Explore Summer with Evite

Disclosure-I'm part of the Evite Influencer Program and have been compensated for this post.  All opinions and photo's, except the invitation photo are my own. 

When Evite  asked me what I have planned this summer I knew just what I wanted to share.  My husband and I always take the week of 4th of July off and enjoy exploring around our city of Portland.  While a lot of people go out of town to enjoy fireworks on the 4th we stay home and watch the neighbors show down the street.  It's pretty impressive and goes almost all night.  

Evite has a lot of great summer invitations.  

This 4th of July invitation will tell your friends they're in for a fun evening celebrating the holiday.  

Set out the lawn chairs and make them all cozy with pillows.  You don't have to spend a lot of money on pillows.  I picked this one up at Target's Dollar Spot.  We love spending summers in our backyard.

Fire up the grill on the 4th of July and make it less stressful.  When your friends ask what can they bring, take them up on the offer.  Have your friends bring salads, drinks, chips, dips etc.

Want a cookie?  I love Loft House cookies.  They are so soft and it's hard to eat just one.  I could bake cookies myself and there's even a Loft House cookie recipe but summer is suppose to be about lazy party fun.  Plus who wants to bake on a hot summer day. So pick up those cookies at the store, enjoy more time with friends and keep that oven off.

Dress up the dessert table with holiday linens.  My secret when it comes to linens?  Fabric.  I love fabric but can't sew so when I see a fabric I love I buy enough to fit my table.

Get more summer party ideas here.  #BeThere #Evite

Shop this party:
Invitation:  Evite 
Flag Pillow: Target Dollar Spot 
Stars & Stripes Straws: Sugar Diva 
White Paper Star on Straws: Fancy and Fold
USA Necklaces: Fred Meyer
Cookies: Fred Meyer
Table Linen: Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts 
Nutcracker- Cost Plus 
Candy- Rolo's, Stars and round chocolates by Sweetworks 



I am part of the Evite Influencer Program and have been compensated for this post.

BBQ Sauce

Home Made BBQ Sauce 

This BBQ sauce came from a book I had picked up from the library. Sadly, I don't remember which book I got this recipe from. One summer I was checking out every book on grilling my library had. I wanted to become a grill master. Yeah, that hasn't happened. This summer I definitely plan on grilling more. What will you be grilling this summer?

Sweet and Smokey BBQ Sauce

2 cups ketchup

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoons yellow mustard

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 

2 teaspoons paprika 

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon liquid smoke 

Put everything in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. 

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes  or until slightly thickened. 

Father's Day BBQ

Happy Father's Day! 

For Father's Day I went with a grill theme and since I'm always picking up party supplies on sale, thinking, "I know I'll use this for something", I already had everything you see on hand. 

Grilling makes me think of red checks pattern and these napkins were in my stash. I'm always picking up fun napkins on sale. They never go bad and you always need napkins. 

 BBQ's and Solo cups, they just go together. I added a POP of colour with yellow and white striped straws from Sweets & Treats Boutique. 

Homemade BBQ sauce to go.  Be sure to come back to the blog on Wednesday for the recipe. 

You just can't have a BBQ without ant's trying to sneak away with your treats. 

 Triple Berry cupcakes using the recipe from The Cupcake Diaries. I added more berries to the mix then what the recipe called for. mmm berries. The book suggests to top the cupcakes with the buttercream recipe. I tried to make the buttercream frosting but it never got light and fluffy. It also tasted too much like confectioners sugar to me so I used a canned frosting that I had on hand. To the canned frosting I added some strawberry extract. 

 The cupcakes were good. They're not a sweet cupcake. Very mild taste to the cake because the berries are the star of these cupcakes. If I make these again I think I'll try a cream cheese frosting. Or maybe add some coconut to the cake mix.  

The Case of the Disappearing Cupcakes

My first BBQ invite of the season was Saturday.  Of course I had to bake something to bring.  With strawberry season kicking off in the Pacific Northwest I wanted to make something out of fresh strawberries. I made a strawberry pie,{screech} wait, I thought this post was about cupcakes? 

It is. Since I wasn't sure if the pie would turn out I made cupcakes too. I had picked up Pillsbury's Orangesicle cake mix a few weeks back and decided to make them.  The Cupcake Crusaders had recently made them too and I took a few ideas from them. 

 For the frosting, like the Crusader's I used  Duncan Hines' Frosting Creations Orange Creme and just mixed it right in to a can of frosting. I too thought that it wasn't quite orange enough and added a little orange extract to give the flavor some oomf. I'm not sure how much I used, I just eye balled it. 

I liked the Cupcake Crusaders idea of making a surprise middle. Instead of making my own I used Cool Whip Frosting in Vanilla. 

These were a HIT!  The cupcakes were disappearing before the grill was even fired up. I saw people going back for seconds and thirds!

The cake was moist and light with a hint of creamsicle flavor. Adding the orange extract to the frosting uped the creamsicle experience and by adding a vanilla middle, it was like a orange creamsicle ice cream bar   in a cupcake. 

For your summertime fun I highly recommend these cupcakes.

Final Four Party

Guest post by my friend and basketball lover, Dawn. Welcome Dawn :)

Every year, basketball lovers across the county spend countless hours preparing their brackets. And even more hours watching all the games. The first round is usually action packed, with lots of upsets. And every year, it does not disappoint. My favorite part is watching four games at once!

Sadly, my UCONN Huskies were unable to play in the post-season, due to sanctions. But there were plenty of other teams to watch. And new favorites to discover -- who will be this year's VCU?

How does this relate to parties? My best friend and I lived together in DC, and started a trend of hosting a party for the Final Four. For decor, we had a giant poster of that year's brackets (filled out). We also had some posters of our teams hanging on the walls. Everyone wore t-shirts of their college or affiliation, whether or not they were still playing.

 But the highlight for us was always making cups. We took basic red Solo cups -- the quintessential party accessory -- and decorated them. We made one for each team in the tournament, featuring the team's name and a printout of their logo. Because the package contained more than 68 cups, we made some extras for our favorite. UCONN usually had about 4 cups, since many of our friends were fans. The cup for Duke always said "Duke Sucks". It's great to have a rivalry! And this was always used with pride by our friend who was a big Duke fan. The added bonus to having different cups was that everyone knew which cup was theirs!

You can plan your activities based on the timing. On the west coast, the games start somewhat early, which lends itself more to a backyard BBQ than dinner. On the East Coast, we were indoors with games to go along with the game. Be creative!

Other key features:

Good finger food

Good arrangement of televisions -- we had a big one in the living room and a small one outside

Sports themed paper plates/napkins

Thank you Dawn for a wonderful easy party idea. Lots of great tips we can use for our sports parties. 

If you have a party you would like to see featured on Fizzy Party, contact me at Tiffany.fizzyparty@gmail.com

Woo Hoo!! Wednesday

I have BBQ on the brain :) Sun is finally here, it's daylight longer. Pretty soon I'll be able to walk outside and breathe in the smells of the grill :)

Welcome to my Woo Hoo!! outdoor kitchen. 
Source unknown :(

And the one at my summer home Source,

Party favors for all !! :) Source 

 No sharing fries at this BBQ. Everyone gets their own fry bucket

After dinner we'll grab some drinks to go,

And sit down by the fire pit while we watch the stars,

Don't you want to have a BBQ at my Woo Hoo!! house now :)