Austin Woman MAGAZINE | mAY 2016
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56
On the cover
THE JOYS OF may By Rachel Merriman
65
feature Photo by Rudy Arocha.
a family affair By missy sharpe
Contents
Chicon photo by Kate LeSueur.
may
80 on the scene
GOURMET
27 KRISTY’S TOP 10
73 recipe reveal Breakfast in Bed 78 in season Never Skip a Beet 80 Food News Chicon
May’s To-do List
savvy women 30 c ount us in Women in Numbers 32 Profile Jennifer Chenoweth 34 e xpert advice Family-friendly Travel 36 let’s taco ’bout it Caroline Freedman
MUST LIST 39 M ust travel The Ashram 44 M ust read Summer Staff Picks 46 M ust GIVE Austin American-Statesman
style + Home 48 splurge or steal Bikini Season 50 accessorize Off to the Races 52 Ask A designer Katie Kime
16 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
wellness 82 h ealth Postpartum Depression 84 Q&A The Zika Virus
POINT OF VIEW 86 m emo from JB Making Mama Happy 88 i am austin woman What a Long, Strange Trip It’ll (Hopefully) Be
on the cover
Alice + Olivia tangerine maxi dress, $298; Argento Vivo turquoise earrings, $58, available at Nordstrom, 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy., 512.691.3500, nordstrom.com; ruby and violet bracelets, $68 and $88, available at Estilo, 2727 Exposition Blvd., 512.236.0488, estiloaustin.com.
Photo by Rudy Arocha, rudyarochaphotography.com Styled by Ashley Hargrove, dtkaustinstyling.com Hair and makeup by Laura Martinez, bylauramartinez.com
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Volume 14, issue 9
Co-Founder and Publisher Melinda Maine Garvey vice president and Co-Publisher Christopher Garvey associate publisher Cynthia Guajardo Shafer COO/GenerAL MANAGER Shawnee McClanahan
EDITORIAL Editor Emily C. Laskowski associate Editor April Cumming copy editor Chantal Rice contributing writers
Wendi Aarons, Jill Case, Marisa Charpentier, Daniela Covian, Rebecca Darling, Tony Dreibus, JB Hager, Ashley Hargrove, Rachel Merriman, Kristy Owen, Rachel Rascoe, Missy Sharpe, Grace Snively, Deborah Stachelski
ART CREATIVE Director Niki Jones ART DIRECTOR Lucy Froemmling CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Rudy Arocha, Bret Brookshire, Molly Csorba, Megan Dolan, Jessica L. Fradono, Kevin Garner, Susan Griffin, Megan Dolan, Ashley Hargrove, Aaron Jetelina, Daniel N. Johnson, Bill Ledbetter, Kate LeSueur, Laura Martinez, Dustin Meyer, Lucy Paije, John Pesina, Jack Plunkett, Aubrie Pick, Annie Ray, Jessica Wetterer, Molly Winters
ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Katie Paschall, Jessica Price
operations and marketing Operations and Marketing manager
Maggie Rester Interns
Chelsea Bucklew, Marisa Charpentier, Daniela Covian, Emily Henry, Brianna Peters, Rachel Rascoe, Grace Snively, Maddie Walling
Emeritae Co-Founder Samantha Stevens Editors
Deborah Hamilton-Lynne, Mary Anne Connolly, Elizabeth Eckstein Austin Woman is a free monthly publication of AW Media Inc., and is available at more than 1,250 locations throughout Austin and in Lakeway, Cedar Park, Round Rock and Pflugerville. All rights reserved. For submission requirements, visit awmediainc.com/contribute. No part of the magazine may be reprinted or duplicated without permission. Visit us online at austinwomanmagazine.com. Email us at info@awmediainc.com. 512.328.2421 • 3921 Steck Ave., Suite A111, Austin, TX 78759
From the Editor
Join the conversation @eclaskowski @austinwoman #IAmAustinWoman
20 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
good with the bad, the easy times with the hard, the enjoyable with the oh so annoying. There’s not a one-size-fits-all equation to this balancing act. Maybe it will help you to organize everything in a journal, the way our cover woman, Mica May, does so artfully. Or perhaps making it work means working with your family, as the McPhail family proves in this month’s feature story. Or maybe the key is just laughter, which you will no doubt experience reading our I Am Austin Woman column from humorist Wendi Aarons. The women featured in this magazine, in fact, women everywhere, get asked a lot how they find time for it all. To me, it’s clear: They just do. That’s why our world keeps moving: because we figure it out somehow. As someone who frets about the future, I need to be reminded that women, including the wonderful women who produce this magazine each month, are getting through each day in a million different ways. Rarely does getting it done mean doing everything at once; often, getting it done just means getting from one day to the next. At the end of the day, it’s the walks around the neighborhood with Dobby, or the inside jokes with our friends or the big bear hug from a loved one that make our day. So, here’s a reminder to myself and all of you: Don’t forget about all the ways we’ve got it made.
Sincerely,
EMILY C. LASKOWSKI Editor
Photo by Dustin Meyer.
F
our years ago this Memorial Day, my husband and I adopted a puppy named Dobby from Austin Pets Alive! For us, a couple who actually attended the Harry Potter studio tour in London during our honeymoon, discovering a 10-week-old, short-haired terrier mix with floppy ears named after J.K. Rowling’s beloved house-elf character was a sign from above. We were instantly smitten and continue to obsess about him unapologetically. At Austin Woman, dogs regularly weave in and out of our everyday lives, with office mascots Miss Bee, the less-than-10-pound Chihuahua mix, and Theo, the more-than-100-pound akbash, respectively trotting and traipsing up and down the hallway almost every day. That doesn’t even include the many other pets (cats too!) that at least half of our staff goes home to each night. Our families come in different shapes and sizes. Dobby, while not a person (although, my siblings would jokingly remind me that dogs are people too) nor technically my child, is an integral and playful part of my family. Whether dogs, kids, siblings, friends or significant others comprise your family, you probably consider those closest to you as pieces of your life’s puzzle, each one essential to it being complete. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could always find time to spend with the families we’ve made without worrying about our careers or health care or biweekly paychecks? Yes, it would be nice, but isn’t it true that without darkness, you can’t appreciate the light? We have to learn how to balance the
contributors
Austin Symphony Orchestra
This month, we asked our contributors: What travel destination is at the top of your bucket list?
RUDY AROCHA
Cover Photographer, “The Joys Of may,” Page 56 Photographer Rudy Arocha is a native Texan who moved to Austin to pursue his education in fine arts as a sculptor. He later rediscovered his passion for photography when his grandfather gave him a camera as a gift. Rudy graduated from the Art Institute of Austin and specializes in portrait photography. When not photographing, Rudy enjoys music, the outdoors and spending time with his wife, Maggie. “The destination at the top of my bucket list is Italy. I would love to take a month-long trip there and drink as much wine as possible!”
rachel merriman
Cover STORY writer, “The Joys Of may,” Page 56 Rachel Merriman is a local technical writer and freelance magazine writer. When she isn’t writing, you can probably find her in her kitchen covered in flour. She blogs about baking and making her 1970s fixer-upper a home at siftingandthrifting.com.
Perfect date nights start here.
“I’ve never been outside the U.S. before, so my ultimate travel destination might seem pretty mundane to people who are much more worldly and well-traveled than I am, but I’d love to take a trip all over Europe that I don’t return from for many months.”
KEVIN GARNER
U p c o m i n g e v e n t: MAY 13 & 14, 8:00 p.M. Masterworks Series at long Center’s dell Hall Ilya Gringolts, violin Music of Vivaldi, Sibelius, Mozart, Beethoven ilya GrinGoltS
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Tickets/Info (512) 476-6064 or austinsymphony.org
Me di a Sp o nSor S
photographer, “Let’s Taco ’BOUT it,” Page 36 Kevin Garner is a freelance photographer in Austin. He holds a bachelor’s degree in visual arts with a minor in dance. After working as a stylist at Neiman Marcus, he went on to work with the Aveda artistic team in hair and makeup. Fashion photography is his medium. “I’m a huge fan of a show called The Only Way is Essex. It’s my escape from the everyday grind. They always travel to Marbella, Spain for holiday. It looks sublime. It’s at the top of my list!”
Missy Sharpe Writer, “A Family Affair,” Page 65 Missy Sharpe is a Native Austinite and proud graduate of the University of Texas journalism program. She has a background as an editor and educator, and currently is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Community Impact Newspaper, Austin Home magazine and on Austin Moms Blog. In her spare time, she volunteers with the Junior League of Austin. She lives in North Austin with her husband and young daughter. “My dream travel destination is Prague.”
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Connect with us! Can’t get enough of this issue? Check us out at austinwomanmagazine.com.
➥More adventuring. Join us as we explore the features of five family-friendly Texas state parks that, while a bit off the beaten path, are filled with tons of weekend fun.
family focus. We sat down with Dominican Joe coffee shop Co-founder Sharla ➥ More Megilligan (over a cup of fair-trade coffee, of course) to discuss the rewards of being a single mother to two adopted Haitian boys and the power of banding together and giving back. learning lessons. From calligraphy and winemaking classes to food styling and ➥ More block-printing sessions, there’s a sea of creative learning opportunities out there to explore. Consult our condensed, curated list of nationwide retreats to discover what you should learn next.
➥ More fashion flair. With Coachella a distant blur behind us and the Austin City Limits
Music Festival looming brightly before us, it’s high time to catch up on the hottest summer festival-style trends. One of our photographers took her camera to the streets at Levitation Festival to see what’s in and what’s out.
➥ More mementos for Mom. Do you need some inspiration for what to give your mom
this Mother’s Day (May 8)? We rounded up some of our favorite finds, guaranteed to make her feel flattered.
➥ More travel tips. From dealing with flight delays to struggling to stay sane on long road trips, going away from home can be stressful. We hunted down a few essential, lifesaving travel gadgets to help make all your journeys more hassle-free.
countries. Now imagine you didn’t pack any luggage, nor did you make any hotel reservations. Shockingly, that’s what Austinite Clara Bensen did and still loves to do. Settle in as we chat with her about the initial luggage-less journey that inspired her book No Baggage: A Minimalist Tale of Love and Wandering, released in January.
Don’t miss
Win This!
Tickets for two to THE MYSTERY ROOM at The Domain
What does your ultimate weekend look like? Take us with you and show us your favorite things to do—whether you have the family in tow or are just flying solo—for a chance to win two tickets to The Mystery Room at The Domain. To enter to win, show @AustinWoman where your weekend travels take you and share on Instagram using the hashtag #AWMystery during the month of May. A winner will be chosen at the end of the month.
@austinwoman
24 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
Austin Woman May Issue Launch Party May 5, 6 to 8 p.m. Canyon View Events Center 4800 Spicewood Springs Road austinwomanmagazine.com Bring It On: The Musical May 6 and 7, times vary St. Andrew’s Dell Theatre 5901 Southwest Parkway sasaustin.org
#AWMystery
Follow us
Philanthropitch Startup Games May 2, 5:30 p.m. Zach Theatre 1510 Toomey Road philanthropitchaustin.splashthat.com
American Heart Association Heart Ball May 7, 6 to 11 p.m. JW Marriott Austin 110 E. Second St. heart.org
like us
facebook.com/austinwoman
An Evening with Patty Griffin, Benefiting Breakthrough Austin May 13, 7 p.m. Stubb’s Bar-B-Q 801 Red River St. breakthroughaustin.org
Austin Women in Technology Speed Mentoring Happy Hour May 25, 6 to 8 p.m. 3017 Sunridge Dr. awtaustin.org/events
Texas Women in Business AWE Interactive Conference May 26 Holiday Inn Midtown 6000 Middle Fiskville Road texaswomeninbusiness.org
FOLLOW us
@ austinwoman
Lost Maples State Park photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife. Sharla Megilligan photo courtesy of Sharla Megilligan. Clara Bensen photo courtesy of Clara Bensen. The Mystery Room photo courtesy of The Mystery Room.
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ON THE SCENE kristy’s top 10
May’s to-do list from 365 Things To Do In Austin, Texas. By kristy owen
1
The Wizard of Oz at The Long Center
Photo by Susan Griffin.
May 27 through 29, times vary The Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive thelongcenter.org/event/wizard-oz Enter the magical, mystical land of Oz through master producer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage adaptation of one of the most classic stories of all time, The Wizard of Oz. Fly with evil monkeys and dance along with munchkins as this unforgettable tale is brought to life. Don’t be surprised if you get swept away and transported to another world. You might just leave feeling as though you’re not in Austin anymore. Tickets start at $29.
austinwomanmagazine.com | 27
n the scene
kristy’s top 10
May 5 and 19, 8 p.m. Shady Grove, 1624 Barton Springs Road kgsr.com/unplugged-2016
Thursdays through Sundays in May, 8 to 10 p.m. Zilker Hillside Theater, 2201 Barton Springs Road facebook.com/austinshakespeare Pack a blanket, round up your pup and snag your favorite sonnet, then head to the Zilker hillside across from Barton Springs for Austin Shakespeare’s production of Macbeth. The classic drama- and tragedy-filled performance is part of the company’s summer Shakespeare in the Park series. Admission is free.
O. Henry Pun-Off May 7, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Brush Square Park, 409 E. Fifth St. punoff.com/about-2016-punoff
4
Who knew that people spinning their best puns could be a spectator sport? The O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships, held in downtown’s small Brush Square Park, features two pun-filled (and fun-filled) competitor challenges. Watch in awe as Austin punners perform for 90 seconds in the Punniest of Show, followed by a two-person pun shoot-out competition called Punslingers. Aside from all the wordplay and pun fun, there will also be live music, a live auction, a used-book sale and food trucks. Proceeds from the pun-off benefit the O. Henry and Susanna Dickson museums. Admission is free.
Pecan Street Festival May 7 and 8 Sixth Street Historic District pecanstreetfestival.org
3
KGSR’s Unplugged at the Grove
Shakespeare in the Park: Macbeth
Summer nights in Austin don’t get much better than listening to free live music outside as you dine on tasty burgers and fries. Unplugged at the Grove is the longestrunning free concert series in Austin, and every Thursday night throughout the summer, local radio station KGSR brings live-music performances to Shady Grove’s large patio. On the listening radar for the month of May are El Paso, Texas-based rockers the Dirty River Boys (May 5) and indie crooner Charlie Mars (May 19). Now in its 23rd season, this live-music showcase is a beloved Austin tradition. Admission is free.
5
Spend a day of clean fun on “Dirty Sixth” at one of Central Texas’ oldest and most beloved events. Since its start in 1978, the Pecan Street Festival, a gigantic outdoor market and fair, has attracted hundreds of local and national artisans selling a seemingly endless amount of handcrafted wares. Occurring twice a year (once in spring and once in fall) in the historic downtown district, the festival features many distinctly Austin attractions—facial-hair groomer, anyone?—and local food trucks, as well as live-music performances and plenty of kid-friendly fun. This year, event proceeds benefit local nonprofits Habitat for Humanity and the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. Fun fact: The name of the festival is a tribute to Austin’s early days, when the now-numbered streets were originally named after trees. Admission is free.
6
28 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
The 2016 Victory Cup Derby Day Austin May 7, 1 to 8 p.m. Austin Polo Club, 13628 Gregg Manor Road victorycup.org/derbyday You’re going to need a bigger hat! The Victory Cup is bringing derby day to the Lone Star State with an all-day party open to the whole family, including pets. Start the day spectating on the sidelines of a professional polo match, then feast on a local chefprepared meal served on the polo field as you sit back and watch a live screening of the Kentucky Derby on a jumbo screen. Bonus entertainment includes a classic-car show. A portion of all event proceeds will go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Dell Children’s Medical Center. Tickets start at $35.
2. Photo by Bret Brookshire. 3. Photo by Molly Csorba. 5. Photo courtesy of Lost In Austin. 6. Photo courtesy of The Victory Cup.
O2
8. Photo courtesy of the Fredericksburg Crawfish Festival. 9. Photo courtesy of Big Medium. 10. Photo by Jack Plunkett.
7 9
8
Cine Las Americas International Film Festival
Fredericksburg Crawfish Festival
May 4 through 8 Times and locations vary cinelasamericas.org
May 27 through 29 Marktplatz, 126 W. Main St., Fredericksburg, Texas fbgcrawfish.com
Expand your cinematic horizons with Cine Las Americas, a local nonprofit that promotes cultural understanding through film. This year’s international film festival will showcase contemporary films made by or featuring Latinos and indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as films from Spain and Portugal. One-third of the festival’s screenings will be free and open to the public at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. Festival badges and individual-screening tickets for other shows throughout town are also available for purchase. Admission prices vary by screening.
Memorial Day Weekend crawfish boils are a dime a dozen this time of year, but this one is the best catch. Taking place only a short drive west of Austin, this three-day celebration of all things Cajun is held in downtown Fredericksburg’s central market square. Featuring music by country singer Charlie Robison and Americana band Jason Boland and the Stragglers, this Creole celebration is sure to serve up boatloads of family fun and more crawfish than your appetite can handle. Single-day tickets are $10 to $12 for adults and $5 for kids ages 6 to 12. Kids 5 and younger get in free.
Movies in the Park: Raiders of the Lost Ark
May 5, 8:15 p.m. Palm Park, 711 E. Third St. austinparks.org/calendar/raiders-of-the-lost-ark Whether you’re on the hunt for a new date-night twist or are wanting an evening out with the whole family, who would say no to watching a classic film under the stars—er, city lights? Bring some folding chairs and watch as ’80s-era Harrison Ford races to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis do. Hosted by the Austin Parks Foundation and the Alamo Drafthouse, the screening is the last in this season’s series of Movies in the Park. Tip: Pack a picnic dinner (dinner meaning popcorn). Admission is free.
West Austin Studio Tour May 14 and 15, and 21 and 22 Locations vary west.bigmedium.org Get a closer look at Austin’s artistic community and discover new talent at the self-guided West Austin Studio Tour. The fifthannual art event means more than 150 studios and workspaces will open their doors to the public, allowing for exploration into artists’ techniques, inspirations and creative environments. Guide catalogs will be available at all participating locations. Admission is free.
10 Kristy Owen is the event mastermind and blogger behind 365 Things To Do In Austin, Texas. To stay up to date on the best Austin has to offer, visit her blog, 365thingsaustin.com.
austinwomanmagazine.com | 29
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Facts and figures on females from throughout the world. By Daniela Covian, illustrations by jessica wetterer
$1 million
12 weeks
The record-setting amount of scholarship funds that will be offered to high-school juniors and seniors wanting to get more involved in coding. The scholarships will be made available through the national nonprofit Girls Who Code, an organization founded by former deputy public advocate of New York City, Reshma Saujani. In 2016, Girls Who Code plans to host 78 programs in 11 major U.S. cities, reaching approximately 1,560 girls—a 37 percent increase in program expansion from 2015. Saujani’s goal with the sevenweek Summer Immersion Program is to give young women more than 300-plus hours of hands-on experience in web development and design, robotics and mobile development, with mentorship and exposure to top female engineers and entrepreneurs.
The longest amount of parental leave both new moms and new dads can have after a new policy is instituted July 1 at the charter-school network Democracy Prep Public Schools. After having her first two kids in a time span of two years, CEO Katie Duffy realized there are certain child-rearing struggles faced when new dads receive less time off from work than new moms. One struggle: Because Duffy spent more time with the kids, she inherently became the parental go-to expert, causing her to take on the majority of parenting. With her new across-the-board parentalleave policy, Duffy hopes to help her male teachers share more of the responsibilities. Originally, Democracy Prep female employees got four paid weeks of maternity leave after less than two years of service, six weeks after two to five years of service and nine weeks after five years of service. The most paternity leave a male employee could receive was three weeks. Starting July 1, the parentalleave policy will be more generous and equal for moms and dads. New hires will get six paid weeks, rising to eight weeks at one year of service and to 12 weeks after two years of service.
1,370 miles
May 8 The date Mother’s Day falls on this year. The special day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 to honor mothers. It soon became a day of celebration recognized throughout the world and was made an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Mother’s Day most commonly falls on the second Sunday in May and traditionally involves gifting mothers with flowers and other curios, like handwritten cards, chocolates and candles. No doubt, if Jarvis were still alive, she’d ask that everyone wear a white carnation. It was her mother’s favorite flower and is seen as representing the purity of a mother’s love.
The distance covered by more than 200 Buddhist nuns when they cycled from Kathmandu, Nepal to New Delhi, India—a distance equivalent to driving from Austin to Los Angeles— as a way to promote gender equality and environmental preservation. The physically active nuns are of the Drukpa Order and are commonly referred to as “kung fu nuns,” kung fu being a practice the nuns are proficient in. During the 52-day ride, the nuns stopped in villages to share their inspiring message of conservation and hold discussions on women’s rights. Gyalwang Drukpa, the group’s current leader, summed up the mission of their journey, saying, “The Drukpa kung fu nuns are global messengers [working to] spread a positive message: that everyone can participate in tackling the world’s challenges.” 30 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
93 Years That’s the age of an Ohio woman who finally received her high-school diploma. Dorothy Louise Liggett was just weeks from graduating when she secretly married her husband after he was drafted into the Army in 1942. News of her recent union was let out one day in gym class at North High School in Akron, Ohio, and the rest is history. According to school policy, Liggett had to be kicked out. Liggett had always regretted never graduating. Then, her 73-year-old daughter wrote a note to the highschool superintendent, and on Liggett’s 93rd birthday, Akron Public Schools Superintendent David James surprised her with a diploma. It was the best gift she could have hoped for. “I always felt bad not having this,” Liggett says. “Even though I’m 93 years old, I still like having it.”
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All Over the Map
Local artist Jennifer Chenoweth discusses her colorful project, ‘XYZ Atlas,’ and what it has to teach us about attachment to place. by Grace Snively
‘XYZ Atlas’
Picking favorites: It’s a pastime that, even if you haven’t lived in Austin long, you’re likely guilty of participating in. Consider these Austin-centric activities: hiking on the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail or the Greenbelt, sipping coffee on the patio at Caffe Medici or Cenote, or shopping on South Congress Avenue. For every decision we make, there are just as many varying reasons why we make them. Reasons, says local artist Jennifer Chenoweth, that reflect our emotional connection to place. Chenoweth’s latest project is “XYZ Atlas,” an interactive public art display that shows how, by picking favorites, we are all connected to our surroundings. To tell the whole story of “XYZ Atlas” means rewinding to the year 2013. That’s when Chenoweth latched on to ’70s psychologist Robert Plutchik’s theory of emotional wholeness and how emotions relate together on a color wheel. As an artist, Chenoweth fell in love with the visual concept of his theory and realized it could be used as a tool to understand and accept personal emotions. A few brainstorming sessions later, Chenoweth had created a chart on which Austinites could fill in both the positive and negative experiences they had attached to places throughout the city. Enlisting the help of a few writer friends, Chenoweth turned the chart into a list of 20 questions—10 positive, 10 negative—and used them as a survey, which she launched at an art exhibition in East Austin. “Some people only answer the positive or the negative [questions], some people pick and choose, and some people diligently answer every single [question],” she explains. With 60 respondents right off the bat, Chenoweth joined forces with David O’Donnell, an expert in geographic information systems, to turn the data into X and Y axis points. Using map coordinates of locations in Austin, they reviewed people’s answers and tagged each location with X and Y coordinates, adding a Z point up the chart to indicate a positive experience and a Z point down the chart to indicate a negative experience. By color-coding the geographic map to mirror the emotional chart, the duo had their prototype: a topographic, tangible and hedonic display that reveals where people have experienced their favorite, most 32 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
memorable moments in Austin. Just as Chenoweth had predicted, the results from the initial survey were a bit all over the map. (Pun intended.) “You might be someone who needs to be 25 acres away from any other human, or you might be a city creature who needs tons of interaction and stimulus to feel alive and excited,” she says as to why favorite locations vary from person to person. “Through a series of choices, you end up going to or returning to a place, that place that keeps feeding you whatever it is you need. Then, suddenly, you have all these series of attachments.” Emotional chart created, the project began to evolve and Chenoweth started making other visual artworks to represent the survey data she was collecting. The artwork ranged from a color-wheel-inspired lotus flower to hand-drawn aerial and digital map displays. “My favorite part [of the project] is finding new ways to connect and play with participants. Instead of them just being viewers, they are active collaborators, which makes it all the more satisfying. Imagine a musician enjoying their audience. I like [my art] to be more connected,” Chenoweth says. “One of the coolest things about this project is if I have an event or my art set up somewhere, I am not out there pouncing on people like I am trying to sell something. I wait for people to stroll up or walk by with a funny look on their face or double back, asking, ‘What is this?’ That’s really fun.” So far, the “XYZ Atlas” project has been set up on the University of Texas campus, as well as at the Thinkery and Leadership Austin. Through a public art commission from Art in Public Places, in 2015, Chenoweth produced a location-marker sculpture that traveled throughout the city from park to park. As the emotion-fueled and participant-driven project continued to grow and develop, the popularity of the temporary “XYZ Atlas” art installation most recently found Chenoweth setting up the sculpture on The Long Center’s lawn for its South By Southwest debut. The goal of the project is to help people better understand their emotional motivations and attachments to particular places, in short, to show people why they pick favorites. As Chenoweth says, “This [project] is evidence of [people’s] effect on Austin and Austin’s effect on them.”
Photo Marketer. Photoscourtesy courtesyof ofDigital Jennifer Chenoweth and Texas Rowing Center.
View the final edition of Jennifer Chenoweth’s hedonic map of Austin in person May 21 and 22 at Barton Springs during the second weekend of the West Austin Studio Tour. west.bigmedium.org
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Are We There Yet?
Steer your summer vacation in the right direction with five family-friendly travel tips. by Rebecca Darling Most moms count down the days until summer with a tiny bit of dread in their voice. Not me. I can’t wait until summer, as that means freedom in our family. Our summers are filled with endless exploration. We hit the road and explore with no school, no sports and no commitments. We are a family that likes to travel and see new places. When the children were younger, we could plan trips throughout the year. Add in school and sporting commitments, and the time to travel together gets less and less. That’s why the thought of summer puts me into planning mode and gets me excited for new places to discover. As a family-travel blogger, I love helping people discover the right places to travel and providing them with the best tips to get them there. Before you plan your summer trip, consider these five tips. 1. Plan your travels based on what your children are learning. Last summer, we took a five-week road trip from Austin to Boston and back. My daughter had just completed U.S. history studies, and my son would be taking the class in a year, so it was the perfect time to show them American historical sites, such as the battlefields of Gettysburg, Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the site of the Boston Tea Party. While we were visiting the various sites, I found my daughter teaching us what she had learned during the past year. She even said seeing it in person “brought history to life” for her.
4. Book a photographer on location. Some of the best souvenirs you can bring home from a vacation are the photographs you take. Nothing can evoke special memories and feelings of a great vacation more than looking at photos from your travels. But let’s face it: Most of the time, Mom is behind the camera and very rarely makes it into the photos. For the past few big trips we have taken, we have booked professional photographers to help us capture our fun moments. Most resorts and hotels offer this service, but we like to use Flytographer (flytographer.com), as the company’s services are available worldwide and the photographers will tour the cities with you, snapping photos of your discovery of new places. 5. Take baby powder to the beach. This last tip has always been a favorite of mine. Baby powder is the best beach hack I have ever discovered. If you are covered in sand after a fun day at the beach, rub yourself down with a few handfuls of baby powder and all the sand will brush right off. It’s also the perfect thing for baby or toddler feet before getting into the car to drive home. Rebecca Darling is the voice behind the popular family-travel blog R We There Yet Mom? Darling, a freelance travel writer and mom of three who lives in Austin, is dedicated to creating exceptional memories with her family and helping others do the same, whether it be on the other side of the world or right down the street. rwethereyetmom.com
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Darling.
2. Include the kids in family-travel planning. Sit down with your family and brainstorm all the places you want to visit. Listen to your kids’ input based on their interests, and don’t just assume they want to go to the beach again. Give every family member the chance to pick his or her top activity to do on the trip. Making the decision together gets everyone excited from the start.
3. Be smart booking airline tickets. The best time to buy airline tickets for U.S. travel is between three months and 30 days before departure. We always book airline tickets on Tuesdays. Airlines release sale prices Tuesday afternoons and the competition matches the lower prices, so you have more deals to choose from. Also, if you have been looking for flights for a few days, make sure to clear your cache on your computer so it looks like a new search and the airlines will give you the new price.
34 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
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The Key to Growing a Successful Startup? Baby Steps.
Listen in on a candid conversation with Austin Woman Publisher Melinda Garvey and NurturMe Co-founder Caroline Freedman. photos by kevin garner There’s a brief gap of time between when a toddler takes her first step to when she just won’t sit still. Once toddlers have got the hang of that whole walking-solo business, they want to run. That same full-speed-ahead notion can be applied to the 7-year-old startup NurturMe, an Austin-based baby-food brand focused on providing healthy, protein-rich and easily portable meals and snacks to an ever-developing and on-thego demographic. For Co-founder Caroline Freedman, a mom of three and a working entrepreneur, she’s seen the business morph from an idea into a dream, one she feels fortunate to be living. But, much like a little one taking her first steps, it took a lot of feedback and support to get to where she is today. Melinda Garvey: What inspired you to start NurturMe? Caroline Freedman: The idea came about seven years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child. I was doing a lot of research about when to feed your child, what ingredients are appropriate, how the whole process works. … It was very intimidating. I was surprised to find there was no innovation in baby food. It was still Gerber. It was still pureed foods in jars. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to create a brand that could appeal to modern parents.
CF: When you’re starting your business, there’s so much about it that’s fun and exciting and distracting. We were out applying for Austin awards and doing all the press tours, spending a lot of time focusing on our web design and package design—all the things which, of course, are important. But when one of our mentors said to us, “Your top five priorities need to be sales, sales, sales, sales and sales,” we kind of laughed and thought, “Oh, that’s cute. We’ll keep that in mind,” but we really did not take that to heart. I think, in hindsight, we should have had a more laser focus on sales specifically. All the other stuff comes much more easily when you have dollars to spend on it. MG: So many entrepreneurs wait until the website and everything’s perfect. CF: Yes, but from the start, you’ve just got to do it and focus on selling. MG: What’s the end game for the company? CF: Our exit strategy for the brand is to sell it to a Nestle or a General Mills. Now that we’ve grown the company to a level where we’ve got a pretty big distribution, it’s all about acceleration. MG: You also started a family while you were starting NurturMe. You have three kids now, right? CF: Yes, I’ve got a 1-yearold, a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old. Honestly, that was very much by design, spacing the kids out a bit. I wasn’t wanting to have kids back to back. I really couldn’t with the business.
MG: How has the brand changed since its inception? CF: Originally, we came up with dry, organic veggies [in powdered form] that you prepare with liquid to create a pureed food. In response to feedback we were getting from moms, we added quinoa to the product line. Moms were saying, “Hey, I love your product, but I really need to add a protein. My child no longer just eats fruits and veggies.” Very quickly, we saw that by adding that ingredient, we were outselling everyone else by four- or fivefold. So we said, “Maybe we have a thing with quinoa,” and went on to develop a quinoa-based instant cereal and quinoa-based toddler snacks. There are so many products in the [baby-food] category that are rice- or wheat-based, and we saw this as a way to bring a healthier alternative to the category. MG: Where are you now in the country? Where can people find your product? CF: We’re all over. We’re in about 3,000 [stores] nationwide. Our largest retailer is Babies“R”Us, but we’re in Whole Foods, H-E-B stores and bigbox stores like buybuy Baby. This year, we expect to double [our market] to just under 7,000 storefronts. MG: What were some of the biggest lessons you’ve had to learn in the past six years since starting your company? 36 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
MG: How do you think your children would describe you, in, say, three words? CF: I think and hope my daughters would say loving, hardworking and fun. I truly am living the dream, doing what I love and what I hope to do. That’s something I take a lot of pleasure in. MG: How do you manage it all? CF: I found a partner. Aside from actual workload, there is just so much problem-solving that goes on. [My business partner, who also has two kids,] Lauren McCullough, and I help one another. We have two very different approaches, and, in some situations, her approach is more effective and, in others, mine is. The fact that we have that dynamic as co-founders has enabled us to both grow our families, stay sane and enjoy this ride we’re on. Also, in regards to maintaining balance, it’s important to have a rich and fulfilling social life. There’s this idea that entrepreneurs have to have their heads down and focus on work all the time, but my experience has been that as my company and my responsibilities have grown, my relationships and my friendships have deepened. I don’t have this tunnel vision on work 100 percent of the time.
THE AUSTIN DIAGNOSTIC CLINIC MG: You probably have a really amazing husband who helps with that. CF: Yes, you have to have someone who is supportive, but also shares the workload at home. My husband is in sales, so he has this very gregarious sales personality. I get regular pep talks from him to keep my head up. He has a lot to do with [striking that balance] too. MG: What’s one change you would like to see made for women with families who work a traditional 9-to-5 job? CF: Well, not that this is new news, but I really feel that flexible schedules are a must. It’s just a requirement if you’re going to be involved in child pickups, activities and performances. Out of the five of us in the office, three of us are moms, so, [schedule flexibility] is really a nonissue.
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MG: Is there something you do that’s just for you? CF: My favorite thing is to take a hot-yoga class on Saturday. There’s one particular class I go to at Yoga Vida and it’s a great workout, a great sweat and the instructor sprinkles in these life lessons. It’s a time when I can tune everything else out and really focus and reflect. Snapshot Who: Caroline Freedman, CEO and co-founder of NurturMe Number of times she hits snooze in the morning: “No snoozing option with three little ones!” How she takes her coffee: “By the pot, with almond milk.” Her #socialmedia scene: “Instagram @cmf300 and @nurturme_ and sharing playlists via Spotify and Pandora.” On her nightstand: “Family photos and several weeks’ worth of New York Times that I can never seem to finish reading.” Alternate profession she would like to attempt: “Writing books, participating in local politics, leading a charitable organization and many others that I hope to do someday!” Words to live by: “Work hard, have fun, be nice.”
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MUST LIST Just Go
It’s a choice. You either break away now or, somewhere down the line, you find yourself breaking apart.
Photo courtesy of The Ashram.
by april cumming
Telling symptoms that you’ve been bitten by the travel bug include: 3p rolonged time staring at maps 3w istful glances out the office window at 2 p.m. on a sunny Wednesday afternoon 3p layfully practicing the pronunciations of tropical inland and beachside locales like San Miguel de Allende and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Kauai, Hawaii 3d aydream shopping (code for catching yourself, yet again, standing in a sea of colorful puffy jackets at REI pondering the practicality of your $200 purchase) 3 s pontaneous late-night airfare searches on Expedia austinwomanmagazine.com | 39
ust List
must travel
Perhaps the most acute symptom of the travel bug, however, is a strong, impetuous desire to throw everything out the window—your cellphone, your inundating flood of work emails, your exhausting list of to-dos and familial responsibilities—and just go, just go and see what becomes of it. A change of place can serve as a much-needed catalyst to a change within you. Spending time in a new environment can lend a fresh perspective on who you are, the goals you have and the person you want to be. The truth is that the hardest part about going somewhere is breaking away. But, challenging as it may be, it’s a choice. You either break away now or, somewhere down the line, you find yourself breaking apart: disheveled, burned out, two Skinny Girl Margaritas in, comically consumed with trivial matters and back to staring at that map. It’s ironic. The more prioritized we are in our jobs and the more connected we are in our communities, the more likely we are to crave detachment and time alone. If that sounds like you, then allow us to introduce you to a place called The Ashram.
The Ashram ashram: noun; “a place where a person or a group of people go to live separately from the rest of society” –Merriam-Webster First things first: This is not your traditional, kick-back-in-a-hammock, look-at-that-buffet-spread, get-pampered-to-the-nines resort. This is a place where, for one week, the focus is on refocusing. That means maximizing physical and mental activities and minimizing everything else, food and 21st century distractions included. Tucked discreetly into the pristine, rolling Santa Monica Mountains 32 miles north of Los Angeles and 10 minutes east of California’s Malibu beaches, The Ashram’s basecamp is a two-story, comfortable and unpretentious home with two pay phones and a maximum occupancy of 12. The locales visitors here hail from are just as varied as the reasons they arrive. Some are here to emotionally or spiritually check in with themselves, while others are looking to lose weight. (On average, visitors can lose anywhere from 5 to 15 pounds in a week at The Ashram.)
A typical day onsite may look something like this: 5:45 a.m.: Wake-up call. 6:30 a.m.: Yoga in the meditation dome. Practice sun salutations with
panoramic, pastoral views of the surrounding mountains. 7:30 a.m.: Breakfast of fruit juice or one orange with herbal tea. 8 a.m.: Head out on a hike ranging from 16 to 19 miles (as long as five hours) in the undulating foothills. Noon: Break for lunch back at the house, likely dining on something organic and light, such as a snack of celery and carrot sticks. (Speaking of sticks, The Ashram sticks everyone on a 1,000-calorie-a-day diet.) 1 p.m.: Weight training. 2 p.m.: Deep-tissue massage. 3 p.m.: Down time. Nap, read, journal or discuss the day’s adventures with other guests in the living room. 5 p.m.: Yoga in the meditation dome. Yes, yoga is a twice-daily regimen here. 6 p.m.: Dinner of warm, vegan lentil soup. 7 p.m.: Fun game of water volleyball in the backyard pool followed by a
relaxing soak in the hot tub. 8 p.m.: Evening lecture/pep talk. 8:30 p.m.: Lights out. Pass out finally.
The end goal of the weeklong program is succinctly summed up on the Results page of The Ashram’s website: “After seven days, your body is toned, your mind is purged and your spirit is soaring. Your life is balanced and you feel better.” Still struggling to convince yourself to block out that kind of time on your calendar? Maybe the star-sighting factor will do the trick. Past celebrity visitors to The Ashram include Oprah Winfrey, Shirley MacLaine, Faye Dunaway, Ashley Judd and Cindy Crawford. A one-week retreat at The Ashram starts at $5,000 per person and is all-inclusive. theashram.com
“After seven days, your body is toned, your mind is purged and your spirit is soaring. Your life is balanced and you feel better.”
40 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
The Yoga Photo Haven courtesy photoofby The Ellie Ashram. Cherryhomes. San Luis Resort photo courtesy of Galveston Island CVB.
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must travel
Four Other All-inclusive, Dream-worthy Detox Destinations Ranch at Live Oak Malibu Where: Malibu, Calif. theranchmalibu.com
V Integrated Wellness at The Andaman Resort Where: Langkawi, Malaysia vintegratedwellness.com
What to expect: five-star amenities, including a massage village, saltwater swimming pool and Turkish towels. There’s an emphasis on upscale vegetarian meals and communing with nature.
What to expect: a lot of yoga and an emphasis on mind-body connections. Unique facility features include a butterfly garden and outdoor bathing rituals.
Real talk: A one-week retreat starts at $5,600 per person.
Real talk: Daily rates start at $359 per person.
Sha Wellness Clinic Where: Alicante, Spain shawellnessclinic.com/en
Chiva-Som Where: Hua Hin, Thailand chivasom.com
What to expect: a Mediterranean spa focused on weight loss and macrobiotic eating. Perks include gorgeous views of the sea, sipping on organic, locally sourced wines and soaking in a saltwater floatarium.
What to expect: spectacular tropical surroundings that attract flocks of upper-class Europeans. There’s an emphasis on holistic health treatments. Real talk: A one-week retreat starts at $3,873 per person.
Photos courtesy of The Ashram. Camp Grounded photo by Daniel N. Johnson.
Real talk: A one-week retreat starts at $3,260 per person.
Experience quiet times on the journey back to self.
After a full day on the trail, you will be ready for a peaceful night’s sleep.
Save the Date: Oct. 7 through 10 So, you can’t make it to a retreat but still want to step away from your day-to-day monotony? Camp Grounded, a self-described “summer camp for adults” is coming to Marble Falls, located an hour’s drive northwest of Austin, in October. This camp is all about detoxing from technology and actively participating in life. Here’s what to expect: the opportunity to experience every outdoor, social-media-free activity under the sun. Some of the camp “playshops” include, but are not limited to, archery, acroyoga, rock climbing, analog photography, candle making, Ukulele 101, sailing and woodworking. Items not to bring with you include cellphones, computers, e-readers, watches and digital cameras; essentially, all modern technology is prohibited. After all, that’s kind of the whole point. The three-day retreat starts at $645. campgrounded.org/texas
austinwomanmagazine.com | 43
M
ust List
must read
Six Reads You Need for Summer
It’s time to start stocking up—your bookshelf, that is. The AW staff tosses their top picks into the ring. When Breath Becomes Air
The Summer We Read Gatsby
by Paul Kalanithi, $21.95, Random House
by Danielle Ganek, $15, Plume
When neurosurgeon Dr. Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 36, he decided to chronicle his life. His undeniably thought-provoking memoir, When Breath Becomes Air, follows Kalanithi’s transformation from medical school to academia and fatherhood. In the memoir, he confronts big questions like mortality and existence from the unique perspective of a doctor turned patient. “It’s a beautifully told story about a spiritual, highly educated, young neurosurgeon with lung cancer. An emotional memoir and a must-read for everyone in our lives.” – Cynthia Shafer, associate publisher
The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams, $16, Berkley
After graduating from college in the 1960s, Vivian Schuyler decides to leave her wealthy family life behind and delve into the world of magazine reporting. When Metropolitan Magazine’s editor rejects her, she then discovers a parcel left on her doorstep and begins digging into a story that might be her big break. Vivian suddenly finds herself investigating the life of her long lost Aunt Violet, whose fate remains a mystery. “A period novel set in both Manhattan in the early 1960s and Berlin in 1914. Wealth, intrigue, passion, war: What else do you need for a great day at the beach?” – Melinda Garvey, co-founder and publisher
The Ramblers by Aidan Donnelley Rowley, $25.99, William Morrow
The Ramblers follows the story of a Manhattan trio of 20-somethings figuring out how to cope with the hardships of their pasts. During one Thanksgiving week, Cilo, Smith and Tate explore moments in their lives when they made deliberate choices that have impacted who they have become. The birdwatcher, the “perfect daughter” and the artist must all learn to let go of the past and look toward the future. “It’s difficult for a book to pull me in, a fault credited less to the author’s writing ability and more to my undiagnosed attention deficit disorder, but I voraciously read through half of The Ramblers the same day I bought it.” – April Cumming, associate editor
When two half sisters inherit a Hamptons beach house from their eccentric aunt, the pair can’t bring themselves to sell it. In this beachside must-read, the sisters, Stella and Peck, spend their summer frequenting chic parties and finding a way to keep the pricey house they hold dear, wondering if they can sell one of their aunt’s valuable items, such as the unsigned painting above the fireplace or a first edition copy of The Great Gatsby. “This is a great summer poolside read full of elaborate parties and interesting characters, with a little bit of mystery and surprise. You will wish you were living inside the book’s pages.” – Lucy Froemmling, art director
How to Be a Texan: The Manual by Andrea Valdez, Illustrations by Abi Daniel $21.95, University of Texas Press
Consider this coffee-table book the new go-to tome for every Texan living throughout the Lone Star State. A HOW TO BE A collaboration of two local women, author and Texas Monthly Editor Andrea Valdez and illustrator Abi Daniel, this MANUAL pictorial guide reminds natives and shows recent transplants how to cook like a Texan, ANDREA VALDEZ dance the cumbia, field dress a deer and properly pronounce the names of Refugio and Waxahachie.
Texan THE
Illustrated by Abi Daniel
“I plan on buying several copies of this and gifting them to my many and multiplying non-native-Texan friends. As a fourth-generation Texan, I can’t think of a better book to give and keep handy in my own home at all times.” – Emily C. Laskowski, editor
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead by Brené Brown, $10, Avery
In Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead, thought leader Brené Brown presents a challenging new view on vulnerability and its affect on all areas of our lives. Brown emphasizes the bravery necessary to be emotionally open to all situations, including work and family interactions. She further expands on how such honesty can impact the mindset of entire communities. “Dr. Brené Brown takes a hard look at what vulnerability is and why women (and men) deal with it differently. She takes an indepth look at professional relationships, friendships, family and romantic partnerships. The book is filled with data, but she also provides some great insight and life advice.” – Katie Paschall, account executive
44 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
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M
ust List
must give
Austin Gives With the Austin American-Statesman For Publisher Susie Gray, giving back to the local community means constant staff-wide storytelling and purpose-driven, hands-on participation. By Marisa Charpentier
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Austin American-Statesman is a member of Austin Gives, an organization dedicated to highlighting businesses for doing good. In its four-year existence, Austin Gives has aggregated almost 400 Austin-area companies that have made the commitment to donate at least 1 percent of their annual earnings to charity. To learn more about Austin Gives, visit austin.gives.
46 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
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Gray arrived at the Statesman three and a half years ago after spending 30 years in the media industry. She had been working at USA Today when the opportunity to come to the Statesman presented itself. Before joining the staff, she had never before stepped foot in Austin, but since she’s been here, she says she continues to feel a strong sense of community. She feels it in her staff and she feels it in the people who compose the identity of this city. “I had been in Detroit, where there were a lot of controversies around the newspapers, and then at USA Today, where it’s a different kind of community with your reader base because it’s national,” Gray says. “One of the reasons I wanted to [come to the Statesman] was because that community part of [the job] is so important to me.” Gray says aside from the company’s philanthropy work, the stories the Statesman publishes daily continue to have an impact on the Austin community. “We uncover things that are happening in the community that need to change, whether that’s making a change in legislation, or if a corporation is doing something wrong and legal action is taken against them,” Gray says. “Uncovering those kinds of injustices that are impacting people in the community is what this [publication] is all about.”
Susie Gray participating in the 2014 Over the Edge event for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
TUNE IN
Austin Woman Publisher Melinda Garvey and Austin AmericanStatesman Publisher Susie Gray talk about the importance of women in business and Austin businesses giving back. When: May 3, 9 a.m. Station: KEYE-TV Segment: We Are Austin Website: keyetv.com/features/we-are-austin
Photo courtesy of Austin American-Statesman.
Susie Gray, publisher of the Austin American-Statesman, grasps a rope that extends the length of the W Austin Hotel. With her feet pressed against the building, she slowly rappels down 38 stories to the ground floor. For Gray, giving back to the community has taken her everywhere from great heights to dirt-laden farmland. “I think it’s important for me to be an example and not just stand up and say, ‘Give,’ but to do it myself too,” Gray says. In 2013 and 2014, Gray and other employees at the Statesman participated in a fundraising event called Over the Edge, which allows the first 200 people who raise at least $1,500 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation to rappel down the side of the W Austin Hotel. Over the Edge is just one way Gray and the Statesman play a hands-on role in supporting the Austin community. During Day of Caring, a city-wide volunteering event sponsored by United Way, Gray and other members of the Statesman staff can be found hopping on a bus to spend part of their day volunteering at places like Pickle Elementary School, or they can be seen strapping on their overalls and getting their hands dirty at Urban Roots, an organization that uses farming as a tool to empower young people. Gray says the reason the newspaper participates in local philanthropy projects is simple: The Statesman gives back to the community because it is a part of the community. “I think whether you’re an individual or a corporation, you have an obligation to give back to the community and to try to make a difference in people’s lives when you see needs that are unmet,” Gray says. The Statesman partners with hundreds of nonprofits throughout the city, including Amplify Austin; I Live Here, I Give Here; Casa Marianella; Communities in Schools and the Trail of Lights. The newspaper has also spearheaded three signature programs that take place throughout the year. In 2000, the company started Statesman Swim Safe, which has worked to teach more than 12,000 kids in Central Texas how to swim. Thirty-nine years ago, the company started the Statesman Capital 10,000, the largest 10K race in Texas. But the program that makes the biggest impact, Gray says, is Statesman Season for Caring. Each year, the Statesman selects 12 families in need and invites readers and businesses to donate money or in-kind goods to the cause. “It’s a store recognizing someone needs mattresses and saying they’ll supply all the mattresses that people need. Or, if someone needs a house full of furniture, a furniture company may come forward and say they’ll set that family up with what they need,” Gray says. Throughout Season for Caring’s 17 years of existence, the program has raised about $10 million for local families. In addition to aiding and assisting these families, the Statesman also shares their stories in the print publication. “I get tears in my eyes,” Gray says. “Literally the entire room will be crying when that story is over. We show videos of some of the families, and you just realize how much of an impact you make.”
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S
tyle
splurge or steal
Bikini Season
Binge or bargain on summer styles for South Padre or St. Tropez. Photos by annie ray written, Styled and modeled by Ashley HargrovE In the past few years, prices for luxury swimwear have risen higher than the temperature of a scorching Texas summer. All too often, spending a fortune on designer duds seems easier than finding truly comparable styles at an affordable rate. Luckily, places like Nordstrom, Target and Forever 21 continue to shell out great deals on quality swimwear and pool-ready pieces that will last season after season and never go out of style.
Bella straw hat, $160 Ray-Ban polarized aviators, $200 Seafolly Blue Ray bikini top, $93 Frame Denim chambray button-down top, $235 Current/Elliott white The Boyfriend Shorts, $168 Pedro Garcia City tote, $690 Stuart Weitzman Sparta gladiators, $498
$2,044 48 |  Austin Woman |  MAY 2016
All items available at nordstrom.com.
Caslon straw hat, $38 Black aviator sunglasses, $16.99 Blue macrame bathing-suit top, $15.90 BP chambray button-down top, $48 Distressed boyfriend cutoff shorts, $19.90 BP reversible tote, $48 Steve Madden Sammson black gladiator sandals, $89.95 Bathing-suit top and cutoff shorts available at forever21.com; sunglasses available at target.com; hat, button-down top and sandals available at nordstrom.com.
$277 austinwomanmagazine.com |  49
S
tyle
accessorize
OFF TO THE RACES
This Kentucky Derby-inspired hat will place you in the winner's circle. photo by Lucy Paije Modeled by Katie Paschall
A day at Churchill Downs calls for nothing short of a fun and fanciful hat. Whether you’re sipping on a mint julep in the grandstands or watching the fastest two minutes in sports from Austin’s best derby-day parties, accessorize yourself like a true Southern belle. To win two VIP tickets to the Victory Cup Derby Day Austin party and this custommade hat by Austin Woman Art Director Lucy Froemmling, follow @AustinWoman on Instagram. 50 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
H
ome
Ask a Designer
Around the World in Seven Ways
Bring your travels home with help from globe-trotting stylist Katie Kime. By Deborah Stachelski
They say traveling is the only thing you buy that makes you richer. Austin-based designer Katie Kime could not agree more. As the owner and creative director of her own design brand, Katie Kime, which opened a brick-and-mortar store at Fifth Street and Lamar Boulevard last fall, and her own blog, Bright Living, Kime enjoys dressing herself and her spaces with color and vibrant expressions of personality, keeping travel as a central source of her design inspiration. Kime shared with Austin Woman her top tips for incorporating travel-inspired style at home. 2
1
1. Go local.
2. Enjoy the beauty of bespoke.
3. Dig for treasure.
“I like to support the local artisans and purchase fair-trade goods,” Kime says. “Usually, an area is known for something. Find that item and bring it home as a keepsake. These woven baskets are made in Africa by a group of local women, and [the work] ensures they receive fair wages. … Choose pieces that come with a story you can share with your loved ones.”
“I prefer boutique hotels when I travel, and find inspiration anywhere from the robes that hang in the bathrooms, to the candles and the displays in the mini bar,” Kime says. “Recently, we stayed at The Cape in Cabo, where I was inspired by the hand-embroidered Otomi print, and have incorporated it into several of my own designs.”
“On your travels, find pieces that inspire and have meaning to you. I have multiple rugs in my house that I brought back from my visits to Turkey and Morocco,” Kime says. “Unique colors and textures can add interest to any style of interior design.”
r Kime loves: Brightly colored baskets,
r Kime loves: Otomi embroidered
$24 to $38, available at Katie Kime, 500 N. Lamar Blvd., 512.358.4478, katiekime.com
52 | Austin Woman | MAY 2016
tablecloth, $169, available at Pottery Barn, potterybarn.com
r Kime loves: Found blankets and rugs, $650 to $778, available at Katie Kime, 500 N. Lamar Blvd., 512.358.4478, katiekime.com
Photos courtesy of their respective websites.
3
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Ask a Designer
4 6 5
7
5. Don’t stop dreaming.
6. Add a splash of color.
“Enlarging and framing a beloved photo from your travels or a special moment you want to remember is one of the best ways to bring your experiences home,” Kime says. “Hanging oversized prints in any room is a dramatic way to add… personality into a space. In this case, bigger really is better.”
“Having things around your home that keep your wanderlust alive is key when other priorities rise to the surface,” Kime says. “Keeping a pretty globe prominently displayed is a fun way to show off the places you’ve been to, as well as the ones you still want to visit.”
r Kime loves: William Curtis Rolf: "Deyrolle Zebra," $4,495, available at Restoration Hardware, restorationhardware.com
r Kime loves: World globe in
“Sometimes, a color reminds you of a place: the pink bougainvillea flowers in Mexico, the white houses of Ravello on the Amalfi Coast or the blue of the ocean,” Kime says. “I have these Serena & Lily drapes that incorporate two of my favorite things: tassels and a pop of color. The tassels come in an array of colors to remind you of any destination.”
4. Maximize the memories.
aquamarine, $99.95, available at Z Gallerie, zgallerie.com
r Kime loves: French tassel window panel, $58 to $128, available at Serena & Lily, serenaandlily.com
7. Put all your eggs in a few baskets. “Incorporate culture into your home by using unique bowls to corral those messes that inevitably happen in every room,” Kime says. “Pick up a bowl from your travels and use it to catch small clutter or organize your accessories.”
r Kime loves: 19th century Indian bluestone bowl, $349, available at Restoration Hardware, restorationhardware.com
austinwomanmagazine.com | 55
The Joysof
May Mica May made her world a more beautiful place by simply putting pen to paper. Now, the May Designs founder tells Austin Woman why life is too short for ugly notebooks and how she finds time to enjoy work, cherish her family and create beauty in everyday moments.
story by rachel merriman Photos by rudy arocha styled by Ashley Hargrove Hair and makeup by Laura martinez
56
Zuma bracelet, $75; St. Pancras bracelet, $110; Makaha bracelet, $60; Aviara necklace, $90, available at hanaijewelry.com; Steve Madden Carrson sand suede heel, $89, available at Nordstrom, 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy., 512.691.3500, nordstrom.com; teal dress, model’s own.
I
t’s a gorgeous, sun-filled spring day in Austin and May
Designs Founder Mica May and I are walking through historic Clarksville. The nearby quaint, teal-accented bungalow that serves as her company’s headquarters bustles constantly with activity, so she takes these walking meetings frequently. We’re on the subject of individual strengths, and May asks if I’ve heard of StrengthsFinder, an assessment (and a best-selling book) that helps people identify their unique mix of talents. As May rattles off her top five strengths—future-oriented, ideation, strategic, focus and command—I can’t help but notice how they seem to line up with her life’s trajectory so far.
Future-oriented
May identified her love for marketing and design at an early age. “My parents asked me, ‘What would be your dream job?’ I loved getting my nails done. At the time, OPI was really pretty forward-thinking with their marketing. They would do these collections with names like Paris, and the names of the colors would be something like Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not,” May says. “As soon as they launched a collection, they hosted these giant themed parties based on the color collection. I said, ‘That is my dream job. I want to come up with the colors, name the colors and host the events.’ ” May enrolled at Texas A&M University, which, at the time, didn’t have many design classes or an advertising program. To earn college credit for the skills she wanted to learn, she petitioned the university for permission to write some of her own coursework. “I wanted to learn everything there was to know about ad agencies,” May says. “So, I asked, ‘If I write Ad Agencies 101, will you give me credit for three hours?’ I ended up writing about 21 hours of my own curriculum.” After graduating, May sold nearly all her possessions and bought a one-way ticket to New York City, hoping to land a job at an advertising agency. When she couldn’t find an agency job, her interest in event planning led her to a position at The Bowery Mission, a homeless shelter that provides food, medical services and employment assistance to homeless men and women. May’s official job was to plan charity events to raise money for the shelter, but when she noticed the event materials were a little lackluster, she took it upon herself to redesign them. “Their materials weren’t great, and I couldn’t sell a $20,000 ticket to something if they were ugly,” May says. “Everything needed to reflect their heart, mission and brand. So I kind of gradually redid all their stuff, quietly.” Meanwhile, May’s soon-to-be husband, Jonathan, was living in Washington, D.C. The pair met in college and had continued to keep in touch, even when they moved to different cities. “One day, he called me up out of the blue and said, ‘Hey, I want you to think about being my wife.’ And I said, ‘OK!’ We had not dated at all, but we were good friends,” May says. “I knew he was the person I always wanted to be with. If I had a hard day or a great day, he was the person I wanted to call and share it with.”
Ideation
The newlyweds moved to Dallas, and May continued to work for The Bowery Mission long distance. Eventually, she took on more clients and started her own design firm. During this time, she began making notebooks for herself with customized inside pages and covers, which she hand-cut and stapled together. “I couldn’t find any cute notebooks, so I was just making prettier ones for myself,” May says. “I love to create and problem-solve.” Some of May’s design clients took notice of the notebooks she was always carrying with her and began asking if they could buy some that were branded with the logos she designed for them. She suspected she had hit on a good business idea and decided to test the waters with some of the women she knew through her local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. 58 | Austin Woman | may 2016
“I thought, ‘If I can get 10 women to buy 100 of these notebooks with their logo on them, I’m on to something.’ I asked them for five minutes of their time, whipped up some mock-ups and drove them over to their place,” she says. “And they all said yes!” Soon, May’s friends wanted notebooks, but with cute patterns instead of business logos on them, so May quickly made some patterns and put her notebooks up for sale on a website so anyone could order them. “It got to the point where I didn’t know the people who were putting in orders,” May says. “It was addicting, not knowing who was buying my stuff.”
Strategic
May’s next steps were to attend the Clampitt Paper School to learn how to improve the quality of her notebooks, then, to hit up The National Stationery Show to get noticed by both prospective retailers and the press. She landed a four-minute spot on Good Morning America. They told her to prepare for a few thousand orders. Instead, she received 33,000 orders in the span of just eight hours. “I had to figure out how to produce all of those,” May remembers. “I started calling every web developer and engineer I knew. I was waking them up in the middle of the night. I called this one guy at 2 a.m. and gave him my spiel about how I needed SVG to convert to PDFs, and asked him, ‘Can you do this?’ He said yes, and now he’s my business partner.” May and her new business partner, Jason Ford, were able to create a fully automated production process, which means when someone places an order on the May Designs website, it gets sent straight to the printer, then shipped directly to the customer. Everything is made completely on-demand, which also means there’s no inventory to keep up with, and new designs are available literally the moment they go live on the website. “We’re able to innovate quickly; we don’t have to wait eight months and try to predict the trends,” May says. “When the Pantone color of the year was announced, within one day, we had a collection ready. We upload the patterns ourselves to our website, and they’re instantly available for purchase.” May Designs currently offers notebooks, stationery sets, cards and photobooks, which are all customizable. There are more than 200 different notebook cover designs available to choose from and customers can make their own by adding lettering. (Names and quotes are popular choices.) Each notebook’s inside pages can be blank or lined, or customers can choose pages designed for a specific purpose, like a pregnancy diary, adult coloring book or kids’ handwriting practice. “We lead our customers down this little trail of magic on our website,” May says. “They go through and decide on a pattern, choose a monogram or a quote, pick out their inside pages. … And when they get it, they feel like they’ve created something. Our products are really high quality and we equip them with beautiful designs, but they still have such a choice as they’re making something. I think that’s what’s so fun about our process.”
Focus
Photo by Bill Ledbetter.
As May Designs grew, May focused on another important task: starting a family. She and Jonathan now have three children: Jackson, Madelyn and Harper. Jackson, the oldest, was born with Down syndrome. “As soon as he was born, all of my hopes and dreams for him were put on pause,” May says. “I got this index card of every potential obstacle he was going to have to overcome: It’s going to take awhile for him to walk and talk, potty training is going to be kind of a beatdown, he may have a heart condition. But my mom didn’t get that card for me. She didn’t get a card that said, ‘Mica’s going to suck at math and not make the cheerleading squad.’ There are so many things I have completely failed at in life, yet she didn’t know there were so many amazing things for me around the corner. I am so excited to look at Jackson as his whole being. He brings so much joy to our family and everyone he meets.” Knowing early childhood intervention would be beneficial for Jackson, May enrolled him at the Rise School of Houston when he was 18 months old. Rise Schools focus on providing high-quality, individualized early childhood education for both special-needs children and their typically developing peers. Jackson is now 7 years old and goes to kindergarten at a traditional elementary school. “Early childhood intervention is crucial for a lot of these guys so they can integrate into a typical education system. The Rise School’s purpose is to
integrate special-needs kids with typical kids in an educational setting where they can have physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, play therapy and music therapy,” May says. “It was a hope and dream of ours to have Jackson fully included in a typical kindergarten setting. All the one-on-one care the Rise School provided is 100 percent the reason he’s able to be in a typical kindergarten setting right now.” On Jackson’s first day at the Rise School, May was drawn to a huge painting on display in the lobby that was created by the kids. Immediately, she asked if she could take some pictures of the canvas so she could make the painting into a special notebook collection and give the proceeds to the Rise School. That first Rise Art Collection was such a hit that May threw a painting party for the kids to create more designs and then auctioned off the canvas to raise money for the school. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the Rise Art Collection now benefit a variety of organizations that support special education and early childhood intervention for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. May plans to release new Rise Art Collection designs in October in honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month. “With some love, care and intentionality with education, people with Down syndrome can flourish and thrive,” May says. “They can work, get married and live independently. The earlier you can start with education and therapies, the more success they’re going to have.”
austinwomanmagazine.com | 59
A Page From Her Book:
Mica May’s Joy and Self-care Tips 3 “ Sit in the sun. Take a walk or sit outside, even for a few moments. A good dose of vitamin D goes a long way for the soul.” 3 “ Go for a drive. Cruise by myself with my windows down, music blaring, alone!” 3 “ Eye contact and intentional one-on-one time with each of my kids.” 3 “ Make plans. Host a last-minute dinner party or schedule a day trip. A full calendar makes me feel happy.” 3 “ Find some water: a lake, ocean, stream, anything! And then just sit.” 3 “ Enjoy the view. Go somewhere where I can get up high and get a new perspective. When I do that, the things I thought were so huge suddenly feel so small.” 3 “ Get moving. I like to ride our bucket bike with all three kids in it to school. It’s quite the workout! Walk to lunch from my office instead of drive. Have an extralong dance party at home with the kids.” 3 “ Go out for a date night with my husband. No agenda, just us. It’s easy to fill up all our moments with to-dos and chatting about our schedule.” 3 “ Find a new artist or album to put on repeat.” 3 “ Get my nails done. A fresh manicure cures all ills.”
This page: Milly multicolored midi skirt, $345; Milly sapphire cascade Sophia T-shirt, $260, available at Nordstrom, 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy., 512.691.3500, nordstrom.com; Makaha bracelet, $60, available at hanaijewelry.com; Ruby and Violet bracelet, $68, available at Estilo, 2727 Exposition Blvd., 512.236.0488, estiloaustin.com; black-and-white pumps, model’s own.
60 | Austin Woman | may 2016
Opposite page: Sen Amelie flared skirt, $166; Sen Fernanda V-neck crop top, $152; Dolce Vita Amina bootie, $190, available at Nordstrom, 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy., 512.691.3500, nordstrom.com; Calepinage earrings, $50, available at emma-chloe.com/us; Alexis Bittar parrot bracelet, $285, available at Nordstrom, 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy., 512.691.3500, nordstrom.com.
While work-life balance is a challenge for most entrepreneurs, May seems to take it all in stride. It’s not without practice, though. May and her husband had to work out their own system as May Designs was beginning to take off. “When I only had a couple of employees and three babies and my husband was still working full time, we asked ourselves, ‘How are we going to get through a single day?’ ” May recalls. “So, I wrote down literally every single thing that had to happen on each day of the week—get the kids dressed, take them to school—and put a name by it. I asked myself, ‘Am I emotionally connected to this task? Someone needs to drop Madelyn off at art class at 3 on Wednesday. Do I care if that’s me? Nope, but I want to pick her up because she’s excited to show me what she did, and I can stay and chat with her art teacher at the end of class.’ I think that helped us a ton.” After realizing typical 9-to-5 hours didn’t work for her schedule, May adjusted her working hours to give her more time with her kids and husband, opting to leave the office in the early afternoon and pick back up on work in the early evening, when the kids are in bed for the night. “Half the time, I feel like work is my vacation and life is harder,” May says. “I used to leave [the office] at 4:30 or 5:30, and by the time I got home, I barely saw my kids. I wasn’t getting downstairs or eating or spending any time with my husband until 9. So, what I’ve done is try and leave at 3, spend some time with my kids and then get them to bed by 7 or 7:30. Then I have my entire evening back. I have a lot of
Command
guilt doing that as a CEO. Even though we’re always saying, ‘Work your own schedule, find the schedule that works for you,’ it is hard to actually do it. Something about working my own hours makes me feel like I’m getting special treatment. I feel like I always have to say, ‘I’m on my phone. Call me or email me if you need anything.’ I want everyone to make sure they can depend on me, but also feel like I have the freedom to leave.”
After a long string of busy days at home or after she’s been traveling, May avoids burnout by doing some of the things she’s written down on the “joy and self-care” page in her notebook. One of the things she enjoys most of all is having one-on-one time with each of her kids. “Usually, on a Saturday, I’ll take Madelyn to get nails done with me, make a special Target run or go get ice cream,” May says. “There’s a little swing down the block from our house under this gorgeous oak tree, and I’ll grab just one of them and take them down there. I do something with each of the kids once a week. Just getting some eye contact with them goes so far, and when I’m not doing anything except asking them how their day was and how they are, it makes their love tank so full.” As for what the future holds, May’s next big goal is to expand May Designs from paper into a lifestyle brand and offer customizable fashion and homedécor items. To her, it’s just another way to add some sparkle to the everyday things. “My original tagline was ‘Life is too short for ugly notebooks.’ I think that everyday moments should be lovely,” May says. “When you’re writing down a grocery list, planning a vacation, all of that can feel mundane. I’m on a mission to make sure the tiny tasks that fill your day give you joy.”
austinwomanmagazine.com | 61
A Page From Her Book: Mica May’s Balancing Tricks Determine who does what, and get help doing the rest.
Create your own email-management system.
“I made a list of all the things that need to be done each day, down to specific things like wake kids up, get them dressed, make their breakfast, pack their lunch, take them to school, etc., and wrote my name by things I was emotionally excited to do,” May says. “My husband did the same thing. Then, we were able to clearly see the gaps and identify exactly what we needed help with.”
“Emails can get a little crazy, so I developed my own little system that works for me: pass, purge or pin,” May says. “If it’s something that needs to be done but I personally don’t have to take care of it, I respond and cc the appropriate person on my team, make an intro and pass it off. I purge random spam, email solicits and marketing emails. Gmail has a pin feature that I use to flag emails I know will take longer than 30 seconds to respond to, so they don’t get lost in a sea of more recent emails. Then, in the evenings or a few times a week, I only look at the pins part of my emails and just crank through them all at once.”
Get on a simple, routine dinner schedule. “My creative energy goes either to work or my kids, so there doesn’t seem to be a ton left for food, but I still want to eat fresh and healthy dinners,” May says. “Years ago, I got into the habit of going to the grocery store on Mondays after I picked the kids up from school, and we would get fresh salmon, a fresh green and a grain. We have similar themes for each day of the week. We almost always order pizza for the kids on Wednesdays because we all have afternoon activities that run until late, and Thursdays, we pick up food or pack a picnic to eat after soccer practice.”
Spend time doing the things that only you can do. “For so long, May Designs was a one-woman gig. I was designing patterns, creating and fixing my website, packaging and shipping out all the orders and everything in between,” May says. “As the company grew, I began to hire for help with things that were not in my natural skill set. It’s been helpful for me to ask myself every day, ‘What is on my list today that is something that only I can work on?’ Then I do those things first.”
Mara Hoffman open-shoulder top, $198, available at Estilo, 2727 Exposition Blvd., 512.236.0488, estiloaustin.com; alligator ring, price upon request, available at danielasalcedo.com; arrow necklace, stylist’s own.
62 | Austin Woman | may 2016
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A
Family Affair
by Missy Sharpe photos courtesy of Edwina Worley
It’s 9 a.m. on a Tuesday, and gathered in a dance studio in Northwest Austin are 20 dance students ready for their tap class with Miss Edwina. However, they aren’t sporting tutus and pigtails. No, that image would be the little girls peeking inside, waiting for the next class. This class is filled with a grandmother, a stay-athome mom, an accountant, an OB-GYN doctor and 16 other women who take the adultlevel tap class at the Shirley McPhail School of Dance.
A young Shirley McPhail in ballet pose.
65
66 | Austin Woman | may 2016
Photos by Aaron Jetelina.
Students perform at SMSD’s 45th Anniversary Tour recital in 2015.
S hirley McPhail opened her dance studio
T o say SMSD is a family affair is an understatement. Every member of the family has
“Some jumped into dancing at the age of 60, and some started when they were young, but only fun people come here and take tap.”
T he loyalty at SMSD is evident. Edwina Worley’s stepmother, Judy McPhail, who Larry
in 1970, and her daughter, Edwina Worley, now the current owner and studio director, continues to teach pupils from all walks of life how to take on rhythm and complicated movements, like the four-point crawl. This Tuesday morning, Miss Edwina’s 9 a.m. class shows off their routine to “Poison Ivy,” moving in sync as they shuffle across the floor. “Some jumped into dancing at the age of 60, and some started when they were young,” Worley says. “But only fun people come here and take tap.” While the studio, of course, offers classes for young people (tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, lyrical, hip-hop and musical theater), it also provides several options for adults, including tap, jazz, ballet shape, hip-hop and yoga. Approximately 150 male and female adult dancers take part in these classes, and the studio also teaches an adult performance group, Austin Tap Ensemble, which rehearses three times a month and performs at events throughout Austin. “We’ve had a student that had battled cancer that told me tap helped with her ‘chemo brain,’ ” Worley says. “For young children, dance offers a child the opportunity to move to music or express themselves through movement. For the adult, movement is so important to keep our flexibility and keep range of motion [in] our joints. Dance, for many of my adults, is a form of therapy that they look forward to and helps their entire being.” Being generational is a theme at the Shirley McPhail School of Dance, known simply as SMSD throughout town. Many people who started dancing there in the 1970s, when it first opened, later enrolled their own children in classes, and now those children are bringing the next generation of their families to the school. Through the years, more than just a few of those students came straight from McPhail’s own extended family.
-Edwina Worley
either taken or taught dance classes there or worked at Dancer’s Den, SMSD’s dancewear store, since the school first opened. McPhail herself began dancing as a young girl in Tyler, Texas, when her mom would drive her to Dallas for lessons. Her mother, who was a pianist, would also spend weeks during the summer with her in New York, where McPhail would take dance lessons. She went on to be a music major at the University of Texas, and taught dance throughout town before eventually opening SMSD. “At first, she would go around Austin to different studios with a record player to teach dance,” says Worley, who began dancing with her mom when she was 2 years old. “We would travel all around Austin or to places such as Mason, Rockdale [or] New Braunfels.” Today, there are two locations for the dance studio: one on Mesa Drive in Northwest Hills and the recently relocated studio at Highway 183 and Anderson Mill Drive. Worley has been in charge of the studio, along with her father and business partner, Larry McPhail, since her mom passed away from cancer in 1997. At Shirley McPhail’s memorial at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, the SMSD dance troupe performed to “Joyful Joyful.” “It was a tradition to close our show with that dance, so it was perfect for Miss Shirley,” Worley remembers. Forty-one years old when she took the helm at the school, Worley, for several years, felt a little lost being in charge of the studios and dancewear stores. Even though SMSD studios had been sold and closed throughout the years under McPhail’s leadership, Worley struggled to make similar decisions about the business. She knew her mother had a big presence at the studio. “It took me five years to realize I didn’t have to wear my mother’s shoes,” Worley says. “I had my own shoes to wear and they fit just fine.” Once she found her own leadership strengths, it was much easier for Worley to step into the role of studio director and owner. “I had been raised and trained to be a dance teacher, not an employer of 22 employees, so, I’ve been training on the job for the last 20 years,” Worley says. “It’s sometimes tricky to be teacher, owner, a shoulder to cry on, creative director and, on top of all that, now add two daughters getting married in the same year! Prayer and support from family and other women in my field have carried me through this far.” Worley’s daughter, Kristin Worley, graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in early childhood education and taught elementary school in Austin before realizing her heart was really back at the studio where she grew up. She now wears many hats at the studio, serving as assistant manager, working at the Dancer’s Den, choreographing and teaching, in addition to following in her mother’s and grandmother’s footsteps. “I’m a third-generation dance teacher, so, it’s so great to be able to do it and with my mom as my boss,” Kristin Worley says. As a family business, SMSD faces certain statistics regarding success. According to the Family Business Alliance, more than 30 percent of family-owned businesses survive into the second generation, yet only 12 percent will still be viable into the third generation. However, according to the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College, femaleowned family firms experience greater family loyalty to the business, agreement with its goals and pride in the business.
McPhail married later in life, after Shirley McPhail’s death, and who Edwina Worley calls her “bonus mom,” oversees SMSD’s cotillion program. Edwina Worley’s other daughter, Elizabeth Worley, and even more family members help teach and coordinate SMSD’s Cotillion Austin-Style classes, which originated 10 years ago for 5th- and 6th-grade boys and girls. “They have fun and it makes an impression on their behavior,” Judy McPhail says. Along with learning dance styles like the fox-trot, cha-cha and two-step, they learn how to shake hands, make introductions and practice cellphone etiquette. At the end-of-semester graduation, students must send in a handwritten RSVP note to demonstrate their mastery of proper manners. The women of this family aren’t the only ones involved. Edwina Worley’s brother used to come into the studio with his football pads on and take tap classes; Edwina Worley’s husband, Neal, is known as Mr. Refreshments at the studio; and family patriarch Larry McPhail also mastered the “half-Irish” in his two years of tap classes. The McPhails even filled up their own family tap class for a while. austinwomanmagazine.com | 67
“It took me five years
to realize I didn’t have to wear my mother’s shoes.
I had my own shoes to wear and they fit just fine.” -Edwina Worley
68 | Austin Woman | may 2016
A young Shirley McPhail in ballet pose.
69
austinwomanmagazine.com |  69
McPhail family members Kristin Worley, Judy McPhail, Elizabeth Worley and Edwina Worley with SMSD “family members” Kelly Treybig and Kasey Treybig.
B lood relations or not, many Austinites
consider themselves part of the SMSD family. Kelly Treybig met Miss Shirley when she was 4 years old, after the Air Force had moved her dad’s job from Turkey to Austin. She was allowed to watch the class with her mom, and from then on, she would wear her yellow tutu and tap shoes all the time. She went on to attend what was then Southwest Texas State University to study child development and dance, and when she graduated, she called Miss Shirley. “She said, ‘Well, of course you will come teach for me,’ in typical Shirley fashion,” Treybig remembers. “That was the summer of 1986, and I’ve been with SMSD ever since.” Now, Treybig’s daughter, Kasey, also teaches at the studio, working at the Dancer’s Den and choreographing for SMSDance Troupe, the performance group for the studio. “I often tell people that, in a way, I was dancing at SMSD even before I was born, since my mother, Kelly, was teaching there while she was pregnant with me,” Kasey Treybig says. “When I was 2 years old, I asked my mom when I would get to start taking classes at SMSD. She told me that I needed to be potty-trained and couldn’t wear my Pull-ups anymore, so I immediately took off the one I had on and went and put my big-girl panties on. I started my first class with Miss Trish the summer before I turned 3.” Trish Kellam, or Miss Trish, didn’t grow up dancing at the studio, but she is most students’ first memory of SMSD,
70 | Austin Woman | may 2016
having taught at the studio for 42 years. In the early days, she would teach seven hours in a row of classes consisting of dancers 8 years old or younger. “We have people call the studio and ask, ‘Is Miss Trish still there?’ ” Edwina Worley says. “She’s been a huge mainstay over the years.” Now almost 80, Kellam still loves her “babies,” as she calls her students, and considers teaching at SMSD a blessing. While teaching, she uses a cane covered in roses that her students fondly call Rosie. “My doctors want me to quit and I just say, ‘No, no, no,’ ” Kellam says. “I love teaching, and my heart still has all the love to give. I just love when my babies come running in the door. I just want to love them and hold them. It’s just wonderful.” Those who have danced at SMSD throughout the past 46 years say the family aspect of the studio is what sets it apart. Mandy Niles began dance with Kellam and Shirley McPhail when she was 4 years old. “Miss Trish is one of my most memorable teachers and was absolutely the reason that I signed up my daughter at age 3 for dance at Shirley McPhail’s,” Niles says. “If she could have even a taste of the love of dance that Miss Trish shares, then I didn’t want her to miss that opportunity. Watching her teach my daughter is like having time stand still. Familiar songs, phrases and sweetness washed over my daughter as she tiptoed across the floor in her pink ballet shoes.”
Jennifer Hutcheson has taken tap classes at SMSD for the past 10 years, and her son started taking classes when he was 4 years old. “It feels like you are part of the dancing family they’ve created over the past 40 years,” Hutcheson says. “The family atmosphere continues through all of the adult dancers who treat each other like extended family.” Because of this, the instructors have a connection with the students that goes beyond teaching shuffle steps and pliés. Through the years, it’s estimated the studio has supported more than 25,000 students. Some of those students have gone on to be Kilgore Rangerettes, Dallas Cowboy and Houston Texan cheerleaders or dance teachers themselves. “We genuinely care about each other and every student that dances across our floors,” Kelly Treybig says. “We know not many of the children or adults will dance professionally or want to teach dance later in life, but if they do, we want to give them the structure and discipline and a base to build upon that can take them as far as they want to go.” “Edwina is like a second mother to me, and Miss Trish is my grandmother. At least she loves me like she is!” Kasey Treybig says. “Not only are we all equally invested in the studio because of this, we are equally invested in one another, as well as our students. The McPhail family has created a lasting legacy at SMSD that reflects their kind and compassionate nature.”
When Shirley McPhail first opened SMSD’s
doors in 1970, she may not have known the famous quote by Martha Graham, the American choreographer and modern-dance icon, who said, “Dancers are the messengers of the gods.” But maybe she did, because the message from the dancers at her namesake school is that the show will always go on. Surely, after 46 years in business and no curtain call yet, that’s something to dance about for the McPhail family, even if Miss Shirley is dancing in heaven.
A portrait of Shirley McPhail that hangs in the studio.
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GOURMET Breakfast in Bed
Photo by Aubrie Pick.
Hitting the snooze button never tasted so good.
What better way to rise and shine than by waking to the sweet, wafting aroma of breakfast delivered on a tray? This Mother’s Day, spoil Mom with a morning room-service-worthy menu complete with sumptuous pancakes, Southern-style waffles and French toast with a twist from a trio of Austin’s best brunch destinations.
austinwomanmagazine.com | 73
G
OURMET
recipe reveal
Ingredients
Directions
2 cups all-purpose flour
1. Add all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
2 tablespoons sugar
2. In a separate bowl, whisk to combine the buttermilk, lemon zest, eggs and butter.
2 teaspoons baking powder
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Lumps are OK. Fold in the ricotta.
1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups buttermilk Zest of 1 lemon 2 eggs 1/4 cup butter, melted 1/3 cup ricotta
74 |  Austin Woman |  may 2016
4. Use a 1/3 cup measuring scoop to portion and pour the batter onto an oiled cast-iron skillet, nonstick pan or griddle on medium heat. Cook for two and a half to three minutes per side. Josephine House 1601 Waterston Ave. 512.477.5584 josephineofaustin.com Brunch is served Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and breakfast is served Monday through Friday from 8 to 10:30 a.m.
Photo by Molly Winters.
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes From Josephine House
Sourdough Waffles With Strawberry Preserves From Geraldine’s Ingredients
Strawberry Preserves
Directions
3/4 cup butter, melted
15 ounces strawberries
1. Combine butter, milk, sour starter and brown sugar.
1 3/4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour starter
2 1/4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2. Sift together the remaining dry ingredients and fold in the eggs.
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon pectin
3. Stir to combine the milk and egg mixtures and pour it into a waffle iron to toast until golden brown.
Directions for Strawberry Preserves
4. Serve with strawberry preserves.
1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and boil until the mixture reaches 221 degrees (measure using a candy thermometer) or is reduced by half. Let preserves cool before serving.
Geraldine’s Hotel Van Zandt, 605 Davis St. 512.476.4755 geraldinesaustin.com
Photo by Aubrie Pick.
1/4 teaspoon salt 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 eggs
Brunch is served every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and breakfast is served Monday through Saturday from 7 to 10 a.m.
austinwomanmagazine.com | 75
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recipe reveal
French Toast From The Peached Tortilla Ingredients 1 loaf challah bread, sliced 1-inch thick 6 eggs 2 tablespoons powdered sugar 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon five spice 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups whole milk Photo by Inked Fingers.
1 tablespoon butter Strawberries, blueberries, Asian pear and mint for optional toppings
Miso Caramel
Directions
1/4 cup sugar
For the Miso Caramel
1/4 cup water
1. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over mediumhigh heat and stir. Add the lemon juice.
3/4 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice 1/2 cup heavy cream 3/4 tablespoon white shiro miso Coconut Whipped Cream 1/2 a 13.5-ounce can full-fat coconut milk 1/2 cup whipping cream 1 tablespoon sugar
For the Coconut Whipped Cream 1. Scoop out the solid cream from half the can of coconut milk and place it in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the whipping cream.
2. Without additional stirring, bring the mixture to a simmer. Wipe down any sugar crystals on the sides with a wet pastry brush.
2. Whip the cream mixture for three to five minutes, until soft peaks form. Mix in the sugar.
3. Once the sugar becomes deep golden brown, remove the pan from the heat.
1. Let the challah bread sit out overnight.
4. Carefully pour in the heavy cream and slowly whisk in the miso. Let cool before serving.
For Assembly
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, five spice and salt. Add the milk and whisk to blend.
3. Heat a skillet with butter on medium-high heat. Wait for the butter to melt. 4. Submerge the challah bread slices in the egg mixture, then place the bread onto the skillet. 5. Brown on one side for three to four minutes, then flip. The Peached Tortilla 5520 Burnet Road 512.330.4439 thepeachedtortilla.com Brunch is served every Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
austinwomanmagazine.com |  77
G
OURMET
IN SEASON
Never Skip a Beet
This summer, shake up your routine and serve the season’s best new cocktail concoction. Recipe courtesy of Liberty Kitchen 507 Pressler St. 512.840.1330 libertykitchenatx.com
Liberty Seasonal Mule Ingredients:
Directions:
2 ounces Tito’s Handmade Vodka 1 ounce beet gastrique 1/2 ounce lime juice Fever Tree Ginger Beer
1. S tir the first three ingredients with crushed ice and top with the ginger beer.
78 | Austin Woman | may 2016
2. S erve in a copper mug and garnish with a beet stem and lime twist.
Roast three to four beets. Let them cool and peel them. Cut them into cubes and toss them into a pan along with 2 cups of sherry vinegar and 1 cup of sauvignon blanc. Simmer until the beets are a deep red color, then add 3 to 4 tablespoons of brown sugar. Simmer for a few more minutes, then remove from heat and let the beets cool. Blend the mixture.
Photo by Jessica L. Fradono.
How to Make Beet Gastrique:
G
OURMET
food news
Settle in
Chicon is East Austin’s newest community- and comfort-focused eatery. By Rachel Rascoe
The revamp is reflected on the menu in a more casual approach to food, featuring familiar wood-fired Texas-ranch-style dishes. From bar snacks like pork rolls with beer cheese, to small, shareable plates like goat and gnocchi with Parmesan, and black pepper and tomato broth, as well as approachable entrees like Wiseheart’s famous hamburger on a challah bun served with fries, there’s a plethora of options sure to whet even the pickiest appetite. Chicon retains its predecessor’s farm-to-table status by sourcing all its ingredients locally from places like Dewberry Hills Farms, Johnson’s Backyard Garden, Windy Bar Ranch, Black Hill Ranch and Springdale Farm. The space, designed by Architect Kevin Stewart, with interior designs by Ann Edgerton, feels “fun and inviting, like your neighborhood dining room,” Wiseheart says, and it maintains a sleek yet laid-back feel, with handmade steel-and-cedar furniture, custom terra-cotta lighting and leather-backed chairs decorated with Mexican blankets. Chicon is a sister restaurant to the business duo’s popular East Austin patio space, Contigo.
Photo by Molly Winters.
March 11, co-owners Ben Edgerton and Chef Andrew Wiseheart closed their award-winning farm-to-table dining establishment, Gardner, and unveiled plans for a new restaurant project, Chicon. With a quick turnaround of the same space, Chicon opened March 28.
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Because of severe leg pain after a strep infection, Austin’s parents took her to the ER which quickly transferred her to Dell Children’s. The little girl who was excited to take an ambulance ride was unresponsive and in heart failure 12 hours later. Despite being atypical, specialists quickly diagnosed Austin with Kawasaki disease, a rare autoimmune disorder which causes severe swelling of vascular tissue – including Austin’s heart. After an evening treatment, Austin sat up the next morning and asked to color! Austin’s parents feel blessed that Austin survived with a small hole in her heart. Her cardiologist said had she not been at the hospital when she went into heart failure, she would have died. Instead, Austin is a happy, energetic second grader who wants to be a chef when she grows up.
W
ellness
health
A Personal Postpartum Journey
Alex Winkelman Zeplain opens up about postpartum depression and encourages other moms to do the same. By Jill Case Postpartum depression is a medical condition that can happen to any woman, no matter how wonderful her pregnancy is, and whether she’s giving birth to her first baby or her sixth. Women tend to not talk about postpartum depression because they feel it’s their fault or they should be able to control such feelings. As a community and throughout the country, women and their doctors need to fight this myth. Alex Winkelman Zeplain, the Austinite known for her work founding and leading the nonprofit Citizen Generation, stepped forward to share her journey through postpartum depression with Austin Woman because she wants other women to understand it, seek help and, most of all, talk with each other to form a greater, more supportive community among mothers. “By no means am I an expert in postpartum depression, but I want to share my story in hopes of spreading the message and helping others. This has been a hard time in my life. I did not expect any of this to happen, but I quickly learned it can affect anyone. And it also affects more than just the mother,” Winkelman Zeplain says. “In my experience, postpartum depression is not something that’s talked about, especially before you have a baby.” Winkelman Zeplain had a normal pregnancy. “It was super easy, blissful, wonderful. But when it came to the birth, I had a very unexpected emergency C-section,” she says. “Almost immediately, I was suffering but trying hard to push through because I had a new baby. I was in physical pain. I was essentially in emotional pain, and it’s really hard to go through a major surgery like that while taking care of a child.”
She also struggled with hearing other women’s experiences after their C-sections. Many of them told her they could drive or start exercising after two weeks, but that was not her experience. “It took me two months before I could go on a walk by myself with my child,” Winkelman Zeplain says. “It physically took me a long time to recover. It really took a toll on me. I think, from there, the feelings of being overwhelmed, feeling like I was losing my identity, feeling isolated kept getting larger and larger for me.” A few months postpartum, Winkelman Zeplain opened up to her obstetrician, who recommended a postpartum self-care regimen that included getting out more, getting more help and adding exercise every day, as well as sessions with a therapist. Some women can get better with talk therapy and self-care, while others may need medication to help them with their symptoms. “Everyone is actually on her own journey with this,” Winkelman Zeplain says. Her experiences inspired her to create a business to help other moms find the community she feels is so important. This new business, Tribe, will launch May 2 and focus on health and wellness for families, starting with Mom. “We are opening a studio that will offer fitness classes, exceptional child care, healthy snacks, work spaces with Wi-Fi, classes and seminars. We have plans to soon add kids’ programming and wellness services as well,” Winkelman Zeplain says. “We want Tribe to be a place that brings people together, where they find support and community, all while taking care of their mind, body and soul—with child in tow, of course!” For more information, visit tribe-austin.com.
Signs and Symptoms of Postpartum Depression Approximately 80 percent of women will experience the “baby blues” during the first two weeks after giving birth. Women may feel angry, anxious, sad or upset, experience sleep problems or have trouble eating or making decisions. Most women who have the baby blues will notice a change for the better within 10 days to two weeks. About 10 to 16 percent of women will experience the more serious symptoms of postpartum depression. This condition usually appears in the first year after giving birth, and the symptoms often begin about one to two weeks after giving birth. It’s important that women who experience the baby blues let their doctors know if their symptoms last for more than two weeks, or if they experience one or more of the following symptoms:
r i ntense feelings of depression, anxiety, despair or sadness, especially if you cannot perform ordinary tasks during your daily life r p ersistent feelings of not caring about anyone or anything r sleeping too much or too little r f eeling restless or unable to focus r f eelings of guilt, worthlessness or shame
In very rare cases, some mothers develop a condition called postpartum psychosis. This condition can cause hallucinations, severe agitation, anger, delusions, irrational behavior or feeling like you want to harm yourself or your child. If you or a mother you know exhibit these symptoms, seek immediate medical help.
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Photo by John Pesina.
r f eeling unable or unwilling to care for yourself or your child
Having an annual mammogram can help make sure you’ll be there for life’s most important moments. A mammogram can help detect breast cancer in its earliest stages. The American Cancer Society recommends one every year for women 40 and older, or for younger women considered to be at risk. At Cedar Park Regional Medical Center, we bring you digital mammography, for clearer images and quicker results. Call 512-528-7035 to schedule your mammogram today. Saturday appointments are now available.
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Q&A
The Zika Virus
Professor Sahotra Sarkar from the department of integrative biology at the University of Texas answers your questions about travel plans, transmission and treatment of the disease. By Tony Dreibus AW: What is Zika and where did it originate? SS: There is no non-technical account of how it is different than other viruses. It belongs to the same family as dengue. The virus was originally found in a monkey in Uganda in 1947. It was observed in humans in 1952. Over the years, there were tiny outbreaks in Africa, then, around the ’80s, it spread to Southeast Asia. In the last few years, it crossed the Pacific, in 2007. There were outbreaks in French Polynesia. It got to Easter Island in 2015 and then to Brazil. Then it exploded, but it’s been around for a long time.
Worries about Zika and how it’s transferred have caused much consternation in the U.S., with some believing it’s a sexually AW: Who is most at risk of infection? transmitted disease. While it can be spread through semen, only six of SS: At risk of infection [is] everybody who’s bitten by an infected the U.S. cases were spread through sexual intercourse, according to the mosquito. But the effect where you see microcephaly in infants, CDC. The rest were from mosquito bites. that’s a problem for pregnant women [and negatively affects the Most at risk, however, are pregnant women and the fetuses they fetus more than the pregnant carry, says Sahotra woman]. Males can get it Sarkar, a professor in the too. The virus is heavily Professor Sahotra Sarkar department of integrative concentrated in the semen, so biology at the University males can transfer it to females of Texas. Sarkar and his through sex. team have been studying AW: What are the symptoms the type of mosquito that of the Zika virus? carries dengue fever for about a decade. It turns SS: In most people, it causes out the same species of fever, and in most people, it will mosquito carries the cause rashes and aches in the Zika virus, which has put bones, and there’s a connection Sarkar on the front line with microcephaly. The in the battle against the connection with microcephaly ailment. is a new [development] they’ve While there’s no observed in Brazil. And they’ve treatment for the virus, gone back to French Polynesia there are measures and done a retrospective study, people can take to avoid and it may have been connected contracting it, says to microcephaly in French Sarkar, who spoke with Polynesia. Austin Woman about AW: Can men and nonthe disease, how it’s pregnant women show Definition: Microcephaly spread and how it can be symptoms? prevented. Microcephaly (my-kroh-SEF-uh-lee) is a rare neurological SS: They may show symptoms, condition in which an infant’s head is significantly smaller Austin Woman: How did but if you’re a man who’s been than the heads of other children of the same age and sex. you come to work on exposed, it is dangerous to have the Zika virus? sex with somebody for the next Sahotra Sarkar: I’ve been two months. The symptoms by studying the mosquitos themselves are not particularly severe. That’s why people haven’t paid attention to Zika until lately. that carry the virus for some time. On our end, the insect that carries Zika is also the one that carries dengue. We’ve been working on AW: Can it be transferred from females to males? dengue for about 10 years now, so, the moment Zika became a major SS: We have no evidence of that yet. problem, we had all of these risk analyses we had done on dengue AW: Is there any other way to contract the virus? that were relevant and had to be modified to model what might SS: The main way to contract it is when a mosquito bites an infected happen with Zika.
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Photo by Megan Dolan.
The Zika virus, which has already been found in hundreds of people in the U.S., will likely expand as spring rains and hot summer weather turn backyards into fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 312 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with the virus (as of April 4). Of those, none acquired Zika in the U.S.; all of those infected had traveled to another country where it’s more prevalent.
Do whatever you can to prevent mosquitoes from breeding and biting you. If you’re hiking, bug spray should be used at the level tolerable to your skin. AW: What can be done to treat the virus if you contract it? SS: There’s absolutely no treatment. Vaccines are being developed, or they’re trying to develop them now [at research centers, including the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston]. AW: How far away are we from a vaccine being developed? SS: I suspect it to be a few years down the road. AW: How real is the threat of contracting the Zika virus? Is it similar to the Ebola scare, when many people thought they would contract Ebola but only a few did?
person then bites another. Semen is a secondary mode of transmission. Those are the only two ways that are known so far. AW: What are the best ways to prevent the virus or precautionary measures that can be taken?
SS: The risk is a lot higher than it was with Ebola. There have already been [several hundred] cases in the U.S., but all of them have been contracted abroad. It’s quite likely a domestic cycle will be established. How long it’s going to last or whether it will spread, we can’t say yet. AW: Is there anything else people should know about Zika and how it spreads?
SS: The virus only has local cycles in the 32 Caribbean and LatinAmerican countries right now. What the CDC has advised is women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant do not travel to those countries, especially to low-lying areas where the mosquitos are prevalent. Doing what you can to avoid exposure to the mosquitoes is the most important thing.
SS: What our work shows is that areas that are seriously at risk in the United States depend on whether there’s only one mosquito species transmitting it, or if two of them are. If only one is transmitting it—that’s the yellow-fever mosquito—then yes, Texas is at risk, but a lot of the Northern U.S. is not. But if both mosquito species [The other is the Asian tiger mosquito.] are spreading Zika, then the risk for Zika goes across the Americas, into Southern Canada and into Europe.
AW: What about those who live in the Austin area?
AW: Will the number of cases increase throughout 2016?
SS: In Texas, including Austin, as with Florida, doing what you can to prevent mosquitoes from breeding around your home is very important. Do not leave uncovered pots of water around. Try to avoid having puddles in your yard. Don’t leave your hose with puddles under it.
SS: There’s a possibility more people will come back with the virus because the Summer Olympics is in Rio, and Rio is in one of the most seriously infected regions. If you’re pregnant, you really should not go to the Summer Olympics.
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memo from JB
Making Mama Happy
Why I’m ditching the man cave and building a she shed instead. By JB Hager, photo by rudy arocha In the next month, we are all going to log on to social media and see smiling faces of our friends at the beach, Disney World or possibly in a selfie looking as if they have the tip of a finger on top of the Eiffel Tower. Everyone looks so cohesive and joyous. It’s like the Von Trapp family without all the singing (and with far fewer Nazis). I am going to suggest you perhaps skip a couple of family vacations with a bigger objective in mind: making Mama happy. There’s an old, common saying: “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” OK, maybe not everyone says “ain’t,” but that’s how I recall it, having grown up in Texas. I’m going to have to be brief in my description here because I need to get to my major suggestion. I couldn’t help but notice throughout the years that when it came to a family vacation, my wife would completely stress out. If you have ever spent any time with my wife, you know she’s the most organized, efficient person in the family, as are most mothers and wives. My daughter and I, on the other hand, are pretty OK with “winging it.” That includes flight plans, rental cars, hotels, packing, etc. We think nothing of forgetting to pack personal-hygiene products. It drove my wife nuts for many years. Every detail of the trip was in her hands. Otherwise, very little to nothing would actually happen. It seems like every time we returned home, she would say, “I need a vacation after that vacation!” The elephant in the room has now become: What can we do for Mom that is actually relaxing? I’ve decided we are going to build her a “she shed.” For ages, men have had man caves, and no one ever questioned it. In fact, many of us men have several spaces. We take over the extra room as an office and fill it with sports artifacts signed by men we could never become. We organize the garage with tools we really don’t know how to use and spend time staring at vintage cars that are likely to never run again. We commandeer the playroom as a pool hall or poker room filled with tacky neon beer signs. Two things are attracted to neon: men and flies, and the higher level of intellect between the two is a toss-up. We populate our back decks with the best grills money can buy and think we’re Anthony Bourdain. I realized my wife needs a she shed last year as we were looking to move and touring many homes. Regardless of the overall impression of a home, she would react when she saw a small backyard. She would often blurt out, “Oh, look, a place to hide.” She was dead serious and wasn’t referring to playing hide-and-seek with our child. I try to imagine what her she shed might look like. It would be very loungy and have lots of pillows. It would have fresh flowers all the time. The air would be filled constantly with ’90s pop music like Backstreet Boys, Milli
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Vanilli and Robbie Williams. She would have bookcases of her lady-friendly novels. Of course, her dog would have a mini version of her lounge chair right next to hers. Her DVD collection would consist of titles like Labyrinth, Dirty Dancing, Sixteen Candles and Magic Mike. She’d be fine with VHS, by the way. Most importantly, it would be her place to hide, relax, recharge. There would be no doorbell and she would have the only key. Instead of a couple summer vacations this year, I’m seriously considering building a she shed. What would you put in yours?
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I Am Austin Woman
What a Long, Strange Trip It’ll (Hopefully) Be Summer: the perfect time of year to take your family on a vacation to one of the world’s most exotic places, like Puerto Rico, Hawaii or Lubbock, Texas. My family of four traveled to the Florida coast last June, and it was wonderful. The weather was perfect, the flights were on time and my kids were so well-behaved, they’ll probably make the Nobel Peace Prize short list this year. I couldn’t be more disappointed. You see, vacation disasters are a tradition in my family. My sisters and I grew up seeing America from the backseat of a pale-green, wood-paneled Country Squire station wagon. In the front seats were our parents, embroiled in a bitter map fight that continues to this day. Just last week, they argued if they were heading north or south while they were sitting on the couch in their living room looking at a navigation app on their iPhones. But every single trip I took as a kid had at least one minor mishap, and that’s what we still remember and laugh about, like the time we were driving to Mount Rushmore and somehow got our station wagon trapped in the middle of the Sturgis, S.D., biker rally (My mom: “Do not make eye contact with anyone wearing leather items, girls.”); or the time our car was towed by a giant San Francisco man named Dr. Hook, and my dad disappeared with him down a dark, smelly alley, leaving us wondering if we’d ever see him again (We did, in a bar.); or that year we went camping in Arizona and our goose-down sleeping bags suddenly exploded, covering everyone with sticky, white feathers that are still sometimes found in the deep recesses of our ears. Then there was the legendary New Mexico mud-puddle crash of 1978 that was so intense, it permanently sealed shut the station wagon’s passenger doors. To this day, no mechanic has figured out why. Once I became an adult, I knew my bad trips would continue
when the highlight of my husband’s and my Key West honeymoon was fleeing Hurricane Andrew in a rented LeBaron convertible filled with empty winecooler bottles. The romantic honeymoon dinner cruise we took on a dilapidated pirate boat that featured flying ants and a drunk Bahamian Elvis was also memorable. This is the same cruise that made me so sick from diesel fumes, I threw up on a beach chair the next morning while my new husband hid behind a palm tree yelling, “Can someone please go help that sick blond girl who I’ve never seen before? Please?” Ah, romance. Of course, once we had children, I knew there was no chance I’d ever experience a problem-free trip. Kids are born travel problems. We’ve had ER visits in Hawaii, stomach flu in Dallas and pink eye in Phoenix. We know where you can find diapers at 2 a.m. near Disneyland. I’m still apologizing to the passengers who suffered through a bumpy four-hour flight to Seattle that was filled with my son’s repeated screams of, “We’re going down, brotha! Kiss your mommies on the mouf!” And you couldn’t pay me enough to talk about the Delta Airlines diarrhea experience ever again. But while horrible vacations may not make you relaxed, they do make you popular. I mean, come home all chilled out and nobody gives a crap. But come home with horrible dark circles and shaky hands, muttering things like, “And then, thank God, we found the American embassy before they started firing at us again,” or, “Who knew Dollywood had a prison?” and you’ve got yourself a rapt audience. I don’t want to visit Mexico for the sun and fun. I want to visit Mexico because all it takes is a few hours spent running from a vicious cocaine cartel intent on beheading me, and I’m booked on the cocktail-party circuit for the next two years, baby. So to those traveling this summer, I say, “Bon voyage.” I wish you the best, I really do. And if anything goes wrong, be sure to call me. I mean it. Call me.
Austin Woman features a reader-submitted essay every month in the I Am Austin Woman column. To be considered for July’s I Am Austin Woman, email a 500-word submission on a topic of your choice by May 1 to submissions@awmediainc.com with the subject line “I Am Austin Woman.”
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Photo courtesy of Wendi Aarons.
by wendi aarons
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“You carry the passport to your own happiness.” – Diane von Furstenberg
Arriving This Summer
Austin Woman MAGAZINE | mAY 2016
INTRODUCING