Word on the streets is there is less than 200 tickets available for this year’s BlogHer Conference. Hearing made me shell out a bunch of money I don’t really have for this because I was hoping to get sponsored this year.

But you do what you have to do because I sure as hell wouldn’t miss this. Last year was amazing (check out my posts about it from last year here) and I’m expecting this year to be as well. Plus, it’s in my city, bitches! You better believe we are going to have a great time.

If you’re planning on attending, I suggest acting fast before tickets are gone. They are selling out much sooner than last year.

Get on it and come hang with me!

When everything in your personal life is kind of crazy, when you only have a whisper of a relationship left because it’s now a “friendship”, when you work 6, if not 7, days a week and are about to go cross eyed from staring at your computer so much, when all you really want to do is sleep and lay around with your puppy…

Sometimes all you need is a haircut.

No, really.

I know sometimes in movies, salons are made out to be full of gossipy women who vent and rant to their hair stylists.  But really, my stylist rocks. While I filled her in on what’s been happening since the last time I see her and she snipped away at my hair, she listened and wasn’t just feigning interest. Then she gave me her thoughts on it.

And she’s right. All I needed was a little perspective, especially from someone who isn’t all wrapped up in my life.

I walked out with a new way of looking at things, some great conversation and an all around fierce head of hair.

P.S. That’s a picture I took last night, you can’t really tell but it’s about 3 inches shorter, layers are cleaned up and I have a bang again.
P.P.S. Chicago, if you need an amazing stylist talk to Mary at Orbit Salon. I also found out last night that she blogs too! Go say hi to her!
P.P.P.S. Just don’t try to book her when I’m in need of a hair cut or we will be in a fight.
P.P.P.P.S. No, seriously,I will kick some ass when it comes down to pretty hair.

(And don’t forget you can still ask me questions here and I’ll post answers soon)

Debbie Deb, anyone?

No?

Boo!

So yes, it is Friday! I’m particlarly looking foward to this weekend because I have some pretty awesome stuff going on.

Tonight I’m double booked. I’ll be at Gals’ Guide’s event at Banana Republic getting all kinds of sweet deals and discounts. Then I’ll be heading over to the Windy Citizen meet up.

Remember a couple weeks ago when I went to the DIY Trunk Show? Well this weekend is Renegade Craft Fair! I’m hopefully meeting up with a few lovely ladies and getting my shop on.

If you’re in Chicago and heading to any of these things, drop me a line.

If you’re not, what are you weekend plans?

I’m done talking fictional, albeit ridiculously sexy, vampires*. For now at least**.

Anyway, I have business to take care of. Business of the awesome kind. I’m looking at you, Chicago people.

Friday, I met up with a huge group of 20something bloggers and we took over Quartino and later Streeters. No seriously, there was like 18 of us and name tags were involved***. There was beer pong at a bar? I might be one of the only 20somethings who has never played beer pong ever and uh, love you guys but I’m not sure I care to.

So yeah, it was a great night so now I think we should do it again! I’m filling up your calendar. I have three events coming up that I will be at and this means you should too.

First, we have another fabulous Gal’s Guide event on December 5th. This one will be at Banana Republic on Michigan Avenue. We will enjoy gift bags, hair styling by Maxine Salons, personalized shopping assistance, goodie bags and most importantly a 25% discount all night! If that doesn’t make you want to go, I don’t know what will. Check out the flyer and RSVP on Facebook.  Then after we can go get drinks or something!

Next up, on December 9th is the winter CRAVE Party at the Chicago Cultural Center.

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No, you sicko. It’s an ice cream parlor!

I’ve passed this place a million times on my WP excursions and that Coming Soon sign has always been in the window. Well by the end of the week, it should be open. Yeah, the name is pretty suggestive but they make ice cream! You choose what kind of dairy and toppings and they make it in a mixer right there for you. With liquid nitrogen!

Ice cream.

LIQUID NITROGEN.

ICE CREAM!

I will personally be checking this place and reporting back because hi! Have you heard? Ice cream made with liquid nitrogen!

If that isn’t cool (gimmicky or not), I don’t know what is.

(sorry, dirty minded people. only ice cream here)

source.

This was such a fun weekend! It was hot but not too hot. Yes, it was ridiculously hot for some people but honestly, compared to the past few years at Lolla, it wasn’t too bad. In case you missed me twittering each and every breath I made since stepping foot in Grant Park, I’ll do a little recap of who I seen.

Friday:

On Friday the first person we wanted to see was Duffy. We hit some traffic though so we got there right as she was ending which was a bummer. Then a friend was djing so we went to go see him for awhile. We caught some of the Cool Kids and then the end of CSS. They were hilarious. The singer was like, “We love you, Chicago! Top Chef, Kathy Griffen! Woo!”. Is Kathy Griffen from Chicago? I don’t even know but it was too funny. After that, boyfriend and I got some food and we walked toward that madness that was about to be Radiohead. One whole side of Grant Park was FULL of people. The crowd was pretty insane. Here is a picture of a tiny bit of the crowd.

The stage all the way in the back on the left is where they were playing. It was out of control. William and I scouted out some grassy area and laid down a blanket and just chilled. They played an amazing set and sound impeccable live. After we left Grant Park, we went to Angels & Kings for an after party. I kept hoping Jessica would show up but no luck. I still had a great time though!

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Tomorrow around this time, there will be a piece of science fiction on this little blog here. I figured I’d warn you in advance so you’re not like “who the fuck does Jamie think she is? George Lucus or something?!” I can’t promise Ewoks or facehuggers but it will be fun. In case you haven’t heard by now, it will be the second time Nancy Pearl Wannabe has hosted the Choose Your Own Blogventure series and I’ll be taking part. So make sure you stop by tomorrow and play along!

Ben has been dropping hints of a super secret project he has been working on and today I can final reveal that I will be taking part of this no longer secret project too!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be spent sweating it out with the 75,000+ people expected to show up at Grant Park for Lollapalooza. There will be some really great bands and I’m really looking forward to it. Just to make you a little jealous, here is a taste of who I will see: Duffy, Radiohead, Mates of States, Explosions in the Sky, Spankrock, DJ AM, Brand New, The Weakerthans, Chromeo and my lovah, Mark Ronson.

Jess is prepared to bail me out of jail in case I get in trouble with the law for trying to sneak attack Mark Ronson’s face. In case I die of heatstroke, you all have to battle it out on who gets to keep my pretty blog.

Are you going to Lolla or just wanna keep up with me because you know I will be twittering my face off all weekend?

P.S. Want a cute and FREE header by the lovely lady who made my amazing design? Go here!

What do you do when friends are in town?

Take them to get cupcakes, of course!

When Deutlich and Maxie were in town last month, we had a mini cupcake crawl. First, we hit up Sweet Mandy B’s first but I settled for a cookie there. I’m so glad I did! Our next stop was Swirlz cupcakes and I could not get enough!

Swirlz is in Lincoln Park, right off of Clark on Belden. Now let me tell you, I’m super picky about cake and cupcakes because a lot of frosting is just too sweet for me. Swirlz cupcakes were to die for though! The frosting was just right and the cupcakes tasted amazing.

Pam was such a sweetheart and hooked us up! We had a taste of just about every cupcake that was in store, I think. There is a such a great variety. I also think it is pretty fantastic that they have gluten-free* cupcakes. I really didn’t know much about what gluten free means, but Pam took the time to explain to us. I had a regular Red Velvet cupcake and then tried the gluten-free Red Velvet, seriously, you could not tell the difference! Moist cake and yummy cream cheese and butter cream frosting. It was delicious.

These are all the cupcakes we ended up getting. I was a big fan of the Red Velvet and Peanut Butter! I ended up bring a chocolate cupcake and a vanilla cupcake home for boyfriend. The frosting melted a bit from my day outside but that didn’t stop him from taking them down in oh, about 3.2 seconds.

Also, I couldn’t forget about my adorable dog so when I see pupcakes on the counter, you just know I picked some up! Swirlz also got Edie’s bark of approval. I forgot to take a picture of these but I’ll be back soon enough to get her more.

Swirlz motto: Cupcakes make people happy.

Never has a more true word been spoken!

Coming to Chicago? Definitely make this one of your stops. I know I will be there next time I’m in Lincoln Park!

* Don’t know what gluten-free is either? Check it out.
** I slacked on the photo front so these are from Jess and Jenn.

PINK: A (LOVE) COURIER SERVICE, an art & cycling project on tour from Austin, TX, is setting up shop in Wicker Park, July 26 August 15! Visit our factory headquarters @ the St. Paul’s Cultural Center to send love notes to friends, lovers, coworkers, and strangers . . . we bottle the notes and deliver them by bike all around the city!

Want to volunteer as a messenger or love factory worker? Come to our volunteer orientation:
Wednesday, July 23, 7:00pm (factory HQ).

Can’t come to the volunteer orientation?
Send us an email: pinkontour@gmail.com or just stop on in anytime we are open (Wed-Sun, 11am-10pm)

chicago: we (deliver) love (for) you. (pass it on!)

Where: St. Paul Cultural Center, 2215 W. North Avenue

When: July 26-August 15, open Wed-Sun, 11am-10pm

Contact: pinkontourATgmailDOTcom

Web: Jaclyn Pryor

Someone send me love notes, okay?

source

For my birthday in March, boyfriend’s parents gave me tickets for the Cirque du Soliel show, Kooza. Yesterday, the day finally rolled around for the show and since I was in San Francisco all last weekend, I didn’t get to see The Dark Knight. We decided to make whole day of it.

We hit up a 4:00 show of The Dark Knight at Webster Place. I know everyone and their mother has posted thoughts on it already so I’ll keep this brief. What the hell was up with Christian Bale’s Batman voice?! It was SO bad. Why couldn’t he talk normal? It made me burst into laughter a few times during the movie, I can’t even lie. Secondly, before I seen the movie, I figured all the Oscar hype for Heath Ledger was just because he had died. Honestly, he was amazing in this role. Creepy, maniacal and you couldn’t even tell it was Heath behind all that makeup. All in all, definitely lived up to the hype (minus Batman’s voice).

Right after the show, we headed up to the United Center for Cirque du Soliel. I was not expecting it to be in tents outside of the United Center, but it was. It was quite small but there were great views from anywhere you sat. The only bad thing was that they packed us in like sardines. The seats were so close together it was really uncomfortable. The show was great though. I am now convinced that these women do not have bones in their bodies because I was hurting FOR them. Then one of them did this thing where they were moving their legs around in circles over their head in like a reverse backbend. DUDE, it was some shit out of the Exorcist and had me cringing.

We are now trying to see about getting tickets for a Cirque show when we go back to Vegas in October because this was so great on a small scale, I can only imagine it on a larger one like in Las Vegas. I’m hoping I can score us tickets for Love at the Mirage. It was a great day. I had boyfriend all to myself and we had tons of fun.