The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, EVER. Period. End of Story.

I don't remember where I got it from. It's printed off on a wrinkly, splotched old sheet of printer paper. All I know is, the recipe makes the best chocolate chip cookies ever. They're chewy, and they stay chewy even the next day - if they last that long.













My husband married me because of these cookies.

Naaaaaah, just kidding.

He married me for my Southern charm and excellent wit. (Tee hee.)

Best Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups chocolate chips

Oven: 325
Sift the dry ingredients; set aside. Cream the sugars with the melted butter. Add the vanilla and egg and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by 1/4 cup fulls (or so) on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes until lightly browned on the top but still gooey in the middle. Cool on the sheets for a few minutes and remove to cooling racks.

Mmmmmmmmm

Young Etsy Shops I Heart

I have a lot of favorite Etsy shops, that's true. But these shops are special because I know the owners, they're my friends and they have cool stuff!! Please check them out:

Gates of Elloree My friend Lorie makes lovely necklaces and chokers. I have one and I love it! I also gave several for Christmas gifts last year.

Mary's Woodland Cottage
Woodland items here.

Dear Little You Vintage items.

White Stone Studio Awesome artwork.

And for the funniest cards to be found just about anywhere, check out The Laugh Factory! I don't know the owner of this shop personally, but I love, love love these cards. I will probably buy every single different one they offer, for all this year's family birthdays!

So before you spend money at Wally World, try Etsy for cards, gifts, home furnishings, clothes - just about everything! Happy shopping. :)

Cutie Pies

 

 

I love pie. I especially love mini pies. They're like cupcake's little cousins.

These lil' single serve goodies are some that I made with an old chocolate cream pie recipe; with cornstarch and milk and cocoa and flour and all that - in a double boiler. I make my own pie crust also - it's the only way! I find that, usually, a typical (not deep dish) pie filling recipe makes a dozen mini pies (about 1/3 cup size pies.)

I didn't have cream to make whipped cream, so I put cool whip on them. The real thing would be so much better. Or at least, Redi Whip.

Yummy.

Cute Love Story!

In this post by Aunt Ruthie at Sugar Pie Farmhouse, she relates the story of how a lovely lady met, fell in love with, and married a wonderful guy she met by

- Visiting the guy's sister's blog
- Commenting
- emailing
- Saw the guys picture on the blog
- Meeting up with the blogger
- Meeting the blogger's (handsome and single) brother

and...

You have to read the post to find out the details and the rest of the love story.

Just too cute.

Oh yeah, happy Groundhog Day. :)

MORE Pretty Rooms

 

I am preparing to re-do a room in our house as my office/den; and the photo above is my inspiration. I love the bookcases. I totally need that; for my inventory items, my shipping materials, my creative supplies, and other various trinkets and collections. Like my vintage sewing basket collection. And my hatboxes. And other stuff.

I was originally going to use the room as a "formal parlor" and stash all my antique stuff in there, and just sit in there and look at it. Then, when I started my Etsy business, I decided the space would be much better as an office/studio/den instead of wasted on a "formal parlor". So I want to have a sofa in there, to watch my Neflix BBC Masterpiece Theater shows on, and preferably have it be a pull-out sofa bed, for extra guests not staying upstairs in the guestroom.

And then there is this:

 

If my one and only bathroom wasn't the size of a walk-in closet, I would beg and plead with my husband to create this awesome, luxurious bathroom for me. Look at the dressing table placed over the tub! (Okay, so that kinda makes me scratch my head a bit. Who puts on their face in the tub - or does their hair in the tub, for that matter?)
I just want to walk into this photo and have a nice bath, right now!

Pretty Rooms, Vintage Style

I guess I am different from a lot of vintage loving girls; as far as my decorating style goes - because I do not like the 1950s "Atomic" style decor. And "Atomic", 1950's "Mod" decor seems to be the "going thing" among the vintage loving set of folks. I have nothing personal against it, I just prefer a more old-fashioned style of decor.

The husband and I have a 1920s farm house, and we're renovating it and re-decorating it; in a style that is decidedly more "cottage Victorian" than anything else.

Here are some images of bedrooms that are inspiring to me (- these are not my house).

 

 

From Country Living

I adore iron beds. I have been searching desperately for an iron bed for almost 2 years now. I am quite determined to have one this year; if it means going to every antique auction in Virginia and North Carolina to get one.

In my decorating, I decide what items I want/need for a room, and then I wait until I find just the right thing. It could take years..... but I wait until I find it, and make do with something else until then. I don't buy anything new or modern; almost everything in the house is antique and vintage.

So I am waiting and searching for the iron bed. And the perfect china cabinet to complement my "new" antique oak dining table (an auction score). I am waiting for a wardrobe, and I am waiting for a sofa for my office/den. It is a lot like being single and waiting for the right guy to come along.

I like the "shabby chic" style, but with rustic touches; like the first and last photos. I don't like everything to be the same boring shade of bright white, and I do not like how some shabby chic decorators go overboard with pink paint and busy floral fabrics on every thing.

I like neutral walls, wood floors, (especially the floor in the first photo) and hardly anything cluttering up my windows. I do not like "drapes" and they make smaller rooms feel choked, dark, stuffy, and overdone. And by smaller rooms, I mean anything smaller than a ball room in an 1700s era English Manor house. I hate wallpaper - in almost all cases. I love a room to have at least one "woven" or wicker accent someplace.
I like to enter a room and have my mind be relaxed - not busy taking in 10,000 details and then feel completely smothered in it.

Have a wonderful, relaxing Sunday! I intend to take in some sunshine and probably ride one of my horses for a bit.

LOL!

Heh heh.... last post title should have been Vintage BLING and Baubles; not "Blig and Baubles." Me and my type-os..... *sigh*