How To: Create a Travel Budget

September 26, 2018 by Sarah | Leave a comment

Creating a travel budget is easier than you think. There are a couple ways to go about it, either you go in with no expectation and determine what you need to have the dream vacation you desire or you have a pre-determined budget that you’d like to confine yourself to. Both of these scenarios still require a decent amount of planning and research if you intend to be successful. First, we will cover how to create a budget, second we will discuss strategies for sticking to the budget, we’ll cover what happens if you think your budget is too tight, and lastly I’ll share a few travel budget examples.

Fall Camping

September 25, 2018September 25, 2018 by Katie | Leave a comment

If you’d like to see more of our Colorado adventures, click here.

Once the calendar turned to September, we leapt into fall with all of our hearts. Granted the days have still been warm, but we’ve found that if you climb high enough into the mountains, then the evenings are cool, the leaves are changing colors, and the mornings are perfectly crisp.

Here are a few snapshots from our recent weekend camping trips. If you feel inspired to hop in the car this weekend, at the very bottom of the post, I link to a few posts to hep you get started, including some of our favorite/essential gear.

Knitting Pattern : Seven Year Stitch

September 24, 2018September 24, 2018 by Katie | Leave a comment

Knitting literally and figuratively takes up a lot of room in my life. You can find previous knitting posts here.

At the beginning of the year, I encouraged our readers to “make with me“. In the Make with Me series, I was sharing the projects that I was working on and/or finished in near-real time. That came to a sudden halt in March. Then, I started working on a few secret projects that really put a cramp in my ability to share. Today’s post is about one of those projects.

I’m excited to announce that I’ve finally put together a self-published knitting pattern!

Slowcooker Chili (with coffee!)

September 20, 2018September 26, 2018 by Katie | Leave a comment

Coffee is our ingredient of the season. You can find our favorite cold-brewed coffee here. But if you’re in a rush, try this instant hit.

When choosing coffee as our featured ingredient, I knew that I wanted to use it in a few ways that were outside of my comfort zone. And using it in today’s chili recipe is definitely one of those examples! I love a good savory chili, but I was worried that the addition of coffee would add a bitter and unpleasant taste. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case and this dish turned out to be a delicious (and easy) dish! Continue reading …

Read With Me : How Emotions Are Made

September 19, 2018September 26, 2018 by Sarah | Leave a comment

This year, we’ve started a series called ‘Read With Me’ we’re sharing all most of what we’ve read this year in hopes you’ll follow suit and dust off that book you’ve been meaning to devour! Here are all the previous Read With Me posts.

How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett took me several months to finish maybe closer to a year. This book is written for the layperson, but it is packed full of emerging neuroscience as well as past theories and research about emotion. In short, it’s a lot. Much of the information was new to me, which also meant I had to do a lot of highlighting (320 highlights to be exact!) and rereading as well as jumping back and forth when certain terms or studies were referenced again later. I read a few books at a time so I can chose depending on my mood and I had to bypass How Emotions Are Made before bed because I so badly wanted to read and understand each sentence. Continue reading …

Wildlife Camera

September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 by Katie | Leave a comment

If you’re interested in photography, you can find many of our archived posts here. This is the perfect time of year to review Sarah’s tips for better fall photos. And if you’re curious, you can read about both Sarah’s camera equipment and Katie’s.

It’s no surprise that we’re into photography. We love the art of taking photos and we appreciate it as a form of documentation. We use photos (and this blog) as a instrument for recording everything from favorite meals and drinks to vacations and the mundane.

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Today I’m excited to share with you a new piece of equipment that’s helping me to document (and spy on) the wildlife in our backyard.

Travel Vaccinations

September 17, 2018September 26, 2018 by Sarah | Leave a comment

We have a whole ton of travel tips here.

Travel vaccinations. What’s the deal? Do you need them? Should you get them? Are they expensive? I get these questions pretty often. The short answer for all is, it depends.

You should always be up on your routine vaccinations. There is no debate about that. As for travel vaccinations, it really depends on where you’re going, how long you’re staying, and what you’ll be doing. Never let the decision come down to cost. Why? If you end up getting whatever you could have prevented, it’s going to cost a hellofva lot more. AND some of these vaccines are good for life. One shot, one cost, peace of mind. Continue reading …

Kids’ Nature Books

September 16, 2018July 15, 2019 by Katie | Leave a comment

We know, we know, it’s amazon prime day. If you’re in the shopping mood, below are a few of our favorite nature books for kids.

We feel that it’s very important to have an understanding of and appreciation for the natural world, and we believe that both of those things should start as early as possible in a child’s life.

One of the easiest ways to help children learn about nature is to spend time outdoors. Most children are naturally curious, and as they play and explore in nature, they will begin to ask questions about plants and animals, the habitats and ecosystems where they live, and the larger world around them. This is a great time to begin answering those questions and to work together to research the answers when they are unknown to either of you.

And that leads to our second way to help children learn about the natural world and our relationship with it : books!

Books are obviously a great resource for teaching children. They are a reference when helping to answer a child’s questions, and they can provide insights into places and times that we’ve never been, which is awesome for awakening a child’s imagination. Of course, that will likely raise more questions, and the cycle continues!

Below are a few of our current favorite nature books for kids. Some of these are straight-up reference guides, while others provide that magical view into another world (because how many of us have actually seen the hidden world of animals under the snow or experienced the immense pressure and heat at the center of the Earth?!).

Autumn Adventure in the Blue Ridge Mountains

September 14, 2018September 14, 2018 by Sarah | Leave a comment

Hey y’all! Happy weekend! In need of an adventure this autumn? I’m (Sarah) hosting two camping retreats in North Carolina during October and November. If you’d like to learn more you can visit my website where you’ll find the dates, details, pricing, and itineraries for two epic outdoor weekends in beautiful North Carolina. I’ll explain them briefly here too.

HIKE! For this two night adventure, we’re rustic car camping (no electricity, but we do have showers + bathrooms) at Lake James State Park. Due to park rules, you’ll need to make your own campsite reservation ($40 total), but otherwise I have you all taken care of. Not only will I feed you and build your fire, I will lead you on four separate day hikes totaling about 12 miles, all with breathtaking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Think expansive vista views, interesting rock formations, and the height of fall foliage, and that’s where we’ll be hiking.

This adventure is perfect for those completely new to hiking and camping, but it’s also perfect for those wanting to transition to overnight backpacking trips. I will demonstrate the type of gear needed to sleep on the trail overnight and even point out some possible first trips on the trails that we hike together.

Here’s a link to all the info about HIKE! + how to register for this event.

CAMP! Camp is an overnight at Jordan Lake. Camp is meant to bring you out into the changing yet not too chilly forests of North Carolina during early November. Between day hiking, paddling, hammock hanging, and fire building, we will do a fair amount of conversing about set ups, gear, and best practices. We’ll also share our experiences and learn what works for others and what works for us. Camp will also encourage you to craft easy and delicious camping meals in the future for your own crew as I help demystify camp stoves and cooking over a fire.

CAMP! is perfect for those completely new to hiking and camping, but it’s also perfect for those simply wanted to decompress in the woods for a night. Join us at CAMP! and meet other awesome locals like yourself.

Here’s a link to all the information about CAMP! Dates, pricing, and all the details.

5 Tips For Traveling with a Partner (and enjoying it)

September 13, 2018 by Sarah | Leave a comment

We’re big on travel. This you know. Last week we shared some traveling tips for the solo female and today we’re talking couples.Remeber these two who went on a 21 day first dates across Europe with no luggage?! My guy and I had a ten day first date ourselves. Suffice to say it went pretty swell. Traveling with your boo is so much fun!

Unless you’re hangry. Or tired. Or broke. Or sunburned. Or hungover. Or totally sober and well rested and fed. Somehow even then traveling can be rough. We’ve compiled a few tips for those trips for two. Want to know why this photo is upsidedown?* See bottom of the post.

Before you head out on your next epic adventure just remember that teensy nugget. Travel is tough. Yes, it’s super fun, but that’s mostly because of the challenges that are presented and overcome during the trip. Think back to your most memorable adventures and you’ll remember the trying moments and then the triumphant ones, so this is me saying be easy on your partner! They’re just trying to survive and thrive like you. Now let’s set ourselves up for loving them even when it’s hard to remember how. Here are five tips for traveling with a partner.

1. Set Similar / Complimentary Expectations During The Planning Phase

Talk through what you want your days to look and feel like before you take the trip. Expectations have a way of messing up everything, in pretty much any situation in life. Think about it? Whenever you’re upset it is because reality didn’t meet expectation. The best way to combat that is to a) not have expectations or b) at least set a similar standard with each other. That way you will both be equally pissed off or ecstatic when reality does its thang aka whatever the fuck it pleases. For instance, is your expectation to climb the entire Himalayan mountain range? Or to go for one hike a day and enjoy lots of cups of tea? Very different, equally admirable, just make sure yours match up or compliment each Continue reading …