I love a broth-y, comforting bowl of soup. It’s the perfect meal to snuggle up and read a book with. Ha. Although I must admit when I make chicken noodle soup, I tend to leave the chicken out (or if I’m eating a store-bought version I tend to pick around the chicken). The best part to me? Soup noodles! And homemade soup noodles take it to a whole other level.
The recipe below is for thick and delicious egg noodles—the perfect kind of soup noodles for something like chicken noodle soup. I’ve also heard people refer to this type of noodle as a dumpling or dumpling noodle. They are made of very simple ingredients—likely things you already have on hand especially if you bake much. The key to great soup noodles is the preparation and checking them as the cook since, given they are more rustic than store-bought noodles, you have to take a bit more care when boiling them. But not much. They are truly very simple but make all the difference in a soup like this.
All you need is flour, salt, eggs, and water—that’s it!
If you have a pasta roller or attachments to your KitchenAid mixer, those will come in handy. But if you want to roll this dough out by hand and slice with a pizza cutter, that will work just as well too. Anyone can make these homemade soup noodles.
This recipe below is for the soup noodles (egg noodles) you see here. For the soup, I simply combined chicken broth with some thinly sliced carrots, minced garlic, chopped dill, and some spices, plus salt and pepper. A very, very basic chicken noodle soup (minus the chicken) because I’m weird like that. But you can use these noodles in all sorts of soups or even enjoy all on their own with butter or a sauce. Enjoy! xo. Emma
In a medium size bowl, add the flour, salt, eggs, and water. Stir until a dough ball forms.
On a floured surface, place the dough and knead for 6-8 minutes. Add flour if the dough sticks to your hands, but try not to add an excessive amount (it won't need it). The dough should begin to feel more elastic in your hands as you knead.
Roll the dough out, it can be fairly thick (see photos). Cut the dough into thick strips, a pizza cutter works well here.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the noodles and cook for 4-6 minutes. The noddles will begin to dimple/prune when they are done (similar to your hands when you've been swimming a while). The best way to check is to remove a noodle from the pot and taste it. It should taste cooked, not gummy.
Once cooked, drain the noodles and add to a finished soup or toss in butter or sauce to enjoy.
Recipe Notes
If you wish to save your cut noodles until the next day (or up to at least 3 days later—I've never saved them beyond this, but you probably could), allow them to dry out for 10-20 minutes. Then cover well, or place in a container with a lid, and refrigerate until you're ready to cook them.
Credits // Author and Photography: Emma Chapman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.
My husband and I purchased this 1925 Craftsman home in the summer of 2018, before we realized I was pregnant with our second child. The plan was to do a 2-3 month renovation and not touch the kitchen (spoiler: We touched the kitchen). The entire renovation took my full nine-month pregnancy to complete and involved updating bathrooms, kitchen, and opening up walls. Once we finally moved all of our boxes in and spent the first night, I went into labor the next day. Before this home, we lived in a 1950s home that was mid-century in style. Since this home is from 25 years earlier, I think we’ve naturally adapted into a more classic version of what our style used to be. It was very important to us to renovate our home in a way that it looked fresh, yet age appropriate for 1925 and was still honoring the history of the home.
I’m an interior designer and truly have a love for all styles, so sometimes I struggle narrowing what I would say my personal style is other than eclectic. I like a little Scandinavian, a little vintage traditional, a little mid-century … you get the idea. I would say my style is finding a way to put together all the things I love that make our home feel welcoming, cozy and fun. Many items in our home have been collected through the years by thrifting, estate sales, picked up while traveling (remember traveling?!) or family pieces that have been passed down. I believe people can have more than one style preference and reserve the right to change their minds and evolve in style as they move through different life stages. (cough … kids … cough). One goal I have now that we have children is to create a space our kids (1 and 5) feel comfortable.
Above shows the main family room space as it was when we moved in and how it looks currently. We widened the opening into the dining area, matching the original millwork around the wider opening to create an optional look. We also opened up the wall into the kitchen that you can see through the doorway, where the built in shelving is seen in the before shot.
Our living room (below) has the main fireplace and is just off the main entryway. The previous homeowners used this area as a dining room since they had a larger family, but we love having both living areas on the main floor and utilizing the fireplace while hanging out.
When we first moved in we had everything painted white (if you’ve ever rounded the end of a nine-month renovation and pregnancy … you understand saying “… just paint it all white!”). We have since introduced a historical peach color into the family room and a dark green into the dining area, which really warms it up. I would love to add some wallpaper eventually, but my husband worked so hard making sure all of the walls were totally smooth, I don’t know if I can do that to him just yet. The green velvet chairs are actually from my grandmother’s home and are still the original upholstery, which is really special. The artwork and accessories are a mix of collected items from local artists, vintage pieces and a little IKEA sprinkled in here and there. Our schoolhouse light fixtures were located at an antiques store in a small town about 45 minutes away and we ordered the vintage down-rods online to fit them. I was unsure if they would even fit into the space well when I purchased them, but they were such a good deal I took the risk and they ended up being perfect! One tip I have is mixing expensive, one-of-a-kind items in with normal, inexpensive items. It really seems to make everything feel like it’s somehow more expensive.
All of the rugs on the main living floor of the home are vintage (mainly Turkish or Persian) rugs around 70-100 years old. They really make the home cozy and I don’t regret having them everywhere. Spending a little more on vintage rugs I will keep for the long haul has been my main splurge on furnishings for the space. Another rule I always try to stick to is filling my home with items I truly love that are interesting. I guess that’s why I like old stuff so much, it’s usually one of a kind and has a fun story to go along with it. Having a style that’s inviting and cozy is a big goal for me. I like the more “collected” look while my husband is more of a minimalist. I love that he has an opinion on the design of our home and we really work together to find a happy medium. He helps edit my crazy ideas and I make sure he doesn’t live in a white box. Win-win.
The entryway seen above is the main entrance into the home that opens up into a sitting area and the main staircase. This is where I have a workspace on the opposite wall than pictured. When I’m trying to create a unique space, locating one-of-a-kind items is really important. They are what give a space character and make it custom to each person. I love vintage shopping, stopping at estate sales and keeping items from grandparents that are meaningful. It’s more fun and creates a more unique space that doesn’t look like everyone else’s.
Just for fun, let’s break down where I got the items from the photo above: The green lamps (we have one on either side of the entry) were literally left on the side of the road in our neighborhood (already green and everything!). The cuckoo clock we purchased on a trip to Salzburg, Austria and the chest is a mid-century find and was purchased from IG stories, the teal chair and quilt are garage sale finds, rug is vintage, and bookend is from my grandmother. The gold vase is from a trip overseas, the wicker ducks are vintage, the shadowbox cabin is vintage and the garland was made and sold by a friend in my neighborhood. Curtains … IKEA! It definitely takes more time than running to one store and accessorizing everything on a single Saturday, but when you take your time, everything has a backstory behind it and just feels special.
The before and after above is one of my favorites of the entire renovation! As you can see, the existing refrigerator was blocking one of the large windows in what was the mudroom area off the back door when we purchased the home. There was no place to put a refrigerator in the kitchen configuration, so it had been in this location through the past couple homeowners. We were just going to leave the kitchen like it was, but the flooring wasn’t original and couldn’t be sanded and finished again, so it had to be replaced. Then, we tried to come up with a way to sink the refrigerator into the wall to the left of it, cut a hole in the existing cabinets to put it, and so on. Every idea we came up with was OK, but not ideal. Each idea also involved cutting, patching, fixing, or moving everything around, so we finally just called it and decided to do a whole overhaul and took the kitchen down to studs. We actually listed the existing kitchen (countertops, sink, cabinets, dishwasher) on FB Marketplace and sold it for cash. The buyer even removed it and assumed the responsibility if he cracked the granite. It was great to start from a clean slate, repurpose the old kitchen so it didn’t end up in a dumpster, and also get a little cash to help with the new kitchen cost.
One thing that was a big deal was being able to completely remove the doorway and header into the mudroom and make the ceiling flush to connect into the full kitchen space. Since we were joining a kitchen area and a mudroom, having the ceiling flush and smooth really make the whole space feel like it was connected and not awkward. When we opened up the wall on the left where the walnut counter is, we kept the header and had a structural engineer take a look and get us some drawings since it was load bearing.
We debated whether we should put counters under the large window or should make it a window bench, but I’m so happy we settled with additional cabinet storage. I remember thinking we would never fill all the cabinets … but one instant pot and air fryer later, they’re full. I always vote for more storage when you can add it. (I also keep all of the kids art and craft supplies under that window). I don’t know what I’d do without the extra space now!
I can’t continue the home tour and not address the story of our kitchen floors. We really took a risk with those bad boys and are so happy we did! I said earlier that the kitchen floors weren’t original (added in the ’50s with an addition to the home) and they couldn’t be refinished. We were going to just match the original thin 100-year-old wood like the rest of the home had. Jerry was our sweet late ’70s woodworker and did all of our floor refinishing and some other millwork in the home. He and my husband, Jonathan, actually came up with this idea and texted it to me late at night and said, “What about something like this?” Jerry for the WIN. It’s actually a historical parquet style that just happens to be popular in black and gray tile right now. We felt like we were going with so much white in the kitchen we could really “go for it” with the floor.
The floor is a mix of three types of wood with no stain, just a natural finish. Jerry actually hand cut each piece out of normal wood and assembled it by hand (bless him). We had some left over so we actually used it in the floor of our main floor half-bath as well as our entryway. Sometimes in a renovation you want to appeal to the masses for resale, and sometimes you say, “We may die here and we like this cubic geometric parquet floor.” Jerry also built our dark green, wooden range hood around the existing hood. He built it in a way that it could be replaced if it ever quit working and covering up the normal stainless hood really gave it a custom look.
Another thing I love about the kitchen was the decision to take the tile and cabinets all the way to the ceiling. The cabinet maker and tile guy both weren’t sure about that idea since the ceilings are 9′ tall, but I’m very thankful I stuck to my gut after being asked “Are you sure?” a couple times. I have a little step ladder I just slide over if I need to get to a tall shelf and it doubles as a kid stool to help with cooking. I love the additional storage space and have all my seasonal and party plates up there. Having 6×6 tile all the way up to the ceiling for the entire space actually didn’t cost much more than tiling one of our bathrooms and really gives the kitchen space a cohesive look, especially since we were joining two areas into one. I have already splashed spaghetti sauce above the window over the sink one time already … so see? It’s very practical.
The image above shows the angle from the kitchen into the dining area. I love that there used to be a wall where our kitchen counter is now where we spend so much time crafting and having fun.
All in all, we opened up the two main doorways into larger openings and joined the mudroom to the kitchen here. This created more flow between the family room, dining area and kitchen in this space of the home. What we wanted to do was make sure it felt bright and open, but at the same time, we didn’t want to go through busting down everything to create a home that looked nothing like a historical home on the inside. We were careful to match the millwork around the widened openings to make it look as though it was all original.
Fun fact: Our table is located where the original 1925 kitchen was! Our family room was the original 1925 dining room (our kitchen was an addition to the home in the ’50s).
Thanks for taking the time to look through my living spaces! Just remember, this all took nine months to complete. There were lots of ups and downs, we spent more than we planned to, and it’s all worth it on the other end. Hopefully, this gives you the encouragement to take on that small or large project you’ve been itching to do. You can do it! (or … Jerry can.) xo, Shailey
Credits // Author: Shailey Murphy. Photography: Janae Hardy and Shailey Murphy. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.
The A Beautiful Mess x Etsy collection is winding down, and some of the items won’t be available for much longer. We are so thankful for all of your support around the collection this year! It has been so much fun to see the items you’ve picked and this has truly been one of our favorite things from the year. In case you weren’t aware, we had the amazing opportunity to collaborate with talented Etsy sellers to bring a limited edition collection of home goods and accessories to life. We cannot wait to see what these sellers come up with next, as it has been such a joy to work with them! Some of the sellers have decided to keep their items available, but for others this was truly a limited time run. So if there’s anything you were wanting that’s still available, it’s a great time to grab it before the end of the year.
It’s no secret that we love Etsy and we’ve both sold and bought from their marketplace of handmade artists for many years, and this collection was a dream come true. A huge thanks to Etsy and these sellers for partnering with us to bring this vision to life!
Not only are we beyond happy with how the collection turned out, we LOVED collaborating with such an amazing group of handmade artists. A huge thank you to each and every one of the artists below who contributed to the collection!
Be sure to check out their Etsy shops for more beautiful products!
If you purchased anything from the collection, please, please tag us so that we can see! We’ve loved seeing the items in your homes, that makes this collection even more special!
I cannot believe this is the last Sunday of 2020! I know I’m not alone when I say I’m cautiously optimistic that 2021 will bring some great things. I hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday season so far! We stayed in Nashville for Christmas (our family lives in the St. Louis area) and it’s only the second time we’ve been alone for the holidays. Let’s just say I’ve had a lot of time to online shop and do projects, so I’m going to share some favorites with you today!
I’m SO into this sweatshirt. It’s got a very worn distressed look that I love and it feels incredible. So soft, a little stretchy, and a different shape than your “run of the mill” sweatshirt.
This teddy coat! I absolutely love this coat and have had it for three years now. I also really love the faux-fur options!
The planner I’ve been using for six years!!! I’m such a fan and this version is under $30. Day Designer’s flagship design is hardcover, but I really like this more lightweight version. The “to-do” list and daily schedule are what I love most about this layout.
OMG. We watched the Bee Gees doc on HBO Max (I love them so much) and it was so great. Thinking about getting a Saturday Night Fever vinyl — I mean, that’s kind of essential, right?
Just got this curling iron and I am so in love. My technique is I curl away from my face, allow the curls to set, then brush them out. Voila, perfect waves! I would recommend the 1.25″ if you want a looser wave, but for my fine hair that’s armpit length (what a glamorous way to describe my hair length), the 1″ is perfect and creates a lot of volume and movement.
Last thing is a project—the arched moulding wall in the photo above. I got the tutorial from Hot Pink Pineapples! We love how it turned out and recommend this project if you have a wall that needs some dimension and interest. (Also, here is the lamp we used in this room!)
Over the holiday break, I’m planning on doing some more projects (possibly making over our laundry room and definitely giving our office ceiling fan a refresh) and just enjoying some chill time. It’s a bummer not to be with family, but I know things will be back to normal next year!
We moved in late August and it’s now … *looks at watch* … December. Wow. Four months?! It feels like four years. But it also feels like four weeks. Time has no meaning anymore … that’s my real takeaway.
Unlike other homes we’ve lived in, in the past, we moved into this home immediately as soon as we got the keys. Typically, we would do some renovations first, but not this time. It was a functional choice as was our decision to move—it was one big Covid pivot. The house has some wonderful features that we were able to enjoy immediately, but I knew going in that it was going to take a long time to personalize this home and give it our style—or any style really. It was very much a blank slate, which I’m so grateful for!
So today, I’m going to share with you our first phase of a dining room and also chat about future plans!
The first thing we did when we moved into this house was measure for a table. Our previous home didn’t have space for a long table and I was so excited to get something long. After spending an unreasonably long time looking at different options, I came full circle and ordered the first table and chairs I had originally wanted. We chose the Seno extendable dining room table, which seats eight. For chairs, we picked the Rus dining chairs in light oak. They have a Scandinavian style that I really love. I actually almost ordered them at our last home and then for some reason I didn’t—but I couldn’t get them out of my head.
They are comfortable, easy to clean (!!!) and beautiful!
I kind of want to start collecting tablecloths. Where do you shop for them and do you have any tips? I feel like it would be special to have some for special occasions and family dinners. What do you think? Are tablecloths granny in a good way or a bad way?
Let’s talk about the room and future plans!
I’m hoping to bring some color into the space, likely with wallpaper or possibly paint. Where the stone ledge is (in the carved out nook) I would like to build a full built-in. I like how it can be used to serve food for a big dinner, though, so I want it to still function for that, just maybe with some cabinets below and maybe some open or glass shelves above.
I am taking some time to decide whether or not we will go wood for the floors or keep the tile. My husband really wants to keep the tile and it’s fully heated which is awesome. It feels very cozy to walk on when it’s heated, but it doesn’t feel cozy to me visually and so far I think I would prefer wood. But I am giving it time to see if it will possibly grow on me.
I would LOVE to add detail to the ceilings. Some kind of paneling or white beams. They are very high, but they don’t have much charm or personality.
The biggest design challenge in this part of our home is that it’s very open. From the entry area (where the piano is) you can see into four different rooms. A part of me wants to go crazy with multiple wallpapers. I definitely feel over my all-white-everything phase, but I am still exploring what feels right for this home and this new phase of our lives.
For now, the white is pretty! I’m really glad the house came with all white walls so I could take some time mulling it over.
Let me know if want to hear all the details and thought process behind my rooms or if it’s more fun for you to just see it all at once. Like–Bam! Reveal! I can go either way and I’m always curious which one you enjoy more.
So far, I have scheduled myself to tackle the next phase of this room in February, so it’s coming up soon. So if you need me I’ll be over here obsessing on Pinterest over wallpaper and light fixtures.
Thanks so much for following along! And thank you Article for gifting us this table and chairs.
xx. Elsie
Credits // Author: Elsie Larson. Photography: Amber Kelly. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.
Yep. Your favorite winter drink is now a jello shot! I’m not a huge fan of winter overall (I’m more of a warm weather person overall), so things like peppermint mocha treats help make the winter days a little brighter for me. Another thing that I love is a fun jello shot, so put the two together and you’ve got yourself a winning combination!
Put your room temperature coffee in a pot and sprinkle your gelatin over the coffee so it sits on the surface. Allow the gelatin to bloom for 3-5 minutes and then warm over medium heat (don’t let it boil though) and slowly whisk in your gelatin until it’s all melted and combined. Usually you want jello shots to be more firm if they are standing alone out of a mold, but since these are in a cup you can actually not put the full amount of gelatin in to make them a little softer if you like so they are more “scoopable” with a spoon. Pour your coffee into a bowl and add in your chocolate vodka, coffee liquor, peppermint schnapps, and cream, and stir to combine. Divide your mixture into your cups (I used these little cute cups!) and let set in the fridge for 2-3 hours. If you don’t have chocolate vodka, you can also use regular vodka and add a few tablespoons of hot chocolate mix into your coffee after it’s warmed up with the gelatin dissolved.Once your jello has set, top with whipped cream and crushed candy canes and serve with small spoons for scooping!
How good do those look?! You can also print out this coffee shop logo to cut out and place on your cups if you really want that official look for your shots! I like that you can make small or big batches of jello shots and it really doesn’t take that much more time to do either way depending on your guest list size. So whether you are making these for a party or just a small gathering of a few, I hope they also make your winter a little brighter! Check out our jello shot archives for more fun treats! xo. Laura
Put your room temperature coffee in a pot and sprinkle your gelatin over the coffee so it sits on the surface. Allow the gelatin to bloom for 3-5 minutes and then warm over medium heat (don’t let it boil though) and slowly whisk in your gelatin until it’s all melted and combined (use less gelatin if you want a softer jello shot).
Pour your coffee into a bowl and add in your chocolate vodka, coffee liquor, peppermint schnapps, and cream, and stir to combine.
Divide your mixture into your cups and let set in the fridge for 2-3 hours.
Once your jello has set, top with whipped cream and crushed peppermint and serve with small spoons for scooping!
Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.