First of all, yes you are seeing this correctly…I completely missed the end of 2015 & ALL of 2016! I had every intention to pick up speed with this whole blogging life…Let’s just say, real life took over and the last year & half is a a complete blur! So if you’re curious about the time gap, follow along for the “short version!

We sold our home of 16 years after sending our baby off to college. They say you shouldn’t cram too many life changes into a small time frame, but somehow we missed that memo! It was so extremely emotional and exhausting I don’t know how we did it. We decided to stay temporarily in our small (I emphasize SMALL) weekend lake home until we could decide exactly what we really wanted to do. We knew we were over the rapidly growing, getting too crowded suburbia life we had raising our kids. We loved our town, but it didn’t quite fit our desires anymore. Although we knew it would be tough with the distance from our long time friendships, we were only going an hour and a half away. Our “temporary” situation actually was much longer than anticipated. I’ll spare you the boring details of that part!

After being in this quiet, country setting we realized we really liked how relaxed and happy we were in this new small town environment. We then decided we also really love this little private lake, so the new home search began. We knew if we were going to make it permanent, we needed it to accompany our changing family and be inviting for guests & friends to stay. The search was not fun or easy and we met many road blocks to the point of complete dismay on my part. I had to dig deep to hang on to my faith and give it to God and wait for His timing, not mine(and that was NOT easy for this girl!) Luckily we had a close friend as our realtor, and without her support and faith, I would have been even more cray cray!

There were several roadblocks I won’t go into, but after a long, frustrating search we found “the one”. Is it exactly what I dreamed of having? No, but it’s pretty darn close! The place is/was quite dated, but the bones & yard were perfect and the rest can be changed. I love a good decorating challenge anyway so I know this place will keep me busy for years! The move in process was not without several “issues” but we survived that as well. The day that huge moving truck pulled up with 2/3 of our life that had been in storage for over a year, I wanted to curl up in the fetal position and cry! I used a very OCD tedious packing process that my family made fun of at the time, however that crazy idea worked greatly in our favor (thank you very much family!) I’ll share that system in a post soon, and I promise it’s a good one!

We bought this place because of the layout and view, NOT for the style inside. But anyone who knows me, knows that’s what got me excited! I’ve been known to change things in my house over and over again. I get itchy and want to create, and this is not only fun but therapeutic! However, this last move about killed us, I’m NEVER moving again!

So, here we are! I’m back trying to figure out what our new normal is and come up for air. I really love journaling and sharing my love of DIY and decorating and was feeling that inner pull to start it up again. I’d love to become more involved in the blogging/instagram world and make friends with those with like minds. Hopefully if you are one of those people, you’ll reach out to me and say Hi or give me some pointers. I promise I won’t have LONG posts like this often, but I needed to get this out.

*Next up before & afters! I’ve had several friends say “post before and afters”, and I can’t let ’em down! lol!…Of course this will be in several stages and change constantly. But I’ll get the first phase up at least!