Creative Juices

Lately I've been trying to be creative. It started with a cake for Tony's birthday. I am quite notorious for my baking disasters in the kitchen. I never burn anything and it always TASTES good, but something falls apart or something else happens so that it just looks hideous. Well folks, this time I did my homework and took two days to make the cake you see below. It was the most gorgeous, most delicious yellow cake I've ever had. I'll refer you to the recipe if you wish. I think next time I won't use a ganache frosting (it was a bit too rich) but other than that it was perfection. Nothing I did mind you, I just found a good recipe with good tips and instructions.

I put it in a cake box to keep it safe on its journey to Sandy.

In other creative news, Tony bought me a Silhouette for an early birthday present. His company was having a huge warehouse sale and so it was only $100! Its regular retail price is $299. He also hooked me up with a free unlimited year subscription to the online store where I can download all of the images I want! Yay for husbands who work at scrapbooking companies!


I made this card with my Sil for my friend Amie, who graduated from college this past Saturday.

And last but not least, here is my "Halloween Blocks" project. I don't have many Halloween decorations so I made some. I bought the wooden blocks at Robert's, painted them, cut some cute halloween letters and shapes with my Sil, glued them down, and used some modgepodge to hold it all in place. I love them! Tony suggested that on the other side I make it say "Trick or Treat" so I can have two messages. I liked the idea and I plan on doing that sometime this week. I feel so crafty!

The Dentist

So, about a month ago I went to the dentist for my regular check-up. All went well (I did have a couple tiny cavities..boo..) but something during my visit really stuck out to me this time. I had noticed it before, but never as much as this particular time.

Do you notice that after the assistant is done cleaning your teeth, the dentist comes in, says hello to you, and then you somehow disappear from the dentist chair? He leans you back (like, past straight so your head has all the blood rushing to it) and checks your teeth. He then starts a charming conversation with his assistant: "So, Chrissy, did your boys like the pool party you went to the other day?" "Oh yes Dr. Nate" and they go on like this pausing only to call out numbers of rotten teeth you have. Then they raise you up in the chair. You still aren't sure what's going on or what is going to happen next. The dentist begins taking his gloves off, puts his hand on your shoulder, tells you how many cavities you have, then leaves. Did he even know I was here? I could have just left my teeth for him and done some shopping! That would probably look funny, though. Don't get me wrong, our dentist is great, it's just funny when he does this.

I thought it was really funny after that appointment, but this past Friday I had to go in for my fillings and things were a little different. Let's just start off by saying this: I have a new friend, and her name is Nitrus Oxide. Tony suggested I get it to calm my nerves and I loved it. It was so relaxing! Because I was on Nitrus, the dentist didn't get away with his "ingore Hollie chatter." While they were waiting for me to get numb they began talking and I (partially without realizing) said "hey! the left side of my mouth isn't numb yet, is that okay?" Looking shocked that I spoke up he said "well, I'll go slow and you raise your hand if it hurts." Satisfied with the answer, I closed my eyes and let him go to town.

During this process, however, the tubes feeding me my joyful juice were pinching my cheek. I kept reaching up, getting in the dentist's way each time, to adjust it. Finally after the fourth or fifth time, the doctor realized what was going on. "Oh no, I'm stepping on your tube!" he said. He took his foot off of it and adjusted it so it wouldn't pinch me anymore. When he did all that I suddenly felt a WHOLE lot better, too. He was cutting off my supply!

In the end I did well, it only took about 25 minutes and I was happy as a clam. The only not-so-fun thing was the incredibly numb mouth I had for 3 hours afterward. I'm just glad it's over now. I can't say I'm a fan of the dentist, though ours is terrific.

My Midnight Thoughts

I apologize for the lack of blogging. I just started the semester and figuring out my new schedule has been kind of difficult for me. So, here I find myself at midnight with a spare moment to blog about what's on my mind. Don't worry, no heavy politics here. I'm off the stuff. ;)

What's been on my mind recently has been the idea of the innocence of childhood. There are a couple reasons for this: 1) I am taking an amazingly interesting class on Race and Minority groups and we've been talking about the honesty of children, and 2) I feel that I am extremely naive because when I talk to other people about issues in the world today, I am just concerned that we are being nice to one another. I feel like a little kid when I think "well, that's just plain not nice!" Not that I posses the innocence of a child, but sometimes I feel like one.

In my class we are reading a book by a man named Wendell Berry called The Hidden Wound (amazing story, I recommend it). Berry is describing his feelings about having grown up on a farm in the south where his grandfather owned slaves. It's a very complex book about this "hidden wound" but the part I read the other day has just stuck with me and I cannot get it out of my mind.

Berry is very good friends with the black slaves on his grandfather's farm (named Nick and Aunt Georgie) and decides to invite Nick to his birthday party. Nick, knowing full well he could not enter the house for the party, sat outside on a bench and observed the party. Berry saw him, and decided he would rather be with Nick than be with the party because he loved him. After relaying this story, Berry says the following: (These are just a few exerpts)

To both the racist and the puritan, childhood is not a time of life that we grow out of, as the life of the child grows out of the life of the parent or as a plant grows out of the soil, but a time and a state of consciousness to be left behind, to cut oneself off from: "when I became a man, I put away childish things."

I am not necessarily objecting to the manly virtues, but I am objecting that they
should be so exlusively assigned to grownups, and that grownups should be so exlusively restritced to them. A man may have all the prescribed adult virtues and, if he lacks the childhood virtues, still be a dunce and a bore and a liar.

Under the dispensations of childhood, a child may cross the boundaries of class and race and property with a good deal of freedom, and his reason for crossing these boundaries is his honesty in the face of experience.

You see this all the time in children. They see no color, no political party, no rich or poor. They simply love everyone around them. I saw this a lot as I served in the orphanages in Bulgaria. The young children did not care that I was different, they just loved me because I was a person...just like them.

It's sad that we lose this "childhood honesty" as Berry talks about. Wouldn't the world be so perfectly splendid if we all acted as children do? I don't think we should be childISH, but childLIKE. I don't know if honesty is a good word to use, because I don't think that we all suddenly become horrible people when we are adults, but I do believe that as we enter adulthood social pressures and expectations somehow force us into being grown up, and not so loving and innocent and simple anymore.

As people rant and rave about politics and Obama's healthcare reform plan, I can't help but wonder what Obama feels like as people yell at him as he is trying to clarify his plans. I would hate to be President. I would cry myself to sleep every night. On my facebook status once I said that I wish I could tell Obama that I think he's a good man. Man, oh mighty did that get people going. I wish we all (including me) could look at Obama--and everyone for that matter!--and see the good in them, as a little child would do. I know I said no politics, but this is about people, not issues at hand.

Thanks for listening (er..reading) my thoughts. I just feel like this world needs to start being a kinder place or we are in some serious trouble. I am going to try harder to follow some true examples. Children.

Naska and Mimi, from the Bratsigovo, Bulgaria orphanage