About Our Life in Flannel

Welcome! We’re two Vermonters who love wearing flannel, taking on big projects, and most of all, our dogs, Pepper and Spud.

I’m Kiley, the writer behind most of these blog posts. Andy is the man behind the camera (and basically everything else). Together, we’re trying to document everything we do as we keep improving our lives.

For a long time, we didn’t know what exactly our blog was about, or what we were looking to accomplish. I think it’s hard to nail down because in a way, it’s so obvious. It’s also ever-changing.

We’re trying to create our ‘perfect’ life. In college, our goal was to get rich quickly so we could retire early (think FIRE). We quickly realized that wasn’t the path for us. We didn’t want to wait to start living our lives, and we didn’t want to make money at the expense of other people, our planet, or our health.

We wanted to create a life that we enjoyed right now and didn’t need to escape from with vacations or retirement. A life that lets us do the things we love every day- gardening, cooking, being outside in nature…so we did.

We opted for health and happiness over financial security. I quit working to take care of my health (I’ve had lupus for 10 years) and I now stay home. Andy has a job that he loves. We’ve chosen to live on a single income. To balance our budget we grow a good deal of our own food (and will soon be raising more of it), have a “use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without” attitude, and aren’t afraid to barter, trade, or take hand-me-downs.

By being frugal we’re able to live comfortably on a single income and still save for retirement.

We want to share our adventures with other people, both our mistakes and our great discoveries. We talk about everything that interests us - gardening, sustainability, minimalism, simplicity, cooking, productivity…whatever we think will make our lives better and easier. We try to always be intentional, sustainable, and meaningful in our pursuits. We’re big fans of moderation (most of the time). Whenever we can, we try to do things ourselves, whether it be a home repair or filing our taxes.

We hope you’ll follow along with us as we figure out what it means to live intentionally and build a wonderful, meaningful life.