Bake Box

What’s better than interviewing interesting young entrepreneurs? Interviewing interesting young entrepreneurs who make yummy treats and let you sample them!

On one of my many writing adventures this summer I interviewed 19-year-old Eric Battiston. Eric is the owner of Bake Box, a custom cake design studio in Vaughan he started a year ago.  I interviewed him for a feature in Whatever Magazine as he put together a two-tiered orange and blue fondant floral cake. And then he sent me home with raspberry buttercream frosting cupcakes (best interviewee ever? I think so!). I hope many more food-related stories are in my future.

You can check out the latest issue of Whatever Magazine and the story here.

So Long Sweet Summer

The days are getting shorter, the sleeves are getting longer and my skin is getting paler.

As much as we’d like to fight it, summertime has slipped from our fingers and fall will soon be reining in full force. Before we say  one last goodbye to the long and lazy days of the sunny season I decided to recap some key moments that made these last few months a summer to remember. There were exciting firsts, satisfying accomplishments, unexpected opportunities and great times spent with new and old friends.

Hello fall; you have some big shoes to fill, but I’m confident you can do it.

Networking

Some of my new friends from the Girls' Brunch

After graduation in May, I made it my number one priority to get out there and make some new contacts when I moved back to the GTA. Luckily Twitter and Facebook made it easy to find out about a wide variety of events specifically put on to meet other young professionals with similar interests. Some I attended include:

• PWAC Cheers with Peers
• MagNet 2010
• #GenYTO
• Girls’ Day Out Brunch

Writing

I’m happy to say networking helped me land some new writing assignments this summer. As you probably know, I’ve been working hard at my freelance writing career over the last few months and the results have been quite satisfying. Here are some of the highlights:

• Front page of the London Free Press Business section
• Started contributing to Your Pets Magazine
• Contributing to The Beat Magazine’s June and August issues
• Writing services for a local business
• Contributing to TalentEgg.ca
• Registered my own freelance writing business (more about this in the near future)

Fun

Bracing the wind on Lake Joseph

What’s summer without some good times? The networking and the writing also turned into some memorable times, but there is nothing like some good old fashion summer activities to enjoy the warm days and sunny weekends. Some notable things include:

• A trip to the Cayman Islands to visit family
• Weekends in Muskoka
• Catching a Jays game under the open Dome
• Free Metric concert outside Union Station
• Backstreet Boys at Molson Amphitheatre
• Hanging out on Queen Street, College Street and King Street
• Yummy dining experiences at Fresh, 7 Numbers, Pizza Libretto, Dimmi, Ciao Wine Bar, Sarpa, Avenue, Kalendar, and Spice Route
• Riding the Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland
• Ending off the season on a high note with a trip to New York City to experience Fashion’s Night Out

Fashion's Night Out at Tiffany's

Thanks for the memories summer 2010!

The Intern Diaries: Week One

Me infront of the City Hall Building in St. Petersburg

It’s official. I’ve survived week one as a Florida intern and so far, so good. Except its quite colder than I would like.

Here is a recap of the week:

• I actually got a head start and covered a story the Saturday before I was supposed to officially begin. It was the inauguration of the mayor of St.Petersburg, Bill Foster, and I attended the swearing in ceremony at City Hall. Although I did not get a chance to talk with the new mayor, I got to speak with a few city council members and some locals who attended. It ended up being the lead story for the paper.
• I got a swanky press pass that I will be flashing at every opportunity AND my own email address.
• I was able to get an exit interview with the former mayor of St. Petersburg, Rick Baker. We talked over coffee at a local restaurant, and the editor came along to take some photos and observe my interviewing skills. It was great to speak with the man who ran the city for nine years and I learned about how the community has grown and changed for the better over the decade. It was a little nerve racking to have the editor watch me interview my subject, but he said he was proud of how well I did considering I had no previous knowledge of politics in the city.
• Later that day I attended a public hearing at City Hall, my first ever. A group of city officials have been assigned to discuss ideas for renovating the downtown Pier with an architectural firm, and they met to present some construction plans. I reported on the different suggestions presented by the consultants along with the costs and the reactions from officials.

Click here to read my articles in Pinellas News this week