New toy and snow!

Here is my new toy that I got about a week before Christmas. It's a Mr. Coffee Frappe maker. I don't like coffee, but I love frappuccinos. I used to make them with this Java Ice syrup by Nestle (which they took off the market last year, because they always take things I LOVE off the market...like Double Dip Crunch when I was 10). So anyway I have been searching for another easy way to make my own frappuccinos. And then I saw this at Target, and it comes with a recipe book for all kinds of coffee and tea mixed drinks (even alcoholic ones). The first picture is of all of the ingredients you add to the blender. Ice, sugar, chocolate syrup, and milk.
Then you press the button and the coffee starts roasting and dripping down into the blender.

Then, all of a sudden the blender starts up...and gives you a freaking heart attack!!! No seriously I always start it up then go to the back of the house to put on makeup in the morning...and it's so freaking loud I can't possibly describe it to you. No matter how many times I use it, I still jump 3 feet every time.

The pitcher is pretty small and only makes enough to fill up my travel mug and a little bit of a small cup to drink with breakfast. And then all of the ice goes to the top and all of the liquid goes to the bottom and they won't mix together. So it ends up being like drinking some cold coffee sludge...but its ok. Still, if anyone sees any more Java Ice in the grocery store, let me know. Or we could all email Nestle and protest because my own recipe was way better. But I am gonna start going through the Frappe recipe book and I have planned to make a cookies and cream/coffee shake soon, with cookies and cream ice cream. So we'll see how that goes.

The next 2 pictures are outside my apartment on Christmas on my way to work. It looks fairly similar now, except all the white stuff is an inch sheet of ice.

Lovely slushy parking lot which nobody ever plows until 3 days after it snows. And they didn't even plow it on this occasion ever actually.

New lamps

Here are the three lamps that I made in December. This first one is a blue wine bottle of Riesling that's almost 2 feet tall. I gave it to Bob and Virginia for Christmas.
All lit up...

This is a Seagram's gin bottle with colored lights. Will put it up for sale on Etsy as soon as I finish this post. www.etsy.com/shop/Freefallin44

All lit up...it really looks like a Christmas tree...

Here was a really pretty green wine bottle that I gave to Mark and Shari for Christmas. The label had a picture of a bridge on it. I wish I had written down what type of wine it was before I gave it away...

All lit up....

Now I just need to get up some motivation to make some Valentine themed bottles...plus I could use some sales to motivate me!! Tell everyone you know!!

Coffee cake and Christmas cookies

Coffee cake: the brown sugar and butter crumbles....
Cake batter.

Ready for baking.

Finished result...it was really good, but the recipe called for sour cream in the cake mix...which tasted funky to me. But it was still really good and didn't last long at work.

Peanut butter kisses. This recipe was a pain in the butt. It called for an ingredient which doesn't exist, so I had to improvise.

The end result was really good, but now I'll have to figure out how to make the mystery ingredient myself (baking mix). I used Jiffy chocolate chip cookie mix, but it came with the chocolate chips in it already...so I had to sift them all out...

Oatmeal cookies.

Chocolate peanut butter cookies. Batter.

Peanut butter balls, they look like the balls of tree sap from Jurassic Park.

Peanut butter balls covered in cookie batter and rolled in sugar. These were really good too, but definitely did not look like the beautiful picture. Which is why this picture is pre-baking, the after baking part was not very attractive, but it tasted good.

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!!