Blog - The Lilypad Cottage

September 13, 2019 By Kelly 20 Comments

Friday Feels – Fall Finds

Welcome to another Friday Feels where I share what I’m “feeling” this week. This post contains affiliate links. I may receive a small commission for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.

WOW! It’s been a while since I’ve had a moment to do a Friday feels! Today, I’m sharing a random mish mash of things :)

First up, I’m creeping into fall over here, and I found a few affordable cozy pillow options at Target (I was there to “grocery shop” and went home with these beauties, but what else is new). These will be making an appearance in a mini fall home tour I’m working on for next week. I’ll link a few faves below.

I’m also still out in my yard every week clipping all the free things growing. I’ve moved on from branches and hydrangeas to beach grass. It’s perfect for some free fall vibes.

Next up, there are a few blogger run small shops I’ve been loving. Chris loves Julia has the cutest clothing line – Propertee. I have the Homebody sweatshirt and hat. The sweatshirt is perfect for cozy fall weekends at home, and the hat is great for covering up “day-four-without-washing-it” hair.

I also love Jenny Komenda’s Juniper Print Shop I used the ferris wheel prints from her shop for my daughter’s room in the past, but I just printed off new art for my mantel to transition into fall as well – I’ll be sharing that next week! They are $20 for a download. It’s such an affordable way to get great art for your home.

I’m on the hunt for a few pieces for my daughter’s room makeover that I blogged about earlier this week. She really needs more storage in her room for all her books, glasses, etc… and I found these super cute nightstands from Wayfair. At $125-ish a piece, they are at a great pricepoint for a nice sized nightstand with a deep drawer. There are a few fun color options as well! My trusty UPS guy is supposed to drop them off next week, so I’ll keep you posted!

Ok next, and I’ve talked about these before, but I’m still obsessed with them – Rifle Paper Company Planners. Make fun of me all you want (the Mr. regularly does) with your spiffy electronic phone calendars and notifications. My brain needs good old fashioned pen and paper to remember stuff. I love making lists and seeing my schedule a few weeks out easily. You will have to pry my paper planner from my cold dead fingers before I make the switch to an e-calendar.

I’ve had one for each of the last four years, and it’s the perfect size to stick in your handbag and pretty enough to leave out on your desk or nightstand. I love all the little details inside, and they come with fun stickers for special events and reminders. Plus, the collection from past years look great on your bookshelves when you are done with them. They are on sale right now, and you can find yours here.

Also, I’m toying with adding a new monthly blog post answering any questions you all may have. A little “Ask Kelly” column. I get a lot of emails and messages with different questions, and I thought it may be fun to share some on the blog??? From design, blogging, organizing, daily-life, or just whatever you may be wondering. So, let me know if that’s something you would want to see, and if so – you can leave questions in the comments, dm me on instagram, or email me too!

OH! And a quick housekeeping item. Over the summer, I updated the shop our home page so now you can easily shop by room. I tried to include links to everything I could with notes about what I couldn’t link (flea market finds, or local items, etc.), so if you are looking for something check there! If you click a link and it doesn’t take you to the specific product page that means it’s currently out of stock or sold out, so check back.

Happy weekend!

September 11, 2019 By Kelly 42 Comments

Tween Girl Floral Wallpaper Bedroom Progress

Last week I made a few updates in my son’s room and today we are heading across the family room to my daughter’s side of the basement. This is one of those “if you give a mouse a cookie” moments, except if you give a blogger a hole in the wall, she will redecorate an entire room! :) Tween Girl Floral Wallpaper

If you remember my daughter’s room, it looked like this with that cute swinging chair below.

Well, we went almost 2 years without incident until my daughter decided to sit on top of the chair ala Miley Cyrus in the wrecking ball music video. Thankfully, she was fully clothed at the time, but she did indeed come in like a wrecking ball…taking out a good chunk of her wall in the process.

It sat there for about 6 months until I finally decided to tackle patching it (I used a mesh patch and spackle to cover it up, sanding and priming as well), but of course, I was out of the Topsail paint color. That all somehow rolled into painting her room a new color. “And while we were at, we might as well add some wallpaper, right mom?”

“Oh and remember you have your old queen bedframe, couldn’t I have that in my room now too?”

Chip off the old block this one :) Also, envision her sprawling her tiny 4 ft 8” body out on her twin bed trying to convice me that she is basically Shaquille O’neil trapped in a twin bed and can’t possibly be cramped in it one more night.

So, here we are redoing her room. I thought I would take you along for the ride rather than just showing you the finished product. A little real life progress, rather than the magic of HGTV poof the room is done overnight! I mean, it did take me 6 months to patch a hole in the wall, but I’m hoping to move faster than that on the rest of the project.

This is what we have accomplished so far –

I patched the wall (no small feat, I’m not sure I’ve ever patched such a large hole), and it looks good as new!

I painted all the walls Extra White by Sherwin Williams (the same color in most of our house). She really wanted white walls with bright accessories, which I’m totally on board with becuase it makes it easy to swap things out as she ages.

I hung this fun wallpaper from Anthropologie that she fell in love with (I’m really letting her steer the ship this time). I haven’t hung wallpaper in FOREVER, and I’m pretty proud of myself for tackling it again. The Mr. and I last hung wallpaper together in 2006 and decided it would be better for our marriage if we never, ever, did that again, so I was on my own. In true Kelly fashion, I calculated wrong (math is not my strong suit) and ran out of wallpaper. Thankfully, I realized this and left the missing bit for where the bed would go. Shove the bed up against the wall and no one ever needs to know! ;)

I put our old bed frame in here and ordered a new duvet cover that hasn’t arrived yet. For now, I raided my pillow closet and found this duvet, pillows, and quilt I had leftover from a campaign I worked a few years back. The joys of being a blogger – I have no shortage of extra pillows about.

We are off to a good start! We have plans to do a little makeover to her dresser, add some new nightstands, a rug, lamps, art work, and the new bedding too.

She is thrilled to have a bigger bed and it actually feels cleaner in here which I love becuase there isn’t as much floor space to fill up with dirty clothes and craft supplies. We shall see how long that lasts…

Charlie certainly approves having a larger napping spot during homework time in the afternoons!

SOURCE LIST: (contains affiliate links, which means I get a small comission if you buy from my links at no extra cost to you)

Wall Color: Extra White by Sherwin Williams

Wallpaper – Find it here

Pillows – TJ Maxx

Hanging Chair – Find it here

Quilt – Vera Bradley

Bed – it’s been discontinued, I can’t find a link for it anywhere

Flooring – Armstrong Laminate Forestry White Washed

Tween Girl Floral Wallpaper

September 4, 2019 By Kelly 18 Comments

Rustic Homework Desk

Summer is officially over and my kids are back to school. Well, they went back last week already, but I needed a week to get my house back in order. With the Mr. at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business Executive Program, it was a long summer of single parenting with a lot of Lord of the Flies shenanigans happening. For instance, someone spilled an entire bottle of honey in the back of the pantry and just rearranged some things to cover it up rather than actually cleaning it up. Clearly, I wasn’t spending enough time hiding out from my kids in there with my glass of wine and trusty bag of chocolate chips, as it took me several weeks to notice. Or I just ordered pizza too frequently. Either way, the house is back in order (mostly), the kids are back in school, and the Mr. is back home safe and sound with us!

Which means that I’m ready to get back to work here on the blog. I have a few fun projects happening in various stages, but I thought I would dip my toe back in the blogging water with a fun little DIY project I just completed.

I’ve been working on a few changes in my kids’ rooms and I did a little desk switcheroo from one to the other as my daughter’s room is getting an overhaul (wallpapering is on my agenda this week). She has been trying to convince us that at 11 she has outgrown her twin size bed (although our 8-year-old is almost bigger than her, her nickname around here is Mighty Mite, so trust me when I say she is just fine in the twin), and when we got a new bed for our master last winter I promised we would move the old one down to her room eventually.

With that, I realized it would be a bit crowded with her desk in there, so we decided to add it to my son’s room instead. The teal legs and fuzzy ball chair weren’t exactly my little guy’s taste. Here’s what it looked like in my daughter’s room.

I broke out the spray paint and gave the legs a new coat of matte black. I also sanded down the top and stained it a darker color to match the world traveler/pirate vibe in his room better. It was also a little too big for the space. It hit the door trim to his bathroom, so I dusted off my power tools and used my circular saw to cut the sides down by an inch on each side.

Now, it looks like it was made for this little corner. I also added this great leather desk chair. It’s adjustable so it’s a little higher for his 8-year-old self, but I know with a classic piece like this that it will grow with him. He was so cute plopping his feet up on the desk proclaiming to be ‘just like dad at work.” Apparently, he has grand visions of the Mr. hanging out all day on the phone with his feet up.

I have had this sailboat print for a long time that Melissa Lyons sent me, and I hung onto it until I had the perfect spot for it. It fits in so well in his room.

I added a few more world traveler type accessories and it really feels more grown up in here. We designed this pirate room together when he was 5 to be easily flexible to swap items out as he grows. I’m happy to report with just these few updates it really feels more like an 8-year-old space. He used to have a locker here (see below) that was so fun, but he really didn’t store anything in it. This feels like a much better use of his room and he has spent a lot of time drawing and designing inventions here already!

Oh and here is a little sneak peek into his bathroom. I haven’t really shared this on the blog before. I’ve been hunting for some wallpaper or tile or something to finish this space off since we moved in, and I haven’t figured it out yet. Stay tuned!

Oh and I always get questions about where all my kids’ stuff is or how their rooms stay organized. One thing we planned out with their rooms being in the basement was they could have nice large walk in closets to shove all the toys and everything into. Here is a snap of his semi-organized closet.

Thanks again for being patient with me taking the summer slow over here on the blog. It was great to just soak up the time with my kids and enjoy, but it feels great to getting back into the routine again!

You can read more about my son’s room here.

And more about my daughter’s room here.

SOURCE LIST: (Contains affiliate links)

Walls – Functional Gray by Sherwin Williams

Floors – Armstrong Forestry Mix white washed laminate

Rug – old from West Elm here is similar one

Bed – garage sale find, similar one here

Bedspread – Serena and Lily, they don’t carry the exact one but this is similar

Shelf – DIY

Desk – Hobby Lobby

Leather Chair – find it here

Hourglass – find it here

Globe – flea market find

Wander pillow – find it here

Star pillow – DIY

Octopus – find it here

Black extendable lamp – find it here

Navy desk lamp – find it here

Light fixture – find it here

Sailboat print – Melissa Lyon Art

Nightstand – HomeGoods find, similar here

August 10, 2019 By Kelly 14 Comments

Round Coffee Table and Weekend Sales

The basement family room progress continues! I’ve been taking my time with this space down here to sort of feel out what works and what doesn’t. Rather than just rushing in gung- ho and buying a bunch of pieces, I’ve slowly been adding treasures as I find them. More like a normal person and less like a crazy blogger with a deadline ;)

This post contains affiliate links.

I partnered with Wayfair again to find the perfect coffee table for this space. I mentioned before, in theory, the ottoman down here was kid-friendly. In reality, it was not practical for the never-ending smorgasbord of snacks my children seem to require when hanging out down here.

I’ve decided to hang on to it for future use in the pool house because I do still love it, (it’s from Wayfair too you can find it here.), but a coffee table with a nice wipeable surface is where it’s going to be at for this space.

I knew I wanted a large round table so that it was easy to scoot around. Plus, it seems like fewer hard edges would be more practical for the wrestle mania that often occurs down here. I love the beautiful grayish wood tone on this one . The simple clean lines were appealing as well. I feel like it would work great in a beachy space or a more rustic space which our house is a little bit of both.

It also plays so well with our Wayfair rug down here.

I’m really loving how this space is coming together.

You may notice I am conspicuously avoiding showing our wet bar area down here. That is because I have plans to paint the cabinets down here next! The blue is just too blue with the changes, and I’m trying to decide if I want to go a deeper gray-blue, beige, or gray route. Stay tuned!

If you are on the hunt for something special for your space, now is the perfect time to shop Wayfair’s August Clearance event! They have bedroom furniture starting at just $99 and up to 65% off living room furniture. It’s also a great time to think about snagging outdoor furniture deals for next summer with 65% off in that department as well. So many good sales you can check them all out here!

I’ll link all the Wayfair items below that have been making this room such a cozy hang out spot for us. Plus a few other coffee tables that were in the running for this space, and some of my fave sale items too!

Wayfair is one of my favorite places to shop online – with the fast and free shipping over $50, you can’t go wrong. Wayfair makes it easy to find pieces you love for your home right from your couch.

You can also always find the rest of the room sources on the shop our home page. I just redid the whole thing and reorganized it by room so hopefully, it’s more user-friendly to find what you are looking for! Happy Weekend!

July 30, 2019 By Kelly 22 Comments

Fun things to do with Kids in Northern California

Hellooooooooo!!! I hope you all are having the best summer! It has been a bit since I have posted over here (which I warned you about in this post here). It has been a great break, and the kids and I have settled into a pretty solid 3 musketeers routine with the Mr. gone. I’d even say that my sanity is still relatively intact, which is a surprising bonus. I will admit on several occasions to trying to convince my kids that 6:00 pm is a reasonable bedtime for everyone (without success, ah the pitfalls of having older children who can tell time), and I also admit to watching more than my fair share of Bravo at night, but the end is in sight! The Mr. comes home soon, and we can’t wait to try to cram an entire summer with him into the 3 weeks left before school starts. Fun things to do with Kids in Northern California

We did make it on our big California trip a few weeks ago to visit him at Stanford’s graduate school of business, and thanks to all of your fabulous suggestions, we had the best time! I had lots of requests to share some of our favorite things in a blog post for you all since I wasn’t able to share much on Instagram stories. We spent a little time exploring a different city/place each day, so I’ll break it down for you (for reference my kiddos are 8 and 11), but I think most of the stuff we did would work for a slightly younger/older crew too.

Day 1 – Stanford/Palo Alto: First up, we picked up the Mr. from class to explore Stanford’s campus and to get the grand tour of his dorm and the beautiful grounds. It’s truly such a beautiful historic campus our kids actually enjoyed exploring it.

Well, in reality, our very first stop once we landed in California was actually In-N-Out Burger for cheeseburgers. I hadn’t had one in 10 years and I was excited to introduce my kids to the fine delicacy of a cheeseburger animal style. It did not disappoint! My daughter was trying to work thru the logistics of packing several take home burgers for the flight home. ;)

We spent the afternoon in downtown Palo Alto and had the best pizza at Pizzeria Delfina in their adorable courtyard space. After, we walked around with ice cream cones from Salt & Straw (the Coffee Cashew Praline and Strawberries Tres Leches were my personal fave flavors). It’s just such a pretty town to explore.

Day 2 – San Francisco: The Exploratorium in San Francisco was our day two destination and it was so fun! It’s sort of a Science Museum/Children’s museum/really fun hands-on experience where you are encouraged to touch all the things and explore different concepts from music, energy, space, and human behavior. It was all super educational and packaged in a fun way. We had to drag our kids out of there after 4 hours because we were starving and wanted to see the rest of the city.

We headed to Pier 39 for lunch, which is a fun (kind of touristy) section of Fishermans Wharf with tons of restaurants and shops. I would have loved to explore more of the restaurant scene in SF with the Mr., but my kids tend to be picky eaters so this was a great place to take them. We ate at Pier Market Seafood and the clam chowder and shrimp and crab roll were great, plus they had a good kid’s menu.

After lunch, we went to the Presidio and hiked the Batteries to Bluffs Trail. This was a very cool area and our kids loved exploring on the rocks. The views were beautiful even with the fog.

Our kids were pretty beat after this long hike so we headed back to our Airbnb (I was not impressed with anywhere we stayed so I, unfortunately, don’t have any good recs here) with takeout. The 3 hour time difference was a little screwy for the kids with only a 5-day trip.

Day 3 – Big Basin: Big Basin Redwoods State Park was a great beginner hike that was still challenging for our kids, but not too hard that they couldn’t keep up. We did the sequoia trail and loved the entire hike. Make sure you pack lots of water and snacks to keep your campers happy. This park was so beautiful and the trees were amazing to look at. We didn’t see one of the famed banana slugs, but the Mr. was a great navigator and my kids were in awe of nature and all of its beauty.

Day 4 – Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park may have been my kid’s favorite stop on the trip. My kids love rides, fairs, and amusement parks. The old school historic beach vibe of this place was so charming. It was built in 1907 and boasts one of the oldest roller coasters in the U.S. Not to mention while waiting in line, you can enjoy the ocean views and pretend you are having a relaxing day on the beach.

I liked that you could do the rides in the am and hit the beach in the afternoon, or vice versa.

My thrill-seeking kids rode every ride in the park (I possibly sat out a few of the spinny ones – thanks to the Mr. for taking one for the team on that), we ate snowcones and deep-fried everything. It was such a fun day!

Day 5 – Monterey: Monterey Bay Aquarium has a jellyfish exhibit that was hands down the favorite with my kids. I think my daughter took 4,000 photos of them since they were so beautiful. Unfortunately, the Mr. had to go back to class, but he got to re-live our excitement through all of our photos we took later that evening at the Airbnb.

The otters were fun to watch as well. My kids liked the aquarium a lot and it could not be in a more beautiful location. I do think we are a little spoiled as we have been to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago quite a few times.

Being honest, they both prefer Shedd, but this was a fun day trip anyway. Plus the town is so cute to walk around that we did a little shopping and sightseeing.

I wish we had had more time to explore and drive further down the coast to southern CA. Unfortunately, the Mr. only had one long weekend off of his program at Stanford, so we really crammed in a lot of fun into a few days!

Fun things to do with Kids in Northern California

June 26, 2019 By Kelly 40 Comments

Lake House Basement Family Room

Popping in with a little lake house basement family room update today! If you’ve been following along for a while, you know we have new furniture upstairs. So, everything upstairs came downstairs in a little round of musical chairs.

Just like musical chairs, there were a few that didn’t make the cut. Specifically, the beloved white armchairs from my mom that I have had several hundred requests for the source (she had them made years ago at a local shop so sorry I can’t help you out.) They just weren’t working out in this space. They were way too formal, and not practical for my kids to use every day.

I moved one into our master bedroom, and the other went to my brother’s house for his daughter’s room. So, they are getting yet another new lease on life.

The hunt began for something to replace the chairs! I was looking for a less formal, comfy oversized chair that would be great for movie nights or curling up with a good book.

Sixpenny Home asked to partner with me to share their furniture. I was so excited because the Neva chair was exactly what I had been looking for.

Oversized. Super comfy. And slipcovered in case we have any mishaps. Although the fabric I chose is dry clean recommended, it’s nice to know that’s an option for any major stains.

This chair is available in a ton of fabric options, but I wanted a little darker tone to camouflage dirt. I went with the Lightweight Linen option in the color Ink Cap. I love the casual vibe of the linen, and the color is a nice contrast to the new carpet.

It’so comfy my kids are trying to convince me we need to buy the matching couch! If I have to break up one more fight over who’s turn it is to sit in the chair, I might just do that! ;)

Whoever does finally claim the coveted throne as their own will have to share with Charlie. He has officially claimed it as his designated napping spot, but he will begrudgingly share…provided you rub his tummy.

You can check out all the great furniture at Sixpenny here. They have a lot of beautiful options to choose from. The ordering process was simple, delivery was fast, and the white glove service was an added bonus.

Things are still a work in progress down here. I still need some side tables, a lamp, and a few more accessories before I complete the space. I’m also thinking of going with a coffee table rather than an ottoman. I thought an ottoman would be practical for the kids. However they keep spilling snacks on it all the time, so I’m thinking a hard surface coffee table may be the way to go. I love how cozy it is down here with the new chair, and it’s been a great rainy day hangout space for our family!

Lake House Basement Family Room

June 20, 2019 By Kelly 12 Comments

Summer Dresses and a Giveaway

First off, thank you all SO much for the outpouring of love and sweet comments on my last post. My readers are truly the best, and a few of you made me tear up. It really encouraged me so much!

I have a few minutes off of my mom uber duties this morning during basketball camp, so I thought I would dash off a quick post. We have a few outdoor weddings and events to go to this summer and I ordered a few new dresses to try out for the occasions. I snapped some quick iPhone shots in my mirror while I tried them on to share with you all.

This is the first of my half-arsed blog posts for the summer, so let’s all pretend I steamed all the clothes, set up the nice camera, that I don’t have 3 lbs of dry shampoo in my hair, and I took more than 10 minutes to write this – deal? Oh, and I ordered several pairs of shoes to try too, but they are living the high life with my UPS guy apparently, so also pretend I have on shoes that go a little better with these dresses. Now that everybody is firmly in make-believe-land with me, snap back to reality as I actually hit every price point from $25 – $100, so there is a little something for everyone.

This post contains affiliate links.

I love the classic feminine feel of the pleated skirt on this one and the price point cannot be beat!

This simple knit navy dress is so easy to throw on with flip flops and a jean jacket for a more casual look. Add heels and some gold jewelry like I did here for an evening out.

I love the flowy feel of this yellow maxi dress and it could definitely be dressed up or down as well. It also comes in a few other colors.

A good wrap dress is always nice for summer and this one is very flattering across the tummy area for us moms.

Aaaaand… I’m just realizing now that I forgot to snap a pic of the jumpsuit, so you will have to believe me that it’s super cute!

You can click on any of the bold words below to check out the dresses.

Oh and here is the cute Target clutch I’m holding in a few of the shots.

And my shoes.

Ok, now for that giveaway! I’m so excited to share these pretty jewelry pieces from Amelia Lawrence Jewelry. And excuse the up close and personal selfie, but I wanted to show you up close how pretty these pieces are on. PS – I get asked for my secret all the time when I’m “tan” – if you need a good self-tanner this is the one I use!

Amy reached out to me to ask if she could send me some jewelry and I was immediately drawn to her simple and delicate designs. I’m not a huge statement jewelry person as I feel a little like a clown in big earrings or a bright necklace, but her pieces are SO my style and perfect for layering. I usually wear a trio of 3 simple gold necklaces together, but this one is my absolute fave.

Here is a close up of the Leyanah Arch I’m wearing.

And the Marquise Hoops are perfect to throw on for every day and they are so lightweight.

I’m actually giving away a pair of these earrings and this necklace over on my Instagram page later today. Just comment on the selfie photo on Instagram to enter! I also have a coupon code for you all if you want to snag your own. Use the code LILYPADCOTTAGE for 20% off your order. The code will be valid until July 4, 2019. Check out all her designs here.

June 12, 2019 By Kelly 72 Comments

A Little Life Update

It’s the first week of summer here in Michigan for my kiddos, and I’m so happy to have them home (and not be packing another lunch)! That said, being a work from home mom becomes just a little trickier. Especially when so much of my job is social media related and I’m constantly preaching to my kids about no electronics! Monkey see monkey do, right? It is hard to explain to my 11-year old that I’m on Instagram because it’s my job when she would like her own Instagram account (not happening!) So, that means things slow down here a little on the blog. I only get so many summers with my kiddos, and at 11 and 8 it seems like my time where they want to hang out with mom is on the way out. My oldest starts middle school in the fall and there are only mere glimpses in my day where I’m not an embarrassment to her :) So, I need to make them count!

Additionally, this summer will be challenging because the Mr. is going to be gone for most of it. He was accepted into the Stanford Executive Program after his company asked him to apply. We are all super proud of him, but that means he will be in Palo Alto, California for the summer. This program is super intense and is a sun up to sun down, Monday through Saturday kind of thing. We will be heading out for a visit for a few days, but I really want him to be able to concentrate and get the most out of this amazing opportunity. Convincing my kids that I’m really the genius all knowing one in the family is getting harder and harder with him being such a smarty pants.

Thankfully my mom is home for the summer and we are all pumped to have Gigi back at the lake. I will once again don my boat captain hat and she will be my first mate and spotter for the many tubing and skiing trips around the lake. Sidenote, the best time to take your kids tubing is when they are really hitting that last nerve. There is nothing more satisfying then tossing them all off around a curve when you are pulling them tubing ;) If you grew up on a lake you know what I mean! I understand all too clearly now why my dad delighted in tossing us off in the weedy part of the lake!

I hope you all will extend me a little grace with what is sure to be a less frequent random posting schedule over on the blog. I’m sure I will be on Instagram a lot more trying to share little snippets here and there. I’m also thinking of just doing shorter form posts for the summer? A few quick photos of what we are up to? We shall see! Oh and I definitely will be blogging about the basement redo soon as well. The new carpet was installed and it looks SO much better. Here is a little sneaky peek!

Thanks so much to all of you who have hung in here with me over the years. I started this blog 7 years ago just as a creative outlet when I was home with a toddler and a newborn. I really never expected anyone other than my mom would read it! God dropped this whole thing in my lap and it’s been such an adventure and blessing for our family. Our pastor just finished up a great sermon series about work found here. How all work matters from wiping little kids noses, to performing heart surgery, to designing a house. It made me stop and think that sometimes I feel like having the ability to run a blog or make a room pretty is a ridiculous job, but it has allowed me to connect with all of you. It has changed so much over the years and I’m so blessed you all have allowed this to become my full-time job, but with the flexible hours to work around being with my family. Truly thank you for every time you come over here to see what I’m up to, or click on one of my links, or buy something from the shop our home page. All the comments and encouragement and tips – it’s so fun to interact with this community and you all brighten my day!

Oh and for a little trip down memory lane here is how my kids looked when I started this whole thing –

and now – STOOOOOP!

Huge shoutout to my friend Kari who has been photographing our family for years. She also talked me through setting up my first website, since I hardly knew how to turn a computer on (still don’t most days!).

Our last photo shoot went a little awry when the Mr. (my biggest kid) fell into the lake mid-shoot. Yet these will go down as some of my most cherished photos ever, even if I look like a drowned rat.

Wow, I guess I’m feeling a little sentimental over here today so excuse my long musings! Happy Summer to you all!

June 6, 2019 By Kelly 3 Comments

Blood Orange Elderflower Basil Martini

Phew, it’s the last day of school – we made it another year!! These last few weeks have been a whirlwind of field trips, band concerts, and volunteering at school. Which is why I’ve been a little MIA over here on the blog. What better way to cap off a busy couple of weeks than a well-deserved summer cocktail post?! This Blood Orange Elderflower Basil Martini is perfect for relaxing out on the deck after I’ve wrangled the kids into bed.

I have to say, typically I’m pretty old school and straight forward when it comes to cocktails. Give me a dirty vodka martini, a good old fashioned (like my late grandfather), or a nice glass of wine. Normally the fussy concoctions off the specialty menu aren’t for me, but when the Mr. and I had a date night last week at a local place, it sounded too good not to try. For you local Michiganders it was at Bay Pointe Inn on Gun Lake. Such a great spot for a drink or dinner on the water in the summer.

It was the perfect summer drink with fresh blood orange juice, the sweetness of the elderflower liqueur, and the hint of spice with the basil. Therefore, I had to try and recreate it at home for you all! I think I came pretty close with this recipe.

Save Print

Blood Orange Basil Martini

Prep time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients

3 ounces vodka ( I like Kettle One)
1.5 ounces Elderflower liqueur (I used St. Germain)
3 ounces fresh squeezed blood orange juice
basil leaves

Instructions

Add vodka, St Germain, and orange juice to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until ice cold. Strain into a cocktail glass. Top with a basil leaf or two. Enjoy!

This Blood Orange Elderflower Basil Martini is also such a pretty drink it would be great to make in a bigger batch for a dinner party or girls night too!

PS If you are looking for a good cocktail shaker set, I have this one and love it! I’ve had a few others fall apart on me but the quality of this one is great.

May 31, 2019 By Kelly 46 Comments

Lake House Landscaping

Spring has finally sprung here in Michigan, and I have had lots of requests for more pics of our yard and outside. I don’t know all the plant names, so I apologize in advance if I miss a few, but I thought I would share what’s popping up in our yard lately. Let’s start in the backyard, or on the lake, it’s technically considered the front, but that’s not where the front door is?… So, it’s all confusing – my mom and I go round about this topic! Let’s just go with lakeside vs. streetside! lake house landscaping

I’ve been waiting for some blue skies and sun to snap these, but I’ve just about given up on the weather here in Michigan.

It feels like we have had such a late start to spring this year that not a ton is blooming yet. Like these rose bushes here are pretty pitiful looking still, but they do get beautiful dark pink blooms in the summer. We did boxwoods around the patio to create sort of a privacy hedge. Well, one day they will be a hedge – they are working on it!

We flanked both sides of the patio with them.

We also have some select blue catmint, which will get blueish purple soon, and a hydrangea tree in the middle of this area.

Here’s a little bird’s eye view from the balcony off our master. Don’t mind our soaking wet rug and the fact that I have no pillows or anything out, it stormed again right after I shot these. This is definitely an unstyled quick tour of the yard! You can see the row of limelight hydrangeas we planted on the border of our yard in this view too. We flanked both sides of the yard like that, again are you sensing a theme here? You all know how I feel about symmetry :)

This little sidewalk brings you over to the deck stairs, outdoor shower, and our storage room where we keep lifejackets, skis, and kayaks. I mentioned before we went with plain old concrete back here for budget reasons, but someday I would love to lay bluestone over the top of this.

I also finally filled all my planters this week. I like to use hanging baskets and pop them out of their baskets. This was a weird spring because we had a frost so late, so I bought plants a little later this year and I was on the struggle bus to find matching baskets! I need 4 matching for the lakeside and 4 for the pool, but I just couldn’t find any full sets. So these aren’t my fave colors, but they are still very pretty.

Around the side of the house, we have this big stone pathway up to the street. The hostas over here have gotten enormous!

Here’s a view looking down. Sorry for the photo overload, but I have had so many landscaping requests that I tried to cover every inch of the yard! I’m so happy we were able to save a lot of the mature trees in our yard even though we took down a few to build. It really feels like you are up in a treehouse on the decks.

Ok, over to the front/back/street side of the house!

Again with the symmetry, we have more roses, blue catnip, and boxwood up here. Along with dwarf patio peach trees that aren’t doing so hot this year with the frost. I can’t remember the name of the groundcover at the moment.

I’m not sure the name of the evergreen we have planted over here, but the plants in front of the boxwoods that haven’t quite bloomed are Salvia.

Here’s a little up close window box update. Along with my cute stalker who is currently giving the neighbor’s cat the stink eye… I feel like they aren’t as full as they usually are at this time because there has hardly been any sunshine, but they are coming along.

I did plant hydrangeas again with the vinca vine in my planters and they are starting to bloom a little. Again because of the hard spring, I had a hard time finding good ones this year.

Ok and a quick trip across the street to the pool house/garage – sorry this post is SO long, but it’s the only one I’ve gotten out this week so think of it as a two for one deal ;)

I just planted all of this ground cover along the driveway last year and it’s doing so well so I continued it up beneath these limelight hydrangeas. It has been hearty enough to survive the trampling it’s getting during our family 2-on-2 basketball games out here.

We also have a ton of hostas over here from the previous owner and the perfect tree for my kid’s rope swing.

PHEW! I think that covers it! If I haven’t bored all of you gardening enthusiasts to tears yet!

SOURCES:

Vinyl shake siding by Mastic the color is Natural Slate

Pergolas – they are made from Cedar and painted white to match our soffits so I don’t have a trim color for you.

Doors by Thermatru

Windows by NorthStar

Roof – Driftwood by CertainTeed

Metal roof – Burnished Slate I think by ABC Metal

Decking by Trex Deck

Outdoor furniture – you can read all about it here

Window boxes – find them here

Friday Feels – Fall Finds

Tween Girl Floral Wallpaper Bedroom Progress

Rustic Homework Desk

Round Coffee Table and Weekend Sales

Fun things to do with Kids in Northern California

Lake House Basement Family Room

Summer Dresses and a Giveaway

A Little Life Update

Blood Orange Elderflower Basil Martini

Lake House Landscaping

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