Before the main event we were able to tour the “hangar.” All of the teams had their machines lined up and were dressed in complementing costumes.

We saw cavemen…

piñatas…

AND even the president and his secret service!

The launch site was right on the harbor. We luckily had some new friends who staked out a perfect spot to see all of the launching.

I had my doubts on how fun this was going to be. I definitely underestimated watching people free fall into the water! It was actually great! All of the teams do a little skit or dance routine on the deck and then they push their flying machine out into the water. The video is a little blurry but here’s a peek at the action.

Verdict: Flugtag rules. If you have a chance to see this event in person, do it!

I know that posting vacation pictures is kind of lame but seriously, it was so great! We stayed at Hotel Oceana which was right on the beach and so swanky.

It was also really close to State Street where all of the shopping, restaurants and wine rooms are located. It was nice to be able to walk to everything.

We decided to tackle the Urban Wine Trail since this was our first visit to Santa Barbara.

We visited The Santa Barbara Winery, Kalyra Winery and the Oreana Winery. I think it would have been too ambitious to try and visit all 11 in one day!

We had lunch at The Brewhouse since Matt loves a good microbrew. You could actually just do a beer tasting tour too. There are so many breweries in Santa Barbara. Maybe next time!

After we dried out a bit from our wine tasting we headed to the harbor for our sunset harbor cruise.

This was so fun and I would definitely add it to my “One Thing Thursday”  for Santa Barbara. For $30 bucks we sailed in style for 2 hours, taking in the gorgeous views and an adorable sea lion or two (more like 100).

The best part was catching the sunset while on the water. It made for some great shots that are definitely frameable.

We’re so glad we took the 2 hour drive up the coast for our first wine tasting trip. PLUS, that means we’ve checked one more thing off our Sand Bucket List. People, we are moving at lightening speed.

Have you ever visited Santa Barbara? What was your favorite part? Favorite winery?

I knew I didn’t want a traditional line up of frames in here. I thought an asymmetrical design was the way to go since there wasn’t really any theme to the art in our frames. We have everything from our first home key, to a map of Des Moines and a crazy pic of Lulu-totally rando. I’m hoping to add some color to the room with the art and pictures since we aren’t painting this room.

I was inspired by these photo collages:

I just took the collection of frames I had and laid them out on the floor until I found the design I was after.

After switching around a couple I was finally satisfied with the arrangement. I started the hanging process with the largest frame, sort of the anchor of the collage (Lulu). I didn’t do any fancy measuring, I just winged it. We will definitely be spackling this wall when we move out.

This is the original “after". I felt like it needed a little more bulk to even out the left side of the collage. I just popped up another 11×13 frame that I had left over from our living room frame switcheroo and love how it turned out!

I’ll most likely add a few more frames but I’m really happy with how it looks so far. A much better view than a blank, dreary wall. I also need to print off a few pictures to fill up our blank Ikea frames. I was so excited to get this project going I couldn’t wait to hang up all of the frames. So please don’t mind the gray empty frames.

So whaddya say? Like the asymmetrical look or do you go for the more traditional look?

I did some google-ing (what? It’s totally a verb) and found some great homemade alternatives to Rice a Roni and other store bought side dishes.

Homemade Rice a Roni, only 310 mg of sodium v. 1070 mg store bought

Homemade Pinto Beans, much better than canned refried beans.

Also, a confession. We eat Hamburger Helper here. We like it too. For reals. So I thought, why not try and find a homemade version for that too? I found one here. Once we’ve plowed through our 5 boxes in the cupboard (what!? Don’t judge) I’m going to try this version. I also managed to find a recipe for Shake and Bake. 

Have you made over any store bought sides? Great recipes or links you’d like to share? I’m all ears.

True Random Number Generator Result: 9 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

I read about monthly meal planning here. We had been doing the weekly meal plans but almost every week I would be an ingredient or two short for a recipe and would have to run out to the store. That meant more grocery trips and more money spent there. You know I didn’t just buy my one ingredient.

Anyway, I thought I would give this a shot and it’s been working pretty well for us. So, here’s how I tackled it.

- At the beginning of the month I gathered all of my recipe books, torn out recipe pages and bookmarked recipes. I simply made a list of 30 or so of tried and true recipes and a few new ones mixed in.

- I filled in my calendar of each day what we would be having. I added breakfasts meals for Sundays.

- I took inventory of my pantry staples (pasta/rice/etc) and then went through each recipe to make sure I had the ingredients.

- I started making my grocery list from there. I included any meat I would need to buy or any missing ingredients. I separated my list into two, Costco and groceries. I always buy chicken, cereal, fiber one bars, and a few other staples at Costco.

That’s it! It’s been working really well for us. I haven’t had to worry about what to defrost or if I need to run to the grocery store for ingredients once this month! I’m trying to limit my grocery store runs to every other week for fresh stuff- produce, milk, etc. I’m hoping that cuts down my grocery budget. Dave would be proud.

This sounds time consuming but it really isn’t. From planning to inventory and grocery list making it took me less than 2 hours. I think it will get quicker each month. I also left a “free night” open each week. We typically just have leftovers that night since it’s hard to make a meal that only serves 2. We also plan dinners out too (usually a Saturday).

So, do you meal plan? Weekly or monthly? Or are you a fly by the seat of your pants gal or guy? Any suggestions for me?

I’m not sure if it’s all of the posted signs I’m constantly seeing about our run-off water going straight to ocean or maybe it’s watching the cleanup of the Gulf Shore spill that has me thinking green and how we’re really impacting our environment.

I know I’m totally late to the green thing but I’m totally ready to go all in (and it hasn’t been that hard!). We’ve been recyclers and reusable shopping bag people for awhile so we were ready to make some switcheroos on some of the products we are using daily. Here’s what we’ve switched out so far:

Dish Soap:

Before- 14 oz Dawn Dish Soap $1.99

After- 16 oz Mrs. Meyer’s dish soap $3.99

Hand Soap:

We already replaced disposable pumps with refillable glass pumps.

Before- Softsoap antibacterial soap, 32 oz refill $6.49

After- Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap, 32 oz $11 (on sale a Target!)

Dishwashing Detergent:

Before- Lemishine $7.49 & Cascade powder $4.99

After- We’re using Borax $2.99 instead of Lemishine and Shaklee’s detergent $11.20 (this is still en route to us!)

As we finish our less eco-friendly products under our sink we’ll start replacing them with a greener and healthier alternative. Here are a few that we’ll be replacing soon.

Laundry Detergent

All Purpose Spray- Right now we use Method (which is green) but I’d like to try Shaklee’s concentrate $12.15. This bottle can be used to whip up 48 gallons of cleaner so it’s much more cost effective.

Body Wash- We’d like to try Dr. Bronner’s.

Matt’s shampoo and conditioner- I’ve long been a fan of Aveda but Matt’s always used generics off the shelf. We’ll either be buying larger bottles of my shampoo or maybe trying Alba shampoo.

So long story short, we’re excited to switch out some of our everyday product to more eco-friendly ones. As you can tell, they do cost a bit more (Matt about died with the hand soap cost) but you usually need less product so hopefully it all evens out. Even with the higher cost it’s worth it to us to put healthy stuff on our bodies and into the environment.

Since I’m new to the Green Game do you have any tips for me? I’ve read a few homemade cleanser recipes, do you have any you swear by?

Resources we’ve used to find new eco friendly products and ideas:

Green Your

Martha Stewart

Planet Green

Young House Love

You may remember them from the Etsy Love post we did awhile back. These prints are adorable. They’re printed on archival paper and look totally retro. I’m in love with the seaside prints but they have plenty more to offer.

So how do you win? Easy Peasy. Leave us a comment with your favorite print from the Rusty Cricket. We’ll be choosing a winner on Friday, August 20th via random.org. Good luck!

Here’s our living room before…

With the addition of our cute, affordable pillow…

Overall I’m pretty impressed with the BHG line. This pillow was the only one that caught my eye in the store but I looked up a few more online that we might be adding to our collection.

I’m thinking about adding in Navy Blue or Yellow too. Thoughts? Suggestions? Maybe I should add in a pink pillow (mostly to horrify Matt)?

This is important stuff people! Help a gal out.

After last weekend’s hiking adventure we were totally prepared for another 2 hour hike. Thankfully, the path we chose was more of a leisurely stroll than the death hike we encountered last week. I think we were up and down in within 30 minutes after snapping 20 or so touristy photos. There are plenty of more strenuous hikes around the sign but since we had the dogs we decided a stroll was more our speed.

We used this site to decide where to start. The drive up to the hills is actually really neat. Lots of windy roads and awesome views. The houses were also amazing!

Once we “arrived at our destination” per our trusty Garmin we found ourselves at a fancy dog park with real grass and everything. The dogs were in hog dog heaven. After a quick romp in the park we turned our sites to the trail. It was nice that we could see the sign the entire way up. 

The view from the “top.” The actual top is completely off limits. You can’t actually get to the sign, it’s against the law.

The Sign website claims fire risk, rattlesnakes and mountain loins as a few possible encounters on the ascent to the top. We happily stayed in the designated area and still got quite the money shot.

So, that’s how we crossed another thing off of our Bucket List. Did you do anything adventurous this weekend?