If you consider sprinkling flowers around the place decorating, than I’m an interior designer đ I think simple additions like fresh florals and nice smelling candles make your home cozy and inviting – it’s the little things I tell ya! Today’s post is inspired by the most effortlessly charming shop around that currently contributes to our Spring-time home makeover.
Our recent visit to Whimsy and Row was for their launch party in Venice, CA. With live music, laughs and libations, it was such a fun event and I had some of my best girls with me! Swag bags are always so appreciated especially from locally ran businesses where we get to support fellow entrepreneurs, but this swag bag was SUH-WAG-GA-LICIOUS!
Huge shout out to P.F. Candle Co., The Giving Keys, Led To Believe, and Back Beat Rags for their generosity, we’re officially fans! Check them out if you haven’t already, add their items to your wardrobe collection or set out some pieces around the house for some Spring flare!
What are some additions around your house that help welcome in a change of season? This can be in your closet or interior design!Â
Stay tuned for our “How To Spring Forward” post! Slowly but surely we’ll all be prepared to declutter our lives and decorate the crap out of our homes! lol
Now that we’re mid February and Valentine’s Day is inching nearer and nearer, aka TOMORROW, it’s time to get in the groove of being appreciative, generous and loving not to just those around us — but also to ourselves <3 I think we can all agree that self love is among the best types of love out there, and is something that just isn’t promoted enough to young women.
When I’m feeling down and out, I’ll throw on the dreamiest tunes I can think of and groove the blues away, which is exactly what you can do with ‘From Me, To Me’. To start, I incorporated “Try” by Molly Burch because it creates this aura of ethereal weightlessness whenever I hear it. To add a bit of playfulness, “Lovely One” by Ty Segall follows with it’s rugged, garage rock sound that’s bound to get you movin and groovin. Up next is “Teenage Girl” by Cherry Glazerr which cleverly confronts the frustrations of societal standards with the lyric, “internalize so much but so little, don’t make us feel belittled, World,” which is a feeling we definitely have all experienced at one point or another.
I feel like no playlist is ever complete without a little Angel Olsen sprinkled in, because her music is powerful and emotional, and it’s easy to be introspective while listening to her. You’ll hear her serenade you with “You Are Song” which will definitely get you feeling some type of way. To finish, “Everything is You” by Empress Of is a dancy uptempo tune from her album “Me” which sums up the theme of this playlist perfectly.
So as you listen, think of each song as a little gift. Something to dedicate to yourself in the process of your journey to radical self-love. CLICK HEREÂ to give From Me, To Me a listen. If you’d like to create a fun Valentine’s Day DIY click over to this post for some personalized and super unique incense holders!
Here is the tracklist:
1. Try by Molly Burch
2. Lovely One by Ty Segall
3. Teenage Girl by Cherry Glazerr
4. Cosmic Dancer by T. Rex
5. You Are Song by Angel Olsen
6. Lovelier Girl by Beach House
7. She’s So Bad by TOPS
8. You Are The Right One by Sports
9. Theme for a Taiwanese Woman in Lime Green by Devendra Banhart
Everything you need to know about having a successful launch at the Rise Festival from someone who maybe-almost-kind-of didn’t have a perfect night at the coveted lantern ceremony. Could have been disastrous.
It was on Miya’s bucket list to cross off the Rise festival from her to do’s this year, which is I believe, one of the most breath taking and spiritual events you can ever partake in. So of course I told her to count me IN! Our Rise Festival took place about 32 miles northeast of Las Vegas in the middle of the desert and was the perfect setting for what would be one of the most intense visceral experiences either one of us had ever felt! You’ll see!
1. Have your tickets mailed to you – if this is an option do it. Will Call was 45 minutes away from the event and completely out of the way unless you were already staying in Vegas. It would’ve been MUCH easier if they’d made tickets available ON site, in alphabetical order … ya know, the same way they distributed the lanterns and mats. LOLZ 2. Fuel up before entering the site – the location is sooo in the middle of the desert that you should enter Moapa Travel Center into your GPS as it’s on the Moapa River Reservation. If you’re parking in the lot instead of using the shuttle system (those never seem to be the best option for me) than you’re not going to want to fill up at 11pm in the middle of nowhere. 3. Arrive early – The earlier the better I think. We arrived at Will Call around 3pm and then got to the event around 4:30pm, which made for PERFECT timing. We were able to grab a drink, take some awesome photos during the most spectacular sunset, order food from the food trucks BEFORE all hell broke loose, and write our intentions onto our lanterns while there was still light out. 4. Layer up and tote a bandana– Did I mention we were in the desert? lol Once the sun went down it was actually kind of chilly and windy out. Layers will keep you warm and a bandana of some sort will keep the sand out of your nose. We were blowing chimneys out of our nostrils when we got back to our hotel later that night. 5. TO LIGHT THE LANTERN – the most important part right! To Actually getting your lantern to rise and be with the 10,000 others! So thankfully they passed out an extra lantern to all of the participants as we only purchased one lantern each. Well the wind decided to pick up JUST as we lit our torches, and as I lit the fuel cell, the flame burned holes throughout my lantern making the first two attempts a big fat fail. Also it was momentarily disastrous as lanterns flew by my head and flames zipped by my very heavily hair sprayed hair. But we ducked and dodged, and third time’s a charm! Here’s what we learned:
– You need someone to help you hold the lantern upright so that the lantern walls stay open and don’t collapse onto your flame. Preferably all of your friends (make this a whole group event!) will hold your lantern up right until the heat has filled the lantern and it’s ready to rise on its own.
– Light the fuel cell with the tiki torch until the entire fuel cell is on fire, this takes a few minutes. Pro top: remove the paper wrapper surrounding the fuel cell BEFORE lighting it on fire.
– Once the fuel cell is red with fire, as your friends hold up the walls of your lantern, slowly take your lantern towards the ground. This will help to keep the wind out of your way and allow the flame a chance to create enough heat to fill your lantern with hot air.
– Once you feel your lantern start to naturally tug away and lift from your light grips, slowly stand up and allow the lantern to release! Boom, you did it!
It only took me THREE tries to get my lantern to rise, but when it did, I legit cried. It was so moving, symbolic, and serene! To watch your lantern float away among thousandssss of other lanterns, lighting up the night sky, it was so surreal!
Oh, and they had a live band playing on stage … Â so imagine writing your hopes, dreams, and prayers onto this ‘intention lantern’ with thousands of other people, in the middle of the desert, enjoying the breeze, all WHILE being serenaded with beautiful music. Right?! Unbelievable.
I uploaded the video of my lantern and I (the ‘3rd one’s a charm’ one) and our festival moments onto my Instagram account if you want to experience it <333
P.S. oh and don’t bother waiting in the 183,821 person line to get your photo in front of the RISE sign. I mean you can if you’re into that kind of thing but Miya and I took ours behind the sign and didn’t have to wait for didly. Just tell people to mirror the image in their minds.
Have you ever heard of this kind of event? Have you been? Would you want to go? I hope this post was helpful if you do!
I will what I want! This is something we should say to ourselves every day. It’s 2016 everybody! You know what that means … new year resolutions and the struggle to keep them! Oh and we’ve all made them! Gyms are filling up, farmers markets are being frequented, and books are flying off the shelves! That is, if your resolution is to be healthy, to eat cleaner, and to read more! Ahem, raises hand. So today I’m going to share with you how to KEEP your resolutions this year and to why ‘the secret’ actually works!
Have you ever read The Secret, or watching the film on it? It’s the idea that our thoughts create our destiny. For instance, if you tell yourself that you aren’t successful, the Universe will agree with you, and hence you will not be successful. The Universe’s job is to AGREE with you, so be sure you’re telling it POSITIVE things! So my number one key to accomplishing your goals … vision boards! I can’t begin to tell you how much power vision boards have in amplifying motivation. To have something to look at daily, something you put together with your hands, something you thought about and sifted through … this makes a HUGE difference! For me, having a vision board puts my thoughts into one place, a tangible place that I’m forced to look at each morning. So what have we learned:
1) Create a vision board.
My friend Miya and I each created a vision board last week and it really set into motion all of things we want this year. They’re really easy to make too! All you need is a poster board, some scissors, a glue stick, and magazines!
Miya said it best when she said that most people think they need to look for pictures of things that represent their goals, but honestly, we found so many inspirational phrases that we put together just by finding WORDS that represented our goals. There are no rules when it comes to your vision board, just cut, glue, paste, and create!
2) Keep your vision board somewhere you can see it.
For me, hanging my vision board up next to my bed where I literally have to wake up to it each morning is the greatest form of inspiration. It’s the first thing I see when I wake up and the last thing I see when I go to sleep. To have it in a space that I’m in creates a sense of urgency within myself, something I can’t take back and something to push me forward. So here it is, the view of my vision board from my pillow!
Be realistic with your goals, yes I totally glued ‘one million’ to my vision board, but seeing all those zeros really enforced into my thoughts that I want to grow this year. I like to gather my goals into areas of my life that I want to improve; work, love, self-improvement, and travel. This works for me, if a board full of inspirational thoughts and pictures work for you, do that! So long as you tell yourself that you will what you want, you WILL get what you want. And lastly, don’t stop, keep your eye on the ball.
3) Stay focused and don’t give up.
There will be days that you want to give up, days that you’re tired and that you feel like your goals are too big, or that they’re just too far to be within reach of. Just remember that every day, do one thing to accomplish your goals and you’ll see that even these small steps turn into huge leaps towards the bigger picture. We all get discouraged, just don’t let one day turn into one year. Baby steps.
So whether it’s creating a vision board or writing out daily to-do’s in a calendar, physically putting your goals onto paper will make a huge difference in your motivation I promise! You can check out what Miya and I put on each of our vision boards and what they mean to us, here!
Miya also wrote a motivational piece on how to keep your resolutions this year on the blog we have together, HapaHour.com, so head on over there for more inspiration! She inspires me every day with her wisdom and words of encouragement. Which brings me to my last point, surround yourself with like-minded people. They say that we become the 5 people we surround ourselves the most with, so be sure that your inner circle is full of people who uplift, inspire, encourage, and empower you.
Let me know what your number one goal is for 2016 and how you plan on accomplishing it and I can’t wait to share with you a ‘mid-year’ update on my own goals! Good luck and Happy New Year!!!
Fall is my FAVORITE and being a Scorpio, rightfully so. With Summer in Los Angeles nearly over, my excitement and anticipation is already starting to settle in. In preparation of chunky knits, chelsea boots, and warm cups of cocoa, I have put together a charmingly simple fall mood board to inspire and create those warm fuzzy feels the season invokes. Disclaimer: the photos you see below are not owned by me in any shape or form. I have borrowed them from Pinterest for my own inspiration.
I hope these images inspired to get excited for Fall! Why not curate your own mood board? Fall is on its’ way and I can’t wait for its arrival!
For all of my fellow athletes and sports fans out there, this oneâs for you! Iâm so thrilled to be covering some of the excitement happening this year over at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and sharing them with you!
Letâs catch you up: this is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour,
held annually – every February, in Pebble Beach, California (wahooo thatâs close to me!)
What does that mean? If you follow the sport of golf than you know that this is a pretty exciting time! Whatâs even more exciting is that this year, AT&T has invited four golf fans to the tournament to cover it from the fanâs perspective. More on why Iâm so happy to have this Foursome represent all of us shortly.
So this February is the 30th year that AT&T is the title sponsor for the event, and theyâre making it a special one by having this awesome Foursome come out to experience the event first hand! So if you arenât able to make it out this year youâll still be able to experience what itâs like to be there and what makes this tournament one of a kind.
I connected instantly with each of the four fans through their stories and Iâll explain why. First let me just say that they make we want to take my PutPut status to Professional!
Let me introduce you to the awesome Foursome that were invited out to the event and why Iâm so excited to have them represent us while theyâre there!
Meet Dan McLaughlin:
Dan quit his day job as a commercial photographer (can I get a high five because weâve all wanted to do this at some point but were too afraid to) to pursue golf professionally. I know first hand how scary it is to abandon a constant to pursue a dream. Dan spent 30+ hours a week practicing and perfecting a method he calls the âDan Planâ. Iâm excited to ask him what the âDan Planâ is and share with you his secret!
Meet Katie Horsford:
Katie is 17 years old who has utilized golf as an outlet for her personal growth and as a motivational tool towards building her self esteem and personal identity. Like most teenagers her age, she found that navigating her way through life could be difficult and full of confusion. This is actually one of the reasons I pulled my daughter (also 17) out of high school after her sophomore year. However, through the sport Katie has developed into a confident and strong young lady and welcomes this exclusive opportunity, knowing that itâs one step closer to playing at Pebble Beach herself. Iâm really excited to get to sit down with her and ask what her goals for this year are.
Meet Tiffany Fitzgerald:
Tiffany left corporate America to take on an important leadership role. She founded the site, blackgirlsgolf.net, where she provides hands on instructions, ladies-only golf outings, and a supportive atmosphere for growth. As a woman of color, I am so happy to discover other women empowering one another and supporting one another in an encouraging way. She offers the education you need to be able to participate in conversation that you wouldâve maybe have been intimidated by before. Iâm excited to ask her what motivated her to become leader of such an amazing movement.
Meet Tim Lang:
Tim is a Marine Veteran who after being terribly injured by an IED explosion in Iraq, utilized golfing as an amazing healing source and form of rehabilitation. He is a motivational speaker and is extremely inspirational to anyone who hears his story. He defied the odds and attacked his training with amazing perseverance and strength. Iâm most drawn to his story because I grew up in the military world. My dad was a Drill Sergeant in the Army for 23 years, served tours abroad, and when he retired he found his peace in the sport of fishing.
Iâm so inspired by each of their four stories and I canât wait to experience all of the awesome things theyâll see and do while at Pebble Beach this year. The Foursome will utilize HTC devices and the AT&T Network to document their journey and share via social media during their week at the #ATTPROAM, and some things we can look forward to being documented are:
The Foursome playing in the Boys & Girls Club Pro-AM
Walking THE course with the Pebble Beach Historian
Teeing off on the iconic Pebble Beach course
Experiencing a meet & greet with pro golfer, Jordan Spieth
Not to mention theyâll also get to chat with some celebrities and help raise money for charity Golf pros! How amazing does all of this sound?! Thatâs just a splice of the activities that theyâll be participating in and documenting next month, so be sure to follow along on their journey as they share it all with us via social media. You can keep up with the Foursome via their Twitter handles and by following the #ATTProAm hashtag:
I’m beyond thrilled to share with you their responses to some questions I have for each of them and to get a more personal look at these four; as they get a more personal look at the #ATTPROAM for us! So stay tuned for an exclusive sit down with them and please follow them on Twitter (profile handles above), and youâll use #ATTPROAM to keep up to speed with all of the happenings!
“The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything: the better you are with your loved ones, the better you are with enemies, the better you are at your job, the better you are with yourself.” – Bill Murray
Have a great week!!!
xx- Jess
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This post is in partnership with AT&T. Brought to you by AT&T, celebrating 30 years of the #ATTPROAM. All opinions expressed in this post are my own as with everything I bring to you.
Happy Sunday! Take today to sleep in, be lazy, cook your favorite meal, and indulge. For the week ahead, reserve today for self care and to spread love to those around you.
I took this photo while on a hike at Red Rock with my lil fam bam and the view from the top is incredible. Blog on that adventure coming soon!
