Derby Extravaganza Post - Part I

Do you hear that? It is the sigh of one contented but exhausted gal, trying to recover from 3 straight days at Churchill Downs, including the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby. What a fun time we had - rain and all! I've been busy uploading pictures and there are so many, I knew I had to break this up into two posts (also, the program I use to edit my photos is giving me grief with the pictures from Derby day, grrr...). So without further adieu, here's a recap of our first two days at the track...


We were delighted to head out to the track on Thursday at the invitation of some of our closest friends, Andy and Amanda. Andy works for a local State Farm agency and invited us (as his friends and also his clients) to join them in their corporate suite in the infield. Now, I know what you're thinking, but the infield does not become a crazy place until Friday! It was a really nice setup - food, bar and betting windows on the first floor, and on the roof were lots of tables and chairs covered by umbrellas, another bar, and an absolutely perfect view of the twin spires and grandstand.


See what I mean?? And what perfect weather we had - 80 degrees, sunny, and not a cloud in sight. Most of the afternoon we found ourselves standing at the railing, soaking up the sun and admiring that wonderful view. I love this image I caught of the shadow cast by my hat on the turf below (mine is the shadow on the far left):


There might have also been a few drinks involved...


And a little betting, too. You know the old saying, when in Rome....Here I am studying the racing program, but without much success. Last year I won a few hundred bucks, and this year I didn't cash one ticket - oh well!


There was not too big of a crowd at the track on Thursday, so Ryan and I took advantage and wandered the grounds. We stopped by the gift shop and picked up this cute tee for this even cuter little girl:


We also had a chance to explore the paddock area, which for once was not covered by a throng of people. A couple of lovely statues grace the paddock - the first is of legendary jockey Pat Day, and the other is a thoroughbred horse which I think may be Secretariat (Triple Crown winner), I just can't remember.






We also admired a gigantic mural in the clubhouse that depicts many famous horse owners, trainers and jockeys:


Before returning to our seats, we stopped in the paddock again to admire a few of the horses who were being walked - aren't they gorgeous?? I cannot get over the muscles on these beautiful animals.




There was a bit of excitement when we returned to our seat - one of the thoroughbreds got loose while being prepped for the next race and took off the wrong way down the track! No worries, though, they quickly caught him without too much of a problem.


We had great seats for one of the afternoon's turf races which loaded just in front of us:


And they're off!


The leaders coming around the final bend:


Needless to say, we had a perfect day on Thursday, and considered ourselves lucky to enjoy it with such great friends.

We headed back out to the track on Friday for the Kentucky Oaks, which I previously posted about here. We were blessed to have another picture-perfect day with gorgeous sunshine (I guess we got our fill of it those two days because it was certainly the opposite on Derby Day!). The winner's circle at Churchill Downs:


Churchill Downs asked all in attendance to don pink in support of breast cancer, and I certainly wanted to comply. You've already gotten a brief taste of my hat that day, but let me show you a couple of more pictures:




Yes, my hat was THAT big and it was FABULOUS! I have to admit, I went back and forth as to whether I should wear the hat, wondering if I could pull it off (and I'm still doubtful that I could pull off such a hat after looking at pictures!). I cannot claim it as my own - I borrowed it from a partner at our firm who had won it at a silent auction/Derby fashion show a couple of years ago. It's a Frank Olive hat, which is a brand of hats you typically see at the Derby. It was just as big as it looks in these photos - I could not wear the thing through the crowd, it would have been impossible to navigate a path to our seats. People were commenting on this hat left and right, and I had five offers to buy it on the spot! It was a great hat, but I certainly had a headache at the end of the day (whether it is from my head supporting the hat or the exhaustion, I'm not sure).

Our friend Natalie also wore a lovely pink hat - here she is with her husband, Rick (whom you will recall me talking about here). Rick was showing his support for the fight again breast cancer with his pink tie (did you also notice Ryan's pink tie), and his horse running in the Derby - Mission Impazible.



Little Big Town sang the National Anthem and did a wonderful job:


The anthem was followed by the parade of Breast Cancer Survivors, which was sponsored by Kroger (for those of you not in the Southeast US, this is one of the region's biggest grocers):


All of the ladies selected to walk in the parade were divided up by the number of years they had been cancer-free - there were some who had been in remission for over 20 years. Most were joined by loved ones. I teared up as I read a sign held by one daughter which read something to the following effect (not verbatim): "In 1973, Secretariat and my mother both fought and won the hardest races of their life." The mother of our very good friend David was also one of the participants in the walk (she is the one in the lovely hot pink hat in the middle of the photo and is escorted by David's father - David was also on hand to support his mother):


I love how many of the women took off their high heels in favor of brightly-colored wellies to cross the dirt track!


We enjoyed watching lots of beautiful fillies race their way to glory that afternoon.


Whew, what a long, picture-filled post! I'll be back shortly with a smaller post about our rain-soaked Derby!

Gone to the Races

(Yours truly, under what had to have been the biggest hat at Kentucky Oaks - yes, I promise I'm under there somewhere!)

I'd love to post more pictures and tell more stories, but truth of the matter is I am flat out exhausted and gearing up for tomorrow's Derby festivities (thunderstorms and all). I will be sure to post plenty of pictures on Sunday after this whirlwind adventure is complete. Please be sure to cheer on our friend's horse, Mission Impazible! (He will be in the 14th position in the Derby race, and the jockey's silks are lime green and brown.)

Second Wind

I'm desperately seeking a second wind right now to get prepared for the next few days at Churchill - you see, over the past three work days, I have already billed a full week's worth of work! Yes, this little lawyer has been busy! Monday I had to go to an expert's deposition in a small town east of Columbus called Coshocton, Ohio - a five hour trip one-way from Louisville. When the deposition ended at 8pm, I decided that I really wanted to try to get home instead of staying in the small hotel (while not the only reason I decided to leave, one consideration was that the entire area did not pick up AT&T - I felt defenseless and at a loss without my iPhone!) - so I packed up and drove 5 hours back home, getting in just before 1:00 am. I worked again till about 1:30 am on Tuesday (of course, with a few breaks thrown in here and there for dinner and time with my sweet girl).

Today, I was pumped to get to head out to the track with the ladies from our all-female law firm for a fun firm outing. I just had to sit through some depositions this morning that began at 9am - I thought that surely my depositions would end by noon, leaving plenty of time to get to the track to join in the festivities. I'm not sure why I was so confident of this - I didn't get out of the depositions until 5:30 this afternoon, and completely missed my first day at the track! My fun little outfit and hat were left hanging all by their lonesome in my office the entire day....not exactly what I had in mind. Oh well, such is life!

As I didn't head out to the track today, I'm going to wear today's outfit to the track tomorrow (which will now be the first of three days at the track as opposed to the second of four). Here's some pics of the outfit - unfortunately these pictures aren't the greatest but you get the idea!

The dress and necklace:



The fun and funky wedge heels that I purchased for a great deal from Modcloth, after first seeing them on this fun blog:


And of course, you can't forget the hat! I love the satin braiding detail that Anna added to my hat from last year - it's really unique and I think it is a fun and sophisticated touch that compliments the curves of the hat.




So that's it - my first outfit of this year's Derby week! The weather tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful, sunny, with hardly a cloud in sight, so I'll try to take plenty of pictures to share here with you!

Odds and Ends

Life has been somewhat chaotic lately, folks, so I'm sorry for the lack of posting. If I thought it was busy before, though, it is about to get downright crazy - it's DERBY week!

(Four days at the track. Four outfits. Four days of walking around for hours in high heels. Breathe, Sara, breathe...it's a marathon, not a sprint!)

I have received so many lovely comments in response to my posts about Derby attire, and many have requested that I share pictures of the outfits and hats that I picked out for the week. I promise to share them in my next post on Tuesday, after I have a chance to pick up the hats and fascinator. My friend, Anna, is creating them - she is so incredibly creative and has designed hats the past few years. Her hats can be found at Blink Boutique in Louisville, and she also does custom orders. Her work has been featured a few different times in the Courier Journal (here's one cute feature). She has been a busy girl this year as her work is in high demand - she's even designing Vanessa Minillo's Derby hat! I'm so excited for her, though I'm sure she will be ready for Derby season to be over! I can't wait to see the finished product - here are a couple of her hats that were featured at Blink.


It was a rather low key weekend for us - maybe that was a subconscious decision made by Ryan and I as we are getting ready for a whirlwind week. It rained ALOT but that didn't seem to put a damper on the two very casual cookouts we attended last night and tonight! At tonight's cookout, Alexandra got her first taste of Derby pie, and I think it was love at first bite - I wish I had a picture! If you've never heard of this little slice of heaven, you can read more about it here.

For the fifth Sunday in a row, our little family of three headed out for brunch. Before Alexandra was born, Ryan and I liked to go out to eat usually once a weekend, but do not do that as much anymore since that usually coincides with Alexandra's bedtime. We wanted to include her and thought it would be nice to start a new tradition with brunch each Sunday. This has been a wonderful little ritual for our family, we enjoy it so much! A few of the Sundays have been spent at Mimi's, but when the wait is not too long, we go to Wild Eggs.



Look at that spread, doesn't it make your mouth water! If you're ever in the Louisville area, you have to make your way over to one of their two locations. And if you are a good Southerner and like grits, FORGET ABOUT IT - Wild Eggs has the best grits I've ever had, hands down. Their "Grits of the Day" on our most recent trip were Feta and Bacon - need I say more?!

The rest of the weekend was spent running errands. On my second trip to Kroger this afternoon (yes, I said SECOND), I was skimming through the magazine section of the grocery store while waiting for a prescription to be filled when my eyes landed upon this:


How gorgeous is that image?? I stopped dead in my tracks, picked up a copy and flipped right to the cover story on Princess Grace (which you can read here). Each photograph was more stunning than the next. Grace Kelly had a classic, timeless beauty that many have tried to replicate (some with more success than others). Here's just a few of the beautiful photos from the feature:





Wow, what a random post this has been! I will be out of state on a work trip tomorrow, but will be sure to post pictures on Tuesday of the Derby hats Anna made for me - HAPPY DERBY WEEK!

Making a Statement

I believe that every individual should live a life that makes a statement about who they are and what they stand for - what is truly important to them. Kelle at Enjoying the Small Things is a person who realizes what is important in the grand scheme of things, and lives a life that truly makes a statement about who she is as a person.


(Photo Credit to Kelle Hampton at Enjoying the Small Things)

I believe I stumbled upon Kelle's blog a couple of weeks ago through Sincerely, B, who directed her readers to an absolutely beautiful post Kelle wrote about the birth of her second daughter. I linked over and read the post, and as I read this beautiful, open account of one woman's journey through a life-changing event, I was mesmerized. At several times while reading the post, tears poured from me freely - as a woman, as a mother, my heart went out to Kelle. After finishing the post, I felt like I had a deeper appreciation for what is important in life. Thank you for that, Kelle.

Do yourself a huge favor and read this post - you will need to set aside about 20 minutes and be sure to have a box of Kleenex in hand. No matter your station in life, I am certain that you will find this post as touching and heartfelt as I did (and the 2500+ people who commented on Kelle's post).

Completely switching gears...

Just because I can't seem to create a post these days that does not include some Derby fashion, I wanted to include some "statement making" necklaces from Elva Fields.


These necklaces are gorgeous and would be a beautiful addition to any dressy outfit, Derby attire or not! These beautiful pieces have been featured by Lucky and Martha Stewart Weddings, just to name a few. And the best part? Owner/Designer Emily Wheat Maynard is a resident of Louisville! Every woman planning a trip to the Derby should be so lucky to wear a true Kentucky treasure such as an Elva Fields necklace!