If you’ve been missing my posts, my apologies. I’m playing “corporate wife” this week and next week I’m off to a new adventure. Both of these require significant travel, planning, and rearranging the 18 things I stupidly choose to do. Okay, so it only feels stupid when they all demand my attention at once or I go out of town. That means this week it’s stupid!

Around the 4th of July we enjoyed a wonderful weekend with the DSL, the daughter, and that precious grandson of ours. He enjoyed our covered back porch, splashing around in his very own kiddie pool and watching bubbles sail across the porch. To watch the delight on his face as he surveyed all of this fun was a joy to watch.

His tired parents even got a ride in our new 2-person kayak, complete with places to put fishing poles. Our Canadian geese did not enjoy the kayak because they were being very protective of their rapidly-growing gosling.

I finally remembered to take pictures, but let me reiterate, I am not the photographer of the family, so if these are blurry, etc., you’ll have to forgive me.

This is the view from the lakeside bedroom. You can see my brother’s blue kayak under the trees and now, there’s a new 2-seater kayak close by!

This is the view of our kitchen bar countertops, complete with bar stools. Remember the sandstone I described that looks like wood–now you’re seeing it for real! Yes, I just wipe it off with either soap and water or my favorite cleaner!

These are those hand-stained beams that the hubby so meticulously worked on with 3 levels of scaffolding supporting him. You’re also getting a look at the top of the chimney in our great room as well as our rapidly-whirring windmill fan. I probably should have turned it off, so you could see its beauty, but it was a hot weekend in Texas and I didn’t have the heart to do that to the hubby!

A little more of the staining is visible here–Keep in mind that pretty much the entire family working on sanding all of what you see on lots of scaffolding and that the trim work on the doors and windows also required a lot of family work and was routed by the hubby and his dad.

Remember how I said I wanted an arts and craftsman look to the cabin–here you’re seeing the paning pattern in our windows throughout the cabin, including all that trimwork around the window that we did ourselves. While you can’t see it well here (Need to hire a better photographer!), below that wonderful flat screen TV from our local appliance dealer is a butler’s cabinet that I found in Canton, Texas during their trade days flea market of mammoth sized fame. The cabinet hails from the 1860’s era and has the most interesting top compartment I’ve ever seen. It’s trim pieces are quite unusual.

This shows you a bit more of the great room as well as the Jack-and-Jill bathroom door and the lakeside bedroom door.

If you moved to the right of the previous picture, this is what you would see: the bedroom door for the 3rd bedroom as well as some of our dining area. It also gives you another view of our counter tops.

This picture depicts part of the lakeside bedroom and especially shows the kindness of our family and friends. The glider and quilt rack are from my very generous sister-in-law and the quilt was made for us by a dear family friend in honor of our wedding in 1982. She hand-quilts each of her quilts and you will see her handiwork in the 3rd bedroom, too.

This is the vanity in the lakeside bedroom.

This is the bed in the lakeside bedroom and yet again, another gift from that awesome sister-in-law: some Norman Rockwell prints. They are throughout our cabin!

This is the jack-and-jill counter top, sinks, faucets and cabinets. Note that both the counter top and the floor are the same Wild Horse Sandstone from Oklahoma. The counter tops are merely polished to a higher gloss.

This is yet another view of the lakeside bedroom. All the bedding, including the quilt, came from Wal-mart.

This is the view from the lakeside bedroom into the bathroom. It gives you a better view of that wood-looking sandstone floor and a glimpse into the 3rd bedroom and that other quilt I promised.

More of that 3rd bedroom: The throw pillows were also made by the same friend, except for one in the middle that my mom made out of remnants from my junior high sewing project. Yes, I’m old enough to have been forced through Home Ec. The valance and curtains in the picture below are again, from my sister-in-law.

The pictures on the wall came from our church’s garage sale. Total price: $ 2.00 for all 3!

The painted front door! The color matches the metal roof.

This is a view of the small island in the lake. The gosling was hatched right in the center of it. We could view this through binoculars and learned a lot about our little Canadian goose family in the process!

Here is that matching roof I promised. The lake is behind the cabin. This view is from the front driveway.

This photo is of the front gate and part of the new pond in the front of the cabin. It’s an icky tan color right now, but I’ve been assured that it will turn to a lovely green once the “dust” settles out of the water. We’ll see.

It’s difficult to see, but we have planted a new variety of crape myrtles and azalea bushes in this shady part of the new pond border. We hope to add a ‘water feature’ soon, as well as some more trees.

You’re asking, “Where are the pictures of the master bedroom and bath,” right? When I took these, both were a disaster of my own making and I won’t even let my MIP fans see that…just yet.

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions, other than that I am a lousy photographer??? Hope you’ve enjoyed the “photo tour.”

Next Post: The latest from my big water bowl swimming canine…

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