NAMIwalk

I am once again heading up a walk team for the NAMI walk on May 28th. I am writing this to ask for any help whether it be joining our team, donating money or items for fundraisers. We are planning some fundraisers at work for NAMI- The National Alliance on Mental Illness. So far, we have decided to have a raffle and a bake sale in the next few months.
For the raffle we have decided to raffle off a craft basket and a food basket so far. The craft basket will include any handmade items from donors that includes: a wine bottle lamp, soaps, and a scarf as of now. If anyone makes any type of craft or know someone who does, who would be willing to donate, please let me know.
We also need donations for a food basket that can include coupons to local restaurants and fast food places or actual foods from businesses that you know. We want to do one more basket or giveaway, so if you have any ideas, let me know please! Once we get all the donations lined up I will send everyone the dates of the raffle.
If anyone knows someone who screen-prints t-shirts, that would also be helpful and we are planning to put our logo on them as well as the logos for any businesses who donate to us. One of the teams last year had the clients create a design for the front of their shirts, so we could try doing that as well. I would like the shirts to be green because that is the ribbon color for mental illness awareness.
The NAMI walk is on May 28th at 9AM in Forest Park at the Muny, so we need to get rolling to finish these fundraisers in time. Please contact me as soon as possible with any donations or ideas! Our team page is www.nami.org/namiwalks11/STL/AdaptIL . Go there if you would like to join our team or make a donation. For every $100 our team raises, we get one t-shirt for a team member, so we hope that everyone can get a NAMI shirt this year. My personal walk page is www.nami.org/namiwalks11/STL/Casey if you would like to make a donation to me. We had the 5th largest team last year, and I would like for us to continue to grow every year. It's a really fun event full of lots of information on mental illness. I will continue to post more info about fundraisers and our progress!!

Review of last years resolutions and making some new ones

Here's my list of last years resolutions with my comments on how they went below them:

1. Pay off more than I spend on my Visa. (wasn't really possible this month because it still had Christmas stuff on it)

~~HA!! I think I did this for awhile until the economy decided to screw me over and double my interest rate for no reason. So now I'm no longer using said Visa card and trying to pay it off (which will only happen if I marry a millionaire in my lifetime)~~

2. Only buy the necessities: groceries, cleaning products, things I need for the house. (no buying clothes or anything I WANT at least until this summer)

~~I am still doing this for the most part with the exception of some lamp making materials and Christmas presents recently. I have only bought a handful of clothes this year and may have to become a nudist soon.~~

3. Make a new recipe at least every 2 weeks and put the pics on here...coming soon.

~~Have been doing this fairly regularly and I have a ton of new recipes that I still need to try out.~~

4. Only upload pics from my camera at the end of every month to take up less files on Picasa.

~~This was an easy one that I could definitely do, even if some pics from events are slightly overdue, whatever.~~

5. Start exercising on my new Wii Fit Plus on all my days off.

~~HAHAHA. Not happening at all, especially in the winter when I have no motivation. I got on the Wii Fit at some point during the summer and it said that I hadn't been on in 99 days. I don't even want to know what it would say now.~~

6. Start wearing a pedometer on my days off and when it gets warm enough to walk in the park again...only done this once so far, because it decided to reset itself and said I only took 37 steps...so I'm mad at the pedometer right now.

~~Well I didn't use the broken pedometer obviously, but I did walk every chance I got during the summer, which wasn't a lot since I spent most of my days off walking through Barnes. But it still counts...~~

7. Look for a house to buy in this area and hopefully move out in June sometime.

~~HAHAHA. Yeah I looked hard at many really crappy houses that I would never be able to fix up on my own. And since the economy screwed me over, this was not happening. Even though a mortgage would be like 2/3 the price of my rent!! Seriously though they just don't want to give houses to single people anymore.~~

8. Start some jigsaw puzzles and post the pics on here...bought 2 so far...hopefully I can figure out how to glue them together and frame them.

~~Did that and wish I had more space to continue doing it now, but lamp making has taken over. I did frame one puzzle for myself and one for Mike though.~~

9. Avoid men as much as possible especially one in particular.

~~I didn't see said person for a little over a year, but it is always inevitable between us no matter how long we go without speaking. He started calling during the summer and I avoided him until October. Things are going slow (too slow for me anyway), but they are going in a somewhat forward motion. There's no denying of feelings anymore and his eyes light up when he looks at me. No matter how long it takes, he is the only person that I can talk to about anything with no judgement.~~

10. If by chance I meet a guy with said person's name...run as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

~~See above.~~

Now for my resolutions this year:

1. Pay off my car. Which should happen by May and then I can use that money to continue paying down that damn Visa card.

2. Sell some damn lamps! They're on etsy.com in case you hadn't heard. And if they don't start selling there, I need to find some craft shows to get into in 2011, especially the Strange Folk Festival!

3. Have a big yard sale this spring with the whole family!! I have had stuff piling up in the garage for at least 2 years and I'm going to clean out my closet and drawers this week, so get ready people cause you're helping!!

4. Continue talking to a certain person and not let him get away with going MIA again because of peer pressure from a certain friend who is miserable and wants to make everyone else miserable.

....ummm, that's all I can think of right now. I'll let you know if any new ones pop up in the next couple weeks.....

Bacon and Cheese Stuffed Chicken & Shrimp Parmesan

First up is Bacon and cheese stuffed chicken. I'll take any excuse to fry up some bacon...
Chicken all rolled up with cheese and bacon inside.

Marinara bath...

Final product with some spaghetti. It was good, just a little dry...I really don't like chicken that much anymore.

Shrimp Parmesan with bread crumbs, mozzarella, and Parmesan.

Ready to bake...

Final product. It was really good, but you have to really love shrimp cause it was very shrimpy tasting.

More lamps...and a baby blanket

First up is my favorite lamp I've made so far...because it's orange, duh! It's a Gordon's London Dry Gin bottle, for sale on www.etsy.com/Freefallin44
Here it is all lit up... I'm working on the picture quality...

Here's a Serena Red Table Wine bottle

Lit up...it has all red lights inside.

And here's the baby blanket I knitted for Jonnie & April. I'm definitely taking another knitting vacation after this...

Now I guess I'll go work on another lamp. I haven't made any since these last 2. I'm drowning in wine bottles, but if you have any free liquor bottles send them my way!!

The rest of the balloon puzzle...

Here is the final product of the balloon puzzle I finished last month... No more puzzles for me for quite a while.

My 5....Deluxe Edition

Does everyone remember this episode of Friends?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUOe0JBy8n8 Well about a month ago I read on another blog where a lady and her husband picked their 5 after that episode aired. So I decided to make my list, just for the hell of it. Enjoy!

#1: Zac Efron

Seriously. So Hot!! The reason why I bawl my eyes out every time I watch 17 Again. And if you haven't seen Charlie St. Cloud, then you have issues.


#2: Josh Hartnett



He's been on my list for many years now. Especially after Pearl Harbor.

#3: Matthew McConahey

Another long time favorite. Love all his movies, especially Dazed & Confused. And there's so many pictures of him shirtless....

#4: Topher Grace

Gotta have a nerdy guy. Love him in Win a Date With Tad Hamilton.

#5: Joshua Jackson

You know you loved Pacey. But I've loved him ever since The Mighty Ducks 1,2, and 3!!

Honorable Mentions/Runner Ups


John Travolta

My first love. Pretty sure that Grease was the first movie I ever saw, and I have the entire thing memorized, seriously quiz me!

And Urban Cowboy, the movie about the perfect redneck relationship.

Chris Pronger

The main reason why I love hockey, and why I stopped watching it when the Blues traded him.


Jason London

Also from Dazed & Confused. But, more importantly from my favorite movie The Man in The Moon. It's Reese Witherspoon's first movie, and I used to watch it all the time with my grandma. If you haven't seen it, I might let you borrow it if you can tear it away from my death grip.

Devon Sawa

I was totally obsessed with him from about 10-15. He is of course from Little Giants, Now & Then, The Night of the Twisters, and Casper was his first big movie. In Jr. High my friends had a slumber party at my house that we called D-Day and we stayed up all night watching all of his movies.

Fun Fact: I have his biography and in it, it says "Devon, rhymes with heaven."

Next category: If I were a necromancer...

Christopher Reeve

Of course everyone knows he's the ONLY Superman. But I really fell a few years ago when I saw Somewhere In Time (because its the favorite movie of another teenage crush, Bryan White, who I forgot to add to this list...gah!). This is another movie which you need to see if you can pry it away from me...even though I stole it from my aunt....don't tell her!

Patrick Swayze

My other first love. I completely bawled my eyes out the day he died last year. And I still can't watch any of his movies, especially Ghost, which they played over and over right after he died. What is wrong with these networks??!!

George Harrison

My favorite Beatle, in case you didn't read already in my previous posts. If you listen to While My Guitar Gently Weeps without weeping, something is wrong with you. If anyone needs schooling on what good music is, take a ride in my car where I have about 6 or 7 of their albums.

That is all...until more hot celebrities appear.

Lamps

Here are some pictures of the first 3 lamps I have listed on etsy. Here is a pic of my new workspace I have cleared off to make lamps.
Pictures of the flowers I'm using.

This is the lamp that I put into a wine lovers basket for Mike's golf tournament/benefit.

The next 3 lamps are for sale on etsy. Here is the link to my shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/Freefallin44

More to come next month!! I am literally drowning in wine bottles right now, but if anyone has any liquor bottles, send them my way! The pictures aren't great because all my walls are white, but from now on I have a new technique to shoot the lamps, so stay tuned.