For Kristin Lenz, the only thing more special than the holidays is spending them with her family in their log cabin in Northern Wisconsin.
Camp Paradise is the Minocqua home for Kristin, husband Brian, their kids — college student Kallin, high school senior Barron, eighth-grader Landry and sixth-grader Brooks — and their pets, which range from a Great Pyrenees named Honey and a Bernese Mountain Dog named Scout to “two very chubby bunnies” named Turtle and Cookie.
Kristin, the talent behind the White Arrows Home blog and shop, loves to share warm, cozy and rustic design, style and travel ideas inspired by her Up North lifestyle. She shares more!
What brought you to Minocqua?
I grew up in the bluebonnet fields of Texas, just south of Dallas in Waxahachie. I moved north to the corn fields of Iowa for college where I met my husband. He was from Wisconsin. After we started our family we moved back to his hometown of Fond du Lac. We lived there for ten years and then bought a vacation home in Minocqua. After a year of going up north for the weekends, we decided to move to the lake fulltime. So we have now lived there for seven years.
What do you love most about living in northern Wisconsin?
One of the things I love sharing about on my blog and social media channels (on Instagram and Facebook) is what I call “Northwoods Living.” It’s a lifestyle that’s unique and special. It’s all the things I love about living up north. It’s about embracing the great outdoors in every season, slowing down and taking time to connect with friends and family. It’s about time on the lake when it’s frozen and when it’s not, hiking or biking through the forest, Friday night fish frys, old fashioned cocktails and gathering at supper clubs.
I love the pace of life and that comes with Northwoods Living. I always like to use the phrase, “Be Where Your Feet Are.” To me that means giving my full attention to the people I’m with or the activity I’m doing.
What are your favorite things to do together as a family?
I am passionate about building family memories for my children. We love to spend the day on the boat together. Wake surfing is my family’s favorite boating activity. But we also love to swim, fish, kayak and paddle board. We got a vintage ski boat last year and we love to pull the kids skiing or just cruise around in it.
I love making big breakfasts on the weekends and lingering around the table talking for a long time. I always wanted a big dining table like on The Waltons. So I now have my Walton’s table. Often it is used for game playing and card playing. The kids also love to turn it into a ping pong table with one of those ping pong table kits. We love grilling out in the evenings and playing games in the backyard. Then finish the night talking around the campfire. There are usually s’mores involved too!
When our kids were little we started watching old TV series with them like Little House on the Prairie. We would watch one episode of a show a night to kind of wind down before bed. It was one of the best things we ever did to make a family bedtime routine that everyone looked forward to. (And my kids are now experts on ’80s TV shows!)
Your home is gorgeous! Please tell us about it and your approach to decorating.
Our home is a full log cabin named “Camp Paradise” on the shores of a lake in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. We live in our very own big version of the Lincoln Log buildings my kids build. Camp Paradise is filled with a mix of antique, vintage and new pieces. It reflects a nostalgic camp style with the elegance of a grand old lodge.
The view from my windows every day is filled with beauty and it inspires how I style my log cabin home to be warm and welcoming for family, friends and our guests. In every area I want to create spaces that encourage lingering longer, whether that means a cozy space to curl up and read or nap or a gathering space to visit or play a game.
When choosing pieces for our home, they tend to be pieces that can be used in many rooms and spaces. This makes the idea of “shopping your home” fun when I am restyling a space. I can bring something from one room to another and it feels new.
My style is classic with layers of current design trends. You can see some of my favorite vintage pieces layered all around and lots of plaids. Plaid is my favorite color!
Please tell us about your blog, White Arrows Home!
I began my career as an elementary school teacher before becoming a stay-at-home mom and spending time volunteering at the kids’ schools and in the community. A few years ago I decided to turn my passions into blogging and White Arrows Home was born.
I also launched a podcast this year, The Cabincast, with Eric Torgeson, who owns Roughing It In Style.
And you have a shop too?
White Arrows Home has grown and I now own a brick-and-mortar shop in Minocqua. We showcase carefully curated products — antique, vintage and new — that fit the White Arrows Home brand of classy cabin and cottage decor, campy style and a heavy sprinkling of plaids.
Vignettes around the shop foster instant excitement for customers to bring Northwoods Living into their own homes. The shop encourages them to choose furniture and accessories that help them create a home they can’t wait to get back to, spend time in and share with others. Customers find inspiration to style their cabin, cottage, camps and homes with spaces that are inviting, beautiful and make family and friends want to linger longer.
Why do you choose to live and raise kids in Wisconsin? What do you hope the experience means for your kids?
Moving to Wisconsin has been amazing and I can’t imagine living anywhere else or raising my family anywhere else. And I love living in Minocqua. The people are so down-to-earth and genuine; they welcomed us like we had lived there forever.
Living in Minocqua, our kids have friends that love the outdoors as much as they do. They always take a lifejacket when they go to a friend’s house, and they may get up early to go duck hunting before school or ride snowmobiles on the weekends. When they were younger they were building forts and snorkeling for crayfish. They’ve gained an appreciation for the forest and a passion for time in nature. I think that is such a healthy thing for kids.
There’s never enough time to do everything, so what do you prioritize as a family?
We try to always spend time a lot of time together. My kids are all really good friends even at their different ages so they make being home a priority.
Brian and I have had date night every Thursday night since we started having kids. When they were little, we had a standing babysitter. It is one of the best things we’ve done. It is something we look forward to each week and a way to stay connected.
How do you approach the holidays?
We try to experience each of the holidays fully. That means we decorate and enjoy Thanksgiving all the way through. I may decorate one Christmas tree and a few things to use on my blog posts, but otherwise we enjoy fall.
A Christmas priority for me is to have time to decorate the tree together with the kids’ collected ornaments. I love taking time to remember each ornament as they unpack it and hang it. I love keeping Christmas music playing and the twinkle lights on. I always love lamp light in the evenings; it’s part of my cozy home tips, but over the holidays when we add the Christmas lights, it’s pure magic.
What are the most important elements of the holiday season for you and your family?
Traditions are big in our family. We love making our favorite Christmas cookie, pfeffernusse. They are German spice cookies we roll in powdered sugar. They are full of ginger and nutmeg and smell and taste like Christmas!
Christmas jammies have been a tradition in my family since 1974! My siblings and I were always in matching Christmas pajamas and the tradition continued with my kids. It’s the one present they open Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning, they open stockings first thing and then after Brian and I get our coffee they begin opening presents. Whoever finds the Christmas pickle ornament on the tree first opens the first gift. And I have them open one gift, one kid at a time, because that’s my favorite part. I love watching their reaction and want to make the morning last.
– Katie Vaughn
Photo by Kristin Lenz.
Katie Vaughn is the editor and co-founder of Northerly. She is a University of Wisconsin-Madison and Stanford University-trained journalist with experience as a writer, reporter, editor, blogger and author. She lives in Madison with her husband, daughter and son, and is always up for an adventure.