Lazy days at the Lake!

Last week, my sister, brother-in-law, fiance and I took a week off and headed to the lake! I can't speak for them, but I know that it was just what I needed -- time to relax and clear my head before throwing myself back into packing and gearing up for the big move.

The last time we were down at the lake (Labor Day with Ryan's parents -- woo hoo, the in-laws get along!) Ryan started this intense 2,000 piece coke puzzle. He got some large chunks done but had to pack it up when the weekend was over. So last week he pulled it out and started it over...

And with some help...

He completely finished it!

The decor at the lake actually used to be all coke-themed, and Megan and I are quite nostalgic about that, so we decided once we inherit the house we're going to bring that back. Which meant we wanted to keep the ginormous coke puzzle together to hang up. Which meant we needed to find a ginormous frame to put it in. Well, here's the beauty:

Ha, I know, it is hideous and so is the ooooooglay mountain picture inside. But we trolled Wal-Mart to no avail, and as a frequent Michael's shopper, I know that they don't stock a 42" x 36" frame. We'd have to have a custom frame made, which would be really expensive. So imagine our happiness when we found this speckled poster frame in a little furniture consignment store on the way back from the outlet malls! Ryan spotted it hidden in a corner and we snagged it for only $40, which was good considering a custom frame that size would be $50+. We plan on spray-painting it later, but for now, here's the final-ish product.


Since my sis and I are big thrift store shoppers, we decided to stop at another thrift store in Osage Beach. It was such a cool place! The shelves were brimming with things to look at, and we both found some adorable things.

I got a retro camera that would look really cool on the bookshelf that I'm eyein' for our living room.



In addition to the cool camera, I also got a fun slanty vase:


...and began my love affair with Fiestaware.


There was a shelf full of the bright, beautiful dishware in the store. I was drawn to the turquoise right away (which is no surprise, since my kitchen has a lot of the bright blue in it!) I ended up getting a large mixing bowl (or, as Ryan thinks it should be, a "mashed potato bowl" -- hahaha) and a spoon rest, both for much cheaper than I've seen online. Though I love the dish sets, I think I'll probably just stick to getting accent pieces like these (I'm eyeing the persimmon teapot and pitcher for my next purchases -- or Christmas gift lists) rather than all of the plates and bowls.

Of course we also hit up the Outlet Malls for some shopping -- both the fiance and I got some discounted new garb at Gap, and we got a few utensil essentials at the Kitchen Collection. But shopping wasn't the highlight of the trip -- we had so much fun relaxing in the water and enjoying the outdoors!


And we spent a lot of quality time together:




We also had some delicious home-cooked meals, like chicken tenders:

Crab cakes and salmon:



Mexican fiesta food:


On our last night, we went out for seafood -- but found out that the place we wanted to go to was no longer in business. We decided to drive back to Osage Beach and eat at the Pasta Factory. In the end, it was very fortuitous: after dinner, we went next door to Home Depot for electrical parts to fix the dock lighting, and there we found a rug on a super-duper good sale! I bought it for Megan and Brandon as an anniversary gift.

Here it is all rolled out at their home, after we made our way back to LS:


All in all, it was a fabulous time with fabulous people at my favorite lake spot :)

Check back later this week for more updates on some crafty projects and my packing progress!