Kelly Blick

This is a hard time of year for me to be on Instagram, showing up every day, feeling confident and fun and excited about sharing new places. Why? Well for one, it's cold and I like being cozy and hiding indoors under heated blankets more than I like exploring. I'm a July baby. Give me all that sunshine. But the other thing that keeps me away this time of year is the obscene amount of predators that lurk around Instagram this time of year, searching all the "bad foods" hashtags hoping to profit off insecurities. I post a lot about donuts (because donuts are delicious...?) And that automatically makes me fall prey to these disgusting people who see a photo of a plus-size woman eating a donut and say "I should pitch her on my newest diet trend." [Feel free to sub in "weight loss program," "workout regiment," or "accountability group" as you see fit. It's all the same. One person preying on the insecurities of others hoping to make a profit.] Don't get me wrong, friends, I love when you share your own stories of clean eating, getting fit, going outside, whatever the hell makes YOU happy. I love seeing that joy in you. But what I cannot stand is the unsolicited pitches that flood my inbox over and over and over this time of year all because I have the audacity to admit to eating a donut. So here's a photo of me eating a donut and drinking a whole milk latte with a LOT of delicious syrups, setting my own trap for all those prowlers on the internet to come find me and read this note I wrote just for them. And for the rest of you: Be happy. Be healthy. Do what brings you joy. #donut #donutsofinstagram #donuttime #doughnuts🍩 #doughnut #chicagofoodie #chicago #chicagodonuts #joedonut

The most beautiful sauce drip and hash browns that might as well be funnel cake. 🤤 The next time I'm in Chicago, @wheres_rosey better take me back to @joedonutchi

I am the worst customer at donut shops because their first question is always "how many do you want?" And my answer is always "I don't know, I haven't figured it out yet." This time, we took the "one of everything" approach, and we were definitely not disappointed. 🤤

Beer flights and patio nights 🥰 These are my favorite kinds of nights and I'm missing them very much now that the cold is settling in. I hope this winter is filled with many nights spent drinking hot toddy around a fire on the driveway.

Pretzels 🥨 or Nachos 🧀? What's your go-to bar food?

So thankful for these two. Thankful that they're by my side. Thankful for their love and support. Thankful for the laughs they bring. Thankful they always humor me in recreating this photo every time we get together.

✨ 'nother day, 'nother Greetings From mural. ✨ This one in Chicago is next to a big open lot for easy parking and easy photo-taking. The only thing not easy about visiting this mural is all that Chicago traffic you've gotta sit in to get back to the highway. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Fun fact: Jason got stung by a bee while we were taking this photo. 🐝 Also fun fact: I've never been stung by a bee and one randomly stinging Jay in a case of mistaken identity scares all the daylights right out of me. 🐝 Litchfield is a town we know well. It's on our way to visit my family, so we stop almost every time we pass to grab some coffee before we hit the road. We're getting to know it a little better every time we drive by, but sometimes it's hard to venture away from the familiar favorites, so most of the time we end up grabbing coffee or breakfast from our favorite spot, Jubelt's.

"Ahh wait! Turn around!! They have one of my signs!" - me any time we drive past a "Greetings From" mural. 🤷🏻‍♀️ When we visit new places, I often do a search to see if there is a "greetings from" mural nearby, but it is so much more fun to stumble upon them in the most unexpected places. Like this one in Chilicothe, Missouri, the birthplace of sliced bread.

Which one are you grabbing first? 🥤: Thai Collins (gin, curacao, lemon, coriander simple syrup) 🍺: Orange Dreamsicle (rum, whipped cream vodka, triple sec, orange sherbet) 🍹: Blood Orange Whiskey Sour (whiskey, blood orange puree, sour mix, brown sugar)

Boozy slushies and loaded nachos is a winning combo. And thanks to the sister restaurants @narwhalscrafted and @eatloaded in Saint Charles, you can get both without leaving your bright blue adirondak chair. Narwhal's has one of the most seamless touchless menu ordering options I've experienced since touchless menus and zero contact ordering became a thing. Press button, get slushies. Nachos pictured: ✨ Banh Mi nachos with Impossible meat. (Wonton chips, and Sriracha aioli. Need I say more?) ✨ "The Philly" nachos.

I've been a little absent lately, and I'm here to tell you why... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This year has been a whirlwind, littered with a never ending line of completely disconnected doctors appointments. Each time one problem is solved, another one comes crashing through the gate. The latest one to knock me down was a torn ACL leaving me less-than-mobile. Thanks to our backwards, upside-down, and inside out healthcare system, it took months to get this officially diagnosed, and it will take months more to get the surgery required to fix my wobbly leg. So I'll just be hobbling along until then, don't mind me. ✌️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So I'm back, only for a little while, until surgery knocks me down again. I'm here to share some photos of a few of the patios we have been enjoying this fall, and hopefully a Christmas light display or two come December. I've missed hanging out with you, I'm glad to be back, even if it's just for a little while. ❤️

When the foods too good and you're just too hungry to wait for a photo. 🤷🏻‍♀️ This is the last of the photos from our adventures in Springfield, and to tell you the truth, I've been delaying the end of this series because I won't have as many photos to share in the upcoming months. More on that in my next post, until then, think pizza thoughts. 🍕

We had a wild weekend full of wedding celebrations, so my brain is not quite functioning at 100% today. In lieu of an informative post, here's a photo of a giant fork. World's largest things are kind of my jam, and the World's Largest fork was no exception. Shout out to that handsome hubba of mine for always being game for stopping at weird roadside attractions with me.

In the past year, we've introduced carryout meals into our travel itinerary. It kind of begs the question...why haven't we always done this? Black Sheep Burgers & Shakes was basically nextdoor to us when we stayed at The Vandivort, which meant everything was still piping hot by the time we got back with it. Let me sum up this menu as quickly as possible. 🍔: Veggie burger that I wish I could eat again and again and again. 🍟: Parmesan truffle fries with smokey garlic mayo (need I say more?) 🥃: Still firmly believe carryout cocktails are the best thing to happen in Missouri ever. This one's called "Take It Easy" (and I love the Eagles so you've already got me hooked there.) It's basically an old fashioned and I approve. 🥤: When the place is called "and shakes"...we usually don't need a lot of arm twisting to order a shake. This shake was called "The Boss" but in short, it's an Oreo Milkshake. You can add booze to it, but we just got the kiddie version.