in charge of finding credit information for the looks that she liked so readers could see information about the product and where to buy it. These credits will be published in the Shopping Guide at the back of the magazine.

At Creative Communications, the day finally came! And by day, I mean the first day of United Way photo shoots! I was really excited to meet some of the people we have been corresponding with and to be present in general for the shoots. Hanna and I got there early and I met the photographer, Phillip, who is extremely fun and really brings people out of their shells during the shoots. Overall, the shoots went really well and most of the people were fun to interact with. During the day, a few people cancelled and others changed around the dates of their shoot. A definite bonus was the fact that next door they were shooting an HGTV Halloween spread and we got all the leftover candy! I'm very much looking forward to the next round of shoots!

xoxo,

Becca

In the spirit of Independence Day, I'm including some shots of how I spent my 4th below!

Macy's Fireworks

Shot of NJ from the West Side Highway