Lilac Lemon Drop

May 15, 2018May 14, 2018 by Katie | 4 Comments

Potatoes are our ingredient of the season. You can find our full archive of potato posts here.

There’s nothing I love more than the smell of lilacs in spring. Their fragrance is intoxicating.

Holy cow, I wish they would last longer in a vase. I’ve tried all sorts of tricks, but I have to admit that I think their fleeting season is partly to blame for my lilac love.

Today we’re pairing lilacs with lemons in this ~~simple~~ simply delicious cocktail. But I bet you’re wondering where potatoes come in? Vodka, my friend. Vodka.

Airline Meal Hack

May 14, 2018May 24, 2018 by Sarah | Leave a comment

This month, in anticipation of summer vacations, we’re doing a few travel-related posts. You can see our full archive of travel posts here. If you’re flying internationally, check out how to survive an international flight, see how to make your hotel room feel like home, and learn how to enjoy big holidays when you find yourself alone abroad.

Some international flights are so damn long that the only thing you look forward to is the distraction provided by the next meal. The lights turn on and the flight attendants start to take formation, lining up behind their carts ready to serve, but you’re in the last row and there are literally 400-600 people ahead of you in line. Waiting for honestly what could be an hour is killer, especially if you’re starving, but luckily I’ve stumbled upon a hack for getting served first on international flights. Continue reading …

Two Bits

May 11, 2018May 18, 2018 by Sarah | Leave a comment

Happy Friday! It’s crazy how a day can carry such emotion, right? Slogging through Monday, hittin’ our stride come Wednesday, feeling great ’cause it’s Friday, and then the mild anxiety creeps up on Sunday. My feelings about each day are a little bit different because I am self-employed and work from home, but for some reason Friday is still the freaking best. I usually put in a good amount of work on Fridays and Saturday, but it just doesn’t matter. There’s nothing like that Friday feeling. Cheers to Friday!

If you need a little inspiration for your weekend, here are a few suggestions :

Look up a new to you trail and go for an epic day hike. I’m taking a crew on a 7.2 mile hike with over twenty waterfalls next weekend – you should join us! Here is a registration link. Continue reading …

Gift Guide : Kids’ Camping Gear

May 10, 2018November 9, 2018 by Katie | Leave a comment

This month, in anticipation of summer vacations, we’re doing a few travel-related posts. You can see our full archive of travel posts here. And here are some of our basic tips for camping with young kids.

If you haven’t been following the blog regularly, let’s just throw it out there that we love to go camping. And we’re hoping to instill that same love in our two little guys (ages 5 & 3).

We’ve documented quite a few family trips on the blog. You can see a hike from our most recent spring trip here. Last summer we took a little road trip to Great Sand Dunes and the San Juan Mountains. And one of our most memorable camping trips was the winter weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park.

While the kids were babies, we packed almost no gear for them. As long as we remembered the carriers for hikes, what else did we need?

East Coast Road Trips

May 9, 2018May 13, 2018 by Sarah | 2 Comments

This month, in anticipation of summer vacations, we’re doing a few travel-related posts. You can see our full archive of travel posts here

The weather is officially warm enough on the east coast for road trips and car camping. Actually, now is the best time to take a road trip because it’s not so hot that you’re practically suffocating and getting a sunburned while driving. Road tripping and car camping is my favorite way to travel the United States. I’ve driven across the country a couple times and up and down the east coast more than I can remember.

Vacationing in the U.S. is more expensive than many countries in the world, but if you have a car it’s easy to stay on a budget. I like to keep it cheap by packing snacks and cold brew coffee and staying in airbnbs or camping out. There are plenty of ways to skimp and save, I’ve actually compiled a list of ways to save money on a road trip.

My idea of a great road trip is nailing down a few destinations, not driving more than 5ish hours a day, pumpin’ some tunes or podcasts, and generally leaving the game plan wide open in case something calls to me. With that in mind, I wanted to share a few of my favorite byways and rough road trip itineraries with you. Continue reading …

Make with Me : God’s Eye

May 3, 2018May 4, 2018 by Katie | Leave a comment

At the beginning of the year, I encouraged our readers to “make with me“. In that post I shared a few of the many benefits that you may get from picking up a hobby, and I gave you a few simple suggestions for how to turn your hobby into a regular habit (that’s good for you!).

If you follow our Instagram feed or have been a long-time reader, it’s no surprise that my primary hobby is knitting. I always have a project (or ten) in the works. While I don’t need the encouragement to knit more, I’m taking this resolution as a nudge to share more of my projects, in their many phases, on the blog. And if you’d like to find me on Ravelry, my username is winterfoliage.

Five months into the year, and I’m finally sharing a project that doesn’t involve knitting!

Growing up, this was a project that we would make every so often. We always made them using two sticks, creating four points, and we called them God’s eyes. As you can see, this one is slightly more complicated, and I’ve seen these referred to as either a God’s Eye or a mandala. I use both names throughout this post.

Read on to get pattern info and to see how big this beast really is.