I've been blogging for over 2 years now, and in that time I've met some of the sweetest girls I've known in my entire life. I thought it would be super to start shining a spotlight on them in a new feature I'm calling "Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice"! And I couldn't think of a better person to start with than Millie from
ClassicForever.
Millie was my very first blogging friend -- we met through our classic film blogs in January 2009 -- and she is seriously one of the sweetest people on the planet! Not only does she have a wonderful personality and fantastic sense of humor, but she also cares deeply about other people & is working to make the world a better place. She spends a great deal of her time raising money for Sierra Leone, and often goes to volunteer there herself! She is such a huge inspiration to me, and a wonderful friend. I'm so glad she agreed to share some of her sweetness here today! :)
A Sierra Leonean mother holding her baby. Just a few months before this photo was taken, this baby was dying. But, then the well in their village was repaired. He is alive and healthy and smiling because of clean water.
For a sweet story, I'm going to talk about Africa again (mainly because I will be back in Sierra Leone in less than two months and I'm seriously excited). This story is both literally and figuratively sweet.This is Moses (he must have been about three or four). Moses was the little brother of the cook at a compound thing I stayed at on one of my trips. He would sit on the ground in the corner of the courtyard and stare at us whenever we were there. My specific "job" in Sierra Leone is working with the children (heh heh heh... everyone else always gets stuck doing manual labor, while I get to play with kids all day) and so I kept trying to get Moses to smile. *I* would smile at him, or try and to talk to him, or try and play games with him -- and he would run away and hide. One afternoon, we were back at the compound for a couple of hours for some reason... and there was Moses. I realized that I had fruit roll-up in my pocket from working at a school earlier in the day. I pulled it out and held it out to Moses. He was a little wary, but he still ran up and grabbed it. Then he started to eat it.... and then he was my friend for life.
Moses turned into a crazy ball of energy (high sugar content is probably mostly to blame) and proceeded to follow me around whenever I was at the compound. HE WAS SO SERIOUSLY ADORABLE. This is an example of how sweets (two things you'll always hear from children in Africa is: "Snap me!" [meaning take a photo of them] and "SWEETS! SWEETS! SWEETS!") are never a bad thing...and often lead to lasting friendships. ;-D
When Kate told me about this, she used tofu brownies as an example. I HAD NO IDEA THAT SUCH A BRILLIANT CONCEPT EVEN EXISTED. It's difficult to comprehend, but sounds awesome.
Anyway, for a sweet recipe I'm gonna have to go with Chai-Spiced Cookies. I actually haven't tried this recipe before, but I'm definitely going to this weekend. I have a definite chai addiction and just think about chai tea in solid form -- the possibilities for beauty are endless.
I found a great recipe on Whole Foods' website.
I know that it's a bit of a cop-out using a recipe I haven't tried yet, but all my normal recipes are so boring. EVERYONE already knows how to make snickerdoodles (or at least they should know as intelligent, literate humans). And usually me and food consists of me taking already prepared food and adding cilantro, so yeah. (I will eat cilantro on anything.)
It's officially summertime (Santa Cruz Organic Mango Lemonade is in stock! THIS IS HOW WE KNOW) and summer memories are always the most loverly. I have the best memories of watching Parent Trap (the Hayley Mills version of course) with all my siblings (all six of them) and drinking my mum's pink lemonade (she makes it pink with a sliver of beet juice). (By the way, I am a clear abuser of the parentheses.) Any mention or viewing of the film instantly transports me back to being six. And, wow. Everything was so nice and simple when I was six. And I totally didn't know that Hayley Mills has a twin named Hayley. (That's weird. but it DID say: Starring Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills, so clearly...) Life was awesome. And watching the movie always makes me realize how awesome life IS! :-D
I also want to thank Kate for asking me to do this -- it made me so happy (it was a definite sewer moment [sewer is KateishMilliney for Awwww]). Kate IS the sweetest person to ever exist. That's just basic truth. Thanks, Kate (by the way...TYRONE POWER IS COOL AND YOU KNOW IT! ;-D)
