Nest Decorating & Designs by Tamar

Crispy curry chicken tenders recipe

I don't usually give out recipes on my blog (I should probably do it more)  but I've had many requests from friends for this one recipe, so here it is :

First of all I start with organic or natural chicken breasts that I slice into thin strips about 4-5" long and about 1"-2" wide.

I put them in a bowl and mix them with about 4 tablespoons of oil that I mix with 1 tablespoon of curry, 1tsp of salt and some freshly grated black pepper. The  curry powder really makes it super yummy!

Then I have a little assembly line going:

Chicken, flour, egg, bread crumbs (or Panko)

 

first cover with flour

 

then dip lightly into the egg

until it's covered with egg on all sides but still has the flour underneath

then dip into breadcrumbs and completly cover and really press those breadcrumbs in with your fingers (that also flattens the pieces and makes them extra crispy).

 

Then into the pan, Med-High heat , when they are nice and golden on one side flip to the other side.

I pat them dry with lots and lots of paper towels to get the oil out.

This recipe is my sons absolute favorite dish! the curry in the oil mixture really gives it an extra something, and the flour makes them super crispy.

xox

All about the kids GIFT GUIDE and an awsome Giveaway

I've chosen 28 exciting items and it's ALL about gift giving and this time it's for the kids! On the bottom of the list you'll find a giveaway of one of my own designs...

Putting together this list really reminds me of my days a creative director, can you tell I still miss it a little?  I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

T

 

1. Girls tutu pettiskirt  $40 by Rocket and Bear 

2. 3 tip Tops $6 by Goose Grease

3. Squirrel print $10 by Berkley Illustration

4. Little dollies print $25 by kate Endle

5. Adorable recycled sweater felted cashmere pink slippers $48 by WoolyBaby

6. Embroidered Alphabet cubes $28 by Pilosale

7. A hand knitted dress $90 by Oishii knits

8. Scallop bunting $32 by My Favourite Dress

9. World Metro map pillow $36 by Atelier Pompadour

10. 3 piece pom pom decorations $15 by Party Poms

11. Insulated patchwork Oilcloth lunch bag $24 by Julie Meyer

12. Peppermint striped little Fern animal ornament/toy $35 by Fern Animals

13. Gorgeous sweater pants $26 by Sewu

14. A wooden airplane Yo Yo $4 by Goose Grease

15. Francine doll with removable capelet $45 by Cozy Blue

16. Kitty individually custom-molded from nontoxic wax crayons (6) $18 by Kittybblove

17. Hand turned hard maple top (1) $3.50 by UrbanTurn

18. The beautiful Delphine doll is $82 by Ninon

19. Two yo Yo's of your choice $7 by yet again....Goose Grease...

20. Children's textile bracelet/cuff $55 by  Kjoo

21. Set of 3 rainbow of recycled sweaters balls $45 by Handmadepretties

22. Made from recycled, wool sweater scraps a little girl cardigan $30 by Victoria Velting

23. This Bookbag is specially designed for kids! perfect for school $89 by Moop

24. An adorable kids size 10 skirt made from scraps from many sweaters $38 by Handmadepretties

25. Cutest Soft toy/doll character $24.50 by Moozle Home

26. Sweet-faced Scandinavian Matroshka doll $34 by Ravenhill

27. Felted wool Forest Fairy Hair clip $12 by Shoozie Shoes

28. And finally an item by moi... this $22 worth pouch is the last one is stock so I decided to do a little giveaway on Sunday (Tuesday the 24th) and send it as a gift to a winner that will be chosen at random, let me know in your comment if you would like to be added to the list.

The pouch measures 9"X4", made from 100% cotton flannel with a cute Popeye cartoon print, fully lined with white polka dot on red cotton fabric and interfacing for a sturdier feel and durability.The red zipper has grosgrain ribbon for an easy pull and there is a long tab with a top quality antiqued brass key ring and large lobster clasp that can be connected to a backpack, bag or a binder ring. 

Can't wait to hear from you!!

xox

Our baby is 18!

I can't believe it, yesterday was Jonathan's 18th birthday, I can still remember everything about being 18, it was a minute ago and a life time ago.
We are watching him grow into an amazing young man, soft spoken and talented, a lover of nature and art, a passionate photographer and a kind, helpful and great big brother!
Happy Birthday my sweet.

Here are a few samples of his amazing photographs:

Have a fantastic week xox

 

Back to school and a little house tour

The boys decided they want to wake up on their own this year, so far it's been two days and they are doing a very good job at it, it's hard to believe how big they are...since I'm not an early riser their request is actually fine with me, but secretly I lay in bed and I'm ready to jump out at any moment in case of need, they managed to do it all on their own and didn't miss the bus or need me at all, is it actually a sad story? are my morning motherly duties over for good? I can't decide,I have mixed feeling about it.

This week I took some new photos of the dining room and living room back wall, I am dreaming of a new shelving system, one that will run from side to side and all the way up to the ceiling.Looking at the photos it doesn't seem like such a priority anymore, but I hope we can get around to building something nicer then these Ikea Billy system shelves we've had for 20 years now,they must have moved 5 times with us!

A gilmpse of the dining room (with a bit of my studio space spilling in on the left). The branch on the wall is actually a light fixture my husband built, it's covered with tiny lights in pink and white and looks very cool at night.The white hutch was a horrible brown I painted white, distressed and changed the knobs to mismatched ones.

The living room back wall with the Ikea shelves,we painted the fireplace matt black this year and hanged a smaller painting of my mom's, this one is of three flowers which reminds us of our three boys, I like the scale much better now.

A new photo of the white slip covered vintage chair, the dog's favorite spot...

I hope you enjoyed the little "house tour" of the day...xox

A few end of summer thoughts

I'll be totally honest, I am beginning to feel that "thank- god -it's- the- end- of- the -summer" twitch again......I know, it's terrible, but I really can't wait for school to start. I need my life back, some private time, a few hours of knowing exactly were the boys are, I want the house to be quiet after 10pm again, I don't want to get texts "I am chilling with friends..." what does that mean anyway...do I want to know? I am tired of worrying about teenagers driving and I really can't hear those words "Mom, I am bored" anymore!!!!! you would think at that age they would figure out what to do with their time? well, not really. We did it all, the cooking, the painting, the finding some great books, the traveling, the shopping, the movies etc...not that it wasn't and still is a great summer (a little too rainy up here in Vermont though..) I just really need some reorganizing time, creative time, contemplating time...
I want to be a soccer mom again, I want quiet homework time, dinner at 7pm, out the door at 7:30am, friends on the weekends, 21 days to go and counting...

Oh my gosh, this post sounds a little harsh, not to worry, I still love them to pieces (my kids that is...) but don't you feel like that at the end of the summer too??? I wish I had this very funny cartoon from the New Yorker I once saw, it shows a few moms dancing away as the school bus pulls away on the first day of school...it cracked me up...

On a totally different  note, I am still trying out my new camera :it's a Canon Rebel XTI by the way, have I written this already?
Tried some transparencies today, here are a few ingredients for our pasta dinner:

still life

tiny herb cuttings from the garden:

Home Sweet Home

We are back from NYC, my it's good to be back home!
I think I am finally realizing that I might not be a city girl anymore...it was mobbed, millions of people everywhere, museums were packed, the streets were packed, even the park was packed, I guess everyone was outside because of the lovely weather,but after a while I started feeling that weird sense of being in some kind of battle....it made me remember why I moved to Vermont ...
Now don't get me wrong, I love NYC, I still enjoy my visits, it's good to feel the city buzzz, we saw some great exhibits at the MOMA, visited the New Museum which is a remarkable building, ate at Balthazar in Soho, walked up and down Spring st. and Broadway, went to the new Muji, and CB2 and I got to visit Anthropologie and H&M.
Traveling with three teens can be a little challenging at times... when they were little they all enjoyed a lot of the same things and we where very clear on what to do and what to see,I still have the urge to go the the Children's Zoo, the Merry- go- round in Central Park and the Natural History Museum... these days it's a totally different story, The boys were pulling in very different directions and it was a little over whelming at times....not to mention the three of them sitting and texting in the restaurant...uggggh!!! The only thing we seemed to all agreed on and I know it's totally wonderful, we ALL love art and food...
I managed to squeeze a little bit of shopping in too and when I got home I realized everything I bought matched...how funny.
Yellow glasses from Anthropologie

A stuffed cat from Pearl River

Tiny wooden spoons from Pearl River

An amazing scarf from H&M

Pretty Bobby pins from Anthropologie

A tiny pouch from fabric that looks like "Liberty of London"...maybe it is?

and here they are all together, see how they all match...

OK, back to work, I have tons of orders waiting to be made and sent.
xox

Nostalgia

I was going through some old photos, the boys wanted to see how their mom looked like as teen....I really should take the albums out more, we had such a good time.
Suddenly I came across this photo of my mom (in the chair) my sister (holding the dog) and I, in our house which suddenly looks so funky and fun to me. I had to share it with you. Notice my mom is covered with some fantastic piece of Marimeko fabric and sitting on an Eams lounge chair (my dad still has that chair) there is a Marimeko table cloth too, I remember it so well, it was made of oil cloth, I wonder if you can still get it....the photo was taken in 1970.

Happy Birthday Mikey

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Today is Mikey's 13th birthday, he was born in Jerusalem on Valentines day!

We love you sweetie!

Full house

It's snowing and snowing, this year is turning into a real classic Vermont winter, here are a few scenes from our front yard:

sweet husband plowing (our dog Nana is patiently waiting for her walk)

That was on Thursday, yesterday Ronen left to work in Israel  for a month again,he is finally finishing a documentary series his been shooting forever, I don't seem to be able to get used to these long separations, the kids are not little anymore so it's not difficult physically but we miss him so much! a month is such a long time!!

I went to sleep very early last night and woke up this morning to a full house, all three kids had friends sleep over, I am amazed at how they all found what they needed, mattresses,pillows,blankets sheets...just another reminder how they are all growing up so fast. I made them all pancakes (my small contribution...) and I am off to bed (again) to finish my super fluff,highly enjoyable book "The Undomestic Goddess"

friendly Saturday morning:

I started writing articles for a sweet little magazine here in Vermont called :
Vermont Homestyle my first article is about renovating kitchens on a budget, I became truly specialized on this subject after working with many clients and redoing my own kitchen ...should be fun and hopefully few more Vermonters will get to know my work, I need more clients!
Etsy wise things are a bit s l o w , but I am continuing to work on many new products,I found some wonderful fabrics (expensive)but I couldn't resist so I bought a little of each and here are some photos of more new pouches for spring:

A wristlet from a gorgeous heavy weight cotton:

a cosmetic pouch from a lovely Chintz

an art pouch from a lovely piece of "Laura Ashley" fabric, I worked at "laura Ashley" on Madison Ave. in Nyc for 4 years while I was going to Parsons, this was in the early 80's...I was so crazy about that stuff then, and still am in many ways...

They are all available in my shop.

New spring products

I have been wanting to make new Dreamcatchers and Fairy crowns for spring for a while now, lying around the house this week recovering from a  mini procedure felt almost like a mini break and gave me the time to do just that! So I re designed them, re thought the bead work on the hanging strings and re named them with all my favorite girlish names, of course they all sound like they just walked out of a Jane Austin book but that's exactly what I love!!!!
I also wanted to thank all you sweet people who left me such nice comments and emails about the Decor8 article, thank you all!!
I  signed up to the Dawanda web site and my husband is working on building me my own web store , anybody have experience with a yahoo store web site? does it work? sell well? we thought we would give it a try...not sure I like the idea and their graphics and colors ....very basic...hopefully soon we will be able to afford a real site and not a template...
so here are a few of new Dreamcatchers, all available in my shop:

 

I am also working this week on a completely different product, inspired by my sweet neighbor Kate who has a beautiful 2 year old daughter and just gave birth to her son, she reminds me of myself a few years ago managing 3 little ones, with one arm holding one baby, another pushing a stroller and the third on me in a sling...anyway, I made these giant baby pouches, I found the softest flannel in very cool prints and they are big enough for a diaper or two and a box of wipes, or a snack and bottle, or even as a traveling pouch, when you have your first child you are so into all the gear,by the time I had my third baby I got so sick of giant diaper bags all I wanted to do is minimize the gear,grab a diaper and stick it in my own bag. so here is a way to do just that! (available in my shop of course...):

and on a last note, I was in the book store this morning and found this gorgeous Interior book by Anita Kaushal , check it out it's perfect!
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Home-Love-Life-Style/dp/030739445X

have a wonderful weekend! xox!