Living Healthy - God Bless the Chickpea

Anyone else remember that amazing line from the "Friends" episode guest starring George Clooney and Noah Wyle? There's this great awkward scene going on between Monica and Rachel, and the guys are sitting there as their dates eating humus, and its getting more and more awkward, and at one point George has this great line "God bless the chickpea." Amazing.

So in honor of that line, I present my most recent healthy dining experience, homemade Humus!

Yummy, easy to make, and pretty damn healthy. Actually, making your own ends up with a lot more healthy a humus than you can buy at the store. Partner it with homemade Whole Wheat Pita Chips and you have an amazing snack, or just a healthy munchy!

Homemade Humus

1 can of chickpeas (15 oz)

1/2 lemon

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Drain the can of chickpeas into a bowl, but save the liquid that they were packed in.

Using a food processor or hearty blender, start blending the chickpeas with the lemon juice, and some of the chickpea liquid. Add the olive oil, a bit at a time, along with more of the liquid, until it is the consistency that you like.

Roughly mince the garlic, and add it along with the cumin, salt and pepper to the food processor. Make sure that the garlic is well blended in.

Depending on how you like your humus to taste, you might want to start with just blending the chickpeas, and then start adding the lemon juice and garlic slowly, tasting as you go.

Then dump it into a bowl, and serve!

(To make the homemade pita chips, simply chop up some pita pockets, split the triangles open, and bake in the oven at 300 until they are the appropriate crispiness.)

And then enjoy! Stay tuned tomorrow for images of my latest endeavors, and check out Twitter for previews of some of my new products!

Ciao for now, Allison

Scrabble Tile Coasters

As I said, you saw them here first, and now they are out there in the big bad world of Etsy hoping to get some LOVE! :-) Check out the full listing with more photos here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/55566510/love-themed-scrabble-tile-coasters-set

More Living Healthy recipes later today or tomorrow, stay tuned! Want a hint? It has to do with the chickpea...

Ciao for now, Allison

New Product Preview - Scrabble Tiles Coasters

They're finally here! My new line of Scrabble Tile Coasters is ready to be revealed, and I'm posting some preview photos here first! This first, sample set if you were, is based on the theme of LOVE. The four coasters say things such as "Love/XOXO" and "Kiss/Beso" Stay tuned to my Etsy shop page for the full listing within the next day or two.

Living Healthy - The Great Tomato, Part 2

I'm back, as promised, with some photos and the recipe for this weekend's super yummy Bruschetta!! Recipe can be found below!

Fresh Summer Bruschetta

6 summer tomatoes

1 small yellow onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 large handful of basil

10 slices of sourdough (or other quality bread)

2 tablespoons (or so) olive oil

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Chop up the tomatoes, onion and basil. Mince 1 clove of the garlic, and either add it raw to the tomatoes or for a milder flavor you can pan sear it briefly. Put the tomatoes aside, and if you want you can drain some of the extra liquid off, once its sat for a few minutes.

While you let the tomatoes sit, toast your bread. You can use a regular toaster, a broiler, or my personal favorite is to throw it on the barbecue! Once toasted, drizzle the olive oil around. Then take the remaining clove of garlic, cut it in half lengthwise, and rub it all over the toast.

Then simply spoon your tomato mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle the cheese on top, and enjoy!

Ciao for now, Allison

Living Healthy - Tomatoes, Tomatoes, TOMATOES!

A while back I mentioned that one of my summer goals was to eat healthy, and so far I've been pretty successful both eating healthier and loosing a bit of weight. So far I've lost 20 lbs, and I couldn't be happier, and its all thanks to some good old farmers market vegetables.

This weekend specifically we were down near Baltimore, visiting relatives, and their backyard vegetable garden has been going so well that we ended up with WAY more tomatoes then we could possibly eat on their own. So what did we do? We made Gazpacho and Bruschetta! Summer standards, sure, but amazing none the less. I thought I'd share some photos, and the simple recipes we used. Today, Gazpacho, tomorrow, stay tuned for the Bruschetta!

Summer Gazpacho

3 summer tomatoes

1 small yellow onion

1/2 red pepper

1 clove of garlic

1 large handful of basil

1 tablespoon (or so) olive oil

1 tablespoon (or so) balsamic vinegar

1 piece of bread, whatever is lying around

salt and pepper to taste

I roughly chopped the vegetables, and ripped up the bread, and then added it all to a food processor and blended it until it was roughly smooth. It couldn't be more simple, OR healthy, and made for a great lunch along with a piece of multi-grain toast and a farmers market apple with just a touch of peanut butter. Healthy, local, and primarily organic. It doesn't get much better than that!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's recipe and photos of the Bruschetta we made for dinner!

Cheers, and happy healthy eating, Allison

New Products - Scrabble Tiles

I've been busy thinking about what new things I can make into coasters. Today's exploration, SCRABBLE!

And on the principle of 'measure twice, cut once' I like to lay out new designs before pushing forward and actually making them with resin. So here I have a sneak peak of what's to come, a set of 4 scrabble tile coasters, with words based on the eternal sentiment of LOVE.

I laid them out on top of my flower coasters, so the flowers seen behind are not going to be included, though maybe a few pretty hydrangeas would work nicely with my love themed words. Anyone have any thoughts before I start pouring the resin?

Zipper 8 Design on Twitter!!

I finally bit the bullet and signed up for Twitter!

So come check me out at http://twitter.com/Zipper8Designs to get great new tips about upcoming products and a peak inside the inner workings of starting your own business.

Cheers! Allison

Zipper 8 Design on Cargoh!

Sunday Greetings!

I know I've been somewhat M.I.A. recently, and I apologize. My only excuse is that between Basel nibbling on EVERYTHING and trying to come up with some great new products, I have let my internet presence slip.

But, there's some exciting new news, my work has been accepted to be part of a new marketplace, Cargoh.com! It is a new website devoted to hip, young, indie sellers, and in order to keep their vision intact, they have decided to become a juried site. I figured it was worth the effort so I applied and they liked my work enough to accept me as a seller! So come on down and check out my new shop, at http://www.cargoh.com/store/zipper8design and see what's there!

While I will probably have the exact same inventory as I do at Etsy, it is always good to spread out a bit, not have all your eggs in one basket and that sort of thing. Hopefully Cargoh will catch on and it will be a new and exciting marketplace to be a part of!

As always, thanks for reading and cheers to a good week ahead!

Allison

My First Etsy Treasury!!

I just put together my first Etsy treasury, inspired by Basel. Its filled with Dachshund themed items, bright colors, and fun art. I hope you'll check it out, and enjoy!!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c5dd03e752e8eefc369c1db/dachshund-love?index=18

Zipper 8 Lighting Design

Friday Greetings Everyone!

So I've recently been working on some new inspirations, and more specifically ideas for creating my new line of lights. Here's the first one I created. It isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the first effort! I hope you like it, and stay tuned for more new lamps to be appearing soon, both here and at my Etsy shop. And of course don't forget to check out all the new inventory at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Zipper8Design

Cheers!! Allison

Photo Editing Tips 1

Happy Tuesday Everyone,

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I've been taking new photos of my products, and even though I bought a daylight bulb, they are coming out a bit pink-yellow-ish. So I've been editing them in photoshop, and found a great quick fix, so I wanted to pass on the techniques I've learned so far.

Oh, and my photos are on a white background, which is why this works. Just putting that out there.

When you open the photo in Photoshop, go up to the Color Balance (Image-Adjustments-Color Balance). Then you have to make sure you switch from effecting Midtones, to Highlights. This way the color balance change will primarily effect the white background, and not the color of your actual product. (If you need to tweak the color of your product, you can play around with changing the Midtones and Shadows toggles too.)

Here's is the original photo:

Then, simply increase the top slider towards Cyan, and increase the bottom slider towards Blue. You need to move both sliders because they balance each other out, towards a purer white.

Here's the photo once you increase the Cyan slider:

Here's the final photo, once you increase the Blue slider as well:

I hope this is helpful! I just wanted to pass along this tip since I've found that it has helped me a lot in the past two days.

Good luck! And thanks for reading, Allison

Etsy Shop Revamp

Happy Monday!

Much to Basel's chagrin, Monday means its back to work. We're back from a wonderful week in Connecticut, and its time to get back on track, updating my Etsy shop. We made our first sale two weeks ago and I can't wait to make our second sale soon! But to make that happen I've been working on some major overhauls, including brand new photos and listings!

This is our new 'set', its all about a professional look, right! So that means its all about a cohesive, branded shop. I'm hoping these new product photos will help add to that look, bringing a more calm and professional vibe to my store. The white background with the touch of wood as a backdrop should let the coasters POP while including a quiet touch of color and pattern.

Come back over the next few days to see which new amazing products will be popping up next! I plan on adding a set or two of coasters each day for at least the next 4 days. So keep checking back for the latest and greatest additions from Zipper 8 Design.

Featured here are our adorable Puppy Paw Print coasters, with bee caps from the Thomas Kemper Soda Company in the center.

Cheers! A

Capture a Piece of Your Wedding Forever

I'm going to start out right up front by saying that I have never been married. However, I was the maid-of-honor in my college roommate's wedding, so I do have some first hand knowledge of the topic. And here's one cardinal rule I learned.

Everyone wants their wedding to be special, and no one wants to let go.

I wasn't even the bride but I carefully hung my bouquet to dry, and made a whole fancy shadow box featuring the invitation, the little guest gifts, and a piece of the dried flowers I'd saved. But, except in this somewhat useless shadow box, I was suddenly left with this beautiful bouquet of dried hydrangeas, that I really didn't need.

If only I had started my business back then I would have had a great idea for what to do with those flowers. What about making them into a wonderful and totally functional set of coasters!! Now I'm still learning the art of pressing flowers, but so far I've been able to make some pretty great floral coasters.

In fact, one of my favorite sets of coasters happens to be these, made out of blue and purple hydrangeas, the exact flower featured in my roommate's wedding! They just had their fifth anniversary, and I think the next time I see her I may give her a set of these coasters, just to bring back all those memories.

So if you are a bride, and you think that one of my floral sets of coasters matches your wedding flowers nicely, consider using them as bridesmaids gifts. Or, contact me and together we can work on using the actual flowers from your bouquet to make some very special, priceless, and of course functional keepsakes!

Colorful Eggs

Happy Saturday Everyone!

Basel and I are up early this morning, because he's still learning the art of sleeping through the night, and I realized that it was the perfect time to post a photo that I had forgotten about before. Look how beautiful these farm fresh eggs are, and they are just as delicious as they are colorful! I hope you are all sleeping in or having an otherwise restful Saturday morning. I'll be back later with a more substantial post.

Cheers!! Allison

Bridal Giveaway at Hill City Bride

A quick second post for the day to talk up this great giveaway being done by Hill City Bride, in combination with Bebe Sniklefritz for a set of 5 absolutely ADORABLE little mirrors that make perfect bride's gifts, or gifts for any other occasion!

http://www.hillcitybride.com/2010/07/giveaway-from-bebe-sniklefritz/

So check out this awesome giveaway, and come back tomorrow for some more random insights from me!

Cheers! Allison

Visit Zipper8Design on Etsy!

Friday Greetings!

I just wanted to remind everyone to check out our awesome Etsy store, using the new link on the right. Just click the dog and shop away! Our store will be growing starting on Monday, with all new photos and products being listed, but for now here's a preview of some of the better photos to come.

Cheers!!

Living Healthy, Wealthy and Wise?

Well, I don't know about the wise part, and I am certainly a long way off from the wealthy, but I am doing my best to live healthy!!!

While I've been up in Connecticut for the week we've been enjoying the most amazing local foods. Not only are they nutritious and delicious, but they are beautiful too! Check out these amazing heirloom summer squash! They were the most vibrant beautiful yellow on the outside and then had these pretty pale green seeds inside. YUM!!!

But part of living healthy is knowing how to make food that are good for you taste good too! One of my favorite summer meals is a lean pork tenderloin grilled on the barbeque, so its just a slight pale pink inside, and then served with a wonderful homemade fruit salsa. This one we made with mango, nectarines, red onion, yellow pepper, and avocado. So good, and beautiful too!!! I'm basing my healthier lifestyle on weight watchers' core plan, and all of these foods are 100% core approved!

And finally, a simple dish but one that was just too beautiful to not mention, heirloom cherry tomatoes with fresh basil and a little bit of fresh mozzarella cheese. Look at that amazing purple color! The plate here is just showing the purple tomatoes, but the box itself was really beautiful because the tomatoes came in this purple color, orange and red! They were really pretty, and they tasted absolutely amazing too.

Does anyone else have any healthy and delicious summer foods that they love?

His name is Basel, not Basil. He's a puppy not an herb...

Right now I'm spending an idyllic week in Connecticut with my new puppy Basel! He's a mini dachshund and just turned 10 weeks old on Tuesday. He weighed 3 whole pounds last week at the vet, and is just the cutest little thing imaginable. I absolutely adore him, and am so glad I decided to get him this summer when I'll have time at home.

As you can see from the photos he's chocolate and tan, and he's a long haired dachshund so he's super soft and fuzzy and will hopefully have silky hair that will be nice for cuddling with! (But he also has smooth hair ancestry so he shouldn't have fur that is too super long, dragging on the ground and such.)

Yesterday we went for a walk, and he met his second cat. This one was about 4 times his size! And, because this cat lives in a house that also breeds dachshunds, she recognized a similar puppy and came trotting right over to say hi. Basel was not a fan, he seemed pretty freaked out! Then again I would too if this animal ran at me and was 4 times my size!

I'm sure I'll have lots of photos to post over the next many months, so I just wanted to introduce you all early on to the bundle of joy sleeping on the couch next to me right now.

Cheers! Allison

Welcome!

Hello and Welcome to my blog! I am a 26 year old, recent architecture school graduate, living in New York City, and amongst other things I'm trying to start my own design firm, Zipper 8 Design.

I have always loved good design, especially products for the home, and so last summer when classes were over, and I had some extra resin lying around the house, I decided to see what I could make with it. And that's how my very first ever Beer Cap Trivet was born. That first trivet is clunky, used a ton of resin, and a lot of very unique bottle caps, plus it has a slightly frosted sort of look. But, it holds a special place in my heart because it was the first. (I'll post a pic here later, stay tuned to see my first attempt at product design!) From there it was a quick step towards better trivets, thinner, slightly smaller, and super clear. And idea had been born! My friend Katie and I jumped on it, and quickly started brainstorming what else you could do with bottle caps. Did you know there's a huge market on Ebay to purchase old beer bottle caps? Neither did I, but I soon learned and was buying up all the fun caps I could find. (And there of course is my first mistake... spending so much money on caps when I could have just started collecting them from friends!)

From there we decided that while trivets were super fun, coasters would be even better! And then came the first major hurdle in the process. What the hell do you use as a mold for making coasters? Katie headed off on a summer road trip and I started researching anything and EVERYTHING we could possibly use as a mold. It took a lot of trial and error, but finally I got it! And then and there Zipper 8 Design was officially born.

Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with endless talk about my business all the time, for that you can visit the more official Zipper 8 Design blog (http://zipper8design.blogspot.com). The purpose of starting this blog is to discuss more personal issues, things that come to mind, other amazing artists and the like. I hope you enjoy what you see here, thanks for reading!!

Allison