• Lifestyle

    Costa Rica ~ March 2023

    To say I fell in love with Costa Rica, would be a giant understatement!  This country is exquisitely beautiful with such bio diversity that you could stay for a year and not run out of things to do and see.  If you are just going there to relax, you won’t be disappointed by the beautiful beaches, amazing scenery and warm hospitality.  My husband and I took our daughter Izzy for her spring break.  We decided on the southern Pacific side, near the Uvita / Ojochal area.  We picked this area because it is far less commercial, with pristine waterfalls, beaches and jungle but still has modern services and some of…

  • DIY

    Mini Kitchen Renovation

    Recently we helped my good friend Leanne with a mini kitchen renovation.  I say mini, because we only replaced the sink, facet, countertops, backsplash and painted the cabinets.  This may sound like a lot, but it only took a weekend, and we worked within a relatively small budget. We have done a similar project at our lake house, where we poured concrete countertops, which was very cheap but labor intensive.  The pic below is the before shot.  There were Formica countertops on the counters and backsplash, as well as some odd faux granite particle board covering the back of the bottom counters.   I’m a fan of painting old cabinets like…

  • Shop

    Holiday Bedroom

    It’s beginning to look A LOT like Christmas around here!  I started early and I’m just adding the finishing touches to my 2022 holiday decor.  Today I want to share how I transformed my bedroom for the holidays and where I found some of these awesome finds.  This was the first year I had my amazing bedroom shelf to work with it and I can say it was a lot of fun!  Some of the items I had from last year and then I ordered a few new.  Here is my shelf with woodsy gnome theme.                 Every headboard needs garland this time…

  • Food

    Cheesy Banana Pepper Dip

    As we get closer to the holidays, what better than a decadent dip with a bit of kick ~ meet my Cheesy Banana Pepper Dip.  You could definitely use any hot pepper like jalapenos or hatch chilis instead of banana peppers, but I have a LOT to use right now from my garden.  If you are going to substitute, try and understand just how hot your peppers are to gauge how many you will want to use in this dip.  If you are using a mild hatch or poblano, you could double up the pepper count, but with the more extreme peppers, you will want to stay with three or…

  • DIY

    Stone Entryway

    When we did the addition to our lakehouse for the new mudroom we didn’t have enough room for much of a front porch because the septic is in front of the house and we can’t cover it with concrete.  For those of you who’ve never had a septic system, septic tanks require access for emptying.  There are two access points to the septic, one about 2 feet off the front door and another about 10 foot.  Our temporary solution were some odd shaped pavers we had laying around, which helped keep the entryway free from mud when it rained, but it was not very attractive… Step 1 Remove old stones…