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!

(Source)

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

(Source)

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?! 

(Source)

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

(Source)

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!