Mr. Lakehouse

I've been blog-hopping today.

How do you guys keep your houses so clean?????

Living with Mr. Lakehouse  is like living at deer camp 365 days a year!!

Shoes, socks, boots, coats, shirts, pants, hats.

Wallet, keys, glasses, cell phone.

Fishing poles, bait and tackle, hunting gear, and whatever else he uses...it's all left lying around the house and yard.

The poor man has no clue.

He loves to cook...and for the life of me, I cannot figure out how a person gets specks of 

grease on the ceiling above the stove?????!!!!!

You should see the stove itself after he makes breakfast! Why he even bothers to use a

pan is beyond me? He could just throw the eggs on the surface of the stove after he fries

bacon.

Do you think it could be because everything is cooked at the highest degree?

The flames don't burn under the pan, they engulf the pan!!

The top of our stove looks like the back of a jet engine making ready for take off.

What in the world is it with the salt and pepper???? I doubt any of it ever hits the plate!

When you take the plate away after breakfast, you have a perfect circle where the plate sat...surrounded by 

salt and pepper!!!!!!  AND crumbs from the toast, and coffee, milk, and orange juice, and jelly, and butter, potatoes, etc.

When he's finished, there is always something else he must do besides the clean up.

I'd really rather do that job myself.

Using the frying pan to wash the dishes in isn't my idea of being sanitary.

Maybe I'm just being wenchy, but I like the table, counter tops, butcher block, and stove to be washed down with hot, soapy, bleach water....not cold, greasy, dirty water....that's IF he remembers to wash them

at all.

Watching as he slides the grease soaked dishcloth around and around the table makes my stomach lurch.

Don't take this wrong.

Mr. Lakehouse is a real sweetheart.

He's a "farm boy".

Sometimes I wonder if his mom ever let him stay in the house???

It's all in the details.

Are you a detailed person?

When you look at something, do you see deep into the piece?

For me....the more detail, the more character the treasure holds.

If you look closely at these clay tea-lite holders, you will see ivy vines growing up each column.

The shell has variations in color, and depth that cause your eyes to linger over it's surface.

What attracted me to this little bird bath the most, was the garland around the base.

It's filled with unlikely bedfellows....a porous starfish, vintage tag, and a tiny horse hair nest nestled underneath.

One of my favorite pieces is this ceiling tin.

I LOVE all the detail on the wreath! The ribbons, the way they flutter.

The boarders along the sides.

It's gorgeous!

Even the most shabby pieces in the house are delightful.

I enjoy all the rusty, chippy, distressed goodness of a vintage treasure.

The hardware on the shutters helped make the decision to purchase them.

What would I ever do without ribbons, linens, and lace?

I'm surrounded by doilies with beautiful lacework edges. Crinkled satin ribbons. Gorgeous cameos. Lovely embellished journals made by a dear blogging friend.

All things that please the eye with their design, and detail.

The most beautiful of all...Natures treasures.

With all of their swirls, and colors, and shapes.....man could never duplicate such splendor.

I must admit....of all the things here at the lakehouse...I never tire of looking, in amazement, at one of these wonders of Creation. 

It's all in the details.

Learning how to use my camera

Since Picnik is closing in April, I thought I'd better learn to use my camera.

There are so many different settings I've never used before.

Taking pictures at night never worked, because I wouldn't read the camera booklet.

I always wondered how it would look to take pictures with all the candles  lit.

I even used the sepia setting!!!

Then I opened the lens up wider so I could try taking pictures reflecting in the mirror...hmmmm.

Looks kind of creepy....or maybe the mirror is just dirty????

This little mantle will be going in the bedroom upstairs.

Mr. Lakehouse is going to make another one....a bigger one for the living room.

I wanted one downstairs for the holidays, so I used this little one. It was fun decorating it for Christmas.

Anyway...for an inexpensive little Nikon camera, it has a lot of settings.

I will be busy trying to figure out how to use it for a while.

I was actually planning on getting a different camera. After discovering all the things this one can do...I think I'll learn how to use this one.

It might not be as cool as some of the others out there...but it works for me.
I wonder if it has a setting for a collage?????

Experimenting with blue.

Talk about a crazy winter!!!!!!

Yesterday we had thunder, lightening, and rain on top of the two feet of snow on the ground.

Today we are having wind gusts over 30mph with white out snow squalls.

I feel Mother Nature's pain...being in mental-pause isn't fun.

I was fooling around with the settings on my camera this morning, trying to get that bluish color that I see on some of the "shabby blogs" out there.

I finally got it, but the pictures didn't come out as clear as I wanted.

Plus, they are kind of dark.

I guess that's part of the fun....experimenting.

I'll just keep working on it until I get it right.

Don't forget to pray for Donna at My Shabby Chateau. She's having surgery. God Bless You "Glitter Queen"!
I'm joining Faded Charm for White Wednesday. The button is on my side bar.

Random shots, or a lesson?

I was taking some random pictures this morning. 

No theme, or reason for the shots.

I sat down to load them in the computer, and moved a tablet.

A little piece of paper slid out of the tablet, and floated to the floor.

It was from a fortune cookie.

I never save those things.

I don't read horoscopes, or go to fortune tellers.

For some reason...this little piece of paper was saved.

Maybe I was saving it for a rainy day, or in this case, a snowy day.

Typed in red ink, it says...."Stop searching forever. Happiness is right next to you."

I've learned to let go of things from the past that have been hurtful...I lost so many blessings due to grief, and despair.

I hope I'm not over looking today, searching for the things that tomorrow "might" bring.
There are people praying for just one more day....people with a terminal illness. I don't want to squander even a moment.
As I walked through the house, taking random pictures, it all brought me to the little piece of paper with the red ink.
What we see as random, God sees as a plan....a lesson.
What did you learn today?

You never know.....

It's still snowing here at the lake.

I've cut my hours back at the pharmacy, so I have more time at home, and also more time to visit with  my girls and their families. They live two and a half hours south of us.

I see them more during the summer months, because of vacation times, and good driving weather.

I was planning to sew things for my booth during the colder months, using the linens I collect...which I have done in the past.

When we first moved to the lake, I thought the kids would be here more often. 

When they were growing up, we spent many weekends at my grandparents cottage...swimming, fishing, hiking around the lake, sitting around the campfire, catching fireflies, and hunting for turtles.

Things change. People change. 

Spending long weekends at grandparent's houses at the lake isn't what it used to be.

We actually tried to sell our lakehouse. With the market the way it is, we ended up taking the house off the market.

I had to get used to the idea that we were here to stay.

While purging "stuff" these past few weeks, I found a few things that I made with the linens, and vintage fabrics collected over the years.

God blesses us with talents....gifts.

We can share these gifts, or hoard them away.

Since the kids don't visit as often as I'd like, I might as well start using the linens I've saved for so long.

I can make things for my booth. Doing the things that I enjoy.

Then when the warmer months get here...maybe, just maybe, the kids will decide to come up for a long weekend. 

Who knows, someone might just catch a turtle.

A snowy afternoon.

We're waiting for another snow storm here in Michigan.

Things are just getting started this morning.

Mr. Lakehouse is working at Home Depot today, and I have the day off from

the pharmacy.

I guess I could get some laundry done, clean the bathrooms, and mop the floors.

Yeah, whatever....sitting on the sofa in front of the fire with a good book sounds

much better to me.

Later this afternoon, I might even pour myself a glass of wine as I read that book...
Sounds like a plan to me.
Enjoy your day!