Legally Blonde The Musical Event at Draper James Lexington!
Elle Woods is coming to Lexington, y'all. ELLE WOODS.
The LEXington Theatre Company is staging a production of Legally Blonde: The Musical on July 20-23 at the Lexington Opera House. Even better, the Lexington Draper James store is hosting a shopping event this Wednesday, July 12, from 7-9 p.m. to celebrate the opening of Legally Blonde the Musical. You can shop, meet the cast of Legally Blonde, and enjoy champagne and sweet treats! To make it even better, 10% of the evening's proceeds will benefit The LEXington Theatre Company. The event is free, but Draper James does ask that you RSVP here!
If you can't make the event, you can always dress in Elle Woods' signature shade of pink. Shop my Elle Woods-approved Draper James favorites below, and click here for $20 off your order on Draper James' website!
Festival Season Ready: What to Wear to Forecastle
I'm getting so excited for Forecastle Festival, y'all! The musical lineup and the Bourbon Lodge presentations all promise to be fantastic, and -- fingers crossed -- the weather forecast is looking great! As I make my Forecastle plans, I thought I'd share a few finds for the festival weekend!
Fun Tanks
It's going to be hot, so I'm planning to wear tanks with shorts or breezy skirts. I love the L.L. Bean unshrinkable layering tanks, or one of these awesome tanks tops from local companies!
Sun protection
Sun protection is a must when you're outside all day. I have this J. Crew Factory sun hat, and it is a great quality piece for under $15! A bandana is always a great way to keep cool, and this Anchal Project pink bandana scarf is a stunning way to make a difference! (Sunscreen and shades are a must, as well!)
Ray-ban Sunglasses
Shop more of my Forecastle faves below, and let me know what your favorite festival fashion tips are!
National Fried Chicken Day
Today is National Fried Chicken Day! Now, I don't know who thought of such a brilliant holiday, but they're 100% correct. Fried chicken sounds wonderful for dinner tonight.
Now, Colonel Harland Sanders tapped into a brilliant psychological marketing plan when he named his famous restaurant. Appalachian grandmothers have been putting amazing fried chicken on the table for as long as anyone remember, so of course Kentucky Fried Chicken is something we'd all love.
Vintage Louisville Stoneware KFC platter
Now I've never had a lot of success re-creating my granny's signature recipe. It looks so easy; you just dredge the chicken pieces in flour and fry in a skillet. No matter how hard I try, the breading winds up coming off. I have the skillet temperature down pat, and I make a tasty breading. It just doesn't stick. My own fried chicken recipe is fairly simple. I let the pieces soak in buttermilk for half an hour or so. I prepare a mixture of flour, salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and a little cayenne pepper. I dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, then deep-fry it in vegetable oil in a dutch oven. This process is quick and ensures a moist, perfect piece.
My recipe is below. Do you make your own fried chicken or do you entrust someone else with that job? (My granny, The Colonel, and The Merrick Inn make my all-time favorites!)
Fourth of July Favorites and a Kick Ass Giveaway!
Some holidays just call for festive attire. With the 4th of July coming up, you just have to add some red, white and blue to your wardrobe!
Here are a few of my very favorite ways to show my American pride this summer!
Draper James Pinewood Envelope (click here for $20 off your online DJ purchase!)
Maker's Mark Flag Tote (Get a free Americana dipped glass with a $40 purchase!)
And then there's my very favorite patriotic piece of all!
The awesome folks at Kentucky for Kentucky have a red, white, and blue Kentucky Kicks Ass t-shirt for one lucky HerKentucky reader! Hurry; the giveaway ends tonight at midnight and the winner will be contacted first thing tomorrow morning! Enter to win below!
HerKentucky Bourbon Punch Recipe on the Draper James Blog!
I'm so excited to share my bourbon punch recipe on the Draper James blog today! I love the Draper James brand; it's one of my favorites for preppy, Southern classics. And, of course, Draper James's founder, Reese Witherspoon, has been one of my very favorite actresses since her Sweet Home Alabama days!
Check out my post here, and click here for $20 off your next Draper James online purchase!
Thanks so much to my dear friend Cathy of Dogladyhorsecrazy for the gracious use of her river house for the photo shoot and for the fun pic of me!
Tervis Tumbler Lifetime Warranty
Tervis Tumblers are a staple for Southern summers. Did you know that your tumblers carry a lifetime warranty?
It's such a beautiful summer here in Kentucky. And, if y'all are anything like me, you're spending more time outside, working out a little more, and trying to stay hydrated! Now, everybody knows that Tervis Tumblers are the best at keeping your drinks cold and showing off your personality.
Now. if you follow HerKentucky on Instagram, you may have seen that I recently took advantage of the Tervis Tumbler Lifetime Warranty and sent several of my older tumblers in for a replacement. Since a few of y'all asked about the warranty replacement, I thought I'd share a little more about the warranty and replacement steps.
If your Tervis Tumblers have gotten damaged -- sometimes the seal in the double-wall construction will become damaged and even cause the two pieces of the cup to separate -- all you have to do is fill out this form and ship your tumblers back to the Tervis company. Or you can return them to a Tervis store (it looks like the closest ones to Kentucky are in Cincinnati or Knoxville!) You can specify if you want to reuse the design you have or if you want a coupon code to purchase new Tumblers online. The return is quick and easy, and you're back to enjoying a fun, cold drink.
DO NOT let this happen!! Draper James Hello Sunshine Tervis Tumbler
Now, we've been using Tervis Tumblers at my house for as long as I can remember, and I've found a few tips that help keep them looking great. First off, keep your cups far away from sunscreen! Sunscreen leaves a nasty film on a Tervis cup that simply will not wash off. Second, don't put them in the bottom rack of the dishwasher. I've been guilty of this from time to time, especially with the 24oz cups. This is the fastest way to crack the seal between the two insulated layers, and it will result in condensation inside the cup design! Finally, use a little paste of baking soda and water to shine the cups! It makes them look like new!
Shop My Favorite Tervis Tumblers!
This post contains affiliate links. HerKentucky LLC may receive a nominal commission for some product links clicked in this post. This commission helps "keep the lights on" for HerKentucky.com; as always, all opinions are my own.
College Basketball is Broken
I originally wrote this post in October 2015, but it feels as relevant today as it did then. I'm a UK fan, but I'm not cheering the sanctions that the NCAA handed U of L this week. I wish we could find a way to fix the game that I love.
Like most Kentuckians, I have a little bit of a college basketball problem. I'm really, really obsessed with my team, the sport, and basically everything else surrounding the process. I spend a whole lot of time worrying about recruiting and injuries and all of the other pieces of the college basketball puzzle. Over the past few years, in the wake of investigations and scandals, I've come to a sad realization about the sport I love so very much: College Basketball is broken.
Now, I've tried really hard to not immerse myself in the tawdry details of the current goings on at the University of Louisville. The truth is, this story is more sad than salacious. Louisville escort Katina Powell's story is not funny, or sexy, or fascinating, it's the story of a sex worker who introduced her potentially underage daughters into prostitution in exchange for college basketball recruiting. Very young women were, Ms. Powell's story goes, paid to entice very young men in an effort to sway a college basketball commitment. That is, quite simply, a depressing, disgusting, and somewhat Dickensian proposition.
As a Kentuckian and a basketball fan, I don't want this tale to be true; in fact, I don't want this circus to be happening at all. I'm a UK fan, and a UK fan only -- no offense, Cards friends, it's not personal that I don't cheer for y'all; I don't cheer for anybody but my 'Cats -- and, yet, I still desperately want the Katina Powell story to just go away. It speaks badly of the city I call home. It speaks badly of the Commonwealth I love. And, it speaks badly of the sport over which I obsess and the coach whom I once revered.
The truth is, a lot of things are wrong in college athletics. Every season, we hear about recruiting violations and scandals and we get a little more immune to it all. Everybody does it, we read in the comments of the articles, these guys just got caught. The U of L basketball program will suffer some severe sanctions in light of these revelations, but within moments of ESPN's confirmation of Ms. Powell's claims, legalistic arguments of strict liability replaced the lurid details. The story became about Coach Rick Pitino's culpability, and about how much he knew about these proceedings. There was a rush to place all blame firmly at the feet of former U of L staffer Andre McGee. But, the problem is far bigger than what McGee did or what Pitino saw. The problem is that the system is broken.
The system is broken because we think nothing of casual sexism. The U of L saga tells the story of giving women as rewards and incentives. We find ourselves making distinctions like "oh, boys will be boys; if it's just strippers, it's no problem. If they paid those girls for something else, it's a bigger issue." We laugh off the "girls" as a perk of playing ball. And, more dangerously, we point our fingers at the accusers. The Pitino regime sits on the precedent that Karen Sypher was scamming the program, and it's become easy for sympathetic local media sources to frame Ms. Powell in a disgusting tableau of slut-shaming and victim-blaming. (See, if you care to, Billy Reed's egregious piece about the "book-writing prostitute." Or don't. I suggest that you don't.)
The system is broken because of the archaic and draconian rule of the NCAA. In a world where increasingly high-performing athletes are in high demand, the governing body of college sports seems increasingly outdated. For every rule change that seems designed to increase the quality of play, it seems there are ten regulating minute rules. A creative network has arisen around skirting these regulations -- from the frequently ridiculed "You can give a recruit a juice, but not a muffin at certain events" rules to far more substantive rules. We live in a culture where it seems a slippery slope exists between giving a recruit a second helping of breakfast and setting him up for a lap dance. Perhaps it's time for an overhaul of the regulating body.
And, perhaps most importantly of all, the system is broken because of a fundamental refusal to acknowledge the true nature of college sports. College basketball is a game of recruiting and a forming a pipeline to the NBA. Recruits are already tied into sneaker companies' networks through their AAU affiliations. College basketball is a multimillion dollar enterprise, and we somehow find a reason to divert profits away from the very participants whose hard work and, at times, physical wellbeing are the foundation of the game. College athletes are no longer boys who play a little ball whilst earning an education. They are a high-profile, high-earning potential commodity, and yet NCAA steadfastly refuses to acknowledge that student-athletes deserve a cut of the earnings. As fans, we willfully buy into the idea that our student-athletes are at particular schools for both the athletic and academic experiences. It's time to acknowledge the economic reality of college athletes, provide these athletes with a realistic financial stipend, and treat them as what they are -- employees of their universities.
The U of L scandal will blow over, or it won't. Coach Pitino will weather the storm, or he won't. And, in a few months, the sports media will move on to a newer, more salacious scandal. The fact remains that the sport is broken. But, those of us who love basketball keep loving the game and hoping for real change.