Globe Cake

After a family reunion discussion of my blog this past week, I have decided to ditch the new format because no one seemed to like it. Oh well. I guess that was a failed experiment. In any case, I haven't written in too long and have a few catch up posts to do. Here is one.

A few weeks back was both my sister-in-law's (the one who loves grasses, Alysa) birthday and also the day she was going to open her letter that told her where she was going on a mission. When her brother had opened his call, I had made some very fantastic dessert, the recipe of which came from my mother via my sister. Since it was Alysa's birthday as well, we decided the occasion called for cake. 

As many people post maps at these occasions so people can make guesses about where the person will be going, I had a flash of a brilliant idea. A few years back, my roommate Sarah (I had more roommates named Sarah than anything else, but this was one of them) and I decided to make a cake in the shape of the globe. I can't honestly remember whose idea this was originally, but I will say it was hers because it is quite likely. In any case, we did it. And it was fantastic.

The concept is actually quite simple, though the practice is a little bit more complex. It requires three boxes of cake mix or three batches of a recipe that makes two 8-inch round cakes. I always use boxed cake because frankly I have never found a recipe that I think is that much better that I find it worth it. I still get numerous compliments on my cake, but we will get to that in a second. 

You will also need two 8-inch round pans and a oven safe round bowl that is 8 inches round at the top. Mine is a Pyrex glass bowl. If you don't know if it is oven safe, I would recommend not using it if you are not willing to scrapped burnt cake and glass shards or melted bowl off the bottom of the oven, but you never know; it could be fun. Grease and flower the bowl really well. I mean really well. If you can't get it out clean, it won't work. You cannot crack the crust (so to speak) of the cake. You need that harder part for structure. I cooked my bowls at about 300 for as long as it took until I could insert a toothpick deep into the cake and it came out clean. This is a thicker cake and it will take a while. Repeat this with a second box of mix and make the third box in the rounds.  You need the cake rounds to fill in the middle of the two bowl halves (so it isn't squished looking like the picture above) as well as curve the top since the bowl has a flat bottom.

Now, for how I get compliments on my boxed cake. I stick it in the freezer almost straight out of the oven. As soon as the cake is cool enough to get out of the pan, I put it in the freezer. I didn't start doing this to make the cake good; it is a practice born from impatience as I frost my cakes while they are frozen and I don't want to wait around to have to put it in. Somehow, it also seems to lock in the moisture. 

Now, the first time my roommate and I did this, I overcooked one of the cakes in the bowl. It kind of got a pretty hard shell. Turns out, this actually helped structure wise. Though the cake did hold together with a less cooked/burned cake on the bottom this go around, it sunk some so it looked a bit like a hacky sack. Unfortunately, I didn't appreciate what the overcooking did to the texture of the outside. I should note that some people said they really liked it. Of course, most of those were college guys, who are not always known for culinary taste. In any case, that is an option. Also, you could take the sneaky route and switch one bowl cake for rice crispy treat. I leave it to you. 

When the cake has frozen, put it together. Put one bowl right side up and glue one round on top with frosting. Next, glue the other bowl upside down on the round. I also put frosting on the bottom in order to keep the cake from slipping. I put all of this on an upside down dinner plate covered in aluminum foil, my mother's cake platter of choice when I was growing up. I find they work rather well. It is also easier to frost the cake if you have one of those lazy Susan cake decorating platters to put the plate on. I don't.

Take the final round and roughly cut a circle that is the same size as the flat part on the top of the cake and glue it on top. If the cake is getting softer, you might want to pop the whole thing in the freezer for a bit before proceeding, but you will eventually just carve this cake piece into the domed top of the cake.  Cut off any other pieces of cake that seem to offend the shape, though be wary of cutting into the bottom round for the structure reasons I mentioned before. If you used rice crispy treats, have at it.

Next, we do what is called a crumb layer. It is basically taking your icing and covering the cake in a thin layer. It doesn't have to look pretty. In fact, it probably won't, but just cover it as best you can and pop the cake in the freezer. The crumb layer will keep the cake crumbs from getting into upper layers of icing. In this case, it also helps hold the cake together. You can see in this picture that this cake is already starting to sag a bit. I just pretended that this was a bean bag globe.

The next step is to frost the whole globe in your water color. I did a lighter blue this time than my roommate and I did back then, but I think both worked. At this point, you have conquered the first hard part.

When I did this second cake, I had forgotten about how time consuming this second part was. Fortunately, there was that clever person somewhere in the past that made up latitude and longitude. You will need to draw some on your cake now. I drew longitude every 30 degrees, but actually only did the Equator, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn for the latitude. I used a protractor to measure the degrees on the longitude and marked with a toothpick a certain distance up from the ground so the latitude was even. I drew all these lines by rotating a clean plastic ruler around the cake.

Next, I put my middle school map drawing skills to good use. Back in 7th grade, I had to draw a map of the world. 8th grade, it was the United States. In 9th grade, I did the State of Washington, which was where I lived at the time. (I also had to draw maps of Africa, Ecuador, and Honduras at various times). I learned a little something about hand drawing maps--wisdom I will share with you now. First, it is tedious and time consuming. Second, it is really easy to get off a grid line if you are not careful (and even easier if you are drawing a globe). Third, computers will always do it better. And fourth, (but most important for sanity), as long as you follow the big squiggle shape with a shaky hand, no one can tell that the little squiggles are not quite right.

I began by drawing out the world with a toothpick and then filled it in with icing. I decided to do topography, but just doing all of them green would be totally acceptable. Since I got bored drawing, I would switch to icing, but then I got bored doing that, so I would switch back. In the end, Australia was a bit funny looking and I did just add some random dots in the south pacific that I figured could pass as a few different countries if they needed to. (My husband did give me some guidance there because he went to Fiji on his mission and knows the area a bit better than I do).

I chose to smooth out the icing in the ocean and hide the lines, but you could just as easily leave them. You could even pipe over the lines in another color to make them stand out. You could also make a political map with all the countries, though that would probably take a long while. I would love to see a picture of that one if you do it. Really, the possibilities are endless.

We made flags from paper and toothpicks and everyone got to guess. It was great fun and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Alysa got to eat the section with her mission, which is Mexico Pachua. Unfortunately, Mexico was one of the last places I did and was therefore one of the ones that I could not get to look quite right. But she looks happy, so I guess it didn't matter in the end. Congratulations, Alysa.

Decorating with Grasses

Problem I guess you could say the problem in this situation is that I saw some great different types of grass outside while working in the garden and I thought they would look great inside, but I had to figure out how to display them.

Requirements The method could not cost anything and since I really didn't have a lot of time, had to take less than an hour, but preferably less than a half hour. It had to look pretty.

Research I think the only research that I can claim to have done in this case was watch far too many period movies in which they are decorating their house with things like this. I also have been given a grand total of about 4 hours of instruction as regards floral arrangements--about 2 1/2 hours from a florist for a school thing in 8th grade and about 1 1/2 from an interior designer when I was about 17. 

Solution Since I didn't want to spend a lot of time, I eliminated any sort of weaving, gluing or sewing and was pretty much left with cutting and arranging the grasses in an old pasta sauce jar.

Prototype I cut three types of grass: a very droopy kind that my sister-in-law said was cheat grass, something that looks like wheat, and what my sister-in-law told me was Kentucky blue grass (my sister-in-law is majoring in this stuff). I kept the types of grass separate and took them all inside. I then took a pasta jar, cleaned the sticky part left from the label off with furniture polish (pure lemon oil works really well for removing sticky from tape or labels, but any furniture polish will do it some. That was a really useful take away from my days as a custodian), and arranged.

I decided to put some water in the jar to see if it would make them stay green longer as per my husband's suggestion. I don't really think it worked, but it didn't seem to really hurt either

Test and Redesign I would consider this a success. Though the grass has halfway turned yellow now, I like the look. On the downside, this would be a bad centerpiece if any one in my family had pollen allergies. About 24 hours after I did this, I noticed a lot of pollen around the base of my arrangement. I actually think I like it more now several days later (picture to the right).

Custom No Sew Fabric Drawer

Problem We recently reorganized our bedroom which made access to a little built in cabinet with fixed shelves easier. Before we had stored things that we rarely used in there (like extra blankets), but I decided it would be a good place to make David's dresser. This created a problem; how can I find a drawer that will fit on the built in shelves in our bedroom and hold David's things?

Requirements The drawers needed to fit the shelf and be able to slide in and out easily. They needed to be sturdy enough to stay together when filled with David's things and have handles for easy pulling out. I also wanted them to look at least semi-attractive. Finally, they could not cost very much.

Research, Alternatives, and the Best Solution David's clothes have been stored in cardboard boxes under his crib his entire life. Perhaps I could just get cardboard boxes to fit on the shelves. Unfortunately, boxes exactly that size are hard to come by, so I would just be looking for boxes smaller than that space, which would likely end up wasting space. Furthermore, cardboard is not terribly attractive.

Store bought containers are more attractive. I looked at a lot of store bought containers. They are often expensive, flimsy-looking, or both. The ones that looked acceptable were too big.

I thought that perhaps I could create a container that was exactly the size of the shelves and was sturdy. I thought it might be good to sew one with cardboard and fabric.  I found this tutorial, which is pretty much exactly what I was envisioning and it looked like it might work. Here is another that used plastic canvas instead of cardboard. I decided that I would probably not do exactly what I saw in these tutorials, but that something along these lines was probably the best solution to my problem.

Development of the Prototype In selecting the fabric, I went to my trusty storage bench and pulled out several options that might work. Patrick said that since this project was to hold David's clothes, I was not allowed to use flowered fabric, so I chose some off white fabric I got from a thrift store in a large bag of scraps for $4. It probably offended someone in a previous life because it was cut up into a bunch of uneven 4-sided polygons.  I also selected some blue fabric left over from the bridesmaid dresses for my wedding. The cardboard came from a large cardboard box we had lying around.

I measured the dimensions of my shelves. There are 4 shelves and each shelf is one inch taller than the shelf above it. Since there is a door on the shelves, I had to subtract the space the door blocked when open so the drawer could still slide in and out. I also made sure to record my measurements a little on the small side so the fit was not too tight. This would allow ease of movement.

At this point, my husband asked me if I was planning on sewing the drawers or using hot glue. Partially because hot glue sounded more fun that day and partially because of the random sizes of the off white fabric, I decided to develop a hot glue method. I have a high temperature gun because it creates a stronger bond. A lower temperature may not work as well.




I began by cutting out pieces of cardboard to fit my measurements for the four sides. I cut out a piece for the bottom as well. I ended up with the pieces to the right for one of my drawers.

I then used the off white fabric to cover one side of each side piece piece. I cut a piece of fabric that was about a half inch to an inch larger than the board on every side (enough that it wrapped around). I pulled the piece around the board and glued each side on the back.








To finish the corners, I put a dot of glue at the corner and pushed it up, clipping extra fabric if it seemed just too bulky. This step is dangerous if you are not careful. I put the glue closer to the corner and held it more at the top so the glue wouldn't stick to my finger.

After covering all the sides, I cut strips of blue fabric that were about 2-3 inches wide and just slightly longer than the sides were tall. I "hemmed" the tops by running a bead of glue along the top and folding it down, thus making the strips about exactly as tall as the sides. It is okay if they are a tiny bit shorter, but I didn't want them longer. I then laid two sides that were to be adjacent next to each other and glued the strip onto both to connect them.

I repeated the last step  until all for sides were connected and I had a box without sides. I then used the bottom piece to hold the four sides of the box in a rectangle while it sat on one side. The bottom of the box was perfect for this because it was the right size to force the box to be square.




Next, I glued on a piece of the blue fabric to cover the bottom so that the raw edges were inside the box. I fit the bottom cardboard down inside the box securely and covered that with another blue piece of fabric. I didn't worry about the raw fabric edges on the bottom because I was going to be covering them with the sides.

I cut out pieces of scratch computer paper to fit each of the side of the box. I had to do a bit of gluing of sheets for the longer sides. I covered each of these pieces of paper with the blue fabric, much like I had covered the cardboard with the white, and glued them on their respective sides.

Finally, I cut a strip of fabric that was probably about 3 times as wide as I wanted the handle and just a little bit longer than I wanted the handle. I folded it in thirds and glued it that way, running a bead of glue along where each fold would be before folding. I then folded in the ends and glued them to the box on the front panel. I thought it looked great.

Test and Redesign The drawer was fairly successful, but there were a few difficulties.

First, the off white fabric was a bit stretchy and had a very defined grain line. It was difficult to pull it evenly on all sides and the unevenness was very apparent. The blue fabric, which was a cotton broadcloth, worked much better. I would probably select only non-stretchy fabric in the future.

Though the scratch paper under the lining was successful, card stock would have been easier to apply.

My drawer does not fold. It was not something I considered necessary. However, if I wanted to make it fold, I could have made each side with two separate pieces (much like the fabric and cardboard basket I found in my research), and connected them together the same way I did the corners. I would then have to make the bottom a separate covered piece that could be removed.

By far the biggest flaw of my original design was the handle. Though the handle did not come off entirely when I pulled out the fully loaded drawer, it did un-stick from the cardboard so it was only attached to the fabric. This seemed un-ideal, particularly since the fabric stratched. I decided to reattach the handle with two metal brads on each side of the handle. Because the lining was already on, it had to be partially  removed or else the brad would end up sticking through the lining. To do this, I put a paper towel over the area I wanted unstuck and ironed it until the glue melted enough that I could pull the lining back. This was not very fun.

Because I knew the removal of the lining was not going to be enjoyable, I first tested my new handle on a completely new drawer (I had to make 4 of them after all). I attached the handle with the brands and though it seemed rather strong, I really hated the way it looked. Therefore, I came up with a method for concealing the brad. For something more decorative, I could have perhaps used decorative scrap-booking brads that come in a variety of colors and shapes, but I really liked the look of the handle without the brads at all.

For the revised handle, I started much the same way as the original handle except that I made the strip about half an inch longer than before. Before folding in the ends, I used a hammer, nail (actually it was a screw because I found that first) and a piece of wood to poke two holes  about a quarter inch from either end.





I inserted a brad into each hole from the back of the handle to the front. I then put glue over the tops of the brads and folded over the end so the poky end of the brad was pointing to the back and the top part was folded inside. The picture to the left is of what the handle looked like from the back.

Finally, I poked holes in the cardboard for each of the brads using the same hammer and nail method. I put the brads through and folded them back I secured them with a little bit of hot glue, but this was probably overkill. In any case, this handle was nice and secure. I wouldn't think it would pull a bowling ball around, but then I wouldn't carry a bowling ball in this box anyway.

I managed to pull the lining back on the other box enough to shove my hand in and put on a new handle. Thank heavens I have rather small hands. I didn't secure this handle with extra hot glue, but it hasn't come off yet.

One last thing I should have done differently but got lucky about: I should have checked the size of my cardboard pieces in relation the the shelves I wanted them to fit on (remembering that there would be a bit of bulk added from the corners), as well as the size of the box when I got the four sides together. With the first box I didn't check fit at all until I finished the box. The subsequent boxes got checked when I remembered to, which wasn't until about halfway through the lining process. I got lucky.

I would say that all in all, the project was a success. I wish the colors went better with the cabinet, but I like my box colors a lot better than the cabinet colors, and I can't change the cabinet. One day, I will live somewhere that I can change the wall colors any time I want. At the very least, this looks better than the duct tape on the bottom shelf in the cabinet.

Baby bib

David is teething. And drooling. And when the hot weather started, he broke out with a terrible rash on his neck as a result. It didn't seem to bother him, but it looked uncomfortable.
I tried as best I could to keep him dry, which involved a lot of bibs. Thus, I either needed to buy more bibs or make them. Being me, I made them.

I chose some camo fabric my mother sent me that was left over from things from my brothers back in the day, and did one bib by tracing one of my existing bibs on a piece of paper, adding a seam allowance, and cutting out two pieces in my fabric. I put these pieces right sides together and sewed around the outside all the way except for a small section at the front of the bib. I clipped corners and along the curves to remove some bulk and turned the bib right side out. I then pined the hole closed with the raw edges tucked inside and top stitched around the whole thing once more. I added a snaps to the ends. The bibs I had had Velcro, but I had to be careful not to scratch David. In fact, he often scratched himself by pulling it off.

This bib worked wonderfully, but I decided to do something better. For the next bib, I looked for something I could write on it for fun. I found a onesie online in a baby shower picture that was camo and had what I decided was the best thing I had seen written on camo so far. I thought it was even more appropriate for a bib than a onesie.

I remembered reading somewhere (probably pinterest), about a lady who had painted a bib with fabric paint from a stencil that she had printed out, cut out with an X-acto knife (which is not a quick process), and glued in place. I tried this method. I was rather unhappy with the results and therefore stopped before I got it dark enough. I think it would have maybe worked better printed on cardstock, which was maybe what the lady had done in this original article (I couldn't find it again, but I am 99% sure her stencil was made of some paper). If I were to do it again, however, I think I would cut it out in a piece of plastic, much like this post.

Well, I was leaving town that evening but wanted to give it one more go, so I just free handed it. This is also the way I do french nails (when I actually paint my nails, which is almost never) because I could never get the white to not bleed under the little stickers they sell. The result is that some of the letters are bigger than they should be, the N is wonky, and the whole thing is a bit off center, but I do think it was an improvement. I also think the placement within the camo print is better on my free handed bib; there is not a big black section going right through the middle of it.

My husband came home and we had to leave before I gave it as many coats as I should have. This is about 2 coats. I also didn't actually use fabric paint. This is just acrylic. I knew from experience that acrylic does not come out from fabric well at all, so I decided to just go for it. It hasn't faded at all and I have washed it several times. It is a bit stiff, but since it is just a bib, I didn't think it was a big deal.

Note: the paint will definitely bleed through the fabric, so put something under the bib and paint it before you sew it together, or you will have a backwards version on the back of the bib.

Also, to all concerned, the doctor gave me some more tips on keeping David's skin dry and prescribed an ointment for when it gets really bad. He said it is a common hazard of teething during hot weather. The ointment cleared up the original breakout in 2 applications and he has only had little spots of rash since.

Southwest Inspired Dressing Recipe

The only thing to have come out of our garden so far has been lettuce, and we didn't even plant that. Patrick and I planted lettuce last year and it did relatively well in the buckets we had it in. Then it went to seed. I didn't know this, but when lettuce goes to seed, it is a lot like dandelions, which has led to some wonderful volunteer plants this spring. The ones not in the cracks in the sidewalks have been allowed to grow.

All this lettuce has inspired me to make salad, and all this salad has inspired me to make dressing. I made a southwest chicken salad for dinner one day and didn't have some ingredients for the dressing included in the recipe I was roughly following (I honestly can't remember the last time I exactly followed a cooking recipe. Baking yes, cooking, not so much). Furthermore, it didn't sound fantastic. Thus, I looked for some other recipes and, after looking at a few, combined ideas and came up with my own. 

Patrick is used to me doing this and he knows that it doesn't always work out perfectly. We often categorize my experiments into three groups: good as is, has potential with some changes, and not a good idea. This southwest inspired dressing, however, ended up being rather good, so I decided to share it, mostly so I will have written it down. I call it "Southwest Inspired" because that way no one can tell me it is not authentic--and it includes a product developed by a Vietnamese man.

Please note, I rarely measure, so this is all rather approximate. If you try to make this, make sure to taste it as you go. In that sense, everything is "to taste." The sour cream should be regarded as the base, so if you think you put in too much of anything else, just add more sour cream.

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (start with just a little and add to desired heat)

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash (I actually used a store knock off version)

The chili garlic sauce (this stuff) is something I somewhat randomly discovered when Patrick requested I get some kind of sauce like the chutneys he had in Fiji. I kind of fell in love with it. When I was very first pregnant, I craved this stuff. It is rather powerful, so it doesn't take a lot, but I have used this with just about any kind of food: stir fry, pizza, homemade macaroni and cheese. When I was pregnant, I wanted to put it on my oatmeal, but I didn't. I don't know that I would recommend that. Never used it in a dessert either.

Making a Baby Hat

In the past little bit it has gotten rather sunny and warm and I have started taking David outside more frequently. Sometime a few weeks ago, I decided to take David on a walk. Like most babies, he is bald, and, unfortunately I did not have a hat for him. My doctor told me that if I didn't have a hat I could just put sunblock on his head. However, David is not completely bald and I didn't want to make what hair he does have really greasy. Thus, a hat needed to be acquired.

Being me, I decided to make one. I didn't really know what kind of hat I was going to make, so I googled "baby boy sun hat," and decided to do something like this one. I had some fabric that my mother had sent me back when I was still pregnant. It is cotton with a background that is intended to look like denim and a cute bear printed on it. I thought to cotton would be good because it is generally rather cool. My hat is it not tested for sun protection like the one in the picture. I decided I was okay with that. He hasn't gotten burned yet.


Above are all my materials, minus a few sheets of scratch paper. I used the embroidery floss to measure David's head because I had misplaced my tape measure for the moment.

I began by measuring David's head around the widest part. I then used the good old C=2πr to calculate the radius of that part of David's head. I added  5/8 inch seam allowance to that radius and used a compass to draw a circle. If you don't have a compass, use the whole string method. I then drew a rectangle that was as wide as I wanted the hat tall plus 2 seam allowances of 5/8 of an inch and half the circumference I measured plus a 5/8 inch seam allowance long. Finally, I drew a half circle that was 5/8 inch wider than as wide as I wanted the brim of the hat to be and then drew another smaller circle inside that that was the radius of David's head minus 5/8 of an inch.

I cut all the pieces I drew out as you see in the picture at the left. The full circle should just be cut out as is, but the other two should be cut along a fold in the fabric. For my first hat, I cut two of the brim piece (the C shaped piece) but only one of the other two. If I did it again, I would probably line the whole hat and therefore cut out all the pieces twice. If you were to line the whole thing, you could easily make the hat reversible by cutting one of each piece out of one fabric and one of each out of another.

The first thing I did was sew the edges of the rectangle together so that I had a ring of fabric that fit around David's head. If I were doing this so that it was reversible, I would do so with both rectangles separately.

Then, I turned my machine to the longest stitch length and sewed around the outside of my circle, the top of the hat. Again, if I was making a reversible hat, I would do this to both circles separately. Pull on one thread to gather the edge slightly. This makes it much easier to sew the next step.

Next, pin the circle and rectangle right sides together so that it makes a cylinder with one open end. You can continue pull on the thread to help the circle fit properly. When you get it all pinned, make sure you have turned your stitch length back to a reasonable stitch (I always forget this) and sew the two pieces together. Repeat with your other rectangle and circle.

Then, pin the inside of your ring (brim) to the open end of the cylinder and sew. Repeat for the other brim on the other cylinder. You should now basically have two hats. To make them lie better, clip little vs into the curved seams.

Turn both wrong side out and pin the brims together, right sides together. Sew around the outside most of the way, leaving a few inches to turn the hat right side out. I tend to try to make this space as small as possible in everything I do because I would rather spend the time stuffing it through a small hole than sewing up the hole. In this case, however, you won't be hand sewing the hole, which makes it less time consuming.

Once you have turned the hat right side out, turn the raw edges of the hole inside and pin them. Then just put the brim of the hat under the sewing matching and top stitch around the whole brim. This will close the hole as well as keep the brim flatter and a bit stiffer.

If you want to, you could probably make the brim stiffer by stitching around it multiple times at about 1/4 inch intervals until the center of the hat, much like in the inspiration photo. Also, you could line the inside of the brim with stiff lining. I just went with a floppy brim, even though it does look a bit like a ruffle and he is a boy. He has some (blue) socks with bows too. He will live.

I am making a camo one next, mostly because I have camo fabric that was left over from when my brothers were little. I have already cut it out and it will be lined/ reversible (but it is just 2 different camos; I'm using up scraps). If you are making one for a girl, the possibilities are endless: sew ribbon just above the brim, add a flower, put lace on the edge of the brim... I don't know, play around and see what you like.

The Message of the Blog

It has been a bit since I have made a post. I've still been making things, but my husband also graduated and we therefore had family in town. Then I spent about a week recovering from having family in town since I had neglected certain things (like laundry). In my absence from the blog, I  thought a lot about what the purpose of this blog is so as better direct my posts.

There are a ton of blogs out there by people that make all sorts of things. I am sure there is someone who has already done just about everything I have done. Furthermore, I use a lot of materials that I know a lot of other people don't have, so doing exactly what I do is not necessarily very easy. I don't think a large chipped mirror or a set of broken blinds is something very many people have just lying around like the things I used for this post.

My intention is not for people to copy things, necessarily, which is why I don't always do step by step instructions with lots of pictures (still, please feel free to make your versions of anything I do). My intention is two fold: to document some of what I have been up to and to hopefully inspire people to do something.

I don't know that I am the most creative person. I don't think my ideas are that unique. What I do think I have that some do not is the guts to try something that just might not work and then the stubbornness to continue trying to make it turn out after it became a disaster. I mean, look at the pictures of the disassembled couch before I rebuilt it.

Yesterday, for instance, I decided to try to make a crepe out of pancake mix. I honestly don't know why because I knew it wouldn't really work. I had pancake mix and wanted a crepe, I guess. After a couple tries, mixing the batter rather thin, and turning the heat up rather high, I did manage to make a pancake that I could fold up like a crepe around yummy insides. It didn't taste like a crepe, but it kind of looked like one and it was fun. Plus, it didn't taste too badly either, just a lot like a pancake. The first try, though, was an absolute mess.

I guess to quote everybody's favorite teacher who possesses a magic school bus, "Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!" After all, it is rather fun.