I just wanted to pop in to show you the progress we’ve made on our van. We hope to have the inside complete by Memorial Day. The outside is another, more expensive story! Continue reading
How to Create the Perfect Whitewash
We’re getting really close to having the inside of the van complete! Yesterday we put the doors on the kitchen cabinets and since we didn’t have enough old barnwood to create the doors, we used leftover boards from creating the walls of the van. George was insistent on a bright interior, but I didn’t want something that would show every speck of dirt either. That’s why we decided on a whitewash for the walls and cabinets. Today I’m sharing our nontraditional method for creating the perfect, antique whitewash. Continue reading
How to Heat And Cool an Airstream Travel Trailer
I’ve written before about how we stay warm in our Airstream travel trailer, but we did things a bit differently this year. Plus, the weather is changing– thank god– and I’ve been getting more questions about how we both heat and cool our Airstream. So, I thought it might be a good idea to do a little update on the subject. Continue reading
10 Reasons We Built (And Love!) Our Tiny House
A Small Life is more than just talking about Airstreams. A Small Life is about living a happier, more minimalistic lifestyle. That’s why today I’m branching out a bit with a post from my friend, Leah. Leah is a badass who has built her tiny home from scratch. I love her can-do attitude and her realistic approach to tiny house living– something I don’t often see online or on television. Today Leah is going to share the top 10 reasons she and her boyfriend built, not bought, their tiny house. Take it away, Leah!
2016 Garden Plans
I’m a little bit late to start my garden from seeds this year. But lately I’ve been feeling like I’m a little bit late to everything. That’s no excuse not to start planting and that’s no excuse not to start anything in life. Am I right?! Continue reading
Custom Camper Van Progress
George and I are currently building out a custom van for camping and travelling. We’d love to travel in the Airstream, but it’s large and cumbersome– especially for a short trip. We don’t have much time to work on the van, but we’ve made some progress and I want to share it with you today.
As a reminder, let’s take a look at the van before we started working on it. (See above and below!)
Yikes.
And here’s the progress we’ve made… Continue reading
Ask Melanie: How do you deal with lifestyle criticism?
Lately I’ve been receiving a bunch of emails from readers asking specific questions about living full-time in an Airstream. Awesome! I love questions! Ask away! But I do like to address the questions on my blog so a wider audience can benefit from the answers. I also have a place for new readers in case you were looking for one.
Anyway, today’s question is from a reader who is shopping for Airstreams this week! And she wants to know… “Did you receive judgement and criticisms in the beginning?”
10 Tiny House Myths
I don’t have cable, (or even a television!) but whenever I go to my parents’ house, I end up getting sucked into Tiny House t.v. shows. It’s a whole genre now! And it’s amazing to see something that took us several months to do compacted into a neat, half-hour program. And I know a lot of it is editing and creating a story-line, but after living in an Airstream for over 2 years, I see a lot of myths and misconceptions about tiny house living on television shows. Today I’m going to set the record straight by debunking 10 tiny house myths. Continue reading
Make Do and Mend: DIY Healing Face Lotion
I get into beauty habits. I find one product I like and then use it forever. It’s a fault, but I generally feel no need to stray from my tried and true staples. I had been using Burt’s Bees Intense Hydration Night Cream for years. Years! With no complaints. Continue reading
Our Iceland Trip & How to Save Money in Iceland!
One of the main reasons George and I live in an Airstream is so we can save money to travel. I’ve never been overseas and I wanted desperately to do some international travel before my 30th birthday. After much worrying about the cost, we decided that we could afford it and we booked a trip to Iceland.
Why Iceland? Well, it’s gorgeous! And flights, in comparison to many other countries, are relatively cheap. Iceland has it’s own airlines, Iceland Air and with the help of a connecting flight, we could fly right out of our home airport. The tickets were about $600 per person. That’s only $100 per person less than our flight to California will be this summer! Iceland Air even does this stopover program where you can stop in Iceland for up to a week before heading to another European country. It’s definitely something I’m going to consider if we ever make it to Europe.
Geysir, Iceland
We booked our hotel through Expedia because we stayed in Reykjavik, the capital city, for the entire week and simply commuted to various locations throughout the island. I like to check all the major booking sites using Kayak before I choose one. Our hotel was a budget hotel and we paid for 6 nights at $557.81. Not too shabby. It also helps that we visited in the winter when prices are cheaper. If we really wanted to cut costs, we could have stayed in hostels. We did stop by a few hostels for coffee or maps and were truly impressed with how clean they were! We stopped at this hostel on the way to Geysir and wanted to stay!
Iceland’s magic small horses!
We simply jumped out of the car to see these cute friends. No tour needed!
The one thing I really did cheap out on was a rental car. I found SAD cars online and I should have known it was almost too good to be true. We rented a car from them for about $300. The other rental cars from well-known companies were over $1,000 for the week! The car we rented never broke down, luckily, but to keep it from overheating we had to run the heat on full-blast the entire time. Not fun when you have on four layers of clothes!
Many of the sites we wanted to see in Iceland were accessible by car. By having a car, we were able to go out on our own schedule and we didn’t have to pay for a tour. We drove the Golden Circle by ourselves, visited a glacier and the black sand beaches in Vik— all without a tour guide. That being said, gasoline was very expensive. I knew it was going to be quite a bit, but it cost about $130 to fill up our tank. And we filled it up twice. Ouch!
Vik, Iceland
We did splurge on relaxing in the Blue Lagoon and one tour with Arctic Adventures. There were a lot of awesome tours available– like snowmobiling, cave exploring, a Game of Thrones tour(!) and many, many more. We decided on snorkeling in Silfra. It’s an internationally recognized dive site and you swim between two tectonic plates. It was truly amazing and well-worth the $150 per person price tag. And it truly wasn’t cold. They put you in puffy, down suits and wet suits to keep you warm. Our tour guide was really lovely and and took great care of us.
We snorkeled there!
The water was insanely clear!
The other pricey part about Iceland is the food. Much of the food is imported and every meal we ate at a restaurant cost over $100 for just us two. To save money on food we picked up dinner from the grocery store several times, ate breakfast at our continental hotel breakfast and brought snacks with us in our luggage. We also ate chips (or fries for us Americans!) for dinner one night and ate hot dogs for breakfast one morning when we needed to sleep in! Not the healthiest of meals, but hey, Iceland is famous for hot dogs and we were on vacation. 🙂
Gorgeous and cold!
Prior to our trip, I did buy a few things that I considered travel costs, like a few pairs of long underwear. I bought a cheap pair and a more expensive pair. For snorkeling they recommended a synthetic fiber to wear under the suits, so I bit the bullet and bought some fleece CuddleDuds. They, of course, were more flattering and warmer than the cheapo $10 pair I bought. 90% of the time I wasn’t cold. The only time I did get chilly was when we went out to see a glacier and the Golden Circle. I was slipping and sliding everywhere. I even ended up falling once. Do’h! The one thing I did wish I bought were Crampons. Word to the wise: They are worth it if you decide to visit Iceland during the winter.
Overall it was an amazing/beautiful/unforgettable trip that was well worth the money. I’ve got the bug and I can’t wait to travel more in 2016!
love,
melanie