Great weekend already :o)

Good afternoon!

We just got the chance to meet Avon's CEO, Andrea Jung! She took an hour out of her day to sit and tell us her story as a very successful beauty industry CEO (1 of very few) and let us ask her any questions. She was really interesting to listen to and I like hearing her background of how she grew up and the struggles she's had has a female CEO...but honestly, I am very thankful I a part of the mark. brand and working under Claudia Poccia (mark.'s president). Maybe because we work in the same office as Claudia and there's literally two cubicles between me and her office, but she seems easier to relate to and talk to on a more personal level. I know being a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company is a little different, but Andrea didn't get as personal with us...like asking us to introduce ourselves like we do every week with whoever speaks to us.

But all in all, I got such a great feeling about working for (ultimately) Avon and how she "runs" the company as a compassionate woman. It was such an honor to get to sit with her and listen to her story, and I really wish more young women and business women could meet her! I might sound biased, but Andrea has struggled through her life to make it to the top as a female. She said leading Avon was never in her plans, but when she interviewed with them the very first time and learned how she could help the world but be in a corporate world as well, she said she instantly fell in love with the company and knew she wanted to strive to get to the top. Even after being passed up by an older man for 17 months, she still made it to become CEO, and is currently on her 10th year doing so.

Also, to make today even better, we finally got to sit down Claudia and have her tell us her story - which by the way is amazing! She is abosolutely one of the best people I know and I hope to stay in contact with her throughout my career. She has had her ups and downs as any business leader, but her personality and mannerisms are so personal and so welcoming. I wish I would have taken notes for both Andrea and Claudia, but I know that what they've shared and mentored me with, I will always have with me and will hopefully be able to share with everyone I know.

Now it's 5 and time to go, but I just wanted to share my excitement with everyone! Today was very inspiring..oh, and I got to sit down with mark.'s head marketing, Lily, and go over my project. I have been nervous for that for a week, but once we were in her office and going over everything, we had a great time! She was more relaxed than what she has always looked like, but we actually lost track of time and she really liked what I've been working on :o)

So now we are going to go to our last official intern social (also with the Avon interns) then hopefully I will get to see Barbara and Paige (Scott's aunt and cousin who are in town for the weekend!) Have a great friday night and I'll update you on the weekend soon!!

Love, Taylor

Good morning!

Hi everyone! I don't have pictures for this post (sorry) but I just want to say hi...and that I have only 10 more days until coming home!!

I am getting really excited to come home...don't tell anyone here :o) I also am very excited because a few days ago I bought George Strait tickets for me and Scott, so as soon as I land next Saturday, I'll get going strait to see George!

For a little update on the week, I haven't been too busy with meetings or speakers, but yesterday we did get the opportunity to have Jean Chatzky come speak to us for about 2 hours! I had only heard of her name and never looked her up, but once we found out she was planning to come see us, I googled her - and she's really known!! If you haven't heard of her, I suggest first going to http://www.jeanchatzky.com/ to read her blog and learn her credibility. When she came in yesterday, it was mainly to tell her story and to give us advice on investing and credit cards. Honestly I didn't learn a lot, but in all fairness I think it's because 1. I don't have a credit card so I couldn't compare habits or my usage of one with what she telling us to do and 2. when she was talking about investing, I honestly didn't understand what she was talking about or I already knew the advice she was giving. But after taking the time last night and today to read more on her blog and seeing the books she's written, I really want to start learning about all that "stuff" by starting with her. She was extremely nice and down to earth, and she was very easy to talk to! So I guess I'll be getting back to what I learn and how I start saving and investing money...hopefully soon :o)

Jean was our last (planned) outside speaker we are going to have, but Friday we get to meet the big lady, Andrea Jung (CEO of Avon!) at our graduation ceremony. Other than that, we still have a few meetings and dates planned to spend with mark.'s president, Claudia Poccia (who, like I've said, is amazing!), but all we have left are attending each other's presentations and working on our own projects until our planned day. I can't believe how fast this time flew by! In the beginning, 10 weeks honestly felt like it was going so slow and that it was going to take forever to get through....I was so wrong! It was practically overnight that I felt like 1 week seemed like all summer to feeling sad that I'll be leaving all the other 11 interns and worrying about my "to-do" because there's still so much stuff to see and of course, just not enough time :o) As of Monday, some of us told ourselves that we weren't just going to go home right after work, and that we would treat it like a weekend and do stuff. I really should have told myself that from the beginning, but I can't go back now so I have to start asap! There really isn't too much left on my list, but the one I'm honestly worried about is my cupcake/bakery list and how I have more on my list that I have days to left....sooo that will just mean I have to come back right?! I don't know what I'll do after work today, but maybe getting a cupcake from a bakery I haven't been to yet, then maybe visiting some more touristy areas (like Washington Square or something) and maybe even working out at our gym on campus...haha we'll see!

I guess I'm going to get back to work now. Even though I don't present until next Thursday, I still have to practice with my mentor and do other small tasks...so I need to try to finish my project today...scary!

I hope y'all are having a good day and the weekend is halfway here!! Talk to you soon!

Love, Taylor

Hi! I hope you had a good weekend! I hung out with Hanna U all weekend and we had a great time! Friday night after having dinner at a pizza place that serves HUGE slices of pizza, I went home and just hung out and went to bed early - it was nice!

Then Saturday, me and Hanna went shopping all day...always good. We started off in SoHo, worked our way north to West Village, where a store had this huge bag to advertise their sale...

Then we went east to East Village, and came across Tiles For America, a 9/11 memorial...the first 2 pictures here are for the Barney's ad that I thought was cute.

This are the actual tiles:

Then we came across Max Brenner - a delicous chocolate store/restaurant that we ended up eating at. There are chocolate syringes that you could buy!

This is the plate of vanilla creme profiteroles that we ordered - thankfully we shared something!

East Village was a little strange, but this is a quote that I really like on a trashcan:

And this is a mosaic on a light pole that I also liked:

We didn't get close enough to see what this building was, but it's obviously a little different :o)

Yes...this is a Home Depot in the middle of the Flatiron district

And this is the Flatiron building!

After walking around and shopping all day, we got back home pretty early to be rested for another long day (today).

However, we ended up getting a late start, so we started at the Guggenheim museum first. It was pretty cool, but it was really only Frank Lloyd Wright's architecural drawings

This is the inside of the museum:

After the museum, we stayed on the Upper East side and found a little deli to eat a really early dinner at (so we could get a great dessert later) After eating, we went back to the upper west side to go home, and ended up finding Jon Gosselin's new apartment!

Once we got back home, we layed out while it was still kind of sunny, but not too long after it started getting cloudy. So we decided to go ahead and go get dessert from our new favorite restaurant by campus. As soon as we started walking over there it started pouring, and this is a view from inside the restaurant once it got pretty heavy:

This is the menu of the restraunt..it's mainly gelato, regular crepes, sweet crepes, salads, sandwiches, and really pretty tarts and mini cakes.

This is the delicious Berry and Swiss Chocolate crepe I got!

This weekend was another low key, exploring weekend, but I am well rested and found some new favorite places! Tomorrow I have to go back to work and hopefully start wrapping up my project, because presentations start on Tuesday!!! I luckily don't have to present until next Thursday, but it would be nice to get done early and help around the office (like the product closet!)

I should be updating daily soon since I only have 2 more weeks and A LOT of places still on my list to visit...so each day after work I plan on crossing those places off an not just going straight home for the evening. But for now I need to go to bed, so I'll update you again soon :o)

Love and miss everyone, Taylor

Scents and Sensibility

Good evening! Let me catch you up :o)

Yesterday was yet another great field trip! At mark. (like most all brands who sell fragrances), there are fragrance houses that are used to create the perfect fragrance to sell. I didn't know this before yesterday, but mostly all fragrances are not made by the brand that "owns" it. For instance, one of mark.'s main fragrance houses we use (and one of the biggest in the industry) is Firmenich. We got the opportunity to visit their New York office (only one in the US) and learn about the process of making a fragrance, how they work with each client/brand, and we got to smell different scents (like violet, pinapple, cinnamon, and even combined several to make different scents, like chocolate).

mark.'s current fragrance that Firmenich made is Jewel (my favorite!). I wish I could remember everything we talked about yesterday to share, but to get a glimpse of where we went and what we saw, you can go to http://www.firmenich.com/ and http://www.osmoz.com/. These obviously can't let you smell what we got to or see upcoming scents (which was really exciting!) but it's a good taste of how a fragrance house works and explains how most fragrances aren't really the brand's original.

Here are the pictures I took from the trip:

This was the main lobby

This was the room we stayed in for the presentation and smellings

The table set up of the mark. fragrances they've done. The black boxes are self training sets created by one of their own Chemists that the public can buy to train themselves on fragrances - I might be purchasing one :o)

I think they knew how much we love cupcakes because they had these for us

Me and Alison - the mark.eting interns!

I chose the red velvet cupcake of course!

Me and Claire - roommates

They even had mark. M&Ms!!

This is how many blotter cards we smelled, each with their own scent on them (either a raw material, works in progress, or upcoming fragrances!)

Today wasn't very eventful for me (except for getting my haircut, yay). However, in our conference room, PR set up a great "sneak peek" of our upcoming products for fashion editors to come look at! I didn't really know about this until this morning when I was asked if I had my camera to come take pictures of the set up (for online and creative visuals) but it was so fun to see some products that I have yet to hear about...so you also get a sneak peek of the upcoming products for the rest of the year!

This is at the main table, starting with Magalog 10 (we just started 8, so in 2 months 10 will be coming out)

All the way to Magalog 13 which will come out in December!

This is the back table with the goodies and cute decorations

And of course, some pink and brown M&Ms...except we didn't get mark. printed on them like Firmenich did for us yesterday :o(

The candy/product goody bar

And the infamous Trend Book - this is a new thing for mark. and everyone in the office has worked really hard on it for months, so when it's finally out it will be very exciting for the company! It basically features upcoming trends and what we will be bringing out in the future - which is what's on the tables for this event

And the whole conference room in one glance - PR did a great job at setting this up for the editors and I can't wait to find out how they liked it!

After work, I went straight to the Aveda salon by campus and finally got my haircut! I didn't get as risky as I thought I would, but it's still a lot shorter than before...but SO much healthier!

And not that you asked, but this is a delicious New York intern's dinner before getting paid again...salad and rice...but I promise it was delicious :o)

Also, when I checked the mail today, I got a wonderful envelope with Glenn Beck's new book, Common Sense from Scott. I have already started reading it, and love it...so thank you Scott for that surprise!

For now I'm going to clean dishes, read my new book, and hopefully go to bed early since I was very tired today...but thank you for still staying connected with my internship!

Can't wait to be home!

Love, Taylor

weekend 7...already?!

Happy Monday to everyone! I don't know about you, but even though I had a low-key, restful weekend, I was still tired today.

Starting on Friday after work, me, Claire and another intern Rachel went to Central Park for a free performance by the New York Philharmonic! We first went to the store to get dinner for a picnic, since we were told everyone will be having their own - and it was so fun! Here are a few pictures from it:

This is just a small view from The Great Lawn in Central Park - the whole lawn was packed like this!

Halfway through the show, it started raining so we didn't see the end or the fireworks - but it was still a fun experience!

Saturday morning, me and Claire woke up early from a well rested night. We first walked through Central Park, all the way over to the Upper East side for some Madison Avenue shopping...well...window shopping :o)

Here is Central Park again

A VERY bright soon-to-be store

I didn't take any pictures while walking along Madison Avenue since me and Claire already stuck out enough - but it was wonderful to see all the flagship stores for the brands like Christian Louboutin, BCBG, Barney's, Chanel, and so many more! I bought only one thing from BCBG (because they had a great sale!) and the pictures are a few down.

After Madison Avenue, we walked towards Bloomingdales and a few more affordable stores. Along the way we came across this pretty hotel (that I forgot the name, of course)

We ate lunch at this place, called the Bread Factory, and these desserts looked so good - I will be going back!

After shopping Bloomingdale's great sale, we went back through Central Park to the Upper West Side (closer to us) to go to Loehmann's (another great discounted name brand store) but stopped at the famous Shake Shack first to get a chocolate shake!

Here are my findings for the day...

These black and white shoes were inspired by mark.'s President, Claudia Poccia, who had similar Christian Louboutin's on Friday...of course I can't afford Christian's, but when I found these I couldn't pass them up (and they were only $20!!) I should send them in to Glamour or someone who does the "Splurge and Steal" articles :o)

These were my favorite purchase of the day - Coach shoes...for only $50 - and they are REAL!

This is my BCBG dress from the flagship store on Madison Avenue - blurry picture, sorry (and the background isn't my side of the room)

After a long day of shopping, we ate dinner at home then had movie and popcorn night with another suitemate.

On Sunday we slept in, then went back to spend most of the day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I hadn't been yet, but it was really good!

This is just a picture of a street on the Upper West Side while we were walking to Central Park that I thought was really pretty

Walking through Central Park to get to the Met from our direction, ran us into the Jackie O Reserve, which is really huge and a gorgeous view!

We finally made it!

This was the main exhibit I wanted to see while it was still here - The Model As Muse - and it was extremely good for all females :o)

After The Model As Muse, me and Claire went our own ways since we have different tastes of art, and this is the first that I went in to - The Picture Generation

This is the edited version from my computer

Then I tried getting to a few more exhibits, but the museum is so big that I just had to walk until I came to something that looked interesting

Then I ran into the main food area

Which led to the knights and armour wing

After seeing most of what I was interested, I went outside on the steps early and waited for Claire

Seeing everyone eat something that smelled delicious, I talked myself into getting a prezel. I normally don't like these, and didn't eat very much of it, but I now have bought a street vendor pretzel and have a cool picture from the day I went to the Met

After leaving the Met when it closed, we took the walk back through Central Park and headed home. Once we got home, I did some laundry and read my current book, Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult (which is really good so far!)

Today at work wasn't too busy, but I did get to spend some time in our product closet to place orders on products that we are running low on. We have a product closet for Marketing and PR, since they have a ton of people to meet and send gifts to...since they hadn't restocked the Marketing products for a couple of months, I got to do that today - which was a lot more fun that I'm making it sound I'm sure.

Tomorrow should also be interesting - we are getting to go to our fragrance house! What I basically know about it, is that is the company that works with us to make our fragrances (for the past 2 years or so), but hopefully tomorrow at 1pm I'll start learning more about what they do and how they work with mark.

I hope you had somewhat of a good Monday and that only means Friday is closer :o)

Love and miss everyone, Taylor