When Life gives you Lemmen's, you're blessed.

Hope you had an amazing resurrection weekend!! We got to spend some brief time with my parents, sisters and their kids (minus Holly who wasn't feeling well and Alex who was in Cleveland with his girlfriend-turned fiance's family!

We were so excited and surprised while facetime-ing he and Carolyn (who I absolutely adore, btw) when they randomly showed us this:

Praise for a God who could create two amazingly similar souls and bring them together in this great big world. I'm still blown away. I've always claimed Alex as my first born son and now I'm claiming her as my daughter-n-law! ( My sister's Lo and Cherie have always been so gracious to share their children with me). :)

Here's the motley crew after a whirlwind of an egg hunt. 

We also got to spend time this past weekend with our former neighbors Doug and Jackie Lemmen who lived next door to us when we built our first house in Greystone. 

We love those two and felt like such kindred spirits when we moved there. Doug and Ken loved to talk sports and wood-working (still do) and Jackie and I just love to talk about our families. Even though it's been over 10 years already since we've lived there, we can pick up right where we left off every time we see them.

I spent most of the night snapping pics on my phone of all of Dougie's creations over the last recent years. 

He spotted me doing that and asked "Boev, what's with all the pics"? I told him there were some blog readers who absolutely HAD to see his work. Some day when he retires from his successful career with Pepsi, he will become a part time artisan doing what he loves which is this:

 He planed and cut different species of wood, and had DeLeuw Lumber cut the MI outline. Beautiful!
Below, wood salvage that used to hold keys at their cottage that now holds his medals from running road races. Which i would've thought of this idea before I threw away all my medals a few weeks ago. "Yeep!" as my girls would say, which in teen speak, I think means "yikes"!

 Pallet wood wall with wood bar collaged with collectibles and meaningful memorabilia.

 Handcrafted table against vertical pallet wood which he had planed down to be all the same depth.

 Hand made pine island top stained dark ebony:

 Pallet coffee table urethaned for protection:
I thought this was soooo cool! Using left over and newly cut wood chunks to frame them as artwork!
 Ken has so many scrap pieces-I want to experiment with this! 

 Pallet wood backdrop to a sleek metal clock. Love it!

This is the show piece of their whole main floor. This hand--scraped matte wood floor. It is so raw, rich and beautiful!

 Sunroom/dining addition they put on a few years ago housing all hand crafted furniture by Doug of course.

 End tables, dressers, armoires, night stands, tables, bar stools....there is NOTHING this man can not do with wood.

 Custom headboard and nightstands. He's got quite the talent for layering paint and staining as well. 

 Yes, he made these too! Inset drawers-do you know how hard that is? Well, I don't either, but it sure looks hard to do!

 Armoire to house their flat screen tv and Jackie's shoe collection:

 Beautiful nightstands. I loved the finish on this:

 D and J don't kill me for posting-someone's gotta brag you two up! Love you both and can't wait to see you again soon. 
Champs...happy spring. We're heading south soon for Kennedy's last spring break with us! Boo Hoo!
See you back here soon!