We’re finishing off the week with a lovely, thoughtful post from my darling sister-in-law, Angie. She moved to Dublin at the end of last summer after she married my brother-in-law and we thought that might be their only year. But we just found out last week that she (and her husband, of course, can’t forget him!) are staying for another three years! Yipee!!
She has the cutest blog called Cartwheeling Around the World, and yes, that is Angie herself cartwheeling across her blog banner! Thanks, Ang!
Contemplations over Cacá Milis
{cacá milis is Irish for cake!}
Hello From China Village readers,
As an avid reader myself, I feel honored to share my thoughts with you all. I am the lucky one who gets to taste the many delicious treats you drool over on the pages of this blog, admire the adorable craft projects and occasionally be the sounding board for ideas and series’, and I am the even luckier one that gets to call this amazing woman behind From China Village, sister.
Em and I are kind of in the same boat, we both married into this large family of basketball playing, big shoe wearing, Irish men. We both left our careers, our families, our favorite meals, our sunshine to move to Dublin with our husbands. We both have overcome challenges and homesickness along the way, but I was lucky enough to have an older sister to help me through.
So I am here, writing to you, ready to share one of my adventures of the packing up, leaving it all behind and moving to the island of green. It’s been an interesting journey: coping with the rain, figuring out what a press was, learning to pour a ‘perfect pint,’ adjusting to hours of darkness, and exploring an entirely new city. During one of my explorations I stumbled across a peaceful getaway, my own secret garden, complete with inspiring surroundings, cozy lattes and mouth watering treats, all inside the Cake Café.
This adorable, quirky establishment is a feast for the mouth, the eyes and especially the soul. The fabulously rich chocolate cake, the perfectly mismatched china, and the masterpieces of trinkets create a perfect hideaway. One cannot escape the joy that radiates from the walls, the people and the food itself. I was so struck by the charming demeanor of the oh-so-busy staff, particularly the lovely owner, who without training or experience left her previous job and decided it was time to risk it all and live her dream. I’m very glad she did.
On my visit, the setting paired with this incredible cup of Chai made me oddly reflective. My mind couldn’t help but wander to the collection of trinkets that perfectly compliment the Cake Cafe – the Blue Willow china atop vintage vinyl tablecloths, the assortment of buttons displayed in a mosaic of blues and yellows, the old manuscripts mysteriously ascending up the wall, the cloth bunting brightening the ceiling.
It’s a striking collection of simple oddities: bits, pieces, junk somehow transformed into beauty. From the artwork on the walls, to the dishes on the tables, even the simple ingredients of the food are all mundane, even annoying on their own. Yet together, they create something wonderful. The bottle caps that deviously hide themselves all over my house and litter the sidewalk on my way to work someone else saw as potential for beauty. The chain on a bike that catches my pant leg and leaves a permanent grease stain inspired someone else to create a masterpiece.
As I gazed around the Cake Cafe, I was reminded of life itself, of the many messy pieces that litter our lives. I found myself thinking that perhaps if we examined them a little deeper, if we dared to allow ourselves the brave optimism maybe, just maybe we would see a masterpiece. The boring everyday tasks, the long Dart rides, the foreign country we unexpectedly landed in and don’t entirely understand, the solitude of loneliness, the chatty taxi driver, the sore throat that forces us to spend a day listening and not speaking, the peace of a rainy day, the strength of overcoming another denial, the many ideas that plague sleepless nights, the energy of busy-ness…maybe if we turned all these odds and ends a different way, viewed them with a new eye, we too could see something beautiful.
Today I hope you dare yourself to have the artistic vision to transform even the mundane, the normal, the messy bits, the random pieces into a masterpiece.
And may I add that this is generally best done while enjoying a warm tea and piece of cacá milis!
{all images by Angie Westbrooks}
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