Still the one.

Jenna Lyons talking about lots of things, including social media.

Vacartion.

We're taking a road trip! I haven't been in a car for longer than it takes to get to Cedar Point since we moved to Chicago in 2008. At first this sounded like a really romantic idea—drive the Bourbon Trail, spend a few nights in the French Quarter, lay face down in the white sugar sand of the Redneck Riviera—but now I have severe anxiety-related acid reflux, which isn't romantic at all.

However, nothing relieves stress like a few hours list making, so my I present: OUR ITINERARY!

Day 1: Monday, July 23
Chicago ➞ Bourbon Trail
☛Visit Heaven Hill Distillery and help Paul pick out a barrel by saying things like, I don't really like whiskey straight; dusty bottle hunting; a round of Seelbach Cocktails at the Seelbach Hotel; dinner at St Charles Exchange; more drinks at The Silver Dollar.


Day 2: Tuesday, July 24
Bourbon Trail ➞ Nashville
☛ Visit Four Roses Distillery and warehouse for barrel-picking; hightail it over to Buffalo Trace Distillery for more barrel-picking; hit the road for Nashville; check into Hutton Hotel, where we'll meet Timmy (!) for dinner at Catbird Seat (hopefully) and drinks at Patterson House. Somewhere in there we'll also fit in a round at Holland House Bar & Refuge.


Day 3: Wednesday, July 25
Nashville ➞ New Orleans
☛ Breakfast at the Jack Daniels Distillery; road dog it down to New Orleans and check into The Roosevelt Hotel before diving head first into a frozen Irish Coffee at the Erin Rose. 


Day 4: Thursday, July 26
New Orleans
☛ Watch out: Cure, August, Dominica, Bellocq, Bar Tonique, Soda Shop, Arnaud's French 75, Cochon, The Swizzle Stick Bar at Cafe Adelaide. We're gonna eat/drink everything in your bar/restaurant. 


Day 5: Friday, July 27
New Orleans
☛ John flies down and meets us for a night of fun (but not too much fun) in the French Quarter. I've never met a person who loves to eat boiled underwater creatures as much as my brother, so I'm sure dinner at restaurant that requires eating off of a red and white laminated picnic tablecloth will be in order.

Day 6: Saturday, July 28 - Day 7: Sunday, July 29
New Orleans ➞ Navarre, Florida

☛ Drive my two favorite boys to the beach, as they will surely be hanging their still-drunk (John) and terminally hung-over (Paul, age 41) heads out the window. The main purpose of this visit is to wish my grandma a happy 80th birthday (!!!), but I am also intent on recreating this photo:




Day 8: Monday, July 30
Navarre, Florida ➞ Chicago
☛ It's a long one (916 miles!) but between the three of us, we'll force those 16 hours to fly by with a We're making memories! mantra.

Teen Idol

I'm hella positive for real that I love this song so so much. And if I had to move back into my eighth grade-bedroom, that would be totally fine because the walls would be covered in magazine cutouts of Gwen and it's pretty much all I can do not to decorate my room like that RIGHT NOW.

 Why do I suddenly want to buy L'Oreal Infallible Lipgloss 8 Hour in Red Fatale?

Tiki Pins

I started a Pinterest board to visually define a new wave of tiki, which is basically a collection of palm tree prints and flamingos and electric coral lipstick.

So, if you're into mid-century meets Miami meets mermaids, I'll happily to add you as a pinner and we can swap tropical inspiration photos while I make us banana daiquiris. 

Life is a series of difficult choices.

Which Baskin Robbins should I choose?

Two Songs:

Style Spirit Guide

WHEN MY FRIEND SWINGS BY WITHOUT TELLING ME, 

AND MY APARTMENT IS A MESS. 

Via #whatshouldwecallme.

This is not my life anymore, because I kept my house clean for an entire month for the first time in my entire life and I'm never looking back. Come on over, all you previously-ignored unannounced visitors! I'll never pretend my doorbell is broken again.

Spring cleaning: my closet.

I've been holding on to a lot of clothes for a lot of years. Most of the items in this bag have been moved from Las Vegas to Ukrainian Village to Logan Square. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of everything—some things I'm afraid I'll always wish hadn't gone to charity (sorry, charity!), so I put them in bins and they go to live in our basement storage unit.  

I used to take up three of the four closets in our apartment, and I'm now down to one. Using the question 'Would I rather have something cuter?', I successfully purged: two bins of nostalgic save-ables, two garbage bags of shoes (I'm down to just 21 pairs!), and three shopping bags of sell-ables.

I took the shoes to the nearest clothing donation dumpster-thing and then endured horrible feelings of judgement and rejection at Buffalo Exchange and turned those bags of impulse-buys and one-time-wears into this:

...which I hope to turn into something nice I will wear all summer. Like maybe a haircut?