Traveling to Chicago is always a pleasure and it is a city I have grown to know really well, especially over the past year. I have blogged about my love of this city before so I hope that I won't bore you. I recently got back from spending about a week in the windy city and much like all of my trips there I had an amazing time!

Last year my trip to Chicago in March brought me closer to three of my friends than I had been in years and I am still feeling the love that weekend brought about. I imagine I'll be feeling a lasting impression from this trip for some time to come as well.

Here are some of the things that were on my itinerary this last time around:

After a business dinner I met up with RM, JT, TM & LM for deep dish deliciousness, Chicago-style. I noticed a man in the corner of the restaraunt sketching something, when I realized that he was drawing one of my friends I immediately went over and told him I would buy the drawing. The man spent the next hour or so frantically drawing the rest of us. The picture hardly resembles most of us but we will always cherish it and that night of Jameson shots with great friends! 

The United Center is an epic sports arena and I am so glad that I was able to witness my first event there while on my trip. And what is better is that a few of my closest friends were in town for the game and I am ever so grateful for the invite they extended. 

We might have been in Bulls territory but we were cheering for the Rockets, unfortunately Beverly, Lin and the boys lost but we had a great time any way. 

Before last week I had never been to a trade show let alone worked at one, so when I got my badge and first saw the enormous venue that is McCormick Place my mind was blown. My mind would continue to struggle to comprehend the size, the utter excess of the whole thing through out the process. When KT (my 'employer') arrived at the space for the first time it took us over 40 minutes to arrive at the booth space due to registration and the sheer size of the building, the walk through crates and pre-show mess resembled a game-show maze.

As far as pre-production goes for one of these things I imagine my experience was one of the more fun, I enjoyed my co-workers, believe in the company I was working for, learned a lot and my work was compensated & appreciated. 

Being that St. Patrick's Day was on a Monday clearly the world had to rearrange for the all-important 'business week' and celebrating was mostly done on the Saturday prior. RM and I met up with two wonderful ol' friends that we graduated from high school with a million (6) years ago. First we had a responsible brunch at a spot that doesn't even serve adult beverages, obviously not my choice. Then we promptly made our way to Rock Bottom Brewery where I consumed more than two of the beer o' day selections, a flavorful bock. (No green beer for me.) We hacked a table, met up with our friend MP's cousin and girlfriend who were welcomed with drunken hugs. The lovely Kim and I made our way upstairs to wait in line for the fuggin bathroom when we discovered the dance party upstairs, way better than the sitting and sports watching that was happening on the main floor. So naturally we moved our group upstairs, danced with LA cops in town for the parade, totally randomly ran into a best friend of a best friend good from MPLS (#typical) and made a tower of plastic cups.

The party moved from Rock Bottom to John Barleycorn's  where I made a new friend and took 3 (three too many) shots of Jameson. After that we ate some Chipotle to soak up some bad decisions, we took a train somewhere and I may have been on a soap box about my intoxication (info based on a snap chat I later saw), then I took an impromptu nap at my pal MP's apartment.

I awoke refreshed and ready for round two, I guess. We hit up another buddy's apartment, a liquor store, then a place called Kasey's on printers row (according to Foursquare) and lastly Stout perhaps? I was drinking beer until about 4 I think, I should plead the fifth but after that I bought a Walgreens cheese pizza and of course burnt it so badly that it was never consumed. 

So basically it was a typical St. Patty's Day celebration.

DISCLAIMER: I mean no disrespect to Irish heritage, I've seen a few people on the internet making a stink and refusing to drink a beer as some sort of protest. My getting drunk on this 'holiday' is simply because I am a twenty something who honestly would be doing it in any case, I don't need a culture endorsed reason to do so. 

ON ACTUAL SPD...

I went to Chicago Cut with a new pal. To be frank I probably instigated the world's longest lunch, 5 hours and 5 cocktails past noon my new friend and I were drunk and he had to head back to the office, poor schmuck. I got to take the L back to Wrigleyville and eat my leftovers all sleepily, preparing for my flight back to MSP in the morning.  

- I used my charm to secure a tour of legendary ad agency Leo Burnett, which resulted in me also being graciously given a copy of Humankind & an apple in true Leo-style!

- I took a selfie with James Harden's butt in the background, although his butt was covered by jeans and an amazing exaggeratedly long sweatshirt this photo might not ever surface. JH is definitely the most fashionable player that I saw post-game.

- I did not go to Millennium Park.

- I lusted after players from the Nashville Predators hockey team in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton.

I hope that you all are starting to catch on to how much I love Chicago. My hope is that if any of these posts speak to you that you will make a trip out to see the great Windy City for yourself. 

xoxox, kp

The month of hair continues!

As a lot of you know, I am a Minnesotan and I am very proud to be from the state of hockey. From age 11 all the way through high school I was a dedicated hockey player, who loved to protect her goalie more than put on makeup and more often than not I topped the list of my teammates as the one with the most minutes in the penalty box.

QUICK STORY: The girl pictured above with me on the left is Sam, a spit-fire person with enough sass to light a fire under just about anyone. We played on the same hockey team for majority of my career, from a u-12 girls league through high school, on and off. She was my first defensive partner and I have her to thank for a lot of my skill. Sam pushed me hard and never coddled me, she wasn't afraid to yell and had held me to a high standard of play.  SV & I went to the same public middle school and then both went to a local private school after 8th grade. She was older, with more playing experience and I will be forever grateful to this lady for her mentorship and for being a good friend when I was a freshman at a new scary private high school! <3 you SV :)

When I was skating regularly I was much more muscular and could leg press almost triple my body weight but despite my toughness hockey boys made me weak in the knees. It was their rugged attitudes, powerful slap shots, muscular butts but most of all I was attracted to HOCKEY HAIR.

My parents use to let me take a few days off of school in order to head down to the MN High School State Boys Hockey Tournament and watch the games with my hockey player friends from all the schools in the state. That week is a sacred time for all hockey players in Minnesota, whether you are in the tournament or not. The commaroderie is untouchable and the energy comparable to few things I have experienced, there are just too many lovable & esoteric facets to explain so I will just get to my hairy point... 

I have been obsessed with these All Hockey Hair Team videos for a couple years now. Below is the newest addition, it includes a bit of history, a rip about girls hockey and of course the 2014 ALL HOCKEY HAIR TEAM. 

I hope you laughed at least once, for you non-hockey players there might have been fewer chuckles but you have appreciate the marketing genius and the witty commentary. 

So to all of your boys who play the greatest sport in the world as well as rock that attractive long hair style, keep it up! I, and a pretty large population of ladies, love it.

Happy Monday!

xox, kp

The three images in the top row are of my hair, as it is naturally after I blow dry it. It's nice, cute, manageable, healthy. I love it. In the following rows I added two tracks of clip-in extensions. If you would have asked me a year ago I would have probably said that I would never be 'one of those girls' that wears hair extensions, but honestly that would have been silly of me to say. Hair extensions are a simple solution to wishing you had longer hair, it's not some big, life-changing decision, I didn't need financing, and I didn't go under a knife.

Disclaimer! That being said, if getting surgery is something you want to do in order to change something about yourself that is your business. I have a friend with fake boobs, I have a few friends planning to get fake boobs, friends that tan, friends that have fake nails and have had laser hair removal. Currently I don't think that I would ever get a boob job or any kind of plastic surgery but I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow so I try to never-say-never. I might all of a sudden want to make money by posing for sexy pictures, I'd be lying if I said I didn't like being in front of the camera - Hell I blog about my wardrobe, but tomorrow I might have different needs! Or I might get into a car accident that would scar my smile holder (my face!) or I could have a mastectomy because of the breast cancer history in my family and while doing so I would most likely put in a new set of round bouncy boobs?! You never know what your life is going to look like a year from now, your beauty journey is no different. My main point is that I feel bad that I ever would have ever thought "I'm not one of those girls" because now I am one of those girls and I realize that it is not a representation of my lack of confidence, not any more than putting on mascara or a form fitting dress is any way.

I could take this approach to explaining my decision to purchase hair pieces and clip them to my already existing hair:

The longer hair has purpose beyond vanity. It helps the photos for my outfit posts, being that I am a petite 5'0' the length helps me to appear taller and more proportional. The longer hair helps me appear closer to standard of beauty that fashion magazines and high end labels have laid out for our society to unhealthily embrace. 

Or this...
Recently I chopped a good three plus inches off of my hair and I had a slight panic when I realized my hair wasn't long enough to cover my nipples. (Admit it, it is a fairly normal thing to do after you get out of the shower.. cover your nipples with your long hair in the mirror?! Come on? Admit it? Yeah.. I'm the only one? Not a chance. Liars.) 

The honest, to goodness truth, at it's core... FAKE HAIR IS FUN, it's one more way to outwardly express yourself. 
It might be a little bit of the first two reasons but more importantly I THINK IT'S FUN and makes me feel more like myself, I've had long hair for pretty much my whole life. The most dramatic thing I have ever done to my hair was cut it all off to my chin right after at the beginning of my only semester of community college. I am as old as I have ever been and for once I really don't know what comes next, I am excited for the next chapters but also a bit of nostalgia is creeping up. If modern hair technology can make me feel more like my youthful self so that I can move forward with an extra swag in my strut than I'm in, judge if you will. I don't have time to care because I am doing a hair flip out the door. 

THINK about the end game.. is the allure of long hair going to be enough positive points to outweigh the grossness of seeing this kind of scene around your apartment, it's like a well-groomed dead animal?

The unfortunate news is that I don't wear the lengthening locks to please MF or anyone else for that matter, my brother, my other roommate, MF, my dog, they all think it is disgusting, which it totally is. Actually I do it - KNOWING how gross it is, I wash the tracks less often than I wash the hair that is attached to my head. (Which isn't that much to begin with :/)

If you want to have longer hair then grow it out, if you're impatient and fried your ends or whatever reason, if you want to buy some extensions THEN BUY THEM. Don't lie about them, or be ashamed because then you are just reinforcing girl judgement. Even if you have short, frizzy, totally undesirable hair, LOVE yourself any way because the world is trained not to love you. 

xoxox, kp

I love being feminine and doing traditionally 'girly' things, I think doing make up is super fun - like an art project. BUT doing my hair is a struggle. Not all girls are just naturally good at that stuff. It takes teaching or a genuine interest in obtaining the skills. 

This is the third post in my Month of Hair and I am excited to share a little bit more about my own relationship with this mop on my head. In the first post I shared about the tragic passing of Horst Rechelbacher, and in the second post I share my favorite salons in the Twin Cities. 

Magazines, beauty bloggers, celebrities, gossip shows, reality stars they all make us feel that our hair should be a certain way but if crazy hair is your thing then DAMN IT - dye that shit purple! I prefer to spend insane amounts of time painting my face, pretending that I am a master painter. Or I like to make a mess out of my room as I curate an outfit worthy of Milan versus spending time on my hair - which is why I will forever be overly proud of the up-do I did on myself from Junior Prom (pictures above in the gallery). And that is also why the other 'Favorite Hair Moments' are basically all versions of the same thing. 

YA KNOW WHAT? It's ok that my hair doesn't look perfect everyday, it's not something that I get excited about, there is only minimal joy in it not looking like it does right when I wake up, so I am not going to torture myself. I like it to look nice so I do the minimum and then I love myself even if it turns out less than photo ready. 

Hair is hair, it grows, it breaks, it falls out. Sometimes you are lucky to have a 'good hair day,' celebrate it - have an extra drink! Some people are even blessed with hair that looks amazingly every single day, don't envy them - that person doesn't have your math skills or your perfect pitch. Hair is revered as a big deal in our culture but remember to put it into perspective, as with everything, it expires and what is left is what was always on the inside. Cherish your internal attributes and give yourself a break on all that external bullshit. 

LOVE YOURSELF. LOVE YOUR HAIR.

“It’s important to let go, calm down, and get grounded. We need to listen to ourselves. When one becomes aware that our present-moment thoughts are not productive, one should simply let them go. Change a negative thought to a positive one.” - Horst Rechelbacher

xoxo, kp

My second post about hair is very exciting because I love sharing my feelings about brands that I love. (Also I love using the word love because love is my favorite & most commonly felt emotion.)

In honor of Horst Rechelbacher's memory I have dedicated a week to hair and then after the first post I decided that Horst is worthy of a month. So until April I will be posting mostly (but not solely) about hair!

When it comes to the different areas of a body that a person can prep in order to be ready for the day my least favorite area to primp is my hair, therefore I LOVE GETTING MY HAIR DONE! 

Here are my top three fav spots to get meh hurr did in MPLS: 

I don't get my hair done every six weeks like a lot of beauty addicts, sometimes I am as bad as twice a year so with that little commitment I give myself the leeway to spend a bit more than is probably wise at this moment in my financial life. But I will be honest, I've never experienced buyers remorse after a trip to see my friends at Bespoke. I have had my hair done by three if not four different stylist, I've had facials, colors, trims, the works and I have never left without a giant grin and a relaxed vibe. 

I love Bespoke Hair Artisans, this salon will always have a special place in my heart due almost exclusively to the beautiful soul behind the scenes, the owner Lisa Williams! An amazingly generous woman who has been a supporter of Sol Inspirations (a passion project of mine), she is someone I look up to as a woman in business and most importantly she has been a friend to me & a mentor in a subtle way. I feel so thankful to have met her and had the pleasure of developing our relationship in a number of different areas.

I have been to HORST & FRIENDS salon probably more than 5 and less than a dozen times, so I am not incredibly familiar with the stylists at this glorious refuge of a salon. The building that houses the salon is also the Intelligent Nutrients office space. IN used to do their product manufacturing in the space until it outgrew the beast of a building. 

I have been asked to participate in several product testing sessions for Intelligent Nutrients, the HORST & FRIENDS salon is used for these, also at the first IN Fashion Night Out event I modeled a responsible fashion look and was styled in the space. Point being I have been there enough times to feel comfortable recommending this lovely establishment for your hair needs. Every one of these stylists has worked with Horst and in the space that created IN, how could they not constantly be inspired by the messages of health and beauty?!  

All you have to do to be sold of this salon is walk in the front door. I'm telling ya, it's like walking into a sanctuary, the smells are intoxicating and the spaces are uniquely rustic yet chic. Reclaimed mirrors create the barrier from retail to salon, Horst's art work lines the walls, high ceilings yet a feeling of intimacy. I could go on but I don't want to give up all the yummy details. Next time you are in that neighborhood just stop in, I dare you.

I confess that I have only had my hair done here three times but I had great experiences every time. From my understanding it's two sisters that co-founded the business & I've had my hair cut by both. Becca gave me a Brigitte Bardot inspired look for some fashion event while Jen and I talked about our love of Twin Peaks for far too long haha. Jen was even recognized by I AM MPLS last year so I was able to connect with her on that project as well! 

There it is. Go get your hair done, support local businesses, use organic products, blah blah blah. But more importantly... TREAT YA SELF.

(in responsible doses.) try to be a conscious consumer. haha


xoxox, kp