If any Jewish people out there need a non-Jew to help with a Chametz contract, please feel free to call on me!

   I already have a sample contract, which I got from a friend of mine in Israel when I helped him with this exact process. Or if you have your own contract, I'd be happy to look that over too. No money will change hands, but I will be more than happy to own any of your Chametz items during the Pesach period.

   For fellow non-Jews out there, what this means is that during the time of Passover, Jewish people aren't allowed to own any leavened products. I originally learned about this as a kid - growing up my family had a lot of Jewish friends. When we started home-schooling, we also spent several years learning Jewish traditions & celebrating holidays with our Jewish friends & neighbors. For that reason I've always felt a special kinship with the Jewish people. (In fact, for some reason as a toddler, I got it in my head somehow that my family was Jewish... but that's a story for another day!) :)
   I was reminded of this Passover practice recently when my doctors had me go on a corn-free allergen elimination diet. Most food that's Kosher for Passover is free of corn, since the majority of European Jews avoid corn in addition to other grains during Passover. That makes buying my food SO much easier!! It's been a huge blessing to me & my family, so I see Kosher for Passover food as a great act of human kindness - or a mitzvah - from the Jewish people to me.
   Which is why I'm more than happy to repay their kindness by doing this small act of service for them in return.

   The way it works is a Jewish person will sign a contract with a non-Jew - a gentile - wherein the non-Jew agrees to purchase all of the Chametz (aka any items that contain leavening or certain grains) during the period of Passover. No money necessarily has to change hands, it's simply signing a contract that states I now own those products. Then if I don't send them payment by a certain date - usually the day after Passover - then ownership reverts to the original seller, the Jewish person.

   So for those who may need a non-Jew willing to do this, ta da! I'm here to help. :) Feel free to send me an email - HLawver AT gmail DOT com. (Please replace "AT" and "DOT" with the appropriate symbol & punctuation.) Or send me a tweet - I'm @HLawver.
   I'll then put your name on the sample contract I have, sign it, date it, and send it to you. You can sign it, scan it, & send a copy back to me. Simple as that!

   I'm thinking I may make this a yearly thing. We'll see how it goes. :)

   To all my Jewish friends, I hope you have a wonderful & blessed Pesach! And to all my non-Jew friends, Happy Easter!

   Mazel tov, everybody!

   I'm finally getting involved in politics!!

   No, as my brother pointed out, sadly I am too young to run for President. I also highly doubt I could convince either the Virginia legislature or my local city council to hold their meetings in my comfy air conditioned bedroom, so those options are out too.
   So what's a girl to do?!

Which is why I'm launching HelloVoter.com!

   (I know, I still can't believe that domain name was available!!)

   Ahem. :) Anyway, I was inspired to start the site when I saw this photo posted on Facebook by a friend of a friend.

   As soon as I saw that post-it note, I had a flash of inspiration. In that split second, it was as if the entire HelloVoter website was already there, in its entirety. It was so complete, so real, it felt as if all I had to do was simply pull back the curtain & there it was.

   Of course, it took a heckuva lot more work than just pulling back a valance to make it happen! :) I spent three days straight with very, very little sleep building the actual website. Then the next week after that was spent frantically trying to fill the site with content. I felt compelled to keep going; I just couldn't stop! I HAD to create it as fast as I possibly could so it could get out there in the world & do its thing.

   Given that, it's far from complete! The site only has the absolute bare minimum of information that I would like for it to have, so please bear that in mind. I will be adding SO much more to it in the coming days & weeks. I'm especially eager to fill in the section that talks specifically about the few - yet important - aspects in which our government actually affects the price of oil & gasoline.

   But I hope you'll take a look & keep an open mind. I want to make it clear that HelloVoter is NOT a partisan project! Nor am I shilling for any specific candidate or party. I lay just as much blame with President Bush as I do with President Obama. (Although obviously, Obama's the only one running this year.)
   As always, I hope to be as fair as possible. Am I perfect? No, but I'm certainly trying!

   If you like what you see at HelloVoter.com, I hope you'll consider joining the effort! Already lots of people are taking notice, all over the country. I'm starting to get pictures of bright, cheerful HelloVoter post it notes posted from coast to coast.
   And when I posted my own note for the first time, wow... that was such an unexpected thrill!!

   I hope you'll jump right in & write a few notes of your own! You can use the note suggestions & the many different resources I have posted on the site. Or feel free to get creative! If your note is super awesome, it may even land on our sample page with full credit to Your Royal Geniusness!
   If you post a note & send me a picture of it, I'll post it on HelloVoter.com & its various lovely social networking sites. I'll even include your name & links to your blog, Twitter, Tumblr, or whatever else you want! It's my way of saying thank you & a way for you to connect with other like-minded voters.

   I'm really, really excited about this project. And I hope you will be too. Because together I really think we can make a difference. We can have a profound impact not just on the upcoming election, but on the future of our nation.

   With the power of post it notes, each & every one of us will have a voice.

   It's time for all of us to speak up!

   It's time for all of us to do more than just "Hope" for "Change".

   It's time for you & me to ACT!

   So what are you waiting for?

   Grab a pen and a post-it note & let's get started!

HelloVoter.com
Twitter ♦ Tumblr ♦ Facebook ♦ Flickr ♦ Pinterest

    Until I figure out what the heck I'm doing, what goes here vs there, just feel free to check out both! Think of it as twice the Heather! Wheee! Fun times.

    HeatherShow on Tumblr! Check it out!

    Also, don't forget, I'm on Twitter too! :)]]> 2012-01-26T08:11:07Z 2012-01-26T06:05:35Z tag:www.heathershow.com,2012://1.1212 2012-01-26T06:05:35Z Heather hlawver@gmail.com General Megness     Nothing! That's what! Bread is happy!! Now smile! Yay!

    Today we will be making what my friends have dubbed 'Super Easy Heather Bread'. Of course, we soon realized that title could be taken a multitude of rather risqué ways, but it stuck nonetheless. So trust me, said super easiness applies only to the ease with which this bread is made. Got it? Good. Just as long as we're clear. ;)

That is the bread that we will be baking today! It's a totally awesome kick butt classic white French bread. Good & crusty on the outside, soft & fluffy on the inside. Yet it is SO easy to make that my nephews could whip it up entirely on their own when they were only three years old! (Though of course, the adults took care of the baking part!)     Trust me, with only a teensy bit of effort & just a dab of patience, you will end up with bread that will knock your friends' socks off! I guarantee that everyone will think you built a brick oven in your house & spent ages studying with the owner of some famous French boulangerie! (And no, sorry boys, that word has nothing to do with lingerie.)

    Ingredients n' Stuff!

- 3 cups of water, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of yeast
- 6 & 1/2 cups of flour, preferably unbleached all-purpose
- Some cornmeal (totally optional & can be discarded if you're trying to avoid corn.)
- A medium to large size container with a lid.
- A wire whisk
- A cookie sheet, preferably with a silicone baking sheet on top.
- A fridge & an oven. Obvious, sure, but I feel like being obvious today.

    The Recipe!

    - Start by mixing the 3 cups of water, 1 tablespoon of salt, and the 1 & 1/2 tablespoons of yeast together with a wire whisk until yeast dissolves. You don't have to be super careful about it dissolving all the way.

    - Next, stir in 6 & 1/2 cups of flour, preferably unbleached all-purpose.

    - Do a little dance if you want to, cause that's pretty much it for the first stage. Put dough in your container with a lid, but DO NOT close the lid all the way!! Just gently set the lid on top with a little crack through which to breathe. Let the dough sit out for 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.

    - Wait patiently. I know it's hard, but at least you aren't wasting your time kneading bread, right? Right?!

    - After waiting for two hours, you can form a loaf now if you have to. But it's way easier to handle if you put the dough in the fridge overnight. Again, leave it in the container, but don't shut the lid all the way. If you have to make a loaf right away, dust your hands with flour. Makes it easier & less sticky. (Unless you're into sticky... no judging here!)

    - To form the loaf, rip off a piece. But don't make it too big - it's better to make several smaller loaves than one big one. Start off with a loaf about the size of your fist, maybe a little bigger. Or you can make little rolls out of it, those turn out cute too. But the fist-sized ones are my favorite. You get that nice barbaric feeling of ripping into a nice hunk of bread & watching the crust crackle. Mmm. :) Ahem. Anyway...

    - Lightly fold the dough into a loaf shape. No need to knead it! :) Seriously, don't knead it. Trust me.

    - Use a cookie sheet, preferably with a silicone baking sheet on top. Add a layer of cornmeal on the baking sheet, then place your loaf on top of the cornmeal. (We have since learned the cornmeal isn't entirely necessary, if for whatever reason you want to avoid adding corn to the bread. But I'll admit, I do like the texture the cornmeal gives to the bottom of the crust!)

    - Let the loaf sit for 40 minutes! I know, again with the waiting! Although on the plus side, this part will fill your kitchen with yummy bread smell. Mmmm. Bread smell... :)

    - Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

    - Dust the top of the loaf with unbleached, all purpose flour.

    - Slit the top of the loaf with a serrated knife. You can even make cute shapes if you want to! No guarantees on how they'll turn out, however...

    - Bake for 30 minutes. It'll be all nice & golden brown with a gorgeously delectable crunchy crust & soft yummy insides!

Ta da! Yummy home made bread with NO fat for only 30-40 cents per loaf!     Another awesome feature of Super Easy Heather Bread is that the dough can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks! Then whenever you want bread, just rip off a loaf-sized chunk & follow prep instructions from there!     Again, when storing the dough, don't close the lid all the way! Much like wild Heathers in their native habitat, this dough doesn't like being too contained or restricted. Let us breathe!     This recipe will make 5/6 loaves. Ish. Depends on what size loaf you make. But again, don't make loaves too big, or the insides won't turn out quite right.     If you'd like to make Super Easy Heather Sourdough, you can reuse the same container to store the dough. Just lightly rinse between uses! Also, much like wild Heathers, we get better with age!

    Looking for the best dough container? You can sometimes get one for free! The best container we've found is an old icing container from a bakery. You can usually get them for free if you call a local bakery & ask if they have any icing containers you could have. Those containers are the perfect size for the recipe. (At least... they are here anyway!) :)

    Enjoy! And please, if you think of any awesome additions to the recipe, please come back and share your creations here in the comments! My family & I found lots of fun things to add to it - mixing in herbs and/or garlic, butter rubs, etc. It's also insanely good smeared with Nutella or Biscoff spread! But I'd love to hear what you come up with! Thanks & happy nomming!

    Lastly, just a quick note to make it clear, I sadly cannot take credit for the awesomeness that is this recipe! I honestly have no idea who that genius is, but I tip my hat to them! My Mom got this recipe from one of her friends, who got it from one of their friends, et cetera, et cetera. If you know who the original author is, please let me know so I can give them credit! Thanks!]]> 2011-12-09T07:33:05Z 2011-12-09T07:15:49Z tag:www.heathershow.com,2011://1.1211 2011-12-09T07:15:49Z Heather hlawver@gmail.com Family

A L A S T A I R   A L E X A N D E R
1967-2011

Alibear,

    I miss you, Al. You've always been in my heart & have never been far from my thoughts.
    I love you more than you ever knew. There's now an Alastair-sized hole in my heart that I'm not sure will ever be filled again. I will always cherish the times we spent together. I'm a better person for having known & loved you.
    Thank you for all of the laughter, wisdom, compassion, patience, & friendship you so freely shared. I owe you my life in so many ways.
    You will never be forgotten.

    Big bug hugs & tearful canoodles,
    H
    x]]> 2011-07-05T05:11:06Z 2011-07-02T06:47:18Z tag:www.heathershow.com,2011://1.1210 2011-07-02T06:47:18Z Heather hlawver@gmail.com General Megness Zagg.com 'What Would You Do?' contest. The ten finalists who received the most votes were tasked with creating a 2-minute video showing the completion of their project proposals. Whoever makes the best video - as judged by the Zagg employees - will win an iMac! Judging will be based on Zagg pride and entertainment value, so I went all out and made the best two minute video I possibly could! I'd love for you to take a look and please let me know what you think!

    I want to thank Zagg for making this project possible and for this awesome opportunity! I had a wonderful time working with my family to create these pillowcases for wounded soldiers in Afghanistan. It's been an honor to be able to do something to thank them for their service and sacrifice. Now I just can't wait to actually get the pillowcases delivered!

Download the Zig-Zagg song!

Would you like a free mp3 and ringtone of 'Zig Me Baby With a Gentle Zagg'? You're in luck!
Click here to download it for free!

Thanks again to Zagg
& to everyone who helped make this project possible!
Click here to read the full list of thank you's!

This is only the beginning!

    I had so much fun making these pillowcases that I hope to keep this project going. My goal is to exceed my original proposal - why make only a few hundred pillowcases... when you could make thousands? :) Naturally, after making over a hundred pillowcases and a complex video in only a week or two, I'm pretty exhausted. So I'm going to take a break to rest and recover for a little while. But I'm determined to expand this project! There are just too many wounded soldiers out there who deserve our love and appreciation. This is one small way I can do something to thank them, so I just can't stop now! And of course, if you'd like to help in any way, post a comment to this blog entry and let's see if we can't make this project even bigger and even better!

Come on back soon for more updates on the project! Wish me luck!

]]> 2011-06-25T14:12:50Z 2011-06-25T13:22:47Z tag:www.heathershow.com,2011://1.1209 2011-06-25T13:22:47Z Heather hlawver@gmail.com Projects MY PROJECT WON THE ZAGG CONTEST!!!!!!

Y A Y !

    As you can tell, I'm pretty excited! Thanks to all the many, many people who voted, my project is in the top ten! Which means upon completion of my pillowcase project, I will receive a brand new iPad 2! And most importantly, hundreds of wounded soldiers will each get a custom colorful pillowcase to brighten their day and thank them for their service! So to everyone who took the time to vote, tweet, post on facebook, and tell their friends...

♥ THANK YOU!!! ♥

    As fantastic as all this is, there's actually one last phase to the contest! There's now one final phase where the ten of us who got the most votes will compete against each other to win the grand prize - a brand new iMac!!! Whichever one of us can best document the completion of our projects, as chosen by Zagg employees, will be the lucky grand prize winner! I have a 1 in 10 chance of winning an iMac, on top of the iPad 2 I already won!! Isn't that exciting?!
    Which means I have to get busy sewing, drawing, ironing, videotaping, and editing!!!

    But before I do that, there are several people who deserve extra special thanks. They are as follows. :)
    First off, to my family for helping me out with my pillowcase project. Huge thanks to my Mom for donating the fabric, thread, and her remarkable sewing talents! To my nephews, Max & Brian, for spending part of their spring break helping to cut apart over 100 yards of fabric, clip threads, and fold the pillowcases. A really big thank you to both of my parents for helping to develop the idea in the first place! And to my three wonderful brothers and their wonderful wives, thank you for all the help, support, tweets, camera equipment, and votes!

    Next, my unbelievably awesome friends! Thank you to my friend Glenn for coming up with such creative ways to spread the word & get out the vote! Thank you to StephieRawks for sharing the link with so many of her friends! An extra big thank you to one of my very best friends in the world, Alastair, for yet again getting all of his remarkably interesting friends to win me yet another contest, hehe. ;) (Years ago he got the same friends to overwhelm the vote so I could win an award from the BBC! Hehe, now that's an interesting story for another day...) Big thanks and a hug to my adopted Aunt Margie for relentlessly recruiting votes amongst her friends and family! An extra thank you to my lovely sister-in-law Emily for voting constantly and for letting me vote on her iPhone, hehe.
    And to all my other friends, far too numerous & magnanimous to name here, THANK YOU for being TOTALLY AWESOME! :-D

    An absolutely enormous THANK YOU to all the celebrities that I can't believe actually took the time to retweet the link to the contest, encouraging their Twitter followers to lend their support! (I still can't believe they actually did it!) First, thank you to the host of VH1's 'That Metal Show', Eddie Trunk! A big giant thank you to TV's Andy Levy from Fox News' Red Eye! Immense gratitude to Reason.com Editor in Chief, Nick Gillespie and his awesome mustache. This one still blows me away - thank you to the anchor of Fox News' Special Report, the remarkable Bret Baier! And to the Twitter followers of each of these awesome people, THANK YOU for your kind words, encouragement, tweets, retweets, and votes! You're all fantastic and I'll love you forever and ever!
    To all the other celebrities, journalists, reality stars, legends, icons, and congresspeople that took the time to at least read my tweet requests - and in some cases send their private words of encouragement of support - thank you! I appreciate your kind time and attention!

    Last, but certainly not in any way least, I owe the biggest THANK YOU of all to the wonderful folks at Zagg.com!! Thank you for sponsoring such a fun and entertaining opportunity to win such awesome prizes! I promise I will do you all proud as I finish up my project for our most deserving wounded soldiers in Afghanistan! I was already a loyal Zagg customer before, but now, you'll have me as a happy, happy customer until the end of time! :) And you can bet that as soon as I get my iPad 2, I'll be ordering all the protective gear I need to keep my iPad in tip-top shape straight from Zagg.com! If you have any sort of device that needs protecting, head on over and check them out! I'm particularly fond of their genuine leather protective skins for all sorts of devices, from Apple to HTC, Blackberry to Samsung, and everything in between!! :)

Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you!

    Now excuse me while I get to work! I have over a hundred pillowcases to finish up and a video to put together! Wish me luck!!]]> 2011-06-20T03:19:35Z 2011-06-20T00:59:21Z tag:www.heathershow.com,2011://1.1208 2011-06-20T00:59:21Z Heather hlawver@gmail.com Family     To celebrate my Father's dedication to aviation, my brothers and I decided to add our Father's name to the Wall of Honor at the newest Smithsonian museum, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum. It's a beautiful location - there's a long walkway leading up to the museum's entrance, lined with these brilliant silver panels shaped like air foils. They're engraved with the names of famous aviators, engineers, pilots, navigators, astronauts, and NASA personnel, each and every one of them contributing to aviation and space exploration in their own way.
    Now our Father will be listed among them.

    We kept this for a grand surprise. Yesterday we sat him down on the couch and handed him a rather elaborately wrapped present. When he opened it, he found a blindfold, ear plugs, and this poem:

Kevin, Tim, Steve and Heather,
Not to mention your wife,
Have worked all together,
To honor & celebrate your life!

But to show our love for you
On this Father's Day,
I'm afraid that it is true,
We must spirit you away!

So use these to plug your ears,
And cover up your sight,
But do not succumb to any fears,
For Father's Day will soon take flight!

    We all piled into the car, made Dad put on his blindfold and earplugs, then we drove to the Air & Space Museum. Mom walked him up to one of the silver panels, where I had put up a placard I designed with his name and Air Force call sign, letting him know that his name will soon be engraved there forever.
    But before we took off his blindfold, I read him one more poem that I wrote just for him. (Just bear in mind, I wasn't struck with the idea to write a poem until three o'clock in the morning that same day! And I'm not exactly a poet. So I can't say the poem is exactly perfect...)

Our Father's Dream
by Heather Lawver

Your life began with a single dream,
An inspired, unwavering goal;
No matter how hard it may seem,
Your destiny you would control.

Never deviating from your plan,
The expansive future you did ponder,
So that when you became a man,
You could explore the wild blue yonder.

Soon enough your dreams took flight,
And you became a man of merit.
With all your heart, mind, and might,
You forged a legacy that we'll inherit.

A legacy of strength and dedication,
Of honesty, kindness and duty;
So we may dream without hesitation,
And fill the world with beauty.

Now all these decades later,
Your family has grown.
We know there is no one greater
Than the Father we have known.

Here engraved in steel til the end of days,
The beloved name of our Father dear,
Where the future's children will sing in praise,
Of your contribution to the final frontier.

    We took off the blindfold and ta-da! I think Dad really loved it, especially since he was already tearing up one stanza into the very first poem when he unwrapped the blindfold, hehe. I'm also relieved that we were able to keep it a total secret for the several months that we were planning all of this! My friend Nathan and I even planned a trip to the museum so that I could get pictures of the inscriptions and everything, to see how it would turn out.
    After that, we spent the afternoon wandering around the museum and my Dad told stories about his Air Force days to two of his grandkids who came for a visit. It was a great day, all the way around. The Udvar-Hazy museum not only has an F4 Phantom like the one he flew, but he also pointed out that they have one of the fighters that my Grandfather flew! It's nice to know that a part of my family's military legacy will forever be at the Smithsonian. One day, I'll get to take my children there and show them their grandfather and great-grandfather's contribution to aviation and to our nation.

    Happy Father's Day, Dad! ]]> 2011-06-25T13:22:38Z 2011-06-11T02:30:13Z tag:www.heathershow.com,2011://1.1207 2011-06-11T02:30:13Z Heather hlawver@gmail.com Projects     I've been chosen as a finalist in the Zagg.com 'What Would You Do for an iPad 2?' contest! But in order to win, I need YOUR help!
    Zagg asked for ideas about what you would do to publicize their logo in exchange for an iPad 2. Most entries, as you'll see, have to do with getting a tattoo of Zagg's logo, painting the logo on your garage or car, et cetera. But I thought, maybe I could take this one step further. Maybe I could use this opportunity to make a difference.

    For my entry, I pledged that if chosen as a winner, I would create hundreds of bright, bold, colorful pillowcases for wounded soldiers in Afghanistan!

    I've spent a lot of time around wounded soldiers at Bethesda Naval Hospital & Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I owe my life to the amazing doctors & nurses in our military. But I know first-hand just how drab & dreary military hospitals are, and how emotionally draining it is to feel miserable in such a dull, monochromatic environment. As tough as it is at a military hospital here at home, I can't even begin to imagine how unbearable it must be out in the field! As simple as it may seem, color really makes a world of difference not just emotionally, but to the recovery process as a whole.

Click to zoom!

I created this prototype pillowcase to show what I have in mind. I drew on this pillowcase by hand using colored pencils, recreating the Zagg logo in painstaking detail. (That took me eight straight hours of work!) I want to create more pillowcases like this, one for each bed in the hospital at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan. It'll be a loving dose of cheerful color for the men and women who have sacrificed so much to protect our freedoms. It's a token to keep with them throughout the recovery process, reminding them always that they are loved.     But in order to make this project possible, I need YOUR help! I need YOUR vote!

    The ten finalists who get the most votes will win an iPad 2 and possible assistance in carrying out their task. Then, out of those ten, whoever does the best job documenting their project will win an iMac!

    Please, I'm begging you, vote for my project! I'm really eager to do this. I already have the fabric, thanks to my Mom who was kind enough to donate fabric from her extensive collection. I've already come up with designs to make each and every pillowcase unique. I'm all set and ready to go.
    Now all I need is you!

Here's How to Vote!

    Click here to go to the contest page! To vote for my proposal, go to Page 3 and look for "Sweet Zagg Dreams for Wounded Soldiers". That's mine! Click the big green "VOTE" button! And that's it!

    As I'm sure you'll notice, mine is the only charity project amongst all the finalists!

    You can vote once a day now through June 24th. Vote on multiple devices, vote every day, get your friends to vote; please, please, please VOTE!

    As an added bonus, each day you vote, you'll get an extra entry in Zagg's Daily iPod Touch giveaway! So you have a chance to win too! After you vote, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the button to go to the iPod Touch Giveaway entry page. It's literally a win-win! Or rather, a win-win-win: I win, you could win, and most importantly, our wounded soldiers win too!

And if you'd like to help spread the word, please give this link to your friends: http://bit.ly/pillows4vets! I'll love you forever if you do!

    Thanks very much!! And wish me luck!!

News, Updates & Gratitude

Update: June 11, 2:40am Wow! Some truly awesome people have retweeted links to this blog entry to help spread the word! HUGE thank you's to host of VH1's 'That Metal Show' Eddie Trunk, Red Eye Dude TV's Andy Levy, and Special Report anchor Bret Baier! All of them were kind enough to send out links to encourage people to vote. And many of their followers also retweeted it!! Thanks, guys, I will love you forever and ever!
    And a HUGE thank you to all the followers of these aforementioned awesome people who retweeted the message again and again to help spread the word!
    I also want to thank Representative Thaddeus McCotter from Michigan. I asked him to retweet it, without thinking that it might violate House rules. He was kind enough to write back very quickly to explain & thank me for supporting the troops, which I thought was sweet. So thank you for your encouragement and incredibly fast response, Representative McCotter! I still think you're awesome.
    Do you know anybody else who has shared the link to the blog? If so, let me know! I'll post them here!

Update: June 11, 10:47pm Big thank you to Reason.com Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie, his swanky leather jacket, his sadly deceased handlebar mustache, & his awesome followers for helping to spread the word! Mr. Gillespie, your mustache will be missed.

Update: June 16, 4:43am Oh no! I just discovered that the bit.ly link I had been using to link to the contest voting site wasn't working anymore! Eep! I'm terribly sorry for the technical difficulties and hope that you'll please keep voting! The link is all fixed now - if you click the banner at the top of this entry, it will now take you directly to the contest voting site.
    Please keep sharing the link with your friends! I just double checked - the http://bit.ly/pillows4vets link is still working fine! That will bring people here to this blog entry where they can get all the info and decide if they'd like to support the project.
    Another way you could help is to suggest celebrities who might be willing to retweet the link to their followers! I've tried several celebrities over the past several days, from all points on the political spectrum, but sadly no one has retweeted it yet! I guess I've lost my mojo or something. I won't name them, since that would be rude - maybe they're just busy or something - but still. If you can think of anybody, please post a comment below, email me, or maybe even ask them yourself! If you're successful, please let me know so I can thank them here!
    Lastly, I want to thank to my friend @StephieRawks for continuing to retweet the link and encouraging people to vote! Thank you!! You should all go follow her, she's very nice. :)

Thanks! And please keep voting!

Update: June 19, 9:57pm I just changed the original publishing date of this post so that it would remain at the top of my blog, but I could still publish a new blog to commemorate Father's Day. The original publishing date of this blog entry was June 10, 2011, at 9:30PM. I'll switch it back once voting is over. :)]]> 2011-04-19T07:08:38Z 2011-04-19T06:55:11Z tag:www.heathershow.com,2011://1.1206 2011-04-19T06:55:11Z Heather hlawver@gmail.com Sweepstakes     I want to thank everyone who has entered and everyone who has been a part of this exciting endeavor! I especially want to thank the lovely folks at ShabbyApple.com for providing the gorgeous little black dress and for proposing the idea for the sweepstakes in the first place. If it weren't for them, this wouldn't have been a possibility. So thank you!

    My nephews and I will be drawing the names of the three lucky winners soon! I'll videotape the whole process so that you can all see the exciting moment for yourselves! It'll take a little while to contact and confirm the lucky winners (and not to mention, make the video stylish and presentable!), but I promise the video will be posted as soon as possible!

    Thanks again to everyone who entered! Good luck to you all and keep an eye on your inbox and keep your phone handy to find out if you're one of our lucky winners! You might be hearing from me soon! :)]]>