Prayers from east to west ...

Today I write with a somber tone. I found out last night that a friend of mine from college has gone missing. His name is Elias Sorokin. He grew up in Carboro but in the past few years moved west to the LA area. He has been missing since Monday July 20th.


"... he went up to Northern California for a few meetings and has not returned to LA. He was last seen Monday evening 7/20/09 around 8 pm in Oakland.

A text was received to my dear friend Andrea (his good friend and business partner) on Monday night at 10 pm that he would be arriving back to LA around 4 am, Tuesday morning. He has not been heard of since.

We have now found out that someone has tried to cash a falsified check (he carries his check book on him at all times) and tried to use his credit cards."

Please pray that Elias will be found alive and unharmed. He has the kindest soul of anyone I have ever met. He wouldn't hurt a fly and is always wanting to lend a hand to someone in need. I pray that whoever has him or wherever he is, God will watch over him until he can return home to his friends and family.

I am posting these amazing hand engraved votive holders from daydreemdesign as a visual to Elias until he returns.

Letting go

Yesterday I spent a good portion of the day cleaning out two of the closets upstairs. I sadly have to admit they were full of wedding stuff. Yes as in stuff from S and my wedding 3+ years ago. It is amazing that I have ignored it all for so long. However, it was cool to look through cards I kept from friends and family or my wedding planning notebook. I still think I would be a good event planner!
The biggest thing I tackled was getting the melted votive candles out of 78 glass votive holders. This was something I had put off because wax sucks. But after some googling, I found two ways of removing these old candles. The first was putting them in the freezer. This was the cleanest method but was only 50% effective. So I moved onto the messier method - melting the wax. I placed the votives face down on a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil. Then set the oven at 200 degrees and walked away. This worked to get the candle out and was pretty cool to watch each one slowly melt and then plop onto the sheet. Unfortunately, it didnt leave the holders clean of wax. All the wax that slid down the sides then melted in a thin layer. Oh well. I am planning on selling a lot of the stuff including the votive holders so hopefully some bride out there will be willing to do a little work to remove the rest.