Travel Adventures: Electric Forest Volume 2

I really need to post about all the amazing art and food I have before the details start to slip through my fingers. Some of the best art and food I have ever had. Festival food that is 5 star perfection at times. Man it was good.

THE FOOD!

Front gate

Chicken and Waffles: I hate to admit this openly but I have never tried this before. I was lucky enough to have the best fried chicken and waffle of my life. The chicken was perfectly breaded and lightly fried. Not overly greasy. We poured syrup over the chicken and the waffle and ate it all together.

Roti Roll: Excuse my language but WTF is this amazingness? If food could make you cry this almost did. A rice type tortilla stuffed with mac n cheese, kimchi, pulled pork and topped with a sriracha fried egg. It was so damn amazing.

Spicy Pie: I read a ton about this on Reddit and how I had to try it. So, I did.  A piece of pizza the size of your head with pepperoni, jalapenos, red pepper flakes and cheese. It was really good but if you do not like the heat you would die. I found it to be interesting eating this in the dark trying to avoid large chunks of jalapeno.

Spicy Pie with Pineapple: I rather enjoyed this twist. Ryan said it took away from the heat of the pie.

Cheese Pizza: Too sweet for me I preferred the spicy pie. 

Peanut Noodles: Just fantastic. Served with plenty of veggies and enough for two people to share. We could add chicken for no extra cost. No brainer there. Was really good.

Chicken Teriyaki: Not as good as the peanut noodles. I did like the sauce on the chicken though and they of course gave you a good helping of veggies too.

Grapefruit Mint Popsicle: King of the Popsicle company makes these and I need a box of 1,000 shipped to my house please. Light and refreshing in 90 degree heat.

Jalapeno Corn Dog: Just when you think a corn dog cannot get better they do. I loved this it was perfect for a quick lunch and was slightly spicy.

Sun through the forest.

Fried Cauliflower: When Ryan showed up with this I was like is that tempura? It was and it was really awesome for a little snack. Lightly battered and crispy. I only wish it was served with a light sauce.

Felafel Wrap: I eyed this stand all week and had it for lunch one day. I liked the large chunks of felafel I only wish they had more sauce in the wrap it became a little dry.

Fancy Breakfast Smoothie: I struggle to remember what was in this. I know there was mango and banana and that is was super refreshing.

Bah-mi Sandwich: Meh, it had way to big of chunks of chicken and not nearly enough pickled veggies to justify the cost. I did like the flavors though. Pickled veggies are always the bomb.

ART! 

The light reflecting off the trees was pure magic. The lanterns and the goddess in the middle where huge and breath taking.

The Goddess that was added this year. She appeared to be bursting from the ground.

The entrance to the forest. These lanterns need to be in my backyard.

Entrance to the forest at night.

Gorgeous sculpture. This is the mother of the forest. She has evolved over the years into this current state of vines and bronze.

Vibrant mediation garden with a huge structure in the back.

A huge wall of art that moved. It was like a projector that had a moving image. Super cool.

I literally stumbled over a hammock into this in the dark. It was a water fountain and I was mesmerized. The forest is magical because it took me a couple of days to find it again in the light.

Giant bird! This picture does not do it justice in size and beauty.

Ryan taking in the lights amongst the trees.

The top level of the observatory. Super ornate carvings and details.

The top level of the observatory.

Disco ball that rotated. At some point in the week it was smoking a cloud of strange smoke. Made of CD's.

So relaxed!

Another entrance to the forest.

The Nest.

Inside The Nest. Cute Turtle.

Butterflies. They released them into the wild.

Hammock area.

No big deal just a library in the middle of the forest.

Wearable art was all over too!

It was so magical and I am happy that I had some pictures to share with you all. Until the next big adventure.

XoXo Emily

Travel Adventures: Electric Forest Volume 1

I promise to try to be as detailed and descriptive as I can. It is hard for me as I was experiencing all these amazing things I knew in the back of my mind these blog post would be hard. This music festival was beyond words. I went with people that tried to explain it to me and now I get why they could not put the experience into words. I will try to do Electric Forest as much justice as it deserves.

Volume 1 will be focused on the music.

Thursday June 23rd-
The Drunken Hearts: Forest Stage 5-6PM
This band was great. Mellow but super indie jams. We wandered into their set after getting a bit lost in the forest. The played and it echoed off of all the trees.

Paper Diamond: Ranch Arena 6:15-7:30PM

Ranch Arena

This guy brings the energy. His set was more EDM (electric dance music) based but had great flow between his songs. He had all the people dancing and grooving.

The Polish Ambassador: Sherwood Court 8:30-9:45PM
Another EDM DJ that mixed a lot of genres into his set. I liked the chill vibe of the songs.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band: The Hanger 10-11:30PM
WINNER of set of the day!
Man, I watched a documentary on them one day and I was like this is a must see. Just some middle aged and old dudes jamming out. I mean really jamming they make AMAZING jazz music. The best I have ever heard. The rhyme and bass was on point and had me dancing all over the place. I was sad when I had to run to the bathroom because I knew I would miss 5 minutes of them playing. I cannot stress enough how fantastic they are and how if you go to New Orleans stop in to see a show.

Apashe: Forest Stage11-12AM
Caught the tail end of this set. I like the EDM mix of middle eastern beats.

Major Lazer: Ranch Arena 11:45PM-1AM
I was actually excited to see this set but it was meh. It is EDM and his transitions were weak at best. When you are dancing you do not want to have to stop because their is like dead air between songs. We did not stay for the whole set.

 Friday June 24th-
Dumpstaphunk: Ranch Arena 3:30-4:45PM
Funky to the max. It was a mix of dance music and funk. I actually really enjoyed it. I had never heard of them before. Ryan enjoyed a nap during their set.

Nahko and The Medicine For the People: Ranch Arena 5:30-7PM
Do not let the long name scare you away. Some really good music came from this band. A good band to listen to in the afternoon.

The String Cheese Incident: Ranch Arena 7:45-11:15PM
 WINNER of set of the day!
They play two sets with an intermission. We caught most of the first set as we knew we wanted to watch the second set on Saturday. I will tell you why later. Their first set was jam music. Their sound is so interesting. Funk mixed with a dance feel. I highly recommend you look them up. Kyle who plays the keys actually put on our cruise we went on earlier this year so I already knew the show would rock after listening to him. They get you really dancing and grooving.

STS9: Ranch Arena 12-2AM
I am unsure why but they are more chill than I remember. I liked them but I preferred their acoustic set later in the week. This was more geared toward a mellow rock/dance feel.

Paper Diamond: Jubliee 1:30-3AM
Roamed into this set when we were in the forest. Danced away for a bit before moving on. I still love his set.

Adventure Club: Tripolee 1:45-3:15AM
Caught the tail end of their set. They have some really fun EDM music. Fell asleep in my tent to them. 

Saturday June 25th-
Dixon's Violin: The Oberservatory 1:45-2:45PM
How relaxing! Ryan almost feel asleep sitting up. This guy has mad violin skills. He uses a looping technique to create his music. For some reason the sound of the violin in the trees was pure magic.

Jubliee

Broccoli Samurai: Jubliee 3:15-4:15PM
Yes, yes and yes. I love this festival I was exposed to so many great acts by roaming into their sets. This band was amazing and I will continue to listen to them.  They have a ton of great up beat music to dance to.

The Bright Light Social Hour: Jubliee 4:45-6PM
Another great new band. We hung around for a bit before moving onto STS9. I love their groovy feel they really got a ton of people pulled into dancing around. Think indie rock.

STS9 (Axe the Cables): Ranch Arena 6:15-7:30PM
I actually prefer them acoustic. They have a cool indie vibe this way that had me swaying along through the whole set.

Delhi 2 Dublin: The Hanger 8-9:15PM
I was so happy. I danced the hardest at this set. Which I regretted later in the night due to some bad back pain. I still did not care though because these guys rocked face. The percussion and mixing was perfection.

Ranch Arena

The String Cheese Incident: Ranch Arena 8:15-11:45PM
 WINNER of set of the day!
WINNER of set of the festival!
HOLY CATS. This set  was mind blowing. It literally was the most epic thing I have ever experienced.
In this picture you will see some David Bowie Pegasus's (inflatables), Giant ( I mean like 5-10 feet tall) gold and silver balls (inflatables) bouncing around, Clouds (inflatables) aerialists, AND fireworks.

Everything was a sensory overload. It was pure magic and I felt like I was five again at a giant amusement park. I mean where does one buy a 10 plus foot David Bowie Pegasus?

This was just the stuff going on while they rocked the heck out of some David Bowie and Prince songs. They also played some of my favorite songs by them (originals). I was dancing my heart out hard!

Porter Robinson: Sherwood Court 11:15-12:30AM
Watched some of this. His EDM set has really cool visuals. It was like watching a movie. I rather enjoyed the parts I watched.

Bassnecter: Ranch Arena 12:30-2AM
I feel like everyone at the festival was at this set. It was so overwhelming packed we did not stay long. The bass drops were cool minus the throwing of large amounts of glow sticks the tended to hit you in the face. The visuals matched the beat of the music and were really cool to see.

Flosstradamus: Tripolee 2-3:15AM
I cannot speak to this visual of the set as I listened to them in my sleeping bag in my tent. I could not sleep so I was chilling and listening.  I liked the beat of their set it was really robotic sounding if that makes sense.

Sunday June 26th-
Carly Bins: The Observatory 2-2:45PM
Sweet. She is only 16 and has a cool indie feel to her songs. I liked her a lot she reminded me of a young Taylor Swift before she got all pop music.

Imagined Herbal Flows: Forest Stage 2:45-3:45PM
It was chill EDM. Perfect for the burnt out people to slow jam dance to. We loved it. Rocked back and forth to the music for a little while.

The Observatory

Miner: The Observatory 4:45-5:45PM
WINNER of set of the day!
The moment I stumbled across them on my Spotify list I knew I was going to love them. I have a natural soft spot for bluegrass/indie bands in general but hot damn they are good. I kept thinking that the smell of the woods mixed with the music was heaven. I love that woody musty smell mixed with the banjo. They are a family band with the lead singers being married which was adorable because some of the songs are about each other. I hope they make it big some day they deserve it.

Greensky Bluegrass: Ranch Arena 6:30-7:45PM
Hardcore bluegrass music. They were good though I liked them. It was really hot at this point in the day and they kept jamming out in the extreme heat. Someone should have delivered them some beers.

Manic Focus: Sherwood Court 8:45PM-10PM
I did not know that this was more rap based music but they were cool. I liked the beat of their set easy to chill too.

Sherwood Court

The Floozies: Sherwood Court 10:30-11:45PM
I will be honest I was exhausted and slept through part of their set. I did like the parts I was awake for. Super funky music with a killer lazer show.





 Griz: Sherwood Court 12:15-1:45AM
EDM with saxophone yes please. The lazers were the bomb reflecting off the trees. Overall it was the best of the EDM sets I saw over the weekend.

Sherwood Court

Dixon's Violin: The Observatory 12:45-1:45PM
At some point in Griz's set we decided to roam through the forest one more time before we called it an early night. Man, the sound of violin late at night in a forest was an amazing experience. It is the perfect music when you are roaming in the dark in the woods.

The Forest at night

 I hope you enjoyed reading about all the great music we saw. More volumes to come stay tuned!

Until next time~
XoXo Emily 

Tie Dye

Ryan and I have a ton of music festivals coming up and we wanted to make our ezup look cool not boring and lame. So, we dyed our ezup sides. As you can see above they turned out amazing.

What you need~
Rubber bands

Dye (We used Deco Art Jacquard Procion Mx Dye, 2/3-Ounce, Bright Green, Fire Engine Red and Turquoise.)

Fabric to dye (We had two large fabric sides and two t-shirts)

Soda ash (1 pound)

Jacquard Urea 1lb Pkg For Batiking

New Star 26115 Plastic Squeeze Bottle, 8-Ounce, Clear, Set of 6  

Gloves
5 gallon bucket
Tarp
Water hose

I am not recreating the wheel here this is a tried and true process and there are many amazing tutorials out there. We roughly followed this method at Best Dye .

Here is some pictures of our work.

 Here are all the supplies we needed. No gloves, tarp or buckets pictured.
Giant bag of rubber bands!

We soaked the fabric in the soda ash for at least 15 minutes. Highly recommend doing this on a tarp it can get a little messy.Twist out as much water as possible.

Make a fancy shape and put a ton of rubber bands around your little ball of fabric. Ryan did a really cool twisted technique.

Mix up your dyes. We had the tiny bottles but honestly thought we needed more so we used some old bottles in the recycling to make larger batches of dye. We sadly did not get to drink that margarita mix while doing this.

Starting the process of dying. Dose it really good as the more you have soak in the more bright the colors will stay.




Looking good.

Work in progress. I am sure Ryan could go for a margarita at this point. To bad that is dye and not mix!

All ready to sit in a bag for 24 hours. We put them each in their own garbage bag and they hung out in the garage for that time.

The next day we rinsed them on the tarp outside till they ran clear with the cold hose water. I forgot to take pictures of that process. Sorry!

We then put them in the washer machine for the hot cycle and ran the dryer.
DISCLAIMER: Run your washing machine through another cycle after doing this so that you make sure all dye is out of the machine before washing normal clothes.

Here they are hanging to dry more.

How cool does that look? We did have some slight shrinkage on the sides due to drying but Ryan used clamps for the sides and they held up really nice. Cannot wait to bust this out at Electric Forest and Rock USA!

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Bulk Meals

Ryan and I do not need to eat a entire 4 person recipe so often we have a ton of leftovers. Over the years I have actually starting going out of my way to make more bulk type meals so we can have easy ready made lunches all week. Here are some of my favorite things with links to recipes that you can make in bulk and have yummy meals all week.

1. Soups. There is no secret I love making soup it is easy to throw together and you can easily make a ton for cheap. Some of my favorites that I have made are lasagna soup, turkey noodle soup and split pea soup .

2. Meat. That is right I like to make bulk meat every couple weeks because then I can throw it in soups, salads and sandwiches. I will often make a 8 pound ham and we can eat off of it for the whole week or make soup with it. I like to make crock pot turkey , crock pot ham or buy a rotisserie chicken at Sam's for $4.99.



3. Salads. You can make all kinds of amazing salads that are cheap and make excellent lunches throughout the week or even quick leftover dinners. Eat them as a main entree or eat a small amount with a sandwich. I like to make zesty italian pasta, chicken salad, black bean corn salad.

4. Pasta. I will often make an entire box of pasta for the two of us and we can eat on it for days. It is great because pasta reheats well and rather quickly for quick lunches. Sometimes you want a warm meal too. My favorites are pesto pasta, delicious spaghetti , cheeseburger casserole.

 5. Curry. Curry is my favorite. It is easy to throw together and it can be made fresh or in the crockpot. I love to make a ton of it because the leftovers are always better eating it the next day.
Some great options are skillet curry  and crockpot curry veggies . Beware your co-workers will hate you for the delicious smells coming from your desk.

There are so many options out there and most of mine are reasonable on your pocket book too. Make some large bulk meals soon and you will be eating good all week long.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily