{So Long Sweet Summer}

It is, sadly, not so hard for me to believe that this summer has already come to an end. Since I started my job a mere three days after college graduation, I didn't have much time to relax and get into summer-mode. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful summer full of friends, family and great times.

{Where it all began: my graduation from Fordham University, May 21, 2011.}

{Not too bad for an early morning commute.}

{Memorial Day Weekend at Ship Ahoy Beach Club.}

{Thomas moved into his apartment on East 22nd Street.}

{Mark Murphy, Ana Murphy, Dad, Me, John Robinson, Lindsay Robinson, Nick Ford, Blaike Ford. Graduating was celebrated with a Father-Daughter dinner at Rumson Country Club.}

{A lovely graduation party was held at my dad's house for Jack, me and the other cousins who graduated this year. Seven of us in all!}

{I can't believe Jack graduated from 8th grade and is starting high school this week! It feels like yesterday that he was baby. I am so proud of all he has overcome (and is still overcoming). What an inspiring young man I have for a little brother.}

{I made my first visit to Paris in June for a work trip. Not too shabby for a first job!}

{As a Mets fan, I was reluctant to attend a Yankees game. But hey, the tickets were free :)}

{Many a morning was spent at the Union Square Greenmarket on my way to the subway.}

{Trips to Brooklyn are always full of surprises, like this great "installation art" found in Williamsburg.}

{We had drinks and appetizers at a darling place in Brooklyn, Nita Nita. They had a great outdoor seating area with mismatched furniture that made youfeel like we were in a good friend's backyard!}

{4th of July weekend was spent on Shelter Island, New York with good friends from college.}

{Thomas and I trekked to the west side on 4th of July Monday to watch the Macy's Fireworks on the Hudson. They were unbelievable, as was the number of people surrounding us watching. I'm so glad we saw them up close and not on a TV screen, but I am also so glad we can say "we did it!" and don't have to deal with those crowds ever again.}

{View from a penthouse suite in the Thompson Hotel.}

{Liz, me, Mom. We spent an afternoon shopping at Bergdorfs and Saks, then ate dinner and saw "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" on Broadway. The perfect girls night!}

{Two of my best friends from Fordham, Cait and Anne, visited for a weekend. It was so fun to show them around my hometown.}

{My little sister, Hannah, and I baked a lot with our cousin Elizabeth, who has a new love for baking.}

{The weather this summer (for the most part) was beautiful, and we spent a lot of evenings at our beach club.}

{One of the things I miss most about the Bronx is Estrellita Poblana, a restaurant and delivery place with the best Mexican food I have ever tasted. Thomas and I spent a good part of this summer searching Manhattan for something just as tasty. We had a delicious brunch at Vamos, a restaurant near his apartment.}

{Tropical Storm Irene made an appearance.}

{My lovebug of a niece, Kendall, gets more and more adorable by the day! I can't believe she is almost a year old, and I can't imagine not having her in our family.}

{This is how Bullet spent his summer. Relaxing. Every. Single. Day.}

It was an amazing summer, but fall is my favorite season and I am so excited for the adventures to come!

{New York is my campus}

Fordham University's "catch phrase" is "New York is my campus, Fordham is my school," a statement which, although cheesy, I find to ring more and more true as I continue to take advantage of being minutes away from Manhattan. Being able to take advantage of one of the greatest cities in the world has been remarkable. I saw President Barack Obama speak in Washington Square Park in the September of my freshmen year (over two years ago now), have visited numerous museums, interned at wonderful places, saw a little band by the name of U2 perform on the same field of grass that I snuck beers on during warm spring days, and have been introduced to all kinds of people, just to name some of the things I have experienced.

While that little walk down memory lane was fun, I am only continually adding to the list of things I have experienced while here at Fordham University. Most recently, this past Tuesday and the Friday before that, I attended two fashion job events sponsored by the Career Services Center. On Friday I was part of a group that visited the Saks Fifth Avenue corporate center, and met with their head of HR to learn about what kind of internship programs Saks offers. Not only did this experience educate me on Saks's fascinating history, it also supplied me with suggestions applicable when applying to any internship or job. The same goes for the event I attended on Tuesday, called "Careers in Fashion." We were introduced to representatives from Ross Stores, Abercrombie & Fitch, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Target. Again, the panelists provided us with such important information on topics such as resumes, how to present yourself, and how to act while interning.

These two events really showed me how imperative it is that you reach out to your respective school's career services center to see what kind of learning opportunities and services they can provide you with.

I found these tips so important and useful that I have decided to post them here! I hope you enjoy, and find them as useful as I did! {While these were offered by people in the fashion world and some may only apply to that industry, many other tips are applicable in any situation!}

1. Be someone that a company will want to hire! Have a high level of integrity, be goal-oriented, self-motivated, entreprenureal, and have good teamwork skills. Always try to authentically exceed your employers expectations. Enthusiasm and unique answers are always appreciated. Make your prospective employer see that hiring you is worth their investing!

2. Have good communication and social skills. The gregarious applicants stand out more strongly than the wallflowers.

3. Be passionate about your internship. Even if it isn't exactly what you want to do as a career, try to focus on one aspect of it that you can connect to and learn a lot from.

4. HAVE AN OPINION! What are you interested in? What books are you reading or what music are you listening to? Be able to answer what changes you would make to a company. It is good to show that you are interested in progression for the future.

5. Be knowledgable of the business you want to be in. Constantly be observing those around you, what are you seeing?

6. Have both sides of your brain working; be analytical and interested in popular culture. Be on top of what is going on and what is up-and-coming.

7. Think of anything you may have done that could apply to the job you are interested in. Working in retail for three years during high school is really helpful when applying to a job in the corporate side of fashion!

8. Above all else, be honest. Don't lie on your resume, don't exaggerate your skills and experiences to be greater than they were. Prospective employers will see right through it.

{New York Restaurant Week}

This week I was lucky enough to take advantage of the great deals offered during New York City Restaurant Week. On Sunday night, I ate at Tao, and on Wednesday night I ate at Rosa Mexicano. It is not every week that I get to take a break from cafeteria food to eat both delicious Asian and Mexican food!

I had never been to Tao before, and was really excited to check it out. I loved the exposed brick walls and the use of candles practically everywhere, including cutouts in the walls. The food was delicious, though I would definitely recommend ordering a few different appetizers to share instead of larger entrees.

I had eaten at Rosa Mexicano a few times before, mostly because of its close proximity to Fordham's Lincoln Center campus. One of Rosa's best attributes is that service is fast. Within a minute of ordering our guacamole (my favorite!), the guacamole cart was next to our table and it was being prepared right before our eyes. Definitely one of the coolest parts about Rosa's. For dinner I had the steak tacos, which is served more fajita style, which is great because I was able to make them just to my liking.

Taking advantage of opportunities like this, being able to eat at excellent restaurants, is just another reason why I love living in New York City.

{New year, new beginnings}

I have been trying to start a blog for a little over a year now. I am an avid reader of blogs (I follow about 30 on a day-to-day basis) and I am constantly being inspired by the creative people and ideas that I discover online.

How perfect, then, that one of my classes for the Spring 2010 semester, Writing for Online Media with Professor Strate, requires that we create, maintain, and post onto our own blogs at least three times a week.

While some students might find an assignment like this, worth 50% of our final grade, mind you, overwhelming, daunting, and annoying, I find it to be an enjoyable challenge. I am beyond excited to *hopefully* join the ranks and the friendly community of bloggers that I already love and enjoy following.

I'm a little hesitant to put into words what I hope for this blog to be about, because I know it will end up being a mix of fashion, home decor, NYC, crafting, my daily life, and happenings in Fashion for Philanthropy as we lead up to our big spring fashion show. I guess, for the sake of narrowing my interests down, this blog, in short, will be about things that inspire me. And trust me when I say that all of this is subject to change.

So here goes, and I hope you enjoy!