Happy Birthday, Muhammad Ali!

Tomorrow marks the 72nd birthday of one of the most fascinating, charismatic,  inspiring, and beloved figures in modern sports. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. in Louisville on January 17, 1942.

As a boxer, Ali connected with legions of fans due not only to his amazing feats in the ring (he remains the only three-time lineal World Heavyweight Champion) but also his famous brand of self-promotion. He became known as The Louisville Lip due to enduring statements like "I am the Greatest" and "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Of course, his talent in the ring backed up his statements. Ali later said, "At home, I am a nice guy, but I don’t want the world to know. Humble people, I’ve found, don’t get very far.”

Nobody ever mistook Ali for being humble. Throughout the Sixties and Seventies, he was known not only for his boxing successes and outlandish statements, but also for his political and cultural stances. His religious and social objections to the Vietnam War as well as his candor regarding race and political issues made him a counterculture icon. Ali wasn't just a boxer, he was the first true "Sports Personality", establishing the groundwork for modern sports culture. As the writer Joyce Carol Oates said in her work "On Boxing", Ali was one of the few athletes in any sport to "define the terms of his public reputation." Ali's reputation extended far beyond the realm of sports; he is a seminal figure in modern African-American culture, with popularity that has racial lines for decades.

Upon his retirement from boxing, Ali has devoted his time and resources to humanitarian causes and Parkinson's Disease research. He is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor, Amnesty International's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Constitution Center Liberty Medal.

Louisville's Muhammad Ali Center, established by The Champ and his wife Lonnie, is an education center and museum devoted to the six principles established by Ali:

• Confidence: Belief in oneself, one's abilities, and one's future.
• Conviction: A firm belief that gives one the courage to stand behind that belief, despite pressure to do otherwise.
• Dedication: The act of devoting all of one's energy, effort, and abilities to a certain task.
• Giving: To present voluntarily without expecting something in return.
• Respect: Esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of, oneself and others.
• Spirituality: A sense of awe, reverence, and inner peace inspired by a connection to all of creation and/or that which is greater than oneself.

The Ali Center is celebrating Muhammad Ali's 72nd birthday on Friday with a special free screening of the film "The Trials of Muhammad Ali" at 6 p.m. All day at the Center. Visitors can create birthday cards for The Champ that day, and those who can't attend the festivities are asked to use the Twitter hashtag #HBDMuhammadAli.

From all of us at HerKentucky, Happy Birthday, Muhammad! You'll always be The Greatest to us!

Getting Fit

We've been talking about setting goals for ourselves on HerKentucky and I know that most everyone has made a resolution to be healthy and get fit. I know I did! While we are up in the gym working on our fitness, our transformations may take a little longer than two weeks so I wanted to share some style slimming secrets to get us through this transition.

1. Fit - Every southern girl knows that fit is the most important rule in looking slim and trim. When dressing, your goal is to create fluid lines that suggest a slender appearance...muffin tops are not included in this. So it's obvious that we had too much holiday fun or one too many bourbon balls, so what? It is easily fixed by purchasing a pair of pants the next size up to banish our muffin tops. Focus on the fit of your pants, not the size, and you will look slimmer in minutes!

2. Accentuate your thinnest point - Beautiful women come in all shapes and sizes and with that, we all have different areas that we should highlight. If you have awesome legs, wear that short skirt! If you have an hourglass figure, wear a dress that accentuates your tiny waist. By highlighting your thinnest points, you are drawing the attention away from your trouble areas and thus creating the illusion of a slimmer you.

3. Wear the correct undergarments - This one is a must. The correct underpinnings will make a world of difference!

4. Accessorize - The art of accessorizing has been my best friend for a long time. Adding a little sparkle to your wrist, rocking a statement necklace or donning some killer heels are all ways to draw the attention away from unwanted areas. And if you think about it, your wrist is really your thinnest point! Everyone go buy a bracelet!

5. Belt it - Baggy tops and dresses do not aid in making you look slim and trim, in fact, they do exactly the opposite. Don't hide that waist under an ill fitting blouse, let it shine and you'll look slim in no time! If you do not have a natural waist, you can create the illusion of an hour glass figure by cinching your waist with a belt. I have been in love with these monogrammed belts from C. Wonder, they have southern girl written all over them!

Happy New Year to everyone and good luck on your goals for 2014!!

National Hot Toddy Day

Today is National Hot Toddy Day!

The Hot Toddy is my go-to cold-weather cocktail and fix-everything cold medicine.

The recipe is pretty simple. Use the bourbon of your choice (I prefer Maker's Mark!)

• 1 oz bourbon 
• 1 oz steaming-hot water 
• honey 
• 1 lemon 


Put a kettle of water on to boil. Drizzle honey in the bottom of coffee mug. Pour in one ounce bourbon, or to taste. Squeeze juice of 1/4 lemon into mug. Pour in hot water. Add additional bourbon and/or hot water to taste.  Warm up. Feel better.

Follow Your Dreams Friday

When we first started planning HerKentucky, we wanted to share the stories of as many Kentucky women as possible. Over the past two and a half years, we've told stories of professional success and personal triumph, stories of heartbreak, hard work, and happiness. In 2014, we're introducing a new feature called "Follow Your Dreams Friday", which will tell the stories of Kentucky women who are living life on their own terms. The women who've traded stressful and unfulfilling careers for happier lives. Mothers, artists, small business owners. Dreamers. 

Every Friday, we'll share the story of someone we know who chose to follow her dreams. We hope these stories provide y'all with as much inspiration as they've given us.  We welcome submissions to this series. Please email me at heather@herkentucky.com for more information.

HerKentucky Happenings

We're pleased to present HerKentucky Happenings, a roundup of things we love from across the Commonwealth.

• My hometown's favorite band, Sundy Best, will be returning to the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow night. Really makes me wish I were in the Music City this weekend to see my high school football coach's son (whom I'll always think of as a gorgeous toddler... Sorry, Nick!) rocking the Home of Country Music. 
• Saturday in Louisville is Rainbow Blossom Natural Food Market's Resolutions Solutions Fair. It's a great time to quit smoking, work on your fitness goals, or focus on cleaner eating. Rainbow Blossom has experts to help!
• Also in Louisville is Craft(s) Gallery's exhibition by Shawn Garrison, entitled "The Fruits of Rashness." I just adore the whimsical colors and use of motion of this piece, "Let's Go Shopping", and I can't wait to stop by Craft(s) to see the rest of the show!

Image via Craft(s) Gallery

• Another exhibition I can't wait to see is the Eye of Napoleon at the Frazier Museum. This Saturday night, they're offering a special "Date Night in Paris" event that includes the exhibit as well as a cash bar, entertainment, and more!
• The Kentucky Governor's Mansion turns 100 later this month. Celebrate at Frankfort's Grand Theater next Wednesday and Thursday with special showings of a documentary of the historic home, or schedule a trip to see the Mansion. I'll bet you haven't been there since a class trip in grade school!

  The Governor's Mansion

• Louisville's Fleet Feet Sports recently met the challenge of logging miles for charity. A running team representing the store earned a $2,500 donation for Girls on the Run Louisville, a nonprofit which inspires elementary school girls to be healthy, joyful, and confident while engaging in fun and age-appropriate lessons on topics such as healthy living, self esteem, and how to handle bullying.

What's happening in your nook of the Commonwealth?

If your organization has an event you'd like to see featured on HerKentucky, please email details to heather@herkentucky.com.

The Year of the Goal

I have decided that 2014 is The Year of The Goal.

Several of my blogger friends -- including HerKentucky's own Sarah and Lydia -- participate in the One Little Word project by Ali Edwards. It's pretty self-explanatory: you choose a word to serve as your guide for the year -- a word that embodies the things you hope to accomplish, or how you want your life to look in the upcoming year. (You can read about Sarah's word here and Lydia's word here.)

As I think of the year ahead, I am filled with so many ideas that I don't know where to start. I recently moved to a new home  in a city that, while familiar, has changed enough since I left to seem new and exciting. My beau and I have greeted some wonderful new opportunities, both personally and professionally. To be honest, I'm so bombarded with ideas for "what's next" that I'm a little overwhelmed. I can't do it all. 

Jessie Spano, y'all.

Maybe I can't do it all, but I can do most of it with some careful planning and even more carefully set goals.  That's why 2014 will be, at least for me, the Year of the Goal. Resolutions are easy to make. Dreams are easy to conceive. But goals? Goals are something that you plan to accomplish. Goals require action and accountability. Goals mean that you're going to get something done.

So, as 2014 came around, I asked myself "What do you want to accomplish this year?" I took those ideas and turned them into something concrete, with plenty of room to reassess, revise, and reestablish goals. I'm looking for long-term happiness and success, not crossing something off a to-do list just because I said I would.

I started January with three ideas. I want to publish my writing in more outlets, I want to exercise more frequently, and I want to start knitting again. I turned each idea into a goal: "I will publish in forums x, y, and z by the end of the year"; "I will complete another half-marathon this spring"; and "I will knit a scarf in January." See how my aspirations were turned to declarations? Goals are something you will accomplish. 

Knitting was an easy skill to re-learn. Today is January 8th, and I'm nearly finished with a dark grey wool scarf for my beau. That one was almost too easy. 

Country Music 1/2 Marathon, 2008

As for the 1/2 Marathon, I don't know if it's the right goal. Of course, I'd need to start a training program right about now to get myself up to 13 miles in the spring. But, I've been fighting a back injury for several months, and I worry that this isn't the most attainable goal. Getting fit might be a better goal for my long-term health and fitness. I'm consulting with a doctor and logging my mileage. I'm not giving up just yet, though. There are exactly 100 days until the Derby Mini. A lot can be accomplished by then.

Promising Prose.

And then there's writing. I've devoted a lot of time to brainstorming ways to make various articles and essays better fit their intended audience. I've studied the submission guidelines for the publications in which I want to be published. But, I don't know any surgeons or lawyers or any other professionals who got to be great just by brainstorming and studying. They succeeded by practicing their trade. So, in 2014, I will reach my publication goals by writing more. It's easy to call oneself a writer. But, as Holly Golightly famously asked her neighbor Paul, "Do you write every day? Did you write today?" I hope to write something every day in 2014, even if it's just a character sketch or a well-planned Facebook status. I nearly allowed this goal to be derailed because our new computer, ordered just before last year's end, was delayed in shipping. If you think about it, though, the list of great works that were not composed using OS Maverick is infinitely longer than its cutting-edge counterpart. Writing simply takes an idea and a means for recording. A goal shouldn't be abandoned due to a mere technicality.

Limping to the finish line. I didn't run it all, but I did finish the thing!!

I figure I'll add goals as I mark others as complete. But, I want to embrace this year as the year I get things done.

2014 is The Year of the Goal.  (Click to Tweet.) What are your goals for 2014?

Happy New Year from HerKentucky!

2013 was a huge year for the HerKentucky team.

Our writers were everywhere.  Megan's dream of writing fiction became a fantastic reality. Shannon's fiction was featured in not one, but two literary magazines. Two of Sarah's essays -- about gender disappointment and rising tuition costs -- were featured on the Huffington Post. Emily's inspiring story of body image and weight struggles was featured in Ladies' Home Journal. Erin's essay was featured in the anthology This I Believe: Kentucky.

We had a lot going on personally as well. Glenda was a fierce warrior for her daughter's health. Erin and her family moved to a new church and a new part of the country. I moved to Louisville and realized that everything isn't quite where I left it. Liz said goodbye to her beloved NYC as Dr. Hotpants took the next steps in his surgical career. Sarah and her husband renewed their wedding vows on their 10th wedding anniversary.

As we reflect on all the changes of the past year, we're excited to share new stories with HerKentucky's readers in 2014. We look forward to telling you of our newest goals and dreams. We want to share the stories of Kentucky women who have followed their dreams both professionally and personally. We're excited to spend another year bringing you the best of Kentucky life.

Happy 2014 from HerKentucky!

What are your goals for the New Year?