I have been enjoying three weeks of quiet, just me and the kids, here in this cottage. This weekend, that all comes to and end and the other 4 bedrooms are being descended upon. I am trying to get them ready. And anxiously awaiting the arrival of my better half.

I love guests. At least here at the cottage, things are more low key, so I don’t feel like I have to bend over backward to make things comfortable. I am going with summer casual.

I’m implementing my use what you have philosophy. My mom wanted to go shopping for nightstands. I dug in the storage area and shed and pulled out stools and chairs. She was impressed and kept her $100 in her wallet for another day.

This stool has served me well for 3 weeks, holding my books and providing the kids with a light to play with constantly.

Now I have to go make more beds and set more chairs and stools next to them.

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Making Do: Nightstand

• Creatively Concealed Under Stairs Play Area
• My Kids’ Beachy Room
• Do It Yourself Cottage Style
• What I Love Right Now
• Shopping at TJMaxx

We’re in for a weekend of fun here at the lake with good food, good friends, good family and…rainy days. I know we’ll be making the most of it though.

What are your plans?

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These Are The Days

• Saturday Link Love
• How We Vacation
• Giving Thanks
• That’s The Joy Of Living
• Thankful

I am a girl, a mama, a wife. I am learning as I go, trying to figure out this life. I don’t claim to have all the answers. I don’t claim to know it all about how to live life well. I do know that this space, for me, has changed. I don’t write as much as I used to. I don’t use words to explain it all. I take more pictures, and I think they sometimes can express better than I can how beautiful life is.

I shifted this blog to be a place where I can share small fragments of my life as I flail my way through, trying to find serenity, beauty, peace and inspiration. I don’t want to tell others how to live, but I can hope that maybe through sharing moments and ideas that maybe it will inspire. There is a lot of negativity in this world. My blog could be a place where I rant and rave about the things I find unjust, unfair, untrue, and wrong in the world, but I don’t. I want this to be a place of positive - a corner of my life where I can share the simple things that make days brighter. Negativity is viral. It spreads. Soon one complaint turns into another complaint and then all of a sudden I’m focused the wrong way and lose sight of the beauty that was right there in front of me while I was complaining.

So this is me. This is why I am here, doing what I am doing. I may be “naive, silly, unrealistic and far from someone who should be sharing how to live a simple life”. I may be. I don’t know. I do know that I am fumbling for answers just like anyone else. I just may be looking in a different place than you. All I know is that I am finding what I was seeking just by opening my eyes, looking closely, slowing down and taking time to see. My simple life isn’t anyone else’s. And it’s not meant to be the best or most of anything. But it’s the best and most I can do with what I have right now. And even if it’s not what you were looking for, I’ll keep sharing. Because this is me.

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This is Me

• Making the World More Beautiful
• Link Love: Favorite Blogs
• On Purpose
• Are You Living an Inspired Life?
• A Letter To My Daughter On Her First Day of School

She travels the world, lives by the sea and then in her later years struggles with how she can make the world more beautiful. She spreads lupine seeds and is delighted many months later when she discovers that lupines have grown throughout her community. She has made the world a more beautiful place. She passes along inspiration to her niece, the narrator, to make sure she also works to make the world beautiful.

My daughter adores this story and loves the idea of making the world more beautiful, even though at the age of 4 she is yet to travel the world or live by the sea. We’re just going with what works here. We’re not planting lupines or spreading lupine seeds today, but we are planting flowers - and my daughter is thrilled that she’s making the world more beautiful with bright pink geraniums. I guess you could say we’re making our own story.

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Making the World More Beautiful

• On Purpose
• Around the Blog World
• How Does Your Fall Garden Grow?
• Cultivating a Simple Lifestyle
• What To Do With Pumpkins After Halloween

• Some of you asked about these chairs. They are plain old adirondack chairs that have been at the cottage forever. They are painted Benjamin Moore Blue Danube. Same color as all the doors to the cottage.

• I made a mistake when I posted the red clawfoot tub.

My hubby painted it. I said my mom did. Who knew my hubby could refinish and make fabulous old clawfoot tubs? Now that I know, I have added a project to the list for our house! He also painted the interior of this entire cottage - more of which I will be sharing with you soon!

• A bunch of you have commented or emailed asking what camera I am using. I use a Nikon D40X that I got back in February. I bought it on ebay with the 18-55mm lens. That is all I use. I decided instead of spending oodles more money on new lenses or other equipment for it, I’d learn to use what I have. I am enjoying the process, although I haven’t a clue how to really use the camera - which is sometimes obvious and other times not so obvious. Thank you for all the lovely comments on my photos.

It means a lot to me that you take the time to stop by and ask, encourage, and share with me. Thank you!

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Some Things

• 15 Mistakes to Avoid When Home Remodeling
• Some Progress on The Master Bedroom & Bathroom
• Sunday Link Love
• Cottage Bathroom
• Tips for Remodeling on a Dime

Here are some simple, frugal and fabulous reads that I found this week. Enjoy!

• On Slowing Down and Enjoying Life

• Our Bathroom Decor

• Pottery Barn Style on a Grocery Store Budget

• The Clutter You Can’t See

• Homemade Wendy’s Frosty

• A fabulous read: A Crooked House

Enjoy your Sunday!

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Sunday Link Love

• Linking Up
• Cottage Bathroom
• Friday Roundup - The Mardi Gras Edition
• Sunday Morning Links
• Link Love

There are plenty to choose from

Then sit back and enjoy the view and watching kids be kids.

There’s no better way to spend the long days of summer.

I am adding this to Melissa’s Beautiful Life Party.

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Go Outside

• How We Vacation
• Cottage Garden
• I’m Hooked On…
• Procrastination At Its Finest
• Making Do: Nightstand

I got off track, sorry. Here is the kitchen that makes my heart flutter. The kitchen that makes me want to brave the long cold winters of Northern NY without heat so I could live here year round. The kitchen that my kids make brownies in. The kitchen that I don’t mind cleaning up sticky finger messes in. You get the idea.

The best part of this kitchen is this walk in pantry. Be still my heart. Lined with cabinets and a cute little window.

Thank you, mom, for liking the other cottage better (which you all will see soon enough) so that I get to enjoy this kitchen all summer. Love you. Love it. Love that you spent so many years building up to this dream that includes me.  For this place that is the home to so many memories and many more to come.

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Cottage Kitchen

• Thirty
• How We Vacation
• Do It Yourself Cottage Style
• Simplifying The Kitchen
• Why Weren’t You Watching Where I Was Going?

Here is the main bathroom of the cottage

I looooove this clawfoot tub. My mom and I were at a community yard sale a few years back when the remodel was going on and the person wanted $40 for this thing. My mom offered $20 and it was hers! $20!!! She refinished it and painted it red and it’s fabulous.

As bathrooms go, I love this one because of the details. An old cabinet plus some candles, an old mirror and some flowers. It doesn’t take much to make a room simply pretty.

There you have it. Tomorrow, I’ll show you the kitchen. After I clean it up!

I am adding this to Hooked on Fridays at Hooked on Houses.

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Cottage Bathroom

• Cottage Style Bathrooms
• Kitchen Makeover
• Photographs and Flowers
• Cottage Kitchen
• Pretty Kitchens

Happy Father’s Day! I hope the day is wonderful for everyone.

Here are some links that I have enjoyed from my reader this week in the limited time I have had.

• Confessions of a Recovering Spendaholic

• Staying Balanced While Life is Full

• 10 Yard Sale Entertaining Essentials

• Bold Color Transforms Kitchen Into Bright Warm Space

• How To Compost Without Raising A Stink

• I Want it All, I Want it Now: Curbing the Gimmies

See you back here Monday for some cottage touring. Happy Sunday!

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Happy Father’s Day Link Love

• $15 Entryway Makeover
• A Tour of My Casa
• Cottage Kitchen
• Love And Live Happy
• How We Vacation