For the past year, I’ve enjoyed linking up to many amazing link parties! I love visiting the posts shared by such talented bloggers, and I always find such inspiration from their recipes, home decor and creative creations. 💕
Plus, many wonderful bloggers have been sweet enough to feature my posts these past few months, and thereby help me in my own blogging endeavors. You can see some of those fantastic blogs and places I’ve been featured HERE.
Now, a year and half after I began The House on Silverado, I’m excited to host my own link party! If you’re a blogger, I invite you to link up your posts that focus on all things for home and happiness. I’m partial to vintage and farmhouse style, but I’d also love to see your delicious recipes, cocktails, travel destinations, gardens, home decor, and DIY creations!
And if you’re not a blogger, be sure to check back here each Sunday, so you can visit the links to all kinds of fun and fabulous blogs, and discover new ideas to inspire you. We all need a little more of that in our lives right now, don’t you think?
My Weekly Recap…
Back to school on Friday
I’m down to the last few days of summer before heading back into the classroom again for the first time since March. I live in Iowa, and there’s a lot going on around here in regards to what back-to-school should look like. I spent the majority of my summer taking more graduate classes, and serving on two “Return to Learn” committees for my district, and yet we still don’t exactly know what to expect. To say I’m feeling more anxiety than I ever have in my entire life would be putting in mildly.
Trying to keep up…
Since back-to-school is coming soon, I’m trying desperately to get the last few things on my summer to-do list finished up. As a result, not as much cooking has been happening lately.
We’ve ended up with take-out a couple of nights as a result.

Hello Fresh
To help with what I am expecting to be a very stressful back-to-school transition, I decided to try out one of the meal kit delivery subscriptions, at least just to see us through the first few weeks of school.
I’ve never done this before, because both my husband and I enjoy cooking, especially together. About 95% of the time, I find it more relaxing to make a dinner at home than to dine out. But, I’m also aware that when the craziness of schedules gets ahold of us, the planning and shopping will be the challenging parts.
Rather than having to make last-minute stops at the grocery store (which we are still trying not to do because…pandemic) or ending up ordering out because we’re exhausted and don’t have a plan, I thought maybe this would serve as kind of an “in-between”. We can still do the enjoyable part of cooking together, with a glass of wine and some music playing, but not have to do the planning and shopping because the ingredients will be delivered right to our door weekly.
It’s cancellable at any time, so I figured there really isn’t anything to lose. I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts about it with you once we get started. The first delivery comes at the beginning of next week–my first full week back to work.
If you also need a helping had to get dinner on the table during this crazy time, you can use my referral code to give Hello Fresh a try and get $40 off!
Trying to finish cleaning out my parents’ house
All summer, we’ve been working on trying to sort through the contents of the house I grew up in, where my parents lived for close to 50 years. It’s been exhausting and overwhelming, but at the same time, I’ve brought home so many sweet treasures. You can read about my grandmother’s/ great-grandmothers’ Vintage Embroidered Flour Sack Towels here.

Gardening
All the flowers and the vegetable garden are doing well. My Little Limelight Hydrangeas are beautiful right now. They are right at my favorite stage where they are beginning to turn from light green to pink. I love being able to go right outside and cut some to have in the house, too.

After making a dozen jars of Easy Refrigerator Pickles, and countless salads, the cucumbers are slowing down. I did find this hidden giant the other day, though. I literally have never seen a cuke so big. 😳

My tomatoes have been slow to turn red, but are just now getting there. I fully expect to be bombarded with ripe tomatoes very soon. All the better for making more of these delicious Roasted Tomato Flatbreads.
And look at this! My $5 roses have come a long way!

Office Makeover
The office makeover is almost done. Here’s a little sneak peak of the most recent piece I’ve been working on for the wall. I can’t wait to show you the whole thing.

That’s all for me this week. I can’t wait to see what all of you have been up to! Link away!


The House on Silverado
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Congratulations on the new party! I so enjoy visiting them and I’m thrilled when anyone comes to visit. Cheers to an exciting year!
Thanks so much, Sandra! I hope you’ll be “playing along”. 💜. Do you have a link party too? I’d love to link-up with you!
I don’t host a party myself and hadn’t really considered it. Perhaps I should!
Oh so fun! Just added your link party to my list.
I’m so excited! Your posts are always lovely, so I’m happy that you’ll be joining in!
Hello Niky. I am so glad I found your link party. I added it to my link party page so that it has a constant presence and so that I can find it again to come back and share some of my DIY projects. Thanks for hosting. Wishing you the best in the school year!
It’s so nice to “meet you”, Jasmine! Thanks for sharing your lovely hand-made items at the Sundays on Silverado Link party! I enjoyed reading about them!
-Niky 💜
I’m so excited about this! I love linky parties and I always love your posts. Also, I had no idea you were a teacher, too! I’m also struggling to be ready for whatever may come this year and am happily blogging away until then. Thank you so much for starting this party! I plan to be a regular!
Rachael, I’m so happy that you’re joining in! Your blog is BEAUTIFUL, and always a source of inspiration! I totally relate to your comment. My blog has been a great source of happy distraction from all the chaos of the past few months. I have no idea what we’re heading into next, though, with full-time in-person school starting next week. 😳
On a lighter note, I have had a love of white milk glass for quite some time, but have recently begun collecting more white hobnail pieces. So beautiful!
Thanks again for joining my party!
-Niky
Congratulations, Niky, on your new link party, so glad to be here! Schools are reopening here in September and there is a lot of anxiety with teachers and parent’s around the PPE protocols, especially for elementary students. I can only imagine how nerve-wracking it must be going back to the classroom.
Marie, HOORAY! You are my very first link-up at my new party! I am so excited to have you participate and to offer a link-up in return, since I’ve enjoyed being a part of all the parties you host!
Thanks for expressing your kind words about school. It’s going to be a difficult and challenging year to say the least. 😞. That’s why we need fun LINK PARTIES and blogs, to give us a fun distraction, right?!
Thanks for stopping by and for joining the party!
-Niky