Low Carb Zucchini Spinach Meaty Cheesy Lasagne!

As I have been continuing my low carb lifestyle, I have been sharing some of the recipes I make on my personal facebook page. Many of my friends and family have asked that I do this, as they have to watch their carbs, weight, health and I have no problem doing so. I like to advertise for the original poster too because if I liked their recipe enough to post it to my facebook, I want them to get traffic from it!

Lately, I have been craving some sort of lasagne. Since noodles are 100% off limits for me, I needed to come up with a way to have a similar dish without them. I see lots of recipes with zucchini noodles, so I have been experimenting with them lately, and this is a dish that just came together. I wasnt planning on blogging it or I would have taken better pictures, and actually planned out the recipe. I have had several people on my facebook page ask for the recipe, so I knew I needed to write something up! The thing is.... I had only taken one crappy picture, and we had eaten all of the lasagne, so this one pic will have to do! When I make it next time, I will try and take better pictures and switch them out. 

This recipe went over very well with my husband, which is always a plus, especially since we have both been wearing thin of the low carb lifestyle. I actually want to make it again already! 

**This recipe is for 2 mini loaf pans. If you need more, I'd pretty much double it, although with the recipe below I had leftover ricotta cheese mixture and half the spinach leftover so I plan on making 2 more mini pans of it and freezing it. 

1 - 15oz tub of Ricotta Cheese
1 small box frozen spinach (warmed up and drained)
1-1.5lbs of ground beef
Jar of pasta sauce (I used 4 cheese by simple truth cuz it has less carbs)
1 1/2 cups of Shredded mozzarella cheese (more or less as needed)
2 medium zucchini
One egg
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
Ground basil
Garlic powder
Pepper
Mini loaf pans or a bigger loaf pan, or baking dish

1. Use a mandolin to cut the zucchini length-wise in thin strips. No bigger than 1/8 of an inch thick. Salt them and lay them in a strainer for as long as you can before cooking. Best to let sit for 30 minutes- 2 hours in order to get some of the moisture out. 

2. Cook the ground beef. Drain the grease. Add in the pasta sauce, some basil, garlic powder and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes. 

3. For the mini loaf pans, we used 1/2 of the spinach (warmed up), and 1/2 of the ricotta cheese. Mix them together. Add one egg and mix together well. Add in some garlic powder and the Parmesan cheese. (If you do not want left over mixture, I would suggest starting with 1/4 of the ricotta and 1/4 of the spinach).

4. When you've let the zucchini set for as long as you can, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and start to build your lasagne. Spray the loaf pans with cooking spray, and pour in a layer of the meat/sauce mix, then a layer of the zucchini, then the ricotta cheese mixture, layer of mozzarella and then repeat.  End with a layer of the shredded mozzarella on top. 

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, and let sit for at least 5 minutes after it's done.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my husband and I did. It rejuvenates you to find a good recipe that tastes amazing and keeps your health on track! 

Enjoy! 

Loaded Low Carb Cauliflower Soup

Living a low carb lifestyle is a lot easier when you have a partner to live it with! Some moments are hard, but I have been working diligently to make meals, snacks and even desserts that are lower in carb, healthy and taste good enough that we don't miss the unhealthy things. Skillet Pizza, Crustless Quiche, and now a warm, hearty soup? The chances of staying on track are looking good!

We had another major snowstorm here in Michigan. There were two days in a row where we were able to go outside without a jacket... and we thought... SPRING IS HERE! Then BAM. 7 inches (at least) in one day. Let's just say that I was less than prepared for a snowstorm as far as groceries go. Then I remembered the head of cauliflower I had in the fridge that needed to be used up. So a loaded low carb cauliflower soup was calling my name!

This is simple, and fills you up easily. Here is what you need:

* 1 Cauliflower head
* 1 Large onion
* 1 Leek
* 1 tbs of olive oil
* 2 tbs of butter
* 3 1/2 cups of vegetable or chicken broth (or can do half and half)
* Food processor
* 6 pieces of bacon
* shredded cheese (your choice but I used colby jack blend)

Lets begin!
Chop the onion and leek. If you do not know how to chop a leek, never fear. Google it and watch the video and in seconds, you will know how. For speed, here is one you can use! Super easy and you want the flavor from it, so don't skip it if you can help it!
Saute the onion and leek together with the olive oil and butter for about 3 - 4 minutes. Do not brown
While those are sauteing, cut the cauliflower into florets, chopping the stem into small pieces. Toss them in with the onion and leek and saute them all together for about 2-3 minutes.
Pour in your broth. Bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer for around 20 minutes. You want the cauliflower very soft. While that is simmering, cook your bacon - crisp so that you can crumble it.
When finished, spoon into a food processor and puree until it is smooth. You may have to do this in halves. Mine didn't all fit in the food processor at once, so I spooned about half in, pureed, then poured that into a soup pot, and did it again with the second half. Be careful as you do not want to lose your broth all over the counter. So go slow.
Warm the soup, crumble your bacon and grab your cheese! You have a nice, low carb, hearty bowl of soup to keep you warm while we wait for winter to end!

Enjoy!

Antique Booth Move

Sometimes, a change is good. And that's what we are hoping for with this antique booth move. A booth became available in a different part of the building, in a main aisle, and I just couldn't pass it up. There was a storefront design already built up in front of it, which I believe gives it an inviting, cozy feeling.  As usual, I forgot to take before pictures... I just can't figure out how to remind myself to do that! I will try to explain what it looked like before we got our hands on it. Below the blue, where the pink is around the windows... that was a bright bright red. The inside of the booth was a bright yellow. Since we were moving our shabby chic themed booth here, we decided on the pink. We have received a ton of compliments on it from staff and customers which has made me very happy!

I love the storefront look. We have lights coming down under the overhang to showcase some items. I thought the dress form would look lovely there, with a beautiful fur collar coat and a vintage shabby hat box to adorn.

We hung some light colored burlap on the top half of the booth, to give it some texture. I just love it!

Lighting is a must and we made sure to have plenty to showcase our items as best we could. 

So... what do you think? I just love it and I am excited to see where we go from here. Now, we just need it to stop blizzarding here in Michigan so that people can actually get to the antique mall!

Low Carb Skillet Pizza

I recently tore a ligament in the heel of my foot, and with that injury, making food that fits a low carb lifestyle has been tough. I hobbled around to make the Crustless Quiche, but I needed something to calm down my cravings. My pizza cravings. It would have been easy for me to order pizza and be done with it. But one slice can have 36g of carbs! Thats more carbs than I should have in a day! But I LOVE pizza. Love it. I could eat it multiple times in a week and never get sick of it. Its my.... "thing". So I needed a pizza that I could eat, without the carbs, and make easily with this injury I have going on. Thats a lot to ask. But I saw a skillet pizza floating around Pinterest, and thought that I would try making a version of it, to see if it would suffice my cravings. And it MORE than did!

It is so easy to make. A great snack and great for a meal. So let's get started!

Here is what you need:

• Extra small nonstick skillet ( 6-9 inches preferably)
• Bagged* shredded cheese of your choice (I used the colby jack blend, but any blend should work)
• Optional: Pizza sauce (lowest carb you can find)
• Toppings: I used pepperoni and pizza seasonings, but we will use veggies when I make this for my hubby

*We tried this with shredding our own cheese, and it was a MESS. very oily and tough to eat. Stick with the bagged cheese. 

1. Put the shredded cheese directly onto the non stick skillet (measuring about 1/3 inch thick) 

2. Dribble pizza sauce on top of the cheese. You only need about a tablespoon. A little goes a LONG way.

3. Place some more cheese on top of sauce. It will now measure about 1/2 inch thick. 

4. Place toppings on top of cheese

5. Turn on high heat, and lightly cover with a top so that the top of the cheese will fully melt. Watch carefully. 6. After just a short time, you will see the bottom cheese start to bubble and crisp up. When all the cheese is melted, you can turn off the heat, and slide onto a plate. Cut with a pizza slicer. As shown below, the bottom should be crisp and brown, and should cut nicely with the pizza cutter.

The picture at the very top of this post is the first one I made. I think I used just enough sauce. The pictures with the white background shows the second one I made, and I feel I used just a little too much sauce, so like I said, a little sauce goes a LONG way. You can also make one without sauce. The pizza sauce I have has 5 carbs for 1/4 of a cup. You should only need about a tablespoon, so you aren't getting many carbs for the little you are using. 

I encourage you to give this a shot! Its so easy, why not?! Let me know what you think! 

Low Carb Crustless Quiche and Living a Low Carb Lifestyle

My husband and I had a long talk Saturday morning, and decided that it was time. It was time to make some changes. We both have been quite inactive (although recently I started back into yoga and playing volleyball once a week) since winter hit. It has just been hard to do anything. And we have not been eating healthy. Given the fact that I have PCOS, I have to - HAVE TO - follow a lower carb lifestyle, which I have not been doing. When you have PCOS, your body is unable to metabolize carbohydrates like a normal person can. I lost 27 pounds this summer, by walking 4-6 miles 3-4 times a week, cutting my carbs down, and getting back on my birth control (which helps me lose weight) but once winter hit and I could not walk outside, and got back off my birth control, things stood still. Eating a low carb lifestyle is hard. Very hard. Especially when in the definition of PCOS, it actually states that you have uncontrollable cravings for carbs. Great. It's already challenging enough without adding "uncontrollable cravings". But changes must be made. I want to be active and healthy parents (once we have children). We want to be good role models to our children. So changes must be made.

We both agreed that following the low carb lifestyle would be best, since I don't have a choice, and that having my husband follow a different lifestyle could be very trying to me with the fact that I would have to cook two different meals. We can work carbs back into his diet at a later point, little by little, but for now, this is what's best. I knew it would be much more challenging for him than me, as I have had to do this a lot in my life and so I was used to it (in a sense), so I wanted to find some recipes that wouldn't shock him out of thinking he could handle this new lifestyle.

I've already lost 8 pounds in 5 days. So that is encouraging and helps me keep going.

One thing that is difficult for my husband, is breakfast. He has to drive an hour to work (that is if the roads are in perfect condition and there are no traffic issues, so lately its been more like 2 hours), and he is always in a big hurry. I have bought some low sugar oatmeal, but as men are, he is a bit picky in the sense that he doesn't want to eat the same thing all the time. So I needed to find something that he could substitute in, if he is in a hurry. He loves the breakfast casserole I make, but that is filled with hash browns which are off limits right now, so I wanted to figure out something that was similar, and that's when I remembered the crustless quiche that my parents had made years ago when we were following a low carb lifestyle. So I asked my husband what he would want in it, and went from there!

I made a spicy sausage, bacon, feta and monterey jack cheese crustless quiche. You can really substitute anything you want for the meat and cheese. Here is how I made it!

For this one you need:

• Bob Evans spicy sausage (the kind in the roll) - cooked. You can use regular instead of spicy if you wish
• 6 strips of cooked bacon (crumbled)
• Feta Cheese (crumbled)
• Shredded monterey jack cheese
• 7 eggs
• 1/3 cup of milk (you can use the low carb milk if you wish, or skim is fine too)
• 9 inch pie plate
• skillet
• butter flavored cooking spray
• Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. While your bacon is cooking in the microwave, cook and crumble the spicy sausage in your skillet. 

2. Spray your pie plate with the cooking spray, then crumble the cooked sausage, cooked bacon, feta and shredded cheese in the plate, in that order. (You can choose how much cheese to use depending on what you like.) I used a few small handfuls of the feta but wish I would have used more. I used about a handful and a half of the shredded cheese, but again, this can be altered to your taste. 

3. Beat the 7 eggs lightly with the whisk. Add in the milk and pepper to taste. I gave a couple turns of my pepper grinder. 

4. Pour the egg mixture into the pie plate, and place on the middle rack in the oven. Cook for 35 minutes, or until your knife comes out clean. 

~Enjoy! It is wonderful as leftovers! 

Wonderful Wednesdays #20

Happy Wonderful Wednesday! I wanted to do things a little differently this week, so I am picking three amazing recipe features from the first 19 linky parties, and featuring them today. Also, for a while, we are going to do every other week parties, as I need to focus on some other things (our Antiques business and our Etsy shop) as two examples. We are also getting ready to move our shabby chic booth at the antique mall over to a different location within the mall which is a major overhaul. So busy busy busy!

Let's get onto celebrating a few of the recipe features from the first 19 linky parties. 

At our Wonderful Wednesdays # 5, Stumbling upon Happiness shared their Pinterest review of these yummy Cinnamon Sugar Muffins.   I always love a good Pinterest review, so you know a few people have successfully made the recipe! 

At our Wonderful Wednesdays # 4, The Cottage Diaries yummmy Cinnamon Rolls. 

At our Wonderful Wednesdays #15, Thats My Home shared their Hot Cocoa Cupcakes. Perfect for a winter treat!

Now, onto the party! 

Just a couple things....

• Please follow Wonderful at Home on at least TWO of their networking sites (you can find them on the top of the page)
• Please put the Wonderful at Home button (found on my sidebar), or a link somewhere on your blog, post or "where I party" page in order to be featured. There is no limit to how many times a blog can be featured, so just keep linking up every week! Trust me, you will be thankful later! 
• Link up as many of your WONDERFUL posts as you would like, but please make it a post and not a general link to your blog. They can be crafts, DIY projects, tips, repurposing ideas, recipes, etc! 
• Visit at least TWO other link ups. Please - we are all here to support one another right!?
• HAVE FUN! 
• ** I will make EVERY effort to email the bloggers that are being featured, so that they are aware, and get to come see their feature first thing. Submitting your email at time of posting the link would be helpful. If you have any questions about privacy, please see my Privacy Policy If you are one of the ones featured, don't forget to grab the "I've been featured" button from my sidebar! 

Here we go!

Just another junkin' trip

Junkin' is fun. Its addictive, and amazing, and fun. But anything can happen on a junkin trip! From spiders crawling out of something you picked off the yard at the flea market, to getting lost driving there, to getting stopped by the presidential motorcade, anything can happen. You can fill your car to the brim, or you can drive a few hundred miles to barely get a bag full of goodies. Its a gamble every time you go out, but boy is it fun! Whats hard, is not keeping it all! You are obviously drawn to things you like. You can't help it.
We have finally broken out of the house a few times recently (mostly because we were so sick of being snowed in!) and got some great picks we wanted to share with you.


I found this fabulous 1950's hamburger press at an Antique Mall a state over. I just loved the picture of the chef on the front. His patina is slightly chippy, but the hamburger press itself is in wonderful shape.

Anything vintage, rusty, chippy and with a great patina catches my eye. I am instantly drawn to it. This vintage Maxwell House coffee tin was no exception! 

These vintage bakelite keys also caught my eye right away! They are wildly popular with people decorating in the vintage industrial style.

 

 

Found this FB Rogers Silver Co. Carafe and isn't it a beauty!? Can't you just imagine coffee warming in this gorgeous decanter? Love it!  

                                                 

I have a slight obsession with vintage door plates. The beauty of this one - WOW! The beaded border, the slight red coloring, the shape, and the patina - just wow. 

Junkin' is addictive. Its fun, and challenging and wonderful all at the same time. What I can tell you is that I enjoy it, I look forward to it every day, and I can't wait to see what I find next time I go out! 

Antique Booth Tour

As many of you know, we have two antique booths at the local antique mall in our town. One is more of the shabby chic type, and the other we call a more primitive style.  This month, with the help of a fellow dealer/friend, who is amazing at display work, we have been working on revamping our primitive style booth. So here it is!

Sometimes, just moving things around can give the customer a different feel, and they stop in to see things they weren't able to see before!

We hoped you enjoyed the tour of our new look!

Wonderful Wednesdays Linky Party #19

When I woke up today (at 10am), it was -6. -6! That is without the windchill! It is a day where you only go outside if you 100% absolutely have to. So today, I am working from my couch a lot. The blog, My Etsy shop, and other parts of our business need some random maintaining, so I might as well take today to do it!

Lets get to the features from our last party!

Ever evolving life shared their beautiful house decor. I gathered a lot of good tips and inspiration here from my own house decor which is still evolving!

Want to know how to make real popcorn for the movie night you have planned with the kids this weekend? Or for your next snow day? Coconut Head Survival Guide shared their easy tactics for this fun treat!

Isn't this trunk redo by Iris Abby beautiful?! I have a trunk in my basement I need to work on, and this gives me the motivation! 

Now onto this weeks party! 

Just a couple things....

• Please follow Wonderful at Home on at least TWO of their networking sites (you can find them on the top of the page)
• Please put the Wonderful at Home button (found on my sidebar), or a link somewhere on your blog, post or "where I party" page in order to be featured. There is no limit to how many times a blog can be featured, so just keep linking up every week! Trust me, you will be thankful later! 
• Link up as many of your WONDERFUL posts as you would like, but please make it a post and not a general link to your blog. They can be crafts, DIY projects, tips, repurposing ideas, recipes, etc! 
• Visit at least TWO other link ups. Please - we are all here to support one another right!?
• HAVE FUN! 
• ** I will make EVERY effort to email the bloggers that are being featured, so that they are aware, and get to come see their feature first thing. Submitting your email at time of posting the link would be helpful. If you have any questions about privacy, please see my Privacy Policy If you are one of the ones featured, don't forget to grab the "I've been featured" button from my sidebar! 

Here we go!

Our Favorite (Gardening) Pinterest things

It has been dangerously cold here in Michigan. As in -30 below wind chill, and it has been that way more days than I care to think about. It has become very hard to do much of anything. I have been spending a lot of time lately daydreaming of warmer weather. In the spring, there is just nothing like seeing overflowing gardens, of pink, yellow and purple flowers everywhere.
I couldn't get over the last "Our favorite Pinterest things #4" post, where we showcased some amazing vintage, chippy mantels, so be sure to check that out. A while back, we also shared some of our most favorite Pinterest recipes, which we have made over and over in the past few months! Lately, I have been looking endlessly at Pinterest for gardening inspiration, and today, I want to share some that I have found with you! These come from my personal Pinterest page, which you are welcome to follow. And you can also see what we have going on, at our Wonderful at Home Pinterest page.


Finding a wheelbarrow (of course a vintage/shabby chic/chippy one) to plant some flowers in is something I will be looking to do! This gets you in the spring spirit doesn't it!?

                                                                          (Source)*
                                                           *This pin went no where. If anyone knows the owner, I would love                                                                 to source them! I can't wait to try their idea!

I always seem to have a collection of galvanized buckets that I am selling in my Antique Booth, so maybe I will grab some when I am out hunting and fix this right up!

                                                                          (Source)


A vintage bike with a bucket full of flowers on the back? Yes please!

(Source)

We don't have a tree stump in our yard as of now, but we may in the future, and I think this is a beautiful way to camouflage it!

(Source)

Lets all keep daydreaming of spring, gardening and flowers. It will be here before we know it.... right?!

Soft Pretzel Bites with Spicy Cheese Dip

Let me be just throw this disclaimer out there: I love anything that has to do with spicy cheese dip. I could dip my shoe in it and I would probably be happy. Yes, I am a lover of cheese. And soft pretzels. Spicy cheese and salty soft pretzels? Its a dream. But could I make them myself? I'm not sure.

Working with yeast has always scared me. I have felt it is a bit... above me. However, with practice, I am sure I will get better, and with time, my ultimate goal is to make a "soft on the inside" loaf of bread.

The way I like my soft pretzels it with slight crisp on the outside, and a very soft warm inside. So that is what I sought out to make.

Here is what you will need:

For the pretzels:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water (not boiling, just very warm)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
• 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
• Vegetable oil
• 10 cups water
• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• Kosher salt to sprinkle on top

1. Grab your mixer! Lots of people will tell you to get your stand mixer out, but I only have a regular mixer so thats what I used. Make sure you have a dough hook.  Also grab a large mixing bowl.
2. Mix together the warm water, yeast, sugar and salt
3. Put the dough hook on your mixer, and add in the flour and butter, mixing for about 5 minutes, until you can easily pull the dough away from the sides of the bowl. If you need to, knead it a bit with your hands.
4. Oil a bowl, and place dough inside and cover tightly with clear plastic wrap. Let sit on the counter for 50-55 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
5. While the oven is preheating, start boiling the 10 cups of water and baking soda combo. Cut the dough into 6 equal parts. Roll these each into an 18 inch roll and cut them into small pieces.
6. Place a handful into a spoon, and lower into the boiling water. Boil for about 30 seconds. Take out and place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Do this until you have all the pieces onto the baking sheets.
7. Melt some butter, and brush onto the bites. Sprinkle kosher salt on top.
8. Bake for about 12 minutes. Watch carefully as the timing will depend on how brown you like them.

Spicy Cheese Sauce:
**You can eliminate the spice, and it will still be real yummy. My directions below do not make this very spicy at all, so you can also add more as well!

• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• 8 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (I used the bagged kind, and it worked great)
• 4 ounces of softened cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon of mustard
• 1 teaspoon of bottled hot pepper sauce
• 2 shakes of tabasco
• 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

Bring milk and butter to a boil. Add cheese. Stir/whisk until smooth. Lower heat and stir in rest of ingredients. Stir until all ingredients are mixed well. Be very careful as it is very easy to burn in the bottom of the pan.

If you would like less spice: do not add tabasco or cayenne

If you would like more spice: add more tabasco and/or cayenne

Enjoy! 

Another update on our Wonderful Wednesdays linky party

It took me about 5 minutes (thats it!) of emails with the linky tools owner to figure out that there were two different issues going on with my parties from the last couple weeks. One, the last parties code was doubled, which had to be by me, but when I kept trying to delete one of the codes, I must have kept deleting too much of it, which made it not show the party at all. Geez.

Then it seems as if blogger actually changed something... because all of the sudden things with javascript do not show in preview. I had no idea this was coming down the pipeline, and it caused me (and I am SURE a lot of other people) a ton of hours trying to figure this out.

All I have to say, is what great customer service Linky Tools provided immediately. I know it is a lot of work to be in business, and it is amazing that people can provide such good customer service skills, especially when the problem is not something they caused, but others (like me, and like blogger).

If you haven't found a linky party host yet, grab them, they are good people! You can get them here.

I am pretty exhausted from banging my head against the wall (this happens when I have to look, deal or see any html code), so I think we will pick back up next week with the partying, and I will still use the features from last weeks party, next week.

Thanks for everyones patience!

Have a lovely evening!

Wonderful Wednesdays Linky Party #18

I hadn't announced a holiday break from the blog, but decided at the last minute that it was the right thing to do. My husband took the week off for the holiday, so I did. And it was lovely! If you haven't heard from my last post, we also had Snowmagedon  2014 recently - so that was NOT fun. I am already ready for Spring - so much!
Why dont' we just jump right into the party then, since we haven't had it in so long?!

Just a couple things....

• Please follow Wonderful at Home on at least TWO of their networking sites (you can find them on the top of the page)
• Please put the Wonderful at Home button (found on my sidebar), or a link somewhere on your blog, post or "where I party" page in order to be featured. There is no limit to how many times a blog can be featured, so just keep linking up every week! Trust me, you will be thankful later! 
• Link up as many of your WONDERFUL posts as you would like, but please make it a post and not a general link to your blog. They can be crafts, DIY projects, tips, repurposing ideas, recipes, etc! 
• Visit at least TWO other link ups. Please - we are all here to support one another right!?
• HAVE FUN! 
• ** I will make EVERY effort to email the bloggers that are being featured, so that they are aware, and get to come see their feature first thing. Submitting your email at time of posting the link would be helpful. If you have any questions about privacy, please see my Privacy Policy If you are one of the ones featured, don't forget to grab the "I've been featured" button from my sidebar! 

Here we go! 

Snowmagedon 2014

My plan was to have our Wonderful Wednesdays linky party back Tuesday night. Our last linky party was before Christmas! We took a vacation starting at Christmas, for the holidays, as I know everyone is very busy, including us!  This holidays are just insane, and my husband took the week off work, so I felt I should take time off as much of my work as possible to be fair.  I didn't work at the antique mall, and I only worked on my Etsy shop.

Then.... Snowmagedon 2014 hit. Our town LITERALLY was buried in the snow. We got almost 16 inches. Yes, you read that right, 16 inches. We didn't go out unless it was to shovel (for several days), which we did 4 times in one day. This is the most snow I have ever seen, which was followed by a few frigid days. I think we hit a low of -11. Minus eleven?! Well I have never! With the windchill, it was said to be -40. Dangerous frankly. I had some recipe posts that I wanted to push out, but we haven't been able to get to the store or anything. I guess I have learned my lesson there. Have posts done as back up! I am always running in a last minute frenzy these days, trying to juggle working at the antique mall, trying to find product for our antique booth, getting it ready or repurposing it, tagging items and cataloging them in the spreadsheet, working on my etsy shop (a lot lately), blogging and keeping up with my house (not to mention, getting ready for taxes since this is the first year for our business). Whew, I am tried just thinking about it. Plus, with this snowstorm, and my bad back, I had a day or two of not moving because my back was killing me from shoveling. Yes, buying a snowblower is now on the top of our list. For fun, I snapped a couple pics of the snow (before the last 1/3 of it even fell, and as you can see, it's scary!). You can even see my hubby shoveling away in one of them! 

                                              

The linky tools html codes for the party, are not working for me, and I cannot figure out why, so that is the reason the party did not go live as scheduled. I hope I can get it worked out before next week! I miss the partying! I hope everyone who lives in the path this storm took, stays safe, and those of you who live in warm, sunny climates, appreciate it! Us northern fools are jealous of you right now! 

Our Favorite Pinterest Things #4

Something I just can't get enough of is chippy paint. Chippy paint EVERYTHING! If my whole house could be chippy paint, I would love it, and probably wouldn't want to "fix" it. If you are a antique lover, or "junker" as some of us call it, you may have seen old, chippy mantels around the local antique malls. They are very popular, and often have a high price on them as they are in high demand. The chippy patina that they often have is one that if the person is buying it, they usually are buying it for that, instead of buying it to change it - thank god!

Here is a collection of some AMAZING vintage mantels I found on Pinterest. Just a reminder that I am featuring these pins/blogs just because I LOVE what I saw. I am not receiving anything for doing this. If you click on the picture, it will take you to their blog. (Source) takes you to the pin so you can pin it as well. I have said a blurb about these above the pic, in which you can find links to their posts and blog as well.

I must say, that the Homeless Finch did an AMAZING job restoring this mantel. They took it from "WHAT?!" to OMG (in a good way!), and I am just inspired by their awesome work!

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I really want to hang out in the Sweet Pea Home dining room. She has chippy everything, just like I like it! 

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I wish I knew whose piece this is, I only see that it was pinned and can't find where from. So if anyone recognizes it, please let me know and I will credit them. Isn't the detail amazing?! 

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White Dress Events featured this BEAUTIFUL mantel. All I can say is WOW!  

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Obviously you can tell that I am HOOKED in on Pinterest. One of the reasons I LOVE it, is that we can all love and appreciate each others work. I am more than glad that Pinterest was created, and I hope you enjoy these vintage mantels!

Top 5 posts from 2013

Happy New Year everyone! I am officially off blogging vacation. Well, I am officially off my whole vacation, but thats besides the point, and if it makes you feel better, it didn't feel like a vacation AT ALL. The holidays are CRAZY here for us! We have many sides of the family we have to fit in, so taking our vacation from work, blogging etc at this time of year, just makes sense right? Hubby and I also came down with a cold, that has now lasted 6 days! Must be a super bug or something because I RARELY get a cold, and this thing is killer! Hopefully it will be over soon. 

Our last Wonderful Wednesdays linky party was on December 17, and we will pick back up next week (January 7th at 8pm). To ring in the New Year, I've decided to list the top 5 posts from 2013. If you didn't get a chance to check them out the first time, here is a great chance to do so now! 

#5 Funday Sunday - Come see what great treasures we found last time we went out antiquing! 

#4 Chicken Tortilla Soup, a Max and Ermas copy - This is a VERy good copy of the famous soup they serve! Got a two thumbs up from the husband too!  

#3 The Great Junk Hunt - Come along on a junking trip with Wonderful at Home!

#2 No Bake Energy Bites - A Pinterest review of these very yummy healthy snack bites! 

#1 Cream Cheese Monkey Bread - Need I say more? YUM! 

I hope you enjoy these as much as we enjoyed experiencing them. I must say, my #1 blogging resolution, is to become more committed to putting out better quality and a better quantity of blog posts. And I can't wait!  I have learned a lot this year about blogging, and I am excited to continue to learn more! 

See you soon!