I spent quite a bit of this week sick. Luckily I recovered enough by the end of the week to help a fund raiser that my youth group from church is doing to raise money for a camp we’re going to.
We did a dinner, so I helped set tables for it.
I also baked a dessert for the dessert auction we did after the dinner. The dessert was a nut tort cake with butterflies filling and vanilla frosting. It took all Thursday afternoon for me and my dad to bake it. It didn’t sell super great, but it was fun to make and decorate.
I used the left over frosting from the cake to make some cupcakes for one of my friends, who had her birthday party yesterday. The cupcakes were inspired by the spot sprites from Spirited Away.
 The party was nice. We watched movies and anime with some friends and talked. I ended up writing in one of my stories while I was there. I haven’t been working on my stories as much as I should because I’ve been busy with school, which is first priority, so it was nice to get the chance to work on them.

Well, it’s been a rough week. Between school, sickness, and personal projects I’ve been…busy to say the least. On a more cheerful note, my Mom had a birthday this week. That was actually really fun. I made her birthday present last Sunday, before the week got busy.
It was this hairclip:
The hairpin is made of tatted flowers and leaves sewn into a ribbon, which was sewn around a haircut in organized chaos. I think it turned out quite nicely, and my mom was pleased. The picture doesn’t do it justice though.
Along with the hairclip, I also decorated a cake. The cake was baked by my sister, but I did the icing decorations.
 
The design is actually pretty simple; stems piped on with a basic round icing tip, leaves made with a leave icing tip, and flowers made with a other icing tip which I forget the name of. I would have made the flowers purple since that’s Mom’s favorite color, but I ran out of red food coloring. Anyway, despite how simple it all was, it took me the better part of an hour since I didn’t really know what I’m doing. And that was a better part of an hour when the icing had already been made, since I used left overs from the cupcakes I had made for my friends for Valentine’s Day.
Those cupcakes turned out pretty nice. My Dad helped me with them, since he learned cake decorating from his mother. It was rather fun, and my friends LOVED them. 

So, I’m going to do something I haven’t done in a while….actually report on what I did this week instead of writing sappy sentiments.
Actually, this week’s been pretty rough. I’ve had a cold, and I had to go to the hospital for a check-up. I happen to be a cancer survivor, so I still have to go in and make sure I’m not suffering any side effect from the chemo. Luckily, I seem to be very healthy. It’s also been five years since I was officially cured, so I’m being transferred to long term.
On Friday, I went disc golfing with my brother. We would have gone with my boyfriend as well, but he wasn’t feeling well. It was pretty fun anyway. There’s a small course over by our high school that we went through. It’s a very short one, but it’s decent for getting me back in practice, which is kind of my goal.
Then on Saturday was the Pen Ohio competition. Pen Ohio is a writing competition, and I had a lot of fun. My school placed second overall, and I didn’t do terribly myself, which is weird since I thought most of what I wrote was junk. The basic idea of the competition is that a writer would have 40 minutes to respond to a prompt in the form of writing a short story. The main goal is to write a decent story that represents the prompt in an unusual way, but still follows the prompt. “Unusual” is my strong point. Writing decently….well, when one only has 40 minutes there’s only so much that can be done….
I had fun though. I got to spend some time with my friends, and I got to write, both of which are things I love.

The honest truth is humans are mortal. We don’t know if we’ll be there tomorrow. We don’t know if our friends will be there, or what will happen. Accidents happen. It could all be gone in a flash. I know it sounds depressing, but it’s true. But the fact that it’s not promised, doesn’t mean we should give up on it. After all, chances forging aren’t that high.
But it does mean that while planning for the future is good, things should be done now. Not stupid, reckless things that will mean that even if tomorrow does come, it may not be a good thing, but good things. Serve others, tell your friends you love them, smile. Because if you don’t do it now, when will you? They might not even be there to help when tomorrow comes.

Honestly, it was a rough week for me. I had a lot of homework, stress, and difficulties controlling my emotions, and…let’s just say it was rough.
On Wednesday during robotics club, I full out broke down. I was having trouble breathing (this happens to me sometimes when I get stressed) and ended up collapsing by one of my friend’s feet. Quickly, two of my other friends went to me and started trying to comfort me. At this point, most of my memory becomes a blur, but I remember looking up, and seeing Harg standing there, watching me. He gave me a smile, and despite how rotten I felt, I couldn’t help smiling back, because with that one smile he told me he cares, and he wanted me to be alright. I managed to get to my feet (I was a bit dizzy) and go over and sit next to him. Eventually, my other friends went back to working on the robot, though one of them gave me a cardboard rose to cheer me up.
Well, made a cardboard rose. She forced Harg to give it to me. It was amusing to watch her convince him.
Anyway, all these actions were little things. The smile was little. The rose was little. But the feelings behind them weren’t, and they helped me get through some of the stress of the week.

First of all, I finished this tatting project I started last summer. Or at least finished the tatting part. It doesn’t look like much at the moment, but I’m going to put it on some elastic and turn it into a headband.
Then, the next day, I made these…
They’re little lemon tarts made in the shape of flowers! They taste amazing too. I found the idea on Pinterest. They’re made by taking a pie crust recipe, making it, rolling the pie out and then cutting out the pie crust with a flower shaped cookie cutter. They were then backed in muffin tins for five minutes to create little bowls.
The recipe then called for lemon curd for the filling. I didn’t have lemon curd, so I used the filling I use for lemon bars. I didn’t have enough eggs though, so I just made it with less eggs than needed. I filled the bowls up with the filling and backed for about twenty more minutes.
They were delicious, though if you do ever do this, remember you want to grease and flour the tins well so the tarts come out easily, and the bowls should be decently filled, but not anywhere near overflowing.
 
Anyway, my my other main accomplishments for the week include finishing the rough draft of an essay, and beating a whole bunch of dungeons in Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
 
Oh, and I drew this beauty

And 2016 is over.
I’m not really upset to see it go. I have managed to accomplish some things at the end of the year. Less than I probable should, because honestly I feel like I should have tried to work a bit harder on my projects over Christmas Break, but I didn’t.
Still, the few that I did were pretty decent accomplishments.
Starting with the sweet treats I’ve made. As I posted in my last post, I got icing tips for Christmas. I’ve been really enjoying using them. They’re really cool. Of course, I’ve had some trouble making actual frosting (for some reason my icings and frostings tend to come out liquid-y, I used less liquid and more sugar and that seems to have fixed it) but I did have fun with it after I made the desserts. And a mess. But I cleaned up after myself so it’s okay. Mostly.

As well as my baking efforts, I finally finished this beanie I promised to make for one of my friends a while back. I made a few mistakes on it, but I think it came out decently, and it’s less fragile than the scarfs I made for some of my friends for Christmas.Speaking of the scarfs, I don’t think I’ve put out a picture of them yet. I made them for three of my friends, but in the picture I’ve got there’s also my own green and white one. The scarfs are representative of our Hogsworth houses, though Harg insists he isn’t a Hufflepuff. None of the rest of us agree, but it’s not like I take them very seriously.The other Christmas presents I made for my friends were all hairclips. They took a while since I made a lot, but each individual one is pretty short. The butterflies were made with a lace making technique called tatting. It’s not a common art, but the lace it makes is quite sturdy.Anyway, other than the crafting and the cooking, I did a little bit of writing and organizing over Christmas Break.
And socializing, but I’d like to not think about socializing because while some of it was really enjoyable, some of it was just stressful. I tend to find socializing stressful. Don’t ask me why. I talk so much it really doesn’t make sense, but I have trouble with it anyway.
Anyway, I’m back to school Tuesday, but at least I’ve still got tomorrow left of vacation. This Christmas Break has been a lot shorter than I’m used to, but even a small vacation was much needed. School exhausted me.

Honestly, today has been great. I’ve got to spend some time with my family, receive and give presents to and from wonderful people, and bake cupcakes. I love baking, and it shows in the presents my family gave to me.
For those who don’t know, those are icing tips. Along with them, I got cookie cutters and sprinkles, so that’s a pretty good implication of what my interest are.
Which are very different from my brothers I tell you. One of my brothers got documentaries and a miniature catapult for Christmas. He actually built a really awesome fort to storm with the catapult, but I didn’t take any pictures of that, though I really should have. I do have a picture of the catapult itself though.
Anyway, my siblings are happy with their gifts, which makes me happy, because I like it when my family’s happy. I honestly think that when you come down to it, that’s what Christmas is about; happiness. It’s about being happy yourself, and spreading that joy to others. That’s why we carol, shop, bake and decorate, even though it takes time and energy. So, enjoy your day. Do what makes you happy. Spend time with your family if possible, and somehow spread just a little bit of joy into someone’s life.
Have a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas is in exactly one week. I am almost done making my friend’s presents for Christmas, but not quite there. I usually hand make as many presents as I can, because it tends to be more meaning for less price, but it does cause me to get really busy. When I was younger, that wasn’t a problem because I didn’t really do much, but now that I’m older it can be a bit…much sometimes. Which is why I just bought a few of my friend’s presents instead of making them.
The thing is my friends are worth the time. If you’ve read many of my post, you know I brag a lot about how I have awesome friends. And because they’re so awesome, I don’t mind putting in the effort, because they’re worth it, and this year I’ve been blessed with even more friends that have just been plain out amazing.
And they’ve inspired me to put out a goal for myself that for this last week until Christmas I help as many as I can find that I think need help. I’m not really good with people, so I tend not to help as much as I should, but I want to make a special effort this week, and I hope that that special effort will carry over into the rest of my life.
I subtitled this blog “What good have I done in the world today?” I love that quote, and it reminds me to put a special effort into being a good person, and to help others. After all, my goal is at the end of the week to be able to sit at my computer and I know that I helped others, that I was kind, and that I will continue to lift others up. That is the goal of this blog; to life others. And sometimes I’m not very good at it because I’m a mess and I know it, but I figure that as long as I keep trying, eventually I’ll get good at it.

For some reason, I’ve always been somewhat self-concious about my appearance. Which is sort of weird, considering that I’m usually considered very pretty. Of course, it’s not like I’m my best friend, who’s the one who usually is considered the beauty. I mean, just look at her… She’s pretty. She’s really, really pretty. She’s also photogenic, unlike most of the rest of us.
But she’s also a lot more than a pretty face. She’s a thousand inside jokes, she’s a genius, she’s days at band camp, and pure musical talent. She’s a kind girl who managed to make friends with the grade weirdo, and the schemer who is determined to get things her way. She’s stubborn, and she’s strong minded, and she doesn’t take “You can’t do it” as an answer.
Appearance isn’t and never has been what has made her my best friend. Because appearance doesn’t create friendship; it doesn’t create love. It might create interest, but that’s not the same thing. Her and I might have people notice us because of our appearance, but we make friends with our weird geekiness.
Our friendship and love comes from moments that those when we laughed over things no one else would understand, had the craziest conversations, and just kept doing it every time we saw each other.
See? These probably don’t make sense to you if you weren’t there, but to us, these were priceless moments. We didn’t have to look our best, we just had to be there. And that’s when I felt accepted, that’s when I felt loved.
And maybe there’s nothing wrong with wanting to look nice. I try to look nice. It just in the end didn’t matter, because honestly my friends couldn’t care less. And to anyone who hasn’t had the experience of being accepted for being who you are, I encourage them to keep trying, because one day they’ll find it. I know it can be hard, because I’m not usually accepted, because I’m the weird good girl who talks to much and dances to music no one else can hear, and yet somehow I found it.
And I’ve found that in the pictures I’ve taken, my favorites tend to be those of us laughing so hard we couldn’t stop.