Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been crazy busy at camp (do you see a theme here with me, always busy?) and with life.

This weekend my boy is away at sleep away camp for the weekend. It's like a trial weekend with another camp in the camp group I work for/the kids go to.

Very weird. The house has no fighting but Little Miss is talking my ear off.

Anyone want a sweet 6 1/2 year old girl? (Just for the weekend though).

Anyhoo, I have been busy creating.

Here is a little looksie:

The bracelets I made with glass beads, some with a fimo type bead and some with decorative flower/spacer beads on a memory wire.

It reminded me of my grandma and how she used to love making jewelry and I loved making it with her.

The sign was made from wrapping papers that I bought last year in Wisconsin. It is a map of the city of Paris that I ripped then put onto the painted board (I mixed a paint color that I pulled from the map). I stenciled the saying and then applied two coats of RL Smoke Glaze.

Actually more than that done but I am giving the short version I would be more than happy to post a tutorial and probably will next week when I do my next piece that is in the works.

This saying I saw on a blog after a friend told me about it (it may be from the same source but we can't figure that part out). When I did the search to find it for this post I saw that it has been in many places (Domino Magazine to name one).

I am so proud of my accomplishments in these past few weeks.

I look forward to some more creativity flowing from me. I have a few thoughts in the works. And maybe, just maybe I will get some stuff up on Etsy.

Zizette

The Winner is....

Maggie From The White Farmhouse!!

Maggie email me your address so I can get the clutch and the clips out to you.

Congratulations!!

Thanks again for participating in my giveaway.

Zizette

OOPS

Such a big Sorry.

I had posted my Vintage clutch giveaway with the wrong date.

So So Sorry.

The real date is Tomorrow, Sunday July 25th. My bad. Real bad.

SO in honor of my mistake, I will extend the contest to Tuesday July 27th, 8pm.

If you would like, enter over here for your chance at the vintage bag and Anthro clips.

Again, sorry and good luck!

Zizette

I Might Melt

Today in the North East it is supposed to be dreadfully HOT!

And

We have a birthday party, no scratch that we have a Birthday POOL Party.

That means being OUTSIDE. IN. THE. HEAT.

No Fun. Not to mention the fact that there will be approximately 30 kids there.

Again, not so much fun, actually chaos.

Don't get me wrong I LOVE pool parties but they make me really nervous.

This means I will have to be on guard (watching me kiddies, even though they know how to swim) with so many kids in the pool.

I quite possibly might melt out there.

I will be dreaming of this:

this:

and this:

I can dream can't I? I do love a good pool party but I am dreading this dangerous heat.

We will have lots of fun since there will be lots of food, music and fun.

The kids party is only from 2-5 pm and then we will stay with our good friends and be more relaxed.

The party is supposed to be for our friend's 7 year old (Little Miss' BFF) BUT my friend (the wife) thinks her husband turned it into his 40th celebration since he keeps adding things to the agenda, menu, guest list (OH BOY!).

That part will be fun! We always have GREAT BIG Fun with our friends.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures (hopefully I can post them ;) on here -hehe).

Have a great Saturday and Keep COOL.

Don't forget the contest ends tomorrow - I just realized that I made a mistake on the date - I said Sunday July 22nd and it was supposed to read SUNDAY JULY 25th.

You still have time.

Zizette

You Must Try This Despite the Name

Over the weekend a friend was telling me about a great dessert she makes.

Me, always in for a good recipe says, sure what is it?

She is describing tasty goodness to me and I ask what is it called? She says the first time she smelled it at a friend's house (amazing) her friend told her she could not tell her the name until after she ate it.

But this was not going to be the case but before she told me she did tell me how much EVERYONE loves this new dessert she is making ALL THE TIME NOW (and so is her mom ;) ).

Ok

Are You Ready?

DUMP CAKE

Yes I said it, Dump Cake!

So EASY AND SO GOOD.

Here we go:

2 Cans of Cherry Filling (21 oz cans)

**Some recipes I looked up called for 1 can Cherry and 1 can Pineapple - not so into pineapple so went with double cherry - but you could probably use any filling - next time**

1 box of vanilla cake mix (my friend uses white cake mix but I used Vanilla)

2 Sticks of butter

Preheat oven to 350. Dump cans of filling into greased 9 x 13 PYREX baking dish (do not spread). Sprinkle cake mix over the filling (do not spread, sprinkle). Cut butter up into little slices (I did teaspoon slices) and spread them out evenly over the cake mix. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour (looks golden and bubbly).

Serve warm with Vanilla Ice Cream. It is delish. Can you believe my kids even liked it? A dessert with fruit. It is almost cobbler like. YUMMY!

Enjoy it!

Zizette

Another Give away to Check out!!!

Here's an excellent Give away from one of my favorite sites to visit. Check it out here

52 Flea is the place to be.

It's an awesome give away for for 500th post! Can you believe it?

Good Luck (even though secretly I hope to win).

Zizette

Vintage Giveaway

Hey Ladies.

A great way to start the day is by a giveaway (I'm a poet and I didn't know it ;) ).

So onto the giveaway:

I have this fabulous clutch bag I got on one of my excursions to the fabulous flea market and these awesome clips from Anthro (when I saw them I thought WOW they will be awesome with that clutch!).

As you can see it is a gold toned metal clutch with rhinestone flower designs. One of the clips can be used as a pin too.

I love a good clutch and I wanted to thank all of you for following me, leaving awesome comments, inspiring me to do more and just being there.

I never did a 200 post but then again I am not your average gal and life got ahead of me SO here is a giveaway for you.

All you need to do is leave a comment for 1 entry.

If you blog about it please leave me the link back to your blog and that is another entry.

And if you become a follower (let me know) and that will get you an entry as well.

So, you can have three entries (if you are already a follower and leave a comment you will get 2 entries).

The Giveaway ends at 6 pm Sunday July 22nd, 2010. OOPS - JULY 25th - still have time.

Good luck everyone!

Zizette

Inspiration

I have a fabulous artist friend who I met about a year ago.

She has incredible talent and she has inspired me to dig deep into my own talent and work it.

You can find her here.

She had mentioned something a few weeks ago and then I saw it on another blog. Today we worked together. She giving me some inspiration and guidance on how to work it. Just an offering from the eye of an artist.

I will wait to show you as I did not have my camera with me today when I made my piece and it was still unfinished.

I really like working with EMK because she inspires me to use my talent.

Thanks EMK.

Zizette

Friday Funnies

I love a good road trip, I really do. I have driven cross country and back. One day I hope to tour the USA with my kids, I really think it is cool.

As a kid I went back and forth between San Diego and Phoenix by car to visit my grandparents.

Easy drive, done it a million times.

A few years back I visit my mom in San Diego with my children for the first time. They were 3 and 5.

My mom, wanting everyone in AZ to meet my kids for the first time, suggested we take a two day trip there. Sure, I say.

Now, my mom is not one to have the greatest of cars and on one of my last visits to her, before kids, her own car broke down between Sand Diego and Phoenix, But that is another story.

So, when she suggested said trip I asked if her car was okay. She assured me most definitely is the car ok, she just had it checked. Okay. In fact she said she has NEVER had a problem with this car (famous last words By the way).

Now, since this was the first time I traveled anywhere with my kids by myself I was prepared - DVD player, LeapFrogs, Coloring package, you get what I mean, right?

So we head out. Now we stop in Yuma (halfway between SD and Phx) to use the bathroom at a McDonalds. When we get back to the car, it won't start!

I am in the middle of the DESERT and the F****** car won't start! Are you kidding me? Is g-d playing a trick on me?

So, dear mom, who has a history of bad cars DOES NOT HAVE TRIPLE A. Why should she? This car has always been good to her.

I actually have Triple A but in an effort to not carry so much crap in said wallet I only brought the necessities. I had to call my husband for the number.

Some nice tow company jumps our car, my mom, ever the New Yorker asks him to follow us to the gas station while we pump gas - just in case.

Good thing for just in case, because the car DIED AGAIN!

Now we are stuck in a gas lane with tons of cars waiting and the car is DEAD.

He finally gets us to his garage, where we wait. We waited 4 hours, 4 hours I tell ya. My kids were so good.

There was tons wrong with the car, the battery, the alternator, and blah, blah, blah.

Finally we got back on the road. And finally we got to our little motel in Phoenix in the dead of night. What was supposed to take 5 hours took 12.

Can you say, I wanted to shoot myself? And the funny part here is that when I would recite this story either to someone else or to my mom explaining my trip, she would just laugh. Actually she would Cackle because that is how she laughs.

I look back now and it was funny and I guess that is what road trips are made of but I swear I will NEVER go on a road trip with her again.

You want to know something else even funnier? My mom recently remarried and her new husband travels in a 60 or 70 foot Massive Motorhome with a Prius towed behind them AND they are touring the USA. Can you believe that? I hope her luck has changed since then or I really feel bad for her new husband.

New Recipe Love

A few weeks ago in a back and forth email amongst the family my sister in law's last line was that she tried this fried pickle recipe and she would pass it on to another in our family (I was blindly being cc'd at the time so as to keep up with a plan).

Then about a week ago I am checking out Pioneer Woman's site and I see she has a recipe for Fried Pickles here.

I continued to look through the site and found more recipes dear ole sister in law has introduced to me lately and some were on there (coincidence, I think not).

So I made them tonight.

Can you say DELISH??

I loved them and so did my Foodie, Food snob husband. I did make it with a Sirachi mayo and it was fabulous.

I am so in love. I only did half of a recipe as I was not sure if they were going to be good or not.

I promptly called my sister in law and told her I made them. I told her why I made them and about Pioneer Woman's site - she said she got her recipe from Cuisine Magazine (she gets a lot from them). Hers was also made with Crushed Pretzels and served with a Honey/Mustard type of sauce.

I did make an adjustment to my recipe - I used Panko bread crumbs - which I highly recommend - I liked the crispiness of it better as I crushed them to be more fine and then ran out - so I got lazy and used regular bread crumbs. I think I will stick with the panko next time all the way through.

I sent my friend a text telling her that they were great and unfortunately my family ate them all.

But

my sister in law told me they were good cold the next day, at least to my 17 year old nephew they were.

I will definitely be making those again. (and working on my food photography)

Zizette

It happens every time, they all become blueberries

I love this time of year because it is blueberry season. Especially in our neighboring state of NJ.

While shopping the other day I saw Organic Blueberries (frozen) and was thinking Smoothies. I love Smoothies but I like them with this protein and super greens stuff added.

When I got home my mind changed from smoothies to cobbler. I was going to make it yesterday but it was very hot and the kids ended up in my parent's pool until dinnertime (which we had there since our plans fell through).

I was going to make cobbler and fried pickles.

Even though I was feeling a bit under the weather today I decided than even after having a long day at camp and not well I would cook a dinner for my family.

I did just that.

I cooked. One of their favorites (the kids) Chicken cutlets, Cous Cous and peas and corn in a basil butter sauce (okay not their favorite but I am trying to get more veggies in them).

While they ate I decided to tackle the cobbler.

Blueberry Cobbler

3/4 Stick of unsalted butter (6 tablespoons)

1 Cup Flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk

2 cups blueberries (approx 11 oz)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In an 8x8 baking dish melt butter (I did it on the stove top on low). In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Stir in sugar until combined well. Add milk and whisk batter until just combined. Pour batter mixture into melted butter but do not stir. Pour blueberries into center of batter, do not stir. Bake cobbler in middle of oven for 40 minutes or until golden and berries exude juices.

Serve warm with Whipped Cream or ice cream.

It was fantastic. This kids had it with ice cream. Had I been more ambitious I would have made fresh whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Zizette

Home Shopping

Sometimes the best things are found right at home or at the home of someone you love.

So, I am lucky enough to have "found" some great things right within my own family.

Months back I told my in laws that I wanted a sewing machine. My father in law said to take the sewing machine in the red room (the rooms at their house are identified by color for convenience). I said to him that the sewing machine was ancient and would not be able to sew a thing.

But

This past weekend we were up and I was walking around taking pictures. I came across said sewing machine and got a thought. I asked my mother in law if I could take it, not as a sewing machine but a piece in my house. She said absolutely. I could take it then but she said if she comes down before I come up again she will bring it to me in my father in law's truck.

Check out this baby:

The black Singer Sewing machine flips up. I plan on putting it in my Living room or even possibly my bedroom as we have so much space in there.

I then came home and my cousin, who has a lot of stuff stored at my parent's house offered me her Singer Sewing Machine Table with cushioned chair (will sand down and paint) that will make a home in my spare room some day.

She also gave me two of these chairs for our screened in porch

I will make a template of the seat and ask so nicely of the woodworking guy at camp to cut me a seat that I can the make a cushioned seat from (padding and fabric). She also said she has a matching table for the chairs.

I am super excited about these projects.

And

Today my step-mom told me she is giving me this oriental rug. I am thinking it can go in our family room or bedroom (it has nice blues and such in it). If it works in the family room I will move that rug into the dining room.

We shall see.

Zizette

And the Winner is....

Samsakara!!

Email me your address and I will get those Silly Bandz right out to ya!

Congratulations and thanks for participating.

Zizette

P.S. I have another Giveaway coming real soon....

Don't Forget

the Silly Bandz giveaway is over at 8pm.

Good Luck.

Zizette

Friday Funnies

You know I have been reading a lot of JennieMac who really has some funny stories out there. So much so it got me thinking about some funny things that have happened to me.

Just recently my husband and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary and we were discussing our honeymoon to Tahiti. A fabulous trip. Chickens and all.

We stayed in beautiful over water bungalows. Paradise.

We love adventure. So we had ventured outside of the hotel to a local convenience store/market. We bought ourselves baguettes, Camembert cheese, a local Tahitian beverage, Tahitian Beer and Gatorade (hey we had to keep up the electrolytes).

We head back to our bungalow and enjoy our snacks. A wonderful afternoon. We even went to Bloody Mary's for dinner (Cameron Diaz was there the night before).

The next morning my dearest is thirsty so he asks for his Gatorade. Surely, I being the doting new wife hand him his bottle. He takes a sip and hello a little lizard hits his lip! He had two little lizards swimming in his bottle of Gatorade. Needless to say, my tough new husband FREAKED OUT!

I FREAKED OUT!

Then we both started laughing so hard. We were crying. Needless to say, the Gatorade was thrown out and we knew from then on we needed to close our drinks when we were done. with. each. sip.

Funny thing is, I totally forgot about this story until my husband retold it recently and you know what, we laughed again, really hard.

Do you have a funny story?

Zizette

New Beverage

Over the past weekend my sister in law and were experimenting with drinks since we did not plan ahead and ran out of the the rum for our much anticipated Mojitos and our local (i.e. small) market not having White Cranberry juice for our White Cosmos. So we had to improvise with our liquor cabinet and we came up with something that is Delish and might possibly be our new Fave.

I don't even know what to call it but here is how it goes. We had some Hangar One Mandarin Blossom Vodka at home so that was our base.

We picked up some Lorina Blood Orange Sparkling Soda at the store. The Blood Orange was very sweet so we cut it with Mandarin Seltzer.

I think we basically worked in thirds, a third of each liquid with ice. So very nice and refreshing.

The kids were drinking virgins - they had the nerve to drink up all of my soda!

In any case I love it and now have to go out and get me a little of both.

Enjoy!

Zizette

Silly Bandz (and a little giveaway)

Do you have these bands of wonder?

These silly little rubber bands that come in various shapes, sizes and colors.

You know they wrap around your wrist or the wrist of your child like those old black rubber bracelets made famous by Madonna (ooh, am I dating myself?).

Well, they have taken over my neck of the woods.

The kids were not allowed to wear them in school (at least not in Ms. Moon's class). They are trading them, swapping them, even stealing them.

There are rainbow ones, glow in the dark ones, even tie-dyed ones.

The kids cry for them. Once they were not to be found, now they are all over.

Funny though, I even have one.

A polar bear, that to my surprise late Saturday night I found out Glows!

See we all have a little bit of child left in us.

So in honor of the Silly Band and the child in all of us I am hosting a little giveaway.

Leave a comment and I will put your name in a little giveaway for the kiddies in your life (or yourself). I will be giving away an assortment of Silly Bandz (5 packages) to the lucky winner.

I will pick the name on Friday after 8pm. Tell your friends if you'd like, it's open to anyone.

Good Luck.

Zizette

Tasty Foods

Okay, my sister in law Emily comes up with some outrageous foods.

She hunts down recipes on Epicurious and where ever else she can find something new and interesting.

We are truly a Foodie Family.

So this weekend she did her usual and came up with a really cool recipe.

Peaches and Brie on Cedar Plank

Now I am so not a Peaches type of gal but this was DELISH!

Peaches & Brie on the Grill

Ingredients:

3 Peaches (peeled,pitted and sliced in half)

1 round of Brie

1 Baguette

1 cup orange juice

water

1 cedar plank

On a sheet pan (with a lip) put cedar plank, pour juice and water (as much as to cover plank) and let sit (soak). In the meantime peel and cup peaches. Slice baguette. About and hour or so later, put brie and peaches on plank and put on grill. Also put baguette slices on grill to "toast" them. I would say about 10-15 minutes for the brie and peaches. Remove from grill, put bread in basket. Slice open brie and slice smaller pieces of peach and let people serve themselves.

The brie on the baguette slices with the brie and peach grilled is so amazing!

Like I said, I am not a peach gal but this was great!

Enjoy.

Lake Lovin'

As you may now know the Lake is a favorite spot for our family.

The cousins get together, bond, have fun and the adults really enjoy themselves.

It's almost like camp. In fact we call it Camp Deutsch.

The first time I came to the lake was when hubby and I were dating for about 2 months. It was also where I found out my grandma was dying. Even though she was in AZ and me in CT the lake was so serene to think about her. I did make it out to her in time to say goodbye. Oops I digress this was supposed to be a happy post.

It is so much fun.

The men, including the birthday boy my father in law, wake surfed.

What is Wake surfing you ask?

It is when you surf on the wake from the boat. Basically you are making a wave with the boat and someone rides it. It is pretty cool. When the person might fall you throw them the tow rope so they don't wipe out.

Some made it and some did not but they tried.

In any case we saw fireworks on the boat in the middle of the lake - FUN FUN FUN.

I did not make it tot he Flea Market BUT my mother in law is giving me an antique piece of furniture like no other.

Sorry you will have to wait until later on to see it when I get home from camp and download the picture.

Have a Great day!

Let the Weekend Begin!

Happy 4th of JULY!!!!

Everyone have a wonderful, family filled, fun filled, BBQ

filled and whatever else is on your agenda for the

weekend.

I thankfully have a 3 day weekend.

A break from camp which is great!

We will be heading up to the lake for some great fun.

I am thinking tomorrow early am I will slip away and go to the Flea Market *fingers crossed*

We will be having pulled pork tonight - yum. We have made it before and it is always so good.

I will surely come back with lots of photos as that is one of my missions.

We will also celebrate my father in laws birthday.

Everyone have a safe, fun, relaxing weekend! Enjoy!

Zizette