Well, I guess it started about about six months ago – Tony’s overwhelming desire to make cotton candy. (although when I just asked Tony how long he has been dreaming of this, he replied, “My whole life.”) He watched videos of how it is done and found out where to rent the machine. He then selected the flavors, blue raspberry and bubble gum, and ordered them along with a case of 1,000 cones. Oh my. He didn’t know when, but he knew he would try.
So when the opportunity to have a booth along side of Deep Roots at a community event surfaced, Tony reserved the cotton candy making machine. Afterwards we talked about how to package it. The idea of putting a love note in the middle came up – a love note in a cloud! This turned into a selection of love quotes printed on cute paper which could be snuggled in the white paper cone before spinning the cotton candy. A love quote in a cloud!
And then the day came.
It seemed like it would be pretty easy. Pour in the sugar, turn on the motor and the heat, spin the “floss” onto the cones until the sugar runs out, then turn heat up for a minute, then turn heat off, then wait 30 seconds and turn off motor. The first batch went better than expected, but the next few were a challenge. The smoke alarm was working a bit harder than usual, Tony’s arm was throbbing with pain (still recovering from his surgery the week before), little pieces of sugar floated around the room, and Princess was meowing with her disapproval of the chaos. We tried moving the machine to the back porch to reduce the smoke and mess in the house, but it was rainy and damp and the cotton candy we tried there just lost its fluff. So we moved back in the already sticky, smoky house and continued.
I lost count on the number of batches he went through, but by the time he got to the end of the pink mix, Tony had this whole cotton candy making process down. And he LOVED it.
The next morning, we were pretty excited that the bags of cotton candy held up through the night and were ready to treat sweet people. We put stickers on the bags that read “LIFE IS SWEET when you love it out!” and we headed downtown to participate in the Celebrate Growing Huntsville event. It was a great day surrounded by a health-loving community – one that is learning to grow and cook healthy fruits and vegetables, to exercise, to celebrate and capture moments, and to stop every now and then for a sweet treat.
And so the dream of making cotton candy came true. And I predict it is sooo not a one time thing. My floors will be sticky again soon, but life is sweet.
YOUR life is beautiful, love it out!