Now this is definitely a fabulous find! The Cuisinart Ice-45 Mix-It-In Soft-Serve 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker is perfect for these summer months, as well as entertaining your guests and serving them ice cream.

Product Features

Make professional-quality soft ice cream, yogurt, sorbet, and sherbet right at home with this fully automatic, soft-serve ice-cream maker. Simply pour in the ingredients and turn the dial–no chemicals, salt, or ice required. The unit’s double-insulated freezer bowl holds cold temperatures and makes it possible to produce up to 1-1/2 quarts of ice cream in just 20 minutes. Three built-in condiment dispensers allow for adding sprinkles, mini M&Ms, chocolate chips, and other favorites, mixing them right in to frozen desserts as cones and bowls get filled. A unique pull handle sends ice cream swirling out like with an authentic soft-serve machine. Other highlights include a cone holder that holds a stack of pointed or flat-bottom cones, a drip tray, nonskid feet, and removable parts for easy cleaning. An instruction book with recipes comes included. The ice-cream maker measures 10-1/2 by 12-1/2 by 19-4/5 inches and carries a three-year limited warranty.

Sprinkles, mini-chips and more–the choice is yours. Just pull the tabs on one, two, or three condiment dispensers to add your favorite mix-ins as you dispense into your cone or bowl. Makes any frozen dessert extra delicious.

Bringing the Good Life Home

Cuisinart products are designed to make life delicious all day long. Specialty items, like our Mix-It-In soft serve ice cream maker, offer today’s consumers a variety of menu options, and fun and easy new ways to entertain family and friends.

Cuisinart first came into home kitchens over 30 years ago when it introduced the now legendary food processor. People discovered that routines could be broken and creative cooking quickly became part of the new lifestyle. Preparing fresh ingredients with products that offered easy and interesting new techniques meant healthier meals and more free time.

Today Cuisinart develops products to make every meal memorable. From breakfast toast and coffee to elegant five-course dinners, the preparation and cooking have become a pleasurable part of the total experience. Today’s relaxed lifestyles and the convenience of Cuisinart products make it easier than ever to Savor the Good Life, right at home with family and friends.

I had the chance to review the book Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets and it couldn’t have come at a better time for me. This book was exactly what I needed at this point in my life.

I am pretty certain the author, Lisa Quinn, could make any topic funny and interesting. She is funny. No, not  just funny, but hysterical and makes the topic of housework worth reading about.

Here’s a description of the book:

In the tradition of Erma Bombeck and Peg Bracken, author Lisa Quinn Emmy Award-winning television host and recovering Marthaholic gets real on the follies of housekeeping. Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets is a crash course in Slacker Chic 101 that will have over-extended women everywhere laughing out loud and throwing in the towel the dishtowel, that is. Full of shortcuts and tricks for cleaning, decor, and entertaining, such as: the top 10 things you have to clean if you have company coming in 30 minutes; interior finishes that hide the most dirt; 17 meals made from a deli chicken; and much more, this wickedly funny guide helps women create the life they want without all the hard labor and without compromising style.

Not only did I walk away with some great housework tips, but I walked away feeling good about my house and myself. Life is too short to worry about every little nook and cranny in your home.

When it really comes down to it, who the heck wants to be friends with the mom who’s house ALWAYS looks perfect and ALWAYS seems to have it together? No one! And guess what? She doesn’t ALWAYS have it together. There’s a screw loose in her head somewhere just like the rest of us, she just knows how to cover it up better.

Life’s Too Short to Fold Fitted Sheets helps women to realize we need to loosen up. We need to stop trying to be super housekeeper and focus more on what’s really important. You know what’s more important than dusted baseboards? Relationships. You know what’s more important than a 5 course meal? Actually enjoying the people who are in your home at that moment and not wishing they would leave because you spent all of your energy getting ready for them to come over.

Our world is turning into a world of people who want transparency and realness. I want to come to your house and see dust and toys scattered. You know why? It just makes me like you better and want to be around you more.

In Lisa Quinn’s book, you will find humor and valuable information in chapters such as Less is More, Slacker Chic 101, Reality Check on Entertaining and The Half-Assed (Houseguest0 Hostess).

It’s truly a great read and one that has a permanent place on my bookshelf.

It’s time to get outdoors and enjoy a life of leisure! If you’re contemplating enjoying a summer of entertaining friends in the backyard, or relaxing with a favorite beverage on the patio after a hard day’s work, you’ll need a great patio furniture set to make the experience as restful and fun as it can be.

Your yard and patio are part of your home – an extension of the indoor part of your home. People who love to entertain outdoors and who pride themselves in having an outdoor living space that is as attractive and comfortable as the inside of their home need to have good patio furniture.

Is it time for you to upgrade your patio furniture?

The bestselling outdoor patio furniture sets are those that bring beauty, comfort and quality to your yard, while being priced reasonably. And for the most convenience, you can find the bestsellers in patio furniture available online. This means that you don’t have to go to a busy store and then lug them home. You can have patio furniture delivered directly to your doorstep.

Let’s look at some examples:

The Strathwood St. Thomas Cast Aluminum Deep Seating Collection is high on the list of most-wanted and most attractive patio furniture sets. This cast-aluminum set is lightweight, but very durable, offering a classy look with thick, comfortable cushions that are designed to withstand weather. Scrolled detailing gives a rich, upscale look to the ensemble, which can include armchairs, loveseat, motion chairs, round table and fire pit, and a luxurious chaise lounge.

If clean lines in wood are more to your liking and style, you’ll find that Strathwood’s Gibranta patio furniture set offers the ultimate in attractive functionality. The set is made from eucalyptus wood, which is very sturdy, featuring high weather resistance.

Its warm color resembles teak. Removable cushions make your outdoor relaxation time comfortable and decorative. This set includes a two seated bench, coffee table and armchair. Perfect for enjoying morning coffee or evening drinks on the deck.

A sleek, modern look can be yours with the Strathwood Balboa collection of patio furniture. This ensemble features four and one half inch-thick cushions that give new meaning to the word “comfort.”

Simple lines and deep seats give the set a modern appeal. An ottoman, chaise and armless and corner chairs give you several options for putting together a great-looking patio group. Made from durable and weather resistant eucalyptus wood and finished in a mahogany tone, you’ll love the many ways this set can be used to decorate your patio.

Don’t let the summer go by with your old, rickety, and outdated patio furniture. Entertain your friends in a setting that is comfortable and inviting. The bestselling outdoor patio furniture sets are all available with the touch of a finger to your computer keyboard, and deliverable to your home. You’ll be enjoying iced tea and the sound of the breeze on your new patio furniture set in no time!

It’s summer and it’s time for barbecue! The Weber Portable Gas Grill is exactly what you need to bring real barbecue flavor to your favorite meats, poultry, fish, and even vegetables. Foods grilled over a flame taste great and really add to your summer outdoor festivities.

If you love to grill, but want something that is compact and portable, the Weber Portable Gas Grillis perfect for the back yard, patio, or for taking to the beach or park. Forget about charcoal, go for gas and grill juicy burgers on a small, but powerful grill that cooks quickly and evenly. Your family get-togethers and afternoons spent at the park will be even more fun with the taste of delicious barbecued foods!

Weber is the name in grills, and even though the portable Q 100 gass grill is small, it’s mighty. Powered by propane, the 8,500 BTU burner, made from tubular stainless steel, does a great job of evenly heating a sizable cooking area of 189 square inches. It’s the ultimate in portable grills with lid-open dimensions of 16” by 27” by 23 and one half inches.

If you’re looking for something sturdy and durable, no worries! This grill is sturdy. The body and lid are made from strong cast aluminum, and the frame is glass-reinforced nylon.

Ignition is easy with a push of a button, and regulating heat is a snap with an adjustable burner valve. Your grilling experience will be perfect thanks to the porcelain-enameled cast iron grates, and drip ducts that channel meat drippings away, reducing flame-ups.

Use a 14.1 or 16.4-ounce propane tank to get the party started, and check out the recipe book that comes with the Weber Portable Gas Grill for some great barbecue ideas that your family and guests will rave about for days afterward. And don’t forget about the five-year limited warranty, which truly shows that Weber is confident that you’ll be using and loving your Q 100 gas grill for a very long time.

The days are getting longer. People are spending more and more time outdoors each day. Camping trips and days at the beach beckon. Don’t miss out on the fun and convenience of this small, portable, and very capable gas grill!

Pick up the Weber Portable Gas Grill today and make plans to invite your favorite friends over for a cookout this weekend. In fact, why not plan to make regular weekend cookouts at your home a summer tradition?  Dust off the picnic table and dig out your best potato salad recipe.

Tasty burgers, steaks, chops, fish and grilled veggies are the order of the day when you get out your Weber Q 100 gas grill and get cooking! It’s summertime and time for grilling on your Weber Portable Gas Grill.

Spring, summer and fall are perfect seasons to enjoy the outdoors – not only during the day, but into the evening as well. If you love to entertain outdoors or relax outside in the evening, watching as the stars come out one by one, you’ll love the idea of adding a fire pit to your deck or yard for elegance, atmosphere and a warm and cozy spot to tell stories and share memories by.

The days of building archaic stone pits where you make a small fire in the back yard are gone. If you desire a bit more sophistication for your evenings, the CobraCo Round Fire Bowl will add beauty and style to any setting.

Most people these days love the idea of being able to use their patio, deck and backyard as outdoor extensions of their homes, and a fire pit is one feature that makes evening entertaining so much fun.

Imagine lighting a crackling fire in an elegant copper-finish and cast iron footed bowl. Think about how appealing that would look like from the inside of your home, and how your guests would be drawn out to see it and enjoy themselves by it.

The 29.9-inch diameter of the CobraCo Round Fire Bowl allows for a fire large enough to cast a bit of warmth, dissipate darkness, and create an atmosphere of comfort and friendliness. There’s a mesh screen that can be used over the bowl, and a vinyl cover to protect it when not in use.

Because of its size, this elegant fire pit is easy to take along to the cottage, camping and on vacation. And it’s simple to clean, too. Think of all of the ways you can use a fire pit this year.

In the spring and fall, it can add some warmth and light to cooler nights, making it possible to get the most outdoor enjoyment from your yard or deck as possible. In the summer, it becomes the centerpiece for a fun evening of toasting marshmallows or just mellowing out.

The bowl shape of your fire pit allows heat to dissipate in all directions. This means that in the heat of the summer, it won’t be as searing hot as a campfire, and in the cooler seasons, it will still shed some comforting heat if the evening temperatures drop.

A fire pit looks great, too – even when not in use. The pleasing curve of a round bowl fire pit is attractive in any setting. And bowl fire pits are not messy because they enclose all the ash in one easy to clean area. The copper finish of the CobraCo Round Fire Bowl is subtly sophisticated and compliments wood, stone and brick.

If you’re looking for a way to add a special touch of elegance and style to your outdoor living space, a fire pit is the way to go. For beauty and a way to extend outdoor entertaining into the evening, fire pits are perfect.

Spell it out loud and proud with this festive hanging “Happy Birthday” banner. Pom-pom embellishments add an extra touch of pep, and the sturdy felt and satin material ensures that it can be reused for many parties to come!

Why do I love this? It can be used year after year! No more being wasteful and purchasing a Birthday Banner, using it for a few hours and then throwing it away. This one can be used over and over again. When you are done with it, pass it on to a friend!

You can purchase the Felt Happy Birthday banner at Giggle.

Most likely, since summer is around the corner, families will be planning those backyard bar-b-ques and parties. One essential party must-have is music! I had the chance to review the WOWee One Power Bass Portable Speaker.

Our daughter had her 6th grade continuation yesterday, which meant a party afterwards! We had ice cream sundaes, set up a slip-n-slide and hooked up the WOWee One Power Bass Portable Speaker to the iPod Touch. The sound on this speaker is absolutely amazing and crystal clear. No more lugging a big stereo outside and around the house.

I have to admit, when I first saw it and opened the package, I had my doubts about it. It was so…tiny, but boy does it pack a punch! At $79, this is a great investment. The uses for it are endless – parties, every day home use, camping, vacations – and on and on.

Here are a few more details from their official press release:

The WOWee One, the most innovative, pocket-sized, rechargeable speaker for mobile devices, iPods, laptops, iPhones, netbooks, iPads and personal game systems, is now available in North America. The self-contained $79 device lasts up to 20 hours before recharging and delivers room-filling sound by deploying patented technology that turns whatever the WOWee ONE sits on into a dynamic subwoofer.

The WOWee One unleashes your music by allowing you to pump out tunes or other audio without it sounding thin or faint. A wall, window, desk, table, cooler or cardboard box…even the floor joins the party with a WOWee One on it.

The WOWee One uses a unique dual-speaker solution in a single unit that houses an internal rechargeable battery to deliver thumping lows and clear highs. A top-firing speaker provides high-range fidelity for crisp sound reproduction. A down-firing speaker uses patented Gel AudioTM technology to project low-frequency sound waves that turn adjoining objects or surfaces into an on-the-fly subwoofer. For $79 the WOWee One delivers more dynamic sound right out of the pocket than products costing and weighing more than three times as much.

The WOWee One boasts a dynamic response range of 40Hz – 20KHz and reaches 90 decibels yet weighs only 7 ounces. The unit measures just 4.7″ by 2.4″ by 1″, ideal for a pocket, handbag, backpack, or glove compartment, so it’s always handy.

The WOWee One connects to the audio/headphone jack of any mobile device and comes with a standard 3.5mm audio cable. The unit also features a mini-USB port for charging or powering the WOWee One when connected to a standard powered USB port. A self-adhering and easily removable bracket that mounts the WOWee One to walls or windows is also available.

They say it holds a charge for about 20 hours and that is very accurate. We’ve been using it since receiving it about a week ago and it finally gave out at the party yesterday. All the kids were asking, ‘What is THAT? It’s awesome!’

If you want a speaker that is going to give you quality sound, incredible bass and is little enough to take anywhere, I would highly recommend the WOWee One Power Bass Portable Speaker! Check out more about this product at their official website.

Disclaimer: Review materials provided by WOWee One. We were not compensated and gave an honest review of the product.

Progressive dinners are one of my favorite ways to throw a party. This is a way for everyone to get involved and not leave the party planning all up to one person. It’s also a way for people to open their homes for the holiday season and share a bit of their lives with friends and family.

What is a progressive dinner? It’s a chance for more than one person to play host and provide food for the party. For this party there is some traveling involved, which makes is so much fun. The party travels from house-to-house. One house provides the appetizers, one house provides the dinner and one house provides the dessert. Everyone travels to the first house and shares appetizers together. When you are finished with the appetizers, everyone loads up in their cars and heads over to the next house for the main course. After the main course is finished, it’s time to travel to the last house for dessert.

If you have a large number of people, then you can delegate the responsibilities a little more. For example, one person may not like to cook but she would love to open up her home. Someone else, who is not having everyone over to their home, could agree to bring the dessert. Everyone pitches in and just focuses on having a great time.

Progressive dinners can be fancy or casual. You can include the kids or leave them at the house with a babysitter. Another idea is to have a few people watch all of the kids at the last house that is serving the dessert, feed them dinner there and let the kids join in for the last course.

You could also have a progressive dinner at local restaurants in your town. This can be a lot of fun also and it involves no cleaning of the house or dishes. Use your imagination and just have a blast!

Clover Cupcakes

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up on March 17th and this is really a fun day to throw a party for your kids’ friends. There are so many cute ideas from recipes, to crafts and games. Family Fun has some fabulous ideas for throwing the perfect St. Patty’s day party!

Recipes:

Shamrock Cupcakes

Pot of Gold Soup

Kiwi Lime Pie

Clover Cupcakes

Crafts:

Wee Leprachaun

To Catch a Leprachaun

Where could you throw a St. Patty’s Day party? Bring a batch of The Luck O’ the Irish cupcakes and some Little Leprechaun coloring sheets to their class. Or, invite a few of their friends over to your house and cook up some Shamrock Toasties and St. Pats Potato Candy. End the party with a St. Patty’s Day Scavenger Hunt! You can see the entire gallery of ideas here.

Cover the table with a green table cloth, set out green and white plates, napkins and cups and you will give them one party to remember.

I am so excited because this is Home Fabulous 365’s very first contest! And what a fun one it is.

Holiday parties will have a new element of cheer this year with the introduction of Hallmark Personalized Photo Plates. Several holiday designs are available to help the host/hostess create one-of-a-kind plates perfect for parties, decorating or serving everyone’s favorite holiday treat! The plates give consumers the ability to design attractive, high-quality, paper plates with full-color photos and integrated text.

Here is a very cute Christmas plate.

Colorful holiday motifs are available for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. In addition, more than 250 plate designs including birthday, wedding, graduation, pet birthday, baby celebration, retirement and anniversary, are all available exclusively at www.HallmarkParty.com. Consumers can add their own photos, write their own personal message or choose from among more than 700 unique suggested messages.

The durable, nine-inch paper dinner plates come in packages of 10. Each package retails for $10. The plates are shipped directly to the customer after the five-day production period. Customers have the option of one-day, two-day or ground shipping.

Personalized Plates are available in three different configurations: photo only, text only, or photo and text. Consumers can enhance the party experience by selecting solid-color accessories such as dessert plates, cups, napkins and table covers at www.HallmarkParty.com to go with the personalized dinner plates.

Take a look at their New Years and Thanksgiving plate designs.

I am definitely ordering a set (or two) of these for Christmas this year. We have family coming in from all around and I am the hostess. Very exciting!

Now, about that contest! I have $50 in gift credit to HallmarkParty.com to give away to one lucky Home Fabulous 365 reader. Here are the rules:

* One entry: Just leave a comment on this post!
* One entry: Tweet about this contest on Twitter!
* One entry: Blog about this contest on your blog!
* Contest starts today (November 13) and ends on November 27th.
* Contest only open to U.S. residents.

A special thank you to the folks at Hallmark for hosting this great contest! Good luck everyone.