Meadow Lake Cottage: About

Hi, welcome to my blog! I’m Erin and I’m honored that you clicked over here to ‘meet’ the woman behind 3 Meadow Lake Cottage.

First and foremost, I’m a wife and a stay-at-home mom of three. My husband, Jacob, is a dreamboat, who is an amazing Daddy and super talented with a power tool. Reece, Chase and Kate are my {almost} 2-year-old triplets and they bring us more joy than we ever imagined {which is the reason the name of this blog starts with a 3}. However, raising triplets is TOUGH work. Let me preface this by saying that there is nothing on earth that I would rather be doing than staying at home raising our kids. Nothing is more rewarding than being a mom.

The first year of the kids’ life was extremely challenging for us though. We were inundated with diapers, bottles, and rocking babies around the clock. There were many days I laid on the floor and cried along with the kids. I didn’t leave the house, I had no time to myself, and I felt so isolated from the world. My life had changed drastically and I felt like I had been replaced by a woman who could only be defined as being a mom.

In January 2010, Jacob and I rented the movie Julie and Julia {if you haven’t seen it – go rent it now!}. I was so inspired by one woman’s successful venture to change her life through blogging. Her passion for cooking and blogging about it brought her so much joy and added balance to her monotonous life.

As I sat and watched the movie, I kept thinking I could do that {blogging about my passion, that is, which is definitely not cooking}! So what am I passionate about?? Decorating, interior design, DIY projects, remodeling, crafting - whatever you want to call it. Basically, utilizing my creativity to make spaces functional while giving them personality.

I’ve always been obsessed with design. As a teenager, I would stay up late at night to watch all of my favorite HGTV shows and drool over my mom’s Better Homes and Gardens Magazines. And I constantly had a ‘project’ going on – from refinishing dressers to painting and rearranging my bedroom over and over. I actually even started out my college career in interior design, but being young and immature, I switched my major to something that would allow me to spend more time with my friends and not so much time working in the design studio. One of my biggest regrets ever.

But I’m a firm believer that everything in life happens for a reason, so I don’t dwell on a dumb choice I made years ago. I ended up getting my Master’s degree in Education and spent six years teaching elementary school before becoming a mom.

So that’s how this blog came to be. I needed an outlet, a way to interact with the world without leaving my house. I needed something that excited and inspired me. I wanted to share our adventures in decorating our new house on a microscopic budget
{I’m talking an almost non-existent budget here}
with YOU, and hopefully inspire and excite YOU too!

We recently moved from a teeny tiny house into a much larger house to accommodate our newly expanded family. It’s a beautiful, brand new house out in the country surrounded by lakes and mountains {hence the ‘Meadow Lake’ part of the blog’s name}. I LOVE our house, but it kinda lacks personality. Since we moved from such a tiny house, we have very few furnishings to help give it personality too.

So I hope you follow us as we turn our house into a home with some personality – on a super tight budget! I’ll be sharing all of our projects, transformations, inspiring finds, tips for decorating on a minimal budget and any good deals we find along the way. But most of all, I’ll share my journey in learning to balance my passion with raising a family amidst complete chaos!

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Here are some of the places I've been spotlighted. Click on the the link to check them out!