Life Is (And Has Been) Better At The Lake

It's hard to believe that our family has been at the 'lakehouse' for one year. It's as if we've lived here forever. To say we're lucky is an understatement, maybe because I don't believe in luck and maybe because after all those moves (you can read about them here,) we've finally found home.

 As I went through last year's photos, I found this one above; the DIY sign project I made to commemorate our new house. Only now did I notice Husband and our youngest in the background fishing.

This backyard view, the inhabitants of our space (like "Caesar" the eagle and "Wally" the crane,) the quietness of our cul-de-sac. None of this has gotten old. Thank goodness.

Our family recently re-watched "We Bought A Zoo" with Matt Damon. The first time we watched it, we were in the process of daydreaming about living at the lake. The lakehouse was our zoo, our adventure, our vision of home with our kids.

At that time our vision included a trampoline, basketball hoops and fishing boat. (Two out of three ain't bad.)

Now we foresee berry bushes and homegrown herbs, more of a communing with Mother Nature if you will.

On Sunday, we welcomed this new family, awww...

As we celebrate our home-anniversary, we continue to recognize how blessed we've been as a family. :)

DIY After: Spray Painting The Fireplace

As many of you know, our lakehouse living room is in dire need of a makeover. We've been here just under a year and have had so much (life) going on that renovations had to put on hold.

But last week, I couldn't deal with my living room anxiety anymore, I needed to make at least one change, because with as much work as I do from home, that is the room that mocks me daily with it's screaming 70s fireplace, salmon carpeting, asymmetrical built-in bookcase and walls that need painting so badly.

So I took one baby step. I spray painted the brass surround. Is that what it's called? The ugly brass/gold thing in front that has doors? For the life of me, I can't figure out what to call those doors... (I also see fingerprints and dog drool, hi, welcome to my home.)

As usual, the prep work took the longest. All the taping etc. but it's definitely worth it, because if I had gotten spray paint on the brick, I would have died. Well, maybe not, but you know what I'm saying.

See? Do you see the "face?" I am going to take a sledge hammer to those cutouts one day! Okay, so I taped and then scratched up the surface with sandpaper.

Used the special high-heat spray paint...

And ta-dah! It's a million times better!

Up next? Husband and I are painting the walls...

The Cutest Mother's Day Video Ever

When I was in elementary school I used to tell kids I was from Hawaii. That's because I was tired of telling them I was 'Filipino,'

What's that? Are you Chinese or Japanese?

Because if you weren't Caucasian or African-American, then you were someone from Asia. And it had to be China or Japan, because let's face it, in grade school we didn't know all the countries yet!

Except for Hawaii. I thank Hawaii 5-0 for that.

My kids don't have the same struggle, in fact when our youngest daughter was around 5, she would say she was "half-Filipino, half-Human."

That always makes me laugh.

Anyway, all of that is a pre-cursor for a Mother's Day shout-out. I posted this video a few years ago, but it always makes me smile. (She's half-Human, you know...)

Here is our youngest's rendition of a Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me." Enjoy and Happy Mother's Day!

DIY Organized Drawers On A Dime

It's been pretty busy lately at our house, what with new clients, our kids' sports activities and end-of-school concerts and events, I haven't had a minute to sit and blog! Husband and I keep talking about painting the living room, but we just don't have the time to do it! I did tackle one small DIY project.

Taking a cue from Pinterest, I organized a drawer that has some of my work stuff. Of course I didn't want to spend much money, so I used the cereal boxes we already had...

Cut them up to make them fit the drawer and covered them with cute wrapping paper I found at Goodwill.

It took me forever to find paper because I don't scrapbook and I won't spend a lot of $ on nice scrapbook paper. (Cheap, cheap.)

I have to admit, it turned out really well. 'Cause I'm all about making things pretty. :)

Here's a behind-the-scenes shot of what it really looks like when you're doing a DIY project!

That's not pretty at all! What have you done lately to beautify (and organize) your home office or craft room? Let me know and include a link to your blog so I can drop by!