Welcome to the Lake — River Made Farmstead

Hello friends :) I am so glad you stopped by to check out my new blog! Welcome!!

So here's the scoop...Around 10 years ago when our eldest son was a baby and we had moved out of the country to Schroon Lake NY, I started a little blog as a way to share pictures and stories with family as we lived far away. Since I was a young girl I have loved to write, and take pictures, so a blog was a natural way for me to share and create family memories. Then when I started my photography business over 8 years ago I began a 'photography' blog, which was a way for me to share clients photos and little captions about my shoots, it acted like a portfolio for potential clients to look through as well. I enjoyed posting clients's 'sneak peek's and sharing my portrait photography with everyone! Fast forward to this Spring, I had been toying with the idea of starting a blog again, for many of the same reasons I first began 10 years ago. To use as a creative outlet other then my photography business blog, and I am so excited to use this space to share, encourage, love, and get creative! As a portrait photographer, sometimes when I only take photos for my clients I can fall into a rut, so to have a space to take and share photos that I am taking just for FUN is so important for that creative flow. I also love to share recipes, home DIY's and decor, family life, bible verses and devotional encouragement, homeschooling and more, so I knew I would have lots of ideas for a blog!

Now for the blog name! Many of you know our family made a BIG change this year! After an amazing 8 years working and serving at our dear church, we made the decision to resign and move. But this was not just a little move down the street, we moved all the way up to a small town in Northern Ontario and bought a fixer upper house on a beautiful lake! There were so many reasons we came to this decision, and we spent so much time in thoughtful prayer about making this change, and as hard as it was to leave our beloved church family, sweet friends and our own families, we knew that God was calling us to something different. A change of pace, new opportunities, concentrated family time, more time in nature, serving community, and so much more. We could see God working in so many ways, and we know that He brought us here, and orchestrated all the details and for that we are thankful! My husband Chris and I have spent the last 3.5 months renovating our lake house, and it's been a lot of hard work and so rewarding! We have learned so much and are getting into a new routine as an up north family and enjoying every minute (even all the bugs ;)). When we purchased the home in the winter, we weren't able to see every detail of the property as it was covered in snow, and so now now that it is spring we are in AWE of all beautiful plants and flowers that grow on our property. We found out that the lady who lived here before us had a green thumb and devoted much of her time to planting a beautiful flower garden around the property and home. We are now enjoying new flowers popping up everyday. Since April there have been daffodils, tulips in many colours shapes and sizes, lilies, daisy's, peony's and more types that I have never even seen before until now! Flowers bring me so much joy, God's way of showing us what an artist He is, so to have all these beautiful flowers growing all around us are a daily reminder of His goodness, and I am so thankful. Hence the new blog name Lake Flower :)

If you've read this far, I thank you for taking the time, and I hope you will come back soon! I have some fun posts planned! Also, in case you didn't know my husband runs a 'VLOG' which is called 'Live Love Lake' on youtube where he shares our family life on the lake in video style, so go check that out if you get a chance, he works so hard on the videos!

Vlog link here: LIVE LOVE LAKE

Thanks again for stopping by, don't forget to say HI in the comments so I know you were here :)

love always,

Shelley