Birthdays,Sailing & Thrifty finds!

I  am having a wonderful weekend so far, and it's not over yet!  Today is my oldest sons birthday!  He is 20 years old!  He will be home tomorrow for a few days, and I will be baking him a cake to take home with him this year.  That's new to us but not such a bad thing.  It will keep me from having too much cake around, which I really don't need right now!  I know what you are thinking, too much cake, is she crazy!  Here is picture of our birthday cake dish.  It is called Emma's Garland by Spode.

There is a logical explanation to my comment about too much cake.  You see, Friday was also my youngest sons birthday.  He was 17.  I was lucky enough to have two August babies!  We used to have combined Birthdays when they were very little but that soon changed and they have each required their own cake for years now.  With their birthday only two days, August 6th and August 8th, that meant a lot of cake around!  This is my youngest sons cake.  He loves chocolate!  This is a chocolate, chocolate chip bundt cake.  This is how I usually serve this cake! 

However, this is how he wanted the cake this year.  I really tried to tell him it would be too much, but he insisted.  Then after one very large slice he said, Mom, your right, I think the chocolate icing was too much! 

 I got this recipe a few years ago from a friend and absolutely fell in love with this cake.  After making one for my family they declared it their all time favorite too, so now it is our new birthday cake favorite.  I love it because it is so easy and tastes like a fudge brownie.  I have to share it with you too!  If you love chocolate you will love this cake.


Chocolate, Chocolate chip Bundt Cake
1 box Moist Yellow Cake Mix
2 small boxes of Chocolate Fudge Instant Pudding
3 large eggs
1/3 cup of oil
1-1/2 cup of water
12 oz of  DARK chocolate chip morsels


Mix first 6 ingredients together then spoon and stir in the morsels.  Bake in greased bundt pan 50 minutes at 350*.  Check and bake further until done if needed. 
 This is a stand alone recipe and really doesn't need any additional icings or toppings IMOP.  Great dessert to take presliced to pot lucks and get togethers.  Enjoy!


Speaking of great food, Friday night we went to a wonderful local Greek restaurant for my youngest sons birthday.  It was delicious, and I am looking forward to dinner out Monday with the oldest son.  Whew!  Can we say..exercise needed!


Saturday we got in a little sailing, it was a beautiful day.  We were trying out a new sail that a club member may be selling to us.

  It worked out well on our boat and is really quite different looking.  It's almost clear made out of kevlar or mylar or something!  Basically this is a sail meant for light air sailing.

  We had light winds on Saturday and managed to average 5 to 6 knots without much heel (that means the boat didn't tip much) which I loved!

  You always have to have some heel to really pick up your speed while sailing but I always feel the less the better since this makes me kinda nervous.  My husband loves to heel the boat but like to please his wife too!  I am very happy about this sail!

 Today we are taking the motor boat out to do some tubing and sightseeing.  Yeah, that's "Ain't Life Grand"  LOL!

 One sight is to my mother house.  She lives on the lake and has finally built steps down to her dock after nearly 16years.  Talk about putting things off, but more on that later.  I'll be taking my camera to share that with you later.


For those of you who are still with me now and haven't gotten bored yet, here's a few things I found while out and about gathering birthday goodies.  I stopped by one of my favorite resale stores and picked up these items.  It's not much but I thought you'd like to see my finds anyway.


I have had my eye on these candle sticks for some time.   They are ceramic and were painted just like you see them.   They are not chipped at all, they are just painted that way to have a chippy look.  

  I am not going to change them at all!  I love the coloring on these!  They were originally listed at $10.00 for the pair but were and additional 40% off.  Not a bad deal for the set!

Then as I was exploring another new booth, I came across these.  They were on the bottom shelf, rather dirty with previous sticky paper price tags that had been torn off.  I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the price tag.  It was $5.00 for the pair! 

 Even the lady at the counter could not believe the price, and was visibly and verbally (ha ha) shocked after reading the stamp on the bottom.  They are stamped Dansk Designs, a number, Sweden.  They have removable hurricane shades that sit on the base. 

 The base itself can be used on either side to hold different sizes of candles. 

 I absolutely love the avocado green color too!  I am definitely seeing some great tables scapes in my future!  Woohoo!


Linking up to the following parties, please be sure and visit both of these if your a bargain shopper too!
 http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/ for Garage Salen Saturday
http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/ for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Hope you all are having as wonderful a weekend as I am!  Thanks for coming by!  Have a great day!