A friend once asked me how much my commission was going to be. I told her I don't charge anything. She said, “Of course you don't charge — but how much money are you making off my curated joy?” I genuinely had never thought about it that way. I didn't set out to do any of this. It started the way most things like this start — with my own family and friends, and me being the one who couldn't leave a trip half-planned. There was my husband's 40th — a surprise trip to Las Vegas

I've spent most of my life being the friend who plans the trip — the one who finds the villa, knows which restaurant is worth the wait, remembers the passport expires in April. This is that, made into a place. Some weeks I'll write about a trip I just got back from — what was worth the hype, what wasn't, what I'd do differently. Some weeks it'll be a recipe I can't stop making, the kind that tastes like a place I've been. Every so often it'll be an actual invitation: a trip I