The Oscars Gift Lounge

Day 3 (Part 1)

The big day. The Oscars Gift Lounge. If you haven't been following my posts lately, this is my 3rd day in California, for The Oscars Gift Lounge. Day of The Gift Lounge begins......

I woke up like a kid on Christmas morning. Excited, Nervous, and Cannot wait to start the day!

I woke up early to do my hair. Because, If you know me, I have a TON of hair. And it takes a lot of time to look so effortlessly perfect haha.

I curl my hair for two hours. I had been practicing hairstyles for weeks before and curling it was what I had decided on. After I finish, I think...

"Hmm.... the curl isn't staying in.... I wonder why?"

I BOUGHT FRIZZ SPRAY. NOT HAIR SPRAY.

Fail.

I was so annoyed with myself I couldn't even believe it. My hair was a hot mess for the gift lounge. But there was nothing I could do about it. At least it wasn't "poodle"like, which is normally is. But it was not the gorgeous curls I had practiced weeks before. You win some, you loose some.

On to makeup... I had practiced my makeup for weeks before hand as well. I was lucky enough that Seven4 Cosmetics sent me some makeup to play with for the big event (also, a TAG member! Check out her items... I LOVE THEM).

I was thrilled that even though my hair DID NOT come out as planned, at least my makeup looked awesome. Of course, Looking back through my phone I can't find a single picture of just my face. But trust me- it looked hot.

Now....

I get to the Gift Lounge and it is a whirlwind of excitement. The hotel floor I was standing in the night before had been transformed into this beautiful gift lounge!

They brought in the beautiful cake they made for The Oscars Gift Lounge. It is GORGEOUS. I wanted to eat it haha. That probably wouldn't have ended well.. so instead I just took a picture near it.

And as you can see in the photo... my hair is not curly.

After walking through the gift lounge... I started getting nervous. Celebs were due to arrive at any moment. I stood by the exhibit, clipboard in hand.. waiting.

and waiting.

I was freaking myself out for no reason. Celebs are people just like us. There was no reason for me to be nervous. But obviously, I was. I mean.. It's me here. I get a little nervous talking to people I don't know- let alone celebrities. So I stood there, gripping my clipboard for dear life.

Now, The Gift Lounge started at 11:00am. Also, starting at 11am was The Wendy Williams Show- which The Artisan Group had some of their items on. So Val, comes up to me and informs me that she is going to go downstairs to the lobby to catch the show. That normally celebrities don't come right at 11:00.... and if I needed anything, to text her. She'll be back in 15 minutes.

No biggie. I thought that was fine... she'll only be gone 15 minutes... celebrities normally don't come right at the opening. I'll be fine.

You can guess what happened.

A celeb came in. Right at 11. I see him come into the room with his talent escort (every celeb in the gift lounge comes through with a talent escort who carries a huge bag of items as the celeb makes his/her way through the lounge). I recognize him immediately since I am a big ABC Family watcher (yes, I admit that. I love ABC Family and always will. Don't Judge Me.)

It was D.W. Moffett.

Valerie was not there. It was just me. And he was coming.

There were 7 other sponsors in our room. So I had time to prepare once I saw him come in. I went over and over in my head what I would say. I prayed I wouldn't start stuttering. or fall.

He made it over to our table and I walk up to him with as much confidence as I could muster. I start talking and immediate stutter. I get completely tongue tied and then just stop and said "You are my first pitch ever for this, So I am very sorry to be stumbling through it." And of course, start laughing because what else can I do at this point. He was SO INCREDIBLY NICE. He started laughing a bit and told me I was doing great and don't worry. I finally make it through my pitch and he decides he doesn't want to pose with any item but just in front of the table.

I felt like I failed. The main goal of this event is to get celebs to pose with an item... not just stand in front of the table.I felt horrible. Val wasn't there... my first celeb ever and he doesn't pose with a single item. I felt a bit defeated. He then came up to me right after taking the photo and said "Stevie, don't worry, you did great. You'll have a good day here".

I did a big sigh of relief when he said that to me. Even though I didn't manage to get a photo for my first celeb, he was just so nice that it made me feel like maybe I could actually handle this. Maybe.

Val came back 3 minutes later... of course, haha. She said The Wendy Williams segment went awesome. I then had to tell her I had a celebrity come through already. She said it was absolutely fine that he didn't pose with an item--- her and our photographer, Igor, said it was okay (Igor is our photographer for both days... he hangs around and takes pics for 4 sponsors for the event. So super nice and really funny guy). Igor said I did a good job with the pitch- since he stood there waiting to take the pic, he heard the whole thing.

I still was a nervous wreck. Even though I did my first celebrity pitch ever, without my mentor around, I still didn't know if I could make it throughout the day. Getting those celebrity pictures is something extremely important to this event... I was sweating, my stomach was in knots, and I wished we didn't have a small break in between celebs so I could just keep going and try again. I didn't want to let Val down. She had faith in me enough to invite me to participate in this event. I really didn't want to disappoint her...........

Wondering what happened next?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of Day 3!