The Cabin for CASA - And a Great Video Showcasing What CASA Does

A few weeks ago I was invited to the premiere of Blueforest Studio's inaugural "Blueforest Gives Back" non-profit video project. It was the first time I've heard about the great work CASA is doing in the Triangle, so I'm excited to share today both the video and an upcoming fundraiser event the organization is hosting that looks fun and won't break the bank for donors!

Watch the video here:

(Click here to view if you have trouble with the embedded player above.)



So, about that fundraiser they're hosting in September:

Join us for The Cabin for CASA 2.0, a Lynn Robertson DeMent Memorial Fundraiser! 

Thursday, September 17, 6:30-9:00 p.m. home of Rusty and Nella DeMent – 717 North First Ave., Knightdale, NC 27545 

Tickets: $40 each, or $75 for two 

Music and Libations Dinner by 42nd St. Oyster Bar Raffle and Silent Auction Included 

All proceeds to benefit CASA’s mission to develop and manage affordable housing, particularly for veterans and people living with disabilities. In 2014, the first annual Cabin for CASA raised over $30,000 to support CASA’s mission. Mark your calendars to join us this year!

Click here to buy tickets, support the sponsors of this event, and more at CASA's website.

Currrolina Saturday Night

The words are actually "Carolina Saturday night", but Sunny Ledfurd sings it with a drawl. Sunny has been a fixture in the NC bar rocker scene for quite sometime (especially in Charlotte, but also in Raleigh at City Limits Saloon) and I am SO glad to hear him on XM Radio's "Nashville" station now!

Check out the new video for "Pontoon Boat". I would like to dedicate this to my pontoon friends...


(Above: That was the boys' "cursed" boat via Summer 2008. They called it "cursed", I called them "rookies". I still love them all, though!)


(Above: The entire "Buckhead Saloon and Friends" crew celebrating Kite's birthday out at Falls Lake... circa Summer 2008.)



My sister and I are heading to the beach this afternoon for a mini-vacay... see you suckers next week!

And PS - While pontoon boats are a NC lake fixture, I'd be lying if I said that I have not asked Nick if we can take a pontoon boat out in the ocean. ;-)

"Letters for Lyrics"

I'll be sending a handful of letters.

How about you?



Kudos to the Zac Brown Band boys for their support.

Check out the full video of "Free" which includes a longer look at their USO visit.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

...but I still don't turn on the holiday music until closer to Christmas, though ;-)

There is a lot of small town and big city stuff to do this weekend - all starting today. I wish they didn't all fall on the same day/time though, because I want to do it all, of course!

TONIGHT - Friday, December 4th

Downtown Garner - Tree Lighting

The Parks and Recreation Department will host its annual tree lighting ceremony on Main Street Friday, Dec. 4 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

This year, the department has expanded the traditional ceremony to include even more entertainment, activities and food, including Dance Explosion, Poplar Springs Church choir, the Garner Senior Center Dancers and carolers from True North Church. A highlight of the evening will be the reading of the classic poem, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

Activities for the kids will begin at 6 p.m. inside Santa’s workshop, which is located inside the Sunny Side II Oyster Bar building. Children will get to make holiday crafts and meet Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.

During this event, Main Street will be closed to through traffic between Emory and Purvis Streets. Plenty of public parking is available along parts of Main Street, in the Garner Baseball parking lot, along Pearl Street and at the Pearl Street Building, at Garner Recreational Park and the Garner Senior Center.

Downtown Raleigh - Winterfest Kickoff

Michelle Branch (one of my favorites), will be performing at 6pm and ice skating in our very own outdoor ice skating rink starts right after. Plus, it's First Friday - yay!



Thanks for the video, Tyler! (Click through if you can't see it, blog readers!)

Tomorrow - Saturday, December 5th

Garner Christmas Parade

The holiday celebrations continue Saturday, Dec. 5 with the Garner Christmas Parade, which will begin at 10 a.m.

This year’s parade theme is “Inside Santa’s Workshop.” Tisha Powell, of ABC 11 News, will serve as the parade’s grand marshal. More than 70 participants will take part in the parade and will include area marching bands, floats, emergency vehicles, local merchants and Santa Claus.

This year, the parade will follow a slightly different parade route than that of before. It will begin on Broughton Street and will travel across Garner Road, down Hwy 50 to the corner of Main Street, where it will turn left and proceed until its ends at New Rand Road. This route is somewhat shorter but should allow easier access to and from the area to those viewing the parade.
Garner news and event details are from my friends at GarnerCitizen.com - a great, local paper!

I Voted for Doc

Remember my post back in July on Wine to Water?

As many of you long-time readers know, I'm already a big fan of Amra's and their other establishment, Tobacco Road. This is SUCH a very cool event they're hosting this week.



The charity organization called Wine to Water, as seen on Larry King, raises funds through wine tastings to be able to help 3rd world countries find healthy clean drinking water sources for their villages.

On Thursday July 23, come to Amra's after work or around 6:30 to help support this awesome and worthy cause!

Wine To Water is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit aid organization focused on providing clean water to needy people around the world. Over 1 billion people in the world today lack access to adequate water and sanitation. We are devoted to fighting this epidemic.Wine symbolizes fortune in our society. Our goal is to give the fortunate population an opportunity to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves.Well, it appears as if our friend Doc, founder of Wine to Water, has been nominated alongside great company for CNN Heroes.



Be sure to check out all of the entries and vote for your hero!

Here's a great video about Doc's story.
Click here to view it if it doesn't show up for you.

Happy Halloween!

I couldn't find this on YouTube to embed, but check it out on facebook.

PS - Don't turn your volume up all the way... or you're very likely to scare the crap out of yourself like I just did! ;-)

Fantasy Football

This is for Nick and Joey... or more so, Adrianne.

All you girlfriends and wives out there who are already competing with Sundays and Mondays - enjoy.



Click here to watch online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtVWia5B5vM

PS - If someone from FX happens to stumble upon this blog... it was a pain in the ass trying to help promote your new show for you (the website was impossible to find, I couldn't grab the video code from there, and the branded YouTube page is all kinds of broken). Just FYI. (Sorry, marketing kid rant.)

Love & Theft at 1am

I haven't had much time for keeping up with my love of country music and sharing some quality music with my faithful readers lately (boo!), so I'm hoping it's crystal clear that if I'm posting this video at 1am, then it's obviously on my current Top 10 list!

Love & Theft (YouTube)
"Runaway"





View it on facebook in HD quality.

Hope y'all enjoy!

Coalition in Raleigh

Seriously, I can't say enough good things about what this group is doing in the Triangle (Durham, Raleigh, etc.).

I don't think this video is on YouTube, so I can't embed it, but visit this link and be patient for it to load: http://gallery.mac.com/robertghensley23#100540.

SO amazing.

PS - As I was writing this, I found the video on vimeo, posted on the Coalition's website, UnChainDogs.net.

Lulu, Bandit & Lucky - Unchained from Halle Amick on Vimeo.

I Think We All...

...have a bit of rockstar in us.

This video was sent to me by my sister Mandy:




And this video, features the other Mandy's adorable nephew:





Adorable.

Justin Moore's "Small Town USA" Free on iTunes This Week!

I've blogged here about Justin Moore before and how much I love that southern twang in this voice, so naturally I was really excited to see this morning in my email that his "Small Town, USA" video is free this week on iTunes!

Hop on over and download your free video and enjoy!

For My Green Thumb Readers...

I've noticed many of you (with blogs that I read... drop me a comment if you've been lurking and we haven't connected yet) have mentioned starting up your own backyard produce farms and/or gardens, so I thought I'd pass along some great tips from yesterday's Toxic Free NC Spring 2009 email newsletter.

Organic Gardening from Scratch

Here are a few tips for starting a new garden from Toxic Free NC and Tom Mekus, owner of Native Elements Landscaping in Raleigh.

Plan for too little (and too much) water
Keeping your garden within a hose’s length of an outdoor tap is always a good idea, but it’s also wise to consider installing a rain barrel. Just one-quarter inch of rain onto a 300-square-foot section of roof can yield nearly 50 gallons of water!

Resources for gardeners
Free soil testing by the NC Dept. of Agriculture
Call your County Extension office for more info, or visit http://www.agr.state.nc.us

All about composting from the NC Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources www.p2pays.org/compost/
919-715-6500I thought I'd just pass along some tips that were maintenance related, since many of you have already started (and posted) some of your great results. Be sure to read the full post for some even better all-around tips.

Want to make your own rain barrel? That's definitely something I'm going to be tackling this summer... especially after previous summer droughts here in central NC.

Here are some links with how-to guides:From the EPA - Build Your Own Rain Barrel (pdf)
YouTube - How to Build a Rain Barrel (video)
YouTube - How to (On the Cheap) (video)Get creative! Add a screen to keep out leaves, etc., add a monogram (for the particularly preppy garden), whatever floats your boat... knock yourself out. (As pictured above, I'm not above putting a monogram or some cute embellishments on a rain barrel!)



{Images: Clockwise from Top Left - Zedomax, River Falls Rain Barrel Program, This Old House, Arlington Village Green Team. Embellishments by yours truly.}

A Throwdown of Epic Proportions

How crazy is it that it's been almost a year since sweet tea vodka was making its first introductions into the lives of Southerners everywhere? (Albeit, it took quite a bit longer to make it to every county in the closed states.)

Well it just wouldn't be summertime without tailgates, cookouts, and days on the water with sweet tea vodka now and it looks as if it's going to get quite interesting this year. I can't wait to try some of this myself and see if it lives up to the hype!

Anyone else had the opportunity to try Firefly's newest competitor in the sweet tea vodka arena?



Many thanks to my good friend Tyler for the scoop!

PS - Maybe I should've titled this post "The Sweet Tea Smackdown"?

Growing Up is Getting Old

Want to know what's kept me so busy lately? Among other things, helping one of my favorite non-profits put together a FANTASTIC event happening here in Raleigh on May 2nd.

Here's the scoop:
Bring the family out to City Limits Saloon on May 2nd as Brittany's Battle presents "Boots, Bands & Bulls", a benefit concert with Kevin Lee, Brian Davis and Arista recording artist Jason Michael Carroll, whose new cd, Growing up is Getting Old, comes out on April 28th!

Gates will open at 1pm, and the show kicks off at 2pm with activities for the whole family and the best country music you'll find anywhere, so be sure and visit BootsBandsandBulls.com and get your tickets today!



PS - Holy crap. I almost forgot to thank Tyler for shooting, editing, and producing that video for us! You need video? You need my good friend Tyler who has started his own local company - Red Wire Video!

Happy Wednesday!

I am usually not a fan of national news... until today. Thanks NewRaleigh!

Click through if you can't see the video below:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

As the link in my facebook notes: "Shoplifting puppies and doughnut gobbling State kids... love it!"

Local Rave: Alter Ego Salon

I'm in love.

A second story Downtown location (with a view that many would kill for) and prices that make it possible to keep you looking good without having to take out a loan.

Alter Ego Salon - Mary-Taylor did my recent cut and rocked it out.

Video courtesy of the Triangle Blvd boys:



Sign up for their email newsletter (just create an account on their site), that's how I found out about their January special which snagged me a free manicure with my haircut.

One of my favorite things about this salon may not have been the cut at all but the fact that they emailed me an appointment reminder that also included my upcoming scheduled events, including bridal updos for a friends wedding. Apparently, they speak my language (email-based and organized) :-)

The Faces of Lung Cancer

This aired on NBC a while back... a touching story that sheds some light on the (untold) story of lung cancer. You might even recognize Brittany Coppedge as one of the "Faces of Lung Cancer", if you're quick!

There's no code available to directly embed it, but please click through and give it a watch and spread the word if you can! Ask and you shall receive!



PS - The video doesn't show up in Google Reader apparently, so be sure to click through and give it a watch!

Holiday TV

Even though we have a bunch of these on good ol' VHS (and some of the newer on DVD) at Mom and Dad's, there's just something about catching your favorites on TV.

Many thanks to my Aunt Deborah for this great link to pretty much any and all holiday programming you could want to catch on TV.

Christmas 2008 Holiday Movies, Specials, Favorites
http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/christmas/whats-on-tv.htmPS - I'm still trying to delay the onset of the holidays a bit, but a lot of these will be airing this quickly-approaching Thanksgiving holiday week/end!

Chi Phi Thai

This funny little segment from this weekend's Good Morning America really makes me miss my sorority days - and want a Red Bull really bad, too.

Note: This took place at UNC, but all local letter-wearers can still support the awesome Greek system in the Triangle and our brothers and sisters in Carolina Blue. Well, that is... until November 22nd... then it's ON!

Click here (http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5846165) to watch the UNC ADPi vs. Chi Phi cook-off on GMA since there's no embed code.

PS - Best tie-breaker, EVER. Watch the video!