JESS + LIVING BY THE F WORD UPDATE!

Hey everyone! WOW! I know, it’s been a hot minute. First I’d like to thank you for being here and all of your continued support over the years with this blog! I know for the better part of the last year and a half-ish I’ve been very seclusive, and pretty much non existent on here and even socially. I stopped writing about festivals with the exception of this years Groove Cruise post, and I also slowed down my attendance at them. Why have I been missing in action? Well, I’ve been making an effort to complete various personal projects at home, the biggest project I’ve been working on is myself! The past few months I’ve been working with a life coach to understand my journey, my purpose and spiritually connect with myself and my passions. Throughout this process I also have learned to understand time management and manage my productivity more. I’m extremely happy with my progress, both mentally and spiritually! I am so proud of how far I have come, but more importantly, I am so, SO excited for where I am going. More on that later!

At Desert Hearts Festival with my friend, the one and only, Festival Guy!

SHIFTING TO VIDEO!

One of my biggest goals that I’ve wanted to pursue was to shift everything from this blog or everything I wanted to share on this blog to video content. The best way to do that is to launch a YouTube channel! I’m proud to announce I will be publishing my first video tomorrow morning (June 25th) at 11am EST, which focuses on festival fashion brands I love! The video is my 2019 Festival Fashion Lookbook, a collection of outfits I wore at Desert Hearts Music Festival! A lookbook typically is a set of photographs displaying a fashion designer’s new collection. The photograph’s are curated for marketing purposes to showcase their new clothing or seasonal designs. Many content creators on YouTube utilize this style in video format to showcase fashion brands they love! The reason I wanted to start off with this style video is because, for one, I am terrible at documenting these outfits I wear at festivals! I barely have any photos in them, which is hard to believe because they are amazing! I also thought this would be a fun way to show you how I pair different pieces I have together, and share with you where I have gotten them from!

Photo of myself by Harmonic Light

In the video I show you six outfits I wore, how much the pieces cost, and where I purchased them from! I also tell you how I converted certain outfits from a daytime look to a night time look. We all know that weather can be temperamental depending on the geographical location of an event. Desert Hearts is warm during the day, and freezing at night! It was in the 40’s or lower, absolutely freezing! Being I’m from the East Coast and had to fly out for the festival, I wanted to show you how to use an outfit, make it versatile and functional for both in the sun and when the moon takes over!

The second reason for starting off with this type of video is because I absolutely love fashion to begin with, but festival fashion makes me giddy! I absolutely am obsessed with the prints, colors, creative mindset and skill that goes into making some of these pieces! Self expression is such huge part of festival culture and I wanted to start with a topic I’m super passionate about! Also recently within the last three to five years, I’d say that the festival fashion industry has completely taken off and blown up! I wanted to share with you some small business brands I absolutely am obsessed with that are a part of this industry! All of the brands are listed in the description of the video as well as some of my favorite shops to thrift at! Since we are in the heart of summer festival season in North America I thought it would be a great way to give you some inspiration for future festivals as well! I’d really appreciate if you would subscribe to my channel, give the video a like, and leave a comment of your favorite outfit! Once again launching TOMORROW June 25th at 11am EST! You’ll get notified if you subscribe to my channel and hit the little bell button next to it!

ABOUT DESERT HEARTS

Getting some FEEL GOOD bubbles on the dance floor!

Desert Hearts, by the way, was an absolute blast! It was my first time attending their festival, although I have been to several of their curated stages at other festivals. If you’re unfamiliar, Desert Hearts Festival it is a small festival that has taken place the last several years at the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation in Southern California. The Desert Hearts community supports creative self expression, self discovery and free thinking. They also follow principles similar to Burning Man such as Participation, Leave No Trace, and Self-Reliance. There is One Stage, and One Vibe and in most recent years they even have a fashion show to showcase small business vendors and festival fashion brands.

On the Life Is A Festival Podcast, hosted by Eamon Armstrong, former Creative Director of Fest300, he interviews the Glitter Spies, the ladies behind the fashion show at Desert Hearts. In the podcast they talk about “How To Dress Yourself As A Work Of Art.”

That is exactly what I was trying to portray in this first video! Every individual is a work of art, and I found so much pleasure creating this video for you, feeling the energy of these pieces and the outfits coming together. I will say the fashion at Desert Hearts Festival is next level! There is so much self expression through color, prints, and various styles, it is a festival fashionista’s paradise!

So much energy and fashion at Desert Hearts!

One of my other many goals of this year is to volunteer more at festivals to give back to the community that has given me so much. A community, family, global network, and place to explore my mind, and creative mindset through dance and art. Festivals truly are home for me and I want to give back to them! I’m happy to say I have followed through with this goal and Desert Hearts was the second festival I volunteered at this year (Groove Cruise was the first)! I worked with the Red Artery Parking Crew, which in all honesty can be a little bit hectic! All hail the crew that helps you fit on the sacred land!! My biggest advice if you plan on going to Desert Hearts is CAR POOL, CAR POOL, CAR POOL!! This goes for any fest to reduce our carbon footprint, but there were times where we had no where to put people–so, yes, CAR POOL! Thank you Desert Hearts Crew for letting me be a part of your team and event! If anyone has questions about volunteering at festivals please drop me a comment! I also want to give a shout out to my personal crew and family for making my first Desert Hearts an absolute blast!

Family Portrait by Harmonic Light

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Continuing on with pursuing volunteering and giving back to festivals, I am super stoked to announce I will be working along side my long time friends at Pedi Cab People Movers this week at Electric Forest!!! This will be SIX IN THE FOREST for me, and I am so proud and honored to be back at this festival. I have so many blog posts and photos about Electric Forest, which is one of my absolute favorite events out there!

See You In The Forest!!!!!

Once again, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of you F WORD LOVERS, for Living By The F Word with me!! I am looking forward to putting out so much content for you including how to prepare for festivals, how to make your own festival fashion, FIY (Fulfill It Yourself) projects at home, seriously so much has been in the works and of course I’ll be talking about all the other F Words I love so much, including Flying, Fine Art, and Food to name a few! If you made it this far you probably realize this is the most brief blog post I’ve ever written! It also is the third time I am writing it (Third times a charm!) I lost the drafts the first two times I wrote this post up which was an absolute nighmare– YEAH I CRIED!!! If you follow me on Instagram and saw my stories you know how devastating this was for me! SO, ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!!!!!

Love you guys,

Jess

#LIVINGBYTHEFWORD