Pelo West Spa at the Galt House

I recently had the opportunity to visit Pelo West Spa at the Galt House Hotel. This is not your typical generic hotel spa, y’all. It’s much, much better.

The edgy decor catches your eye immediately — black walls and green velvet sofas paired with local art. As you check in, you’re offered a choice of water, coffee, champagne or White Claw. I went with bubbles, since I was there to pamper myself!

Beyond the bubbles and the pretty decor, the spa treatments are wonderful! The esthetician, Andrew, was very attentive to my skincare needs and concerns, and he provided an absolutely fantastic facial. I was especially pleased with the microcurrent device treatment which left my skin feeling firm and fresh, as well as the take-home skincare samples. It was an absolutely wonderful experience!

If you’re staying at the Galt House or visiting downtown Louisville, book a visit with Pelo West. In addition to the fantastic facial, they offer massages, hair, nails, and a special Derby Weekend IV Hydration package! Cheers to Pelo West for offering fantastic spa services!

Curling Class at Louisville Curling Club

Bob and I always enjoy watching curling on TV. We’re glued to every Winter Olympics, and seek out any other televised curling matches we can find. So, last winter, when we saw that Derby Curling Club was offering Learn to Curl Classes, we had to give it a try! I just saw that a class is going to be held on Saturday, February 10, so I wanted to share all the details with y’all!

Y’all, curling is hard. Like, really hard. And it was so much fun.

It turns out that curling takes a lot of flexibility, a lot of strategy and some fast footwork on the ice. It’s also pretty cold! The class is broken down into teams of four. The first hour is focused on fundamentals. You learn how to throw the stone and how to sweep. The second hour is reserved for matches between the teams.

I loved sweeping — it was so fascinating and fun to see how applying friction to the ice can alter the stone’s trajectory.Bob has watched the sport closely and understands the game’s strategy, so he was a great skip. It was such an entertaining (and humbling!) experience. You basically have to go from a deep runner’s lunge to a standing position. On ice. While throwing the stone. I may have fallen on the ice a time or two. I also would LOVE to try it again!

Derby City Curling Club classes are held at Alpine Ice Arena, 1825 Gardiner Ln. in Louisville. You can sign up for the next class on the Derby City Curling Club website! If you go, dress in warm layers, wear tennis shoes, and stay hydrated!

Sean Kenney's Nature Connects® LEGO Exhibition at Louisville Zoo

My eight year-old niece is obsessed with LEGOs, so when she came to visit us, I knew she’d love the Sean Kenney's Nature Connects® exhibition at the Louisville Zoo. Mr. Kenney is a renowned artist who creates amazingly detailed sculptures and portraits using LEGO bricks — something that I didn’t even know was possible until I saw his work!

The Nature Connects® exhibition features 16 sculptures made from more than 500,000 LEGO bricks. It was truly fascinating to keep an eye out for each sculpture and to see how well the exhibition was implemented as part of the Zoo. I didn't realize that the Victoria Water Platters were a LEGO exhibit until my niece pointed this one out to me!

The Fox, Rabbit & Baby Rabbit was my very favorite! It was such a realistic take on the wildlife I see here in Louisville when I’m walking my dogs in the morning. Can’t you just see the predatory stance on the fox? The detail is absolutely amazing!

My niece loved the signs beside each installation that gave a backstory into the ecological significance of the subjects, as well as the time and number of bricks it took to complete each piece. It was a great experience for a LEGO enthusiast who also happens to love animals!

Nature Connects® at the Louisville Zoo is free with Zoo admission. The Exhibition lasts through September 17th.

Buff City Soap

{This post contains products gifted to me through my role as a Buff City Soap Brand Ambassador. All opinions are, as always, my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that support HerKentucky!}

I recently had the opportunity to tour the Buff City Soaps makery here in St. Matthews. It is so cute, y’all, and it carries great-smelling products that are plant-based and free of harsh chemicals and animal fats!

I can’t wait to visit Buff City Soap with my little nieces. Of course, they’re obsessed with anything pretty and bubbly and fizzy for bath time or washing their hands, and I love that they won’t be exposed to parabens or harsh detergents. Buff City Soap uses ingredients you actually recognize — things like coconut oil and green tea extract — to create a safer alternative to harsh commercial products. The soaps are even made daily in-store!

A great nod to Louisville’s neighborhood coffee shops is the Fresh Heine soap, a collaboration with Heine Brothers coffee!

My favorite product in the Buff City Soap lineup is the laundry soap! The Fresh Cotton scent is so lovely; it provides a subtle, clean scent and it keeps harsh detergents away from your skin.

Thanks so much to Buff City Soap for showing me around! Visit them in NuLu at 815 E Market St and in St. Matthews at 4600 Shelbyville Rd Suite 651. The Middletown location opens next month at 13006 Shelbyville Rd!

Ensley's Make-a-Wish Story

Ensley Ogden on her Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii

Today’s post is so very special to me. I want to introduce y’all to my friend Ensley Ogden.

Ensley is a very special young lady. She’s a hard-working, smart, and compassionate high school student here in Louisville, and she was diagnosed at age 13 with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH), a rare type of cancer, in her brain. I’ve had the good fortune to know Ensley’s family for years and actually was sitting on a charity board with her mother, Lauren, when this diagnosis occurred. I watched the Ogdens fight this terrible diagnosis with a remarkable degree of grace. Ensley was awarded the Dick Vitale Award for Hope from the V Foundation, which carried a special message from Dickie V that even Cats fans (like me) and Cards fans (like Ensley and her parents) can agree upon: Miss Ensley is one tough lady!

I’ll be sharing updates from the Make-a-Wish Foundation gala tonight over on Instagram, and I wanted to share Ensley’s story of all the ways that Make-a-Wish can help an ailing family heal!

Ensley Ogden on her Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii

Ensley, do you mind telling me a little about your illness and your diagnosis? I know it had to be so scary.

I was diagnosed with LCH when I was 13 years old after having symptoms for about a year, such as uncontrollable thirst, loss of appetite, weight loss, nausea, low-grade fevers, headaches, delayed growth, and low thyroid. I had my craniotomy on March 3rd, 2016 and was diagnosed around that time. Luckily, I was able to keep hold of hope (for the most part) because of the overwhelming support I had from my family, friends, school, nurses, doctors, and even people that I had never met! I could not have done this alone.

Ensley Ogden and her family on their Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii

Your treatment took close to two years, if I remember correctly, and y’all were traveling a lot. I’m sure that made life so different. Can you tell me a little bit about how traveling for treatment affected school and life for you?

When I was first getting my surgery and being diagnosed, I was in Houston, Texas for a long time. It was really hard not being able to see my friends and family back home and not being able to participate in school. But, even though I didn't have everyone supporting me in person, I received so many messages, letters, and packages from friends back home and even teachers at my school! Each and every one that I received really brightened some of the hardest days. After I was diagnosed, I was able to do treatment in Louisville, which was so amazing because I had my support system right there with me along the way. Even though I had to go to Houston regularly, it was comforting to be able to treat at home. 

Ensley Ogden on her Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii with her mother and aunt.

You are so blessed to have such an amazing support system. I remember talking to your mom several times during your illness and she always stressed the value of keeping your life (and hers) as normal and positive as possible. I know that having this kind of support had to make a scary situation a little better, right?

Yes! As I said previously, I couldn't have done it without my support system. Everyone from my friends and family to my school to my nurses and doctors to complete strangers served this role. I would always make sure to have plenty of visitors while I stayed in the hospital. It made me feel like everything was normal when I was around people.

Ensley Ogden and her parents on their Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii

Can you tell me about your experiences with Make-a-Wish and your Wish Trip? It had to be such a great way to change your outlook and celebrate your prognosis!

My experience with Make-A-Wish was absolutely incredible! My Wish Trip was a cruise throughout the Hawaiian Islands. I got to bring my mom and dad and because I don't have a sibling, I got to bring another person. I chose my Aunt Mary. I had the best trip I could have ever imagined. Since I had to wait until I was finished with treatment because I couldn't be that far away from a hospital and I couldn't swim in the ocean with my port, I had something to always look forward to. My mom even bought be a book about Hawaii to look through during my hospital stays. It felt like such a huge accomplishment when I finished treatment and this trip was my reward. Also, it was the first time I got to swim in the ocean since I received my port two years beforehand! I will always remember this trip and all that Make-A-Wish has done for me and my family.

Ensley Ogden on her Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii

Is there anything you’d want a kid facing a diagnosis like yours to know?
Just to stay strong and keep people around you. You are stronger than you know. (Click to tweet these remarkable words of wisdom!)

Ensley Ogden on her Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii

Thanks so much to Ensley for sharing her story! Follow me on Instagram for more from tonight’s gala, and feel free to touch base with me if you’d like to learn more about how to get involved with Make-a-Wish in your area!!

Lilly Pulitzer and the Kentucky Derby

(Reposting this popular post, which was originally written in 2016. This post was brought to you by Shircliff Publishing. For more Kentucky Derby history, download The Kentucky Derby Book by Bill Doolittle for only $9.99; available in Kindle and iBooks editions.)

Here in Kentucky, a lot of us love to wear our Lilly Pulitzer prints to the racetrack. A flattering dress in a bright, preppy print is the perfect outfit for a day at Keeneland or Churchill Downs. Lots of us break out our favorite Lilly dresses for Kentucky Derby week activities. But did you know that Lilly Pulitzer herself had lots of ties to the Derby and thoroughbred horse racing? 

Lilly's famous Derby-themed prints

Lilly's stepfather, Ogden Phipps took horses quite seriously. He used Paris, Kentucky's storied Claiborne Farms, for the breeding and training of his horses. He helped found the New York Racing Association and served as Chairman of the Jockey Club for over twenty year, and he lost the famous coin toss that awarded Secretariat to Penny Chenery.  Mr. Phipps owned horses that won the Breeder's Cup and the Belmont, but a Kentucky Derby win eluded him. In fact, in the 2004 book Essentially Lilly, Lilly told her co-author, Jay Mulveny, "I don't race, but everyone in the family has had horses in the Derby. And no one has ever won."

While Lilly never saw a relative win the Kentucky Derby, her half-brother Dinny Phipps did win the Derby with Orb in 2013, only a month after Lilly's passing.

Of course, longtime HerKentucky readers know that Lilly's ties to Kentucky don't stop with her family's racing heritage. Lilly briefly lived in Eastern Kentucky, putting her love of horseback riding to good use as she volunteered as a courier for Mary Breckinridge's Frontier Nursing Service.

And, of course, the Lilly Pulitzer company has put out some lovely Derby- and racing- themed prints over the years; these prints are traditionally cherished by Kentucky Lilly-lovers! 

My grandmother made me this quilt from a vintage, Kentucky Derby-themed Lilly print.

Shop my favorite Lilly Dresses for Kentucky Derby 145!
 

5 Fun Facts about Hi-Five Doughnuts!

It's National Doughnut Day, an observance dating back to the 1930s, which honors the Salvation Army "Lassies" who served doughnuts and other treats to U.S. Troops during World War I. Here in Kentucky, we take our doughnuts pretty seriously. In fact, the New York Times once traced a doughnut trail across our great Commonwealth. One of the state's most beloved doughnut stops is in a gas station!  That's the great thing about doughnuts: they're inexpensive, accessible, and enjoyed by almost everybody! My favorite doughnut spot is Hi-Five Doughnuts, which serves amazing creations with a Kentucky flair. You absolutely MUST try the bourbon caramel glaze, and if you're really brave, you can try the Kentucky Fried Buttermilk Chicken Doughnut.

Hi-Five Doughnuts is one of my favorite Kentucky businesses, combining local ingredients, awesome female entrepreneurs, incredible marketing, and a fabulous product. Let's celebrate National Doughnut Day with five fun facts about Hi-Five Doughnuts!!!

1. Hi-Five is woman-owned and operated. Leslie Wilson and Annie Harlow began their business running a food truck, affectionately named Shelby, then opened a storefront in Louisville's Butchertown neighborhood. 

The bacon-glazed doughnut is amazing, y'all.

2. The business name pays tribute to the legend that the custom of giving a high-five was invented in a U of L basketball practice in the 1970s.

3. Hi-Five has trademarked their hashtag! When you talk about the #ladiesofthemorning, then according to to the US Patent and Trademark office you're referencing Hi-Five Doughnuts!

4. The Hi-Five business model is so cool, a book has been written about it! Dr. Lyle Sussman of U of L's College of Business wrote "Breaking the Glaze Ceiling: Sweet Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Innovators and Wannabes", which establishes 12 business principles based on Leslie and Annie's success. In interviewing the Doughnut Ladies for a prior article, I was so impressed that they built the entire enterprise on a no-debt model, opting instead to purchase only what they could afford at any given time.

That's cinnamon glaze + Cinnamon Toast Crunch. You need it in your life.

5. Everybody loves Hi-Five! The Travel Channel has visited them, they're a staple at local events like the Forecastle Festival, and they're often served as a finishing touch at local galas and weddings.