25 randomly awesome things about Florida by Lady Adventures

Lady Adventures are two super inspiring friends out in the wildness with their sails full of lady power. And hey, sometime lady power means wearing bikinis year-round and swimming with manatees in Floridian paradise. Deal with it!

Here are Lady Adventures top 25 most awesome things about Florida:

 1.  Bikini weather nearly year round.
 2.  Waterfront Camping.
 3.  Hurricane Parties.
 4.  Pool Parties... year round.  
 5.  You can watch the sunrise over the Atlantic then drive across the state to watch it set on the gulf side, all in one day... and our golden hours are simply gorgeous.
 6.  Fresh seafood... better yet, catching it yourself (scallops and lobster included).
 7.  Fresh water springs, which are 72 degrees always.
 8.  Boiled Peanuts stands on so many roads.
 9.  We put Bieber behind bars.
 10.  It rains a lot but the rain storms only last a few hours at most.
 11.  The Everglades.
 12.  Florida is a melting pot of cultures and has a wide array of foods... from Cuban to Vietnamese we got it all.
 13.  Manatee! The Florida State mammal.
 14.  Accessibility to all water sports... scuba, snorkeling, SUP, surfing, kite-boarding, kayaking.
 15.  You’re never far from a body of water to jump in.
 16.  Citrus and produce stands are easy to find on back roads and straight from the farm.
 17.  663 miles of beaches.
 18.  Being a mermaid is actually a legitimate career choice in Florida.
 19.  Florida is the only state in the continental US to have extensive coral reefs right off its coasts.
 20.  We live where most of the rest of the country vacations and retires.
 21.  Alligators, flamingos, and pelicans.
 22.  Florida likes to party... and we continue to party after everyone else leaves from Spring Break, Bike Week, music festivals, etc.
 23.  We ride bikes places on the regular... farmers markets, brunch, the beach, the lake, the springs, work, bars, trails and even over old railroads (via Rails to Trails).
 24.  Florida is weird... I mean you see us in the news right?
 25.  Did we mention bikinis year round?

Here are some extra bonus questions we asked Lady Adventures:

What the heck is Lady Adventures?

Florida girls filled with wanderlust brought together by a love of adventures, damn good food, thrifting, an obsession with living life to the fullest and taking photos.

Lady Adventures was spawned by our shared passion for exploring nature, taking road-trips, eating great food and finding hidden gems of the secret spot and vintage kind. Out of the ashes of our lives’ unfortunate events, we shunned our day-to-day each weekend and used every ounce of free time to get lost in nature, only to find our true selves. Thus, Lady Adventures was named and founded.

We believe in bringing life back to the basics. Food tastes better when cooked over a campfire. Sand in our hair, freckles sun kissed on our skin, smelling of spring water, salty air, dirt, campfire and other earthly delights are the luxuries offered by our second home in nature. Uneven tan lines, battle scars, bruises on our bodies, and aching muscles are all worthwhile sacrifices for the good of the adventure.

How did you both meet?

We met on myspace (yay social media) about nine years ago. Both of us were involved in different genres of the local music scene in Orlando and we kept coming across each other on myspace but never ran into each other around town. So after seeing Sara post something calling someone out on myspace for something lame, Genevieve sent Sara a message saying something to the extent of "you seem rad, there aren't enough rad chicks in Orlando, we should hang out." However, Sara was leaving for San Francisco to study at Academy of Art University and the two of us remained myspace pen pals for the next year. When Sara moved back to Orlando, we met for sushi then decided to sit and talk on some steps off a side street... we talked for nearly 4 hours. Our relationship continued on the same path as our first meeting, involving either sushi and wine or cheese and wine or any other food... and wine, followed by hours of sitting in a park at Winter Park and talking. We often talked about our shared yearning for travel but were bogged down with jobs, relationships, bills, blah, blah, blah. So it took us about 8 years before we finally said "what the hell are we waiting for?" and started hitting the road every chance we got.

What do you want Lady Adventures to turn into?

What a loaded question with an ever evolving answer! We would love Lady Adventures to continue encouraging women and men alike to explore nature and their surroundings. We get asked all the time how it is possible that we adventure as much as we do and the simple answer is that we do not go very far! Our trip costs are minimal with our destinations being reachable with a tank or two of gas, $20/person or less for tent camping, and cooking over a campfire is usually less expensive than going out to a restaurant. Ideally we would both like to quit our jobs and adventure full time, shedding light on the amazing places and activities that are not only in Florida, but in every state and North America. Once we conquer that we hope to hit Central and South America... and then take over the world! Keeping Central Florida as a "home base" of sorts we would love to open an adventure storefront where locals can go on excursions with us or purchase all of their adventuring needs from paddleboards to camping gear. That's providing we don't sell everything we own, get ourselves a rad adventure-mobile, and hit the road with no destination in mind. The future is wide open for Lady Adventures and we're currently just riding the wave of awesome.

If you don't already follow Lady Adventure, you need to stop reading this and do it now: Instagram / Tumblr / Facebook / Pinterest

Drunk Growler History

In the beginning, back before the invention of the growler, personal supplies of beer were carried in rustic salty bags made of sperm whale intestines. This went on for generations (it was disgusting!) until the evolution of the growler.

The First Growler (actual photo from history)

Everything changed back in 1997 at a college party in Humboldt county that had just been shut down by cops. A brave and drunk 19-year-old who went by the name of "Space Monkey" saw a problem and a solution which gave birth to the growler as we know it today.

As the cops blabbered on about, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here-Yada-Yada-Yada…", Space Monkey realized that there was plenty of beer to drink, but it was trapped in the kegs which were trapped at this condemned party. Than it hit him: Duh, just get it to go! He sprang into action, grab a couple empty milk jugs from the recycling bin and filled them with beer and dashed off into the neighboring woods giggling and peeing wildly on trees.

The party never ended that night, due to Space Monkey's invention of the growler.
As time went on and he somehow "earned" a college degree in Liberal Arts. He got a "cool" job (jobs are NOT cool!), got married, got a dog and stopped using milk jugs to carry his beer around. But his contribution to the world of beer drinking had an everlasting effect.

Space Monkey Growler

Today every gas station and yuppy grocer offers growler filling stations.
They come in glass (for your glass breakers).

Generic Growler

They come in ceramic (for you ceramic breakers).

Portland Growler Company makes some pretty ones!

They also come in stainless steel (for you metal breakers).

Hydro Flask makes a steel growler that we haven't figured out how to break yet. It keeps cold beer cold and it also keeps hot beer hot! It's not as cheap as an old milk jug, but sometime you get what you pay for.

In the future growlers will fade away like any other trend and we'll finally just get those beer baths we ordered, but for now let's raise a milk jug full of beer to Space Monkey.

Inside Sucks. Go Outside!

Oh My Glob! Check out this totally unsolicited and inspiring promo video for Stay Wild by the brilliant Porous Walker, David Hopp & Masa Tsuyuki of Funiculaire Recordings.

Make more awesome fan art like this please!!!
 

Scott Patt: Bigger. Smaller. Funnier.

SCOTT PATT was a professional in the action sports and apparel industry with experience working for Hurley, Nike, Converse and other huge brands. But right now, Scott Patt is an artist in the middle of a year-long daily painting series titled “ Bigger. Smaller. Funnier.”

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Did you really make a new painting every day, or did you work ahead to buy yourself some time?

Most of the time, I’m making a new painting every day. It can get pretty insane. Everyday, I’ve got a new deadline. But in the spirit of the project, I like to create work that documents what’s going on in my life, our lives, and relevant things around us. It feels more alive that way. That being said, some of the dates are planned out around life stuff and ideas inspired by things I’ve collected in the past: photos, ephemera, or simply parts of conversations overheard.

Usually two to three times a week I’ll sit down and cull together my scraps and ideas into my sketchbooks. I’ve got lots of active lists of ideas that I haven’t fully fleshed out and certain images I want to use but don’t know where or how just yet. Ultimately, concepts are selected by how I’m feeling on a particular day or what day of the week it is. Mondays are usually ballbusters, so I’ll put something up to help inspire myself and others or give ‘em a good laugh to get the week going. Wednesdays are about humpin’. Fridays require a little something to inspire stayin’ wild, whereas Saturdays and Sundays can be more about the Zen. Regardless of the day of the week, there is always a story. Even if it’s just a couple words, there’s a reason behind each piece. Many of them relate to really important moments in my life or things that have happened to me. I’ve got a lot of trust for people, so that naivety has gotten me into some pretty interesting situations wherever I’ve gone. It makes for some pretty great stories.

It was also really important for me to treat the concepts and works less precious. I’ve done a lot of fetish finish art, pieces with absolutely pristine surfaces and high gloss, which I love. But I wanted to approach this from a less precious place and treat the pieces as sketches or works in progress. In some ways, the project is about letting people into a very intimate part of a process I normally don’t like to share because it has flaws and isn’t fully finished. It’s really opened me up to just trying shit, and it’s become a great mechanism for vetting ideas for future collections.
                                                                        
Some of these seem pretty rebellious—like you’re pushing against yourself or at least against the things you love and hate about pop culture. What do you hate about yourself?

I hate a lot about myself. But that’s kind of why I’m doing the project. And it’s a lot of why I make art. I have a hard time letting go of stupid shit I’ve done in the past. I’m always rehashing shit in my head. Art for me is a release valve to try to process some of it and let it go. I started the project to do something bigger, smaller, funnier. Bigger—doing more of what I desire to do and making things more meaningful. Smaller—doing less of what I don’t want to do and cutting out the shit. And Funnier—simply laughing and smiling more. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do something, meaningful, worth sharing and ridiculous. I wanted to make a massive body of work/sketches/ideas that reflect life, exhibit it in new ways, connect on a larger scale and do it in a (reasonably) intelligent way. But I needed it to be epic. I wanted a quest that would stir shit up, push me and help guide me to more meaningful work. It’s working so far, although I like to drink whiskey while I paint, which means I’m drinking a lot of whiskey.

It’s important to note, I do love a lot of things about myself, too. But you didn’t ask that question.
                                                                        
Did all those years of working for big companies make you better or worse at making art?

I’m open to the fact that working at corporations completely ruined me as an artist.

Having worked for smart and successful companies helped me see things holistically as it pertains to art as an expression and a business.

I use to work as the global creative director of footwear for Converse. That experience was amazing for many reasons, but one of the greatest things about that job was coming to understand the concept of democracy in regards to the things we connect to. Next to Coca Cola, the Chuck Taylor All Star Sneaker is probably one of the most democratically consumed objects on our planet. What’s special about the Chuck is that what it represents is accessible to everyone. Everyone can go out and get a piece of “fuck you” at a reasonable $50 and make it what they want. Or, if they want something more exclusive for their sensibilities/ego, they can go out and get the super limited edition X. It’s high and low business, and everyone can play! I love this!

Artists have been pioneering this business model for the last 20 years as commercial digital networks continue to broaden. It’s a great complement to the gallery system where artists can grow their base and introduce new people to their work through accessible price points, while still creating limited larger works and projects for patrons and gallery partners, etc. It’s simply about creating a well-rounded business model as an artist.

The idea of democracy is equally important in relation to the growth of an artist’s community and support network. I had been thinking a lot about how, as an artist, I can spend four-six months getting ready for a show, in a studio, alone. Then I have an opening for one night, where if you’re lucky, a couple hundred people see the work, and then for the next 30 days, you get the occasional local, tourist and the clientele of the gallery. That’s amazing, but it isn’t tapping into the full potential of what new media can do in regards to building connectivity with other artists, fans, patrons, new galleries, etc. I loved the idea that Bigger. Smaller. Funnier. could be a living gallery that starts digitally via Instagram, Facebook, scottpatt.com and Big Cartel. Then it has a second life which would reside in a gallery in conjunction with new larger works stemming from the over 365 sketches throughout the year. The opportunities for an artist’s works are only getting broader and that’s a good thing.

See more of Scott's work HERE >>>