My family's lake house...

My husband drives a Ford Taurus and we have no less than five dog vomit stains on our carpet. So going to my parents' lake house is about as glamorous as we get. My house is Houston is decent, but not fancy in either it's design or decor. I'm sure one day we will get to upgrade our lifestyle, but for now we are living on the income of one 27 year old person. 

For us, there is a lot of beauty in living so close to all of our parents. There are definitely some benefits whether it's a free meal on occasion, or access to their pool, or, in this case, a trip to their lake house. I mostly want to share how amazing this house is because I am proud of my parents for pulling it off, and I love reaping the benefits. 

My family has had a place on the lake for 10 years in Marble Falls. Our first house was a very small, bust cozy, three bedroom home that was pretty basic. There was nothing fancy about it, but when you go from having no lake house to having a lake house, just about anything feels like luxury. In 2010, they bought the house next door to them because it had a much bigger lot and better view of open water than they had at the time. They demolished that house entirely and started from scratch to build a new one. Even though it wasn't my house, just being a part of the building process was incredibly stressful. I am not sure if I would ever want to build my own home, but then again, when I see how perfect my parents' lake house is, I realize that it might be worth it.  

I took some shots of it this weekend. The architecture is pretty cool, in my opinion. It's a perfect blend of Hill Country and modern, and it is SO my parents. Most of the house is built around windows with amazing water views, so no matter where you are inside, you have an incredible look out at the water. 

The front...

View from the dock...

Another view of the back... 

The back yard...

 Love these stairs...

 Now moving on to the entertainment portion of this post...

 Remember when I said I like to dress Henry like us, but not exactly like us? This is what I meant...

Family fun...

 Henry's godparents...

 Beautiful Texas sunset...

Gorgeous, right? I so wish we lived closer to Marble Falls because I would seriously go there every weekend. In high school, I actually did go up there every week during the summer. I have no recollection of what my mom and I did all that time that we were up there, but I think back then I was very good at making proper use of my time. I would do things like swim out to the middle of the lake and back. For fun. I am not nearly as productive when I go now. My time spent there now revolves around napping, eating, and applying sunscreen every 30 minutes.

I am really excited for Henry to get older and really enjoy the lake house. That place is a dream come true for little kids, and I look forward to teaching him how to ride the shit out of some jet skis.

Love,

Lauren

Family time at the lake...

One thing about having a baby that distinctly changes your life is the profound appreciation you have for spending time together as a family. I loved spending time with my husband before we had a baby, but now that Henry is here, that joy that you get from being around your loved ones definitely transcends anything I've felt before towards my family. 

We went to my family's lake house in Marble Falls this past weekend, and that feeling of togetherness was in full bloom. The lake house is literally my favorite place on earth. Marble Falls is where I attended summer camp growing up, and it's where Tom and I got married. For the past 10 years, I have been coming to this magical place, and it truly feels more like home to me than my parent's house in Houston. I have so many memories at the lake, and I know as our family grows that its special place in my heart will continue to evolve. My family has been explicitly instructed to scatter my ashes over Lake LBJ. 

Magical, right?

Imagine waking up to this every morning...

 Henry's first time in a baby pool...

 Tank top weather...

 If you are from Texas, this outfit needs no explanation. But if you're wondering why I am wearing a men's fishing shirt, just trust me that this is high fashion on the lake.

 Pie from Blue Bonnet Cafe...

 Trying to sleep in the back with Henry on the way home...

Does everyone agree that the Hill Country is the most amazing part of Texas? Especially in May before it gets to be one billion degrees outside. 

Love,

Lauren

I tried to make this as un-annoying as possible...

If you like this picture, then please go to PeppermintBliss.com and vote for Henry in the Best Biscuit Contest! To vote for Henry, all you have to do is CLICK HERE and repin this photo on Pinterest.

Peppermint Bliss is probably my favorite blog, and the girl who runs the show has also created her own home goods store called Biscuit. She has designed her own bedding line (amazing), and the picture above is showcasing two of the Katie shams in black/white. On top of that, her shop has a lot of fun little trinkets including baby gifts, pet toys, and cute accessories. I highly recommend you check out her store, especially for the bedding. I think it's really hard to shop for bedding, especially if you want something different and interesting. There are some great bedding designers out there (aka D. Porthault), but sorry, me no have $500 for a set of pillowcases. Biscuit has totally unique prints and combinations, and the pricing is extremely moderate. 

One last time... To vote for Henry, all you have to do is CLICK HERE and repin this photo on Pinterest. Easy, no?

Love,

Lauren

PS - Have you entered our giveaway with Emli Shops? The only thing better than cute jewelry is FREE cute jewelry!

How I currently feel about the internet...

If you're a woman, the internet basically exists to make you feel inadequate, jealous, or boring. Pinterest is always telling us how to dress better than we can afford, cook more than we have time for, and come up with more kids crafts than you physically can store in your home.

I am willing to acknowledge that my blog is also guilty of this. Obviously, I use pictures/stories that put myself or my family in a flattering light. You should always put your best foot forward, right? But I just want to make sure everyone knows that having a blog makes it very easy to create and manage the impression you leave of yourself on social media.

For example: my coffee table on Valentine's Day. This is what we call "styling."

 But just like the rest of the world wide web, I was totally bullshitting you. Behind the curtain...

My house actually does usually look slightly better than that picture. But that's only because I have since disposed of all plush dog toys that can be torn to shreds. But this is real life. That pledge bottle probably set out like that for at least a few days.

People who follow me on instagram always comment on how Henry is "so happy." Well, cat's out of the bag... at least 30% of the day, he is royally pissed off at me. Usually because I have broken eye contact or gone outside of his 5 foot radius. I take about 100 pictures of Henry a day, and maybe 3 of them make it to the internet. It's the same thing how I obviously am only going to post pictures of myself in which you cannot detect a double chin. People tell me I am photogenic... well yeah, because I only put pictures of myself on the internet in which I look good. This backfires, by the way. Several times throughout my life I have had the distinct suspicion that someone was trying to hint that I look better in pictures than in real life.

So, thanks! Yes, Henry is a cutie... most of the time. But, let's be honest. There are hundreds of reject photos in my phone...

And of course, I still think he looks adorable in all of those pictures, but they're not the smiley-giggley perfection I would usually post.

I just want to hammer home the point that your life doesn't have to look perfect to be perfect. You guys probably all already know that, but I constantly find myself needing to be reminded of this.

Love,

Lauren

DIY Campaign Chest IKEA Hack...

This has been in the works a long time, but I finally want to share my most favorite DIY to date. Like all DIYs, this was much harder than I thought it would be, but I am so proud of how it turned out. I found this project from forchicsake.com, and fell in love. They deserve all the credit for this chest, so please check out their blog and store at forchicsake.com.

Want to get in on some of this amazing action? Here's the deal...

You will need:

-IKEA RAST 3 drawer chest

-Quart of paint of your choice. I used Glidden Interior/Exterior high gloss paint in Almost Aqua

-2 inch brass flat corner braces. You will need 3 packs.

-3 campaign style drawer pulls

-Elmer's wood filler max

-Tools: hammer, drill, sand paper, and paint brush

How it's done:

-First, fill in and sand the pre-drilled drawer holes with wood filler. Examine the dresser to see if there are any wood knots and fill those in. Because the dresser is raw wood, I would also go over the entire thing with sand paper to smooth the wood.

-Pre-drill pilot holes for the corner brackets.

-These pulls are recessed pulls which means you have to carve out the wood so that they set down into it. It was a huge pain, and I made my husband do it. He used a special drill bit like this intended for installing recessed hinges and just kind of made it happen. I contacted the sweet girls at forchicsake.com and they said they just installed the pulls on top of the wood. They said it looked fine, but that you could see that it stuck out from the side. I would HIGHLY recommend considering getting this pull or this pull instead. They are much cheaper and will be no problem to install. Seriously.

-Assemble and paint the dresser. You can do this however you want. I put the frame together and painted the drawer pieces separately before assembling them. 

-Install brass corners and drawer pulls.

We used the dresser in our entry way. It's where we keep our keys and mail. The photo above is what we refer to as "styling". Never again will that part of my house look so cute and orderly. I hope you enjoyed this project, and if you take it on yourself, I would love to see pictures! I have to give a big thanks to my husband for his help. He spent a lot of time on this and didn't get mad when I broke his drill.

Love,

Lauren

Lucite tray DIY...

Back in the 90s, my mom used to hang our soccer pictures and homecoming photos in the hall using these horrible, acrylic box frames. Fast forward 20 years... not so horrible. I used one for another DIY that I will post about later, but as I was unpacking it, I realized that HELLO... it's a knock off lucite tray for $3.99. I recently bought one for like $60 from a great etsy shop, so I kind of feel like an idiot.  But before you waste all your money like me, I wanted to share the simplest DIY ever in the world.

If you wanted to create something personalized like the tray below, just print whatever you like (maybe a monogram or a picture of your super adorable puppy), put a sheet protector over it, and done! Your coffee table is now cool and fancy.

If any of you try this one out, I would LOVE to see pictures! Oh, and happy birthday to my dad! I have spent most of my life making fun of this man, but he is truly the best dad ever.

Love,

Lauren

DIY: My leopard mirror from 8th grade...

In 8th grade, my entire room was leopard. It started with the classic Ralph Lauren leopard print comforter, and then it slowly just became "my thing". Soon enough I had leopard pillows, leopard string lights, a leopard bulletin board, and a leopard mirror.

I am glad that I made my mom keep the mirror all these years, because this week, I painted it and it's now in our front room. It started out gold with the outside border made from brown embossed leather.

Two colors of paint later...

There are a TON of imperfections with my DIY project, but eh, you can't really tell. The thing I seem to have the hardest time with in projects like this is dealing with removing the painters tape. Whenever I pull it off, it peels the pain right off with it. So this time, I used an exacto knife to slice the paint away from the tape before I peeled it off. I know that part of this could be solved by taking the tape off before the paint dries, but what do you do when you need to paint two coats? 

I forgot to take a before picture of the frame, so today I went over to my parents' house to see if I could find an old picture that the frame would be in the background of. No luck. I did, however, have to confront the realization that I was a tacky mess when I was younger. I don't know if I should blame it on the suburbs or wet seal, but I had a legit leopard addiction... and clear braces.

If memory serves correct, I had lots of friends in middle school. More than any other time of my life. But after going through hundreds of pictures today, it makes no sense. I wouldn't have been friends with me. Someone should have stepped in and told me to pump the breaks.

This picture was taken after the 8th grade dance aka the day I finally convinced my mom to let me get solar nails. You can clearly see that I had leopard sheets and that my name is Lauren.

Christmas morning 1999. Every 8th grader wants a leopard blanket from Santa...

New Years. What? You didn't have a leopard tube top with attached black feathers? Tastefully covered up by your knit shrug? I am sure my friend in this picture has no desire to be on my blog, so I blurred his face in the interest of his privacy. He's pretty good looking under there...

And yes. You can bet your ass I had some 2 inch thick rocket dog platform sandals with leopard toe straps. 

Moving on to senior year...

You're welcome.

Love,

Lauren

Dear Santa...

That's what I'm hoping for (or have already bought myself) this Christmas. Monogrammed hand towels from Leontine, a new laptop, the jcrew white pajamas that I have been obsessed with forever, new Nikes, riding boots, a pendant light for our kitchen, a collar necklace, and a cute lucite tray. For more information on the goodies, you can check out my 2012 XMAS LIST board on Pinterest here. 

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Lauren

Nursery progress...

It's really happening. We will actually have a nursery in our house. This weekend, Tom and I moved the furniture out of the baby's room, AND I ordered a glider for our little boy.

I have seen some really great gliders online, but went to a local place, Laurie's, to try and save some money. Well, the glider actually ended up being more expensive than the one I liked online, but considering we don't have to pay for shipping... whatever. I am really excited about the fabric we picked, and I have a feeling that the entire room is going to unravel to be something different than I originally planned. In this whole paragraph, when I say "we" I mean my mom and I... NOT the baby's father. That guy later confirmed that he approved of the glider via two words I am very used to: "cool, babe." Not that it mattered, because it had already been ordered at that point.

The baby's glider by Lee...

In this fabric - Sahara Midnight

FYI - when figuring out pricing, we learned that to have it made with a slipcover rather than upholstered it was an extra $500! I've never ordered custom furniture before so this came as a huge shock to me. I truthfully am not the biggest fan of the slipcovered look, but I was considering it because I thought it might be easier to clean baby diarrhea on a slipcover. Well, for $500, I'll take my chances. 

Love,

Lauren

DIY for people who don't like doing things for themselves...

Our living room has a really strange built in TV nook on the side of the mantle. For the longest time, we had no idea what we would put in said nook, because it's a very specific size and I'm not even sure what it was really ever intended for. 

Fast forward a month, and we found these shelves in our attic! I am guessing the previous owners intentionally left them here because our attic is a walk-in, and they were super visible... meaning there is no way they "forgot" them. So while these shelves are very basic, and not exactly perfect for the space, they at least filled this weird void in the wall. And duh, they were free.

We also had some custom drapes made for the windows a couple months ago that have a little bit of coral in the pattern. So I decided to spruce up the free shelves with an easy paint job.

Free shelves we found in the attic...

I wanted to paint just the exterior surfaces (lazy), so I taped off the inside...

Primed...

Painted and added some knick knacks...

This shows how weird this little wall space is...

Don't you love those black tv cables? We haven't gotten around to getting longer cords that fit through the secret wall holes behind the tv, so for now they just hang out for the world to see. It drives my dad crazy and he mentions it every time he comes to our house. Thomas and I are equally unbothered by it. But when you post pictures of your home on the internet, all of a sudden you become super self conscious about these things. 

When filling with shelves, I realized that I am really lacking interesting junk/books to accommodate a situation like this... and that I am also generally unskilled in how to arrange accessories so that it looks cool. I have a tendency to be overly symmetrical, which also makes hanging pictures almost impossible for me. 

The project was super straight forward, so I am not going to outline how I did anything, but I do have some tips. There was no way I was going to sand the whole thing before I painted it, so I got a primer that promised to stick to glossy surfaces. And it did. But, when I pulled the tape off, there were some spots where the paint and primer kind of peeled off with the tape and created a crooked edge. It could also be because I used latex paint. They offered me this color in a primer/paint all in one, and now I wonder how it would have worked. The best piece of advice I have for painting wood furniture is to let each coat sit at least 24 hours. And let the final coat sit for 48+ hours if you have time. I had the time, but I didn't have the patience. Anytime I move that little basket on top, it kind of sticks to the surface.

Next up, I think I will be painting these really large bookshelves we got from a family friend for our son's room. This will be a much larger project and it's already a billion degrees outside, so I have no idea when I actually plan on doing this. It's also going to require a lot of steps and I am just kind of dreading it. 

Love,

Lauren

Baby equipment breakthrough!...

Today, I went to Babies R Us, and the it was like the dark cloud of baby registry parted and the sun shone down on this beautiful bouncer...

It was middle of the isle on clearance, and it stopped me dead in my tracks. It's the Mamas & Papas Apollo Bouncer, and it was about $20 off... so I went ahead and bought it. Maybe you're looking at that bouncer wondering what the big deal is, but I promise all other bouncers are pink and light green and have some sort of animal motif. We have registered for a lot of the stuff I just described... mostly due to a lack of choice.

Now, don't get me wrong, there really is tons of awesome baby stuff that is both functional and attractive, but it comes at a price. We are simply not the type of people to buy a $1200 stroller or a $300 high chair. I take that back, if we were loaded, maybe I actually would buy all that super fancy stuff. But for now, our baby is blessed to enjoy moderately priced junk offered by mass retailers. 

In another life, our baby would be very stylish...

Silver Cross Balmoral Pram $3995

Bloom Fresco Highchair $400

Nurseryworks Vetro Crib $3500

Love,

Lauren