In all of my stereotypical gleefulness surrounding the creation of my most recent post, I neglected to mention all of the other exciting things I’ve done this past week. I’m a very busy girl, you know. I’ve roamed, I’ve coded, I’ve designed, I’ve conquered!

Several weeks ago I purchased yet another domain name simply because it was available and it made me laugh. I had no real purpose for it beyond the sheer giddiness it exuded, but I spent a great deal of my free time designing its contents anyway. Despite its lack of purpose, this site became an experiment in cuteness – as I’ve previously explained, I was never very good at designing “cute” stuff. That was always the domain of my very artistic brother, Steve. But after the creation of the LoveBugs, I decided to investigate further, see how far I could take this cuteness. Thus, Imagination Cake was born!

    What is an Imagination Cake? Heck if I know! At first I thought it was just fun to say, but apparently it can mean different things to different people. One day I was telling my Mom about buying the domain name and my nephew Max happened to overhear the conversation. His mood suddenly brightened despite an afternoon of gloominess and for two solid hours he doodled cake after cake, talking about what ingredients his imagination cakes would have, and what their magical powers were. Several friends have suggested I give the name to my production company, since they’d gladly watch anything made by an Imagination Cake. It seems to be such a versatile and yet entirely vague idea. For the time being, ImaginationCake.com is simply in existence for the sake of cuteness. There you’ll find a pastel landscape with white scallop icing edges, a technicolor cake, and a frolicking cartoon girl named Meggy. The cake was lovingly drawn for me by Steven, but I’m very proud of the fact that I drew Meggy all by myself, first by hand, and then again on the computer. I think I can safely say that this experiment in extreme cuteness has been an absolute success. Please do check it out and post some feedback here on the blog. What do you think an Imagination Cake should be?

    While Imagination Cake may be entirely pointless, the other project I completed this week is overflowing with purpose. You should all know by now that I’m an amputee – I lost my left big toe after a five year battle with a serious bone infection. While losing a toe may not seem like such a big deal to some, believe me when I say it’s a very frightening and painful experience. I’ve written several essays about living with nine toes, and in response to that, I’ve heard from so many people who have also lost a toe or two, and all of them have said they felt isolated and alone in their malady; they feared they had become freaks. After hearing from literally hundreds of other amputees, I decided to do something about it. I bought NoToes.com and created the first online support group specifically for toe amputees. This past week I churned out several essays about everything from the amputation process to safe travel tips, recovery advice to the best places to buy shoes. Other toe amputees will also be able to submit their own stories, artwork, and advice, saving others from painful and unnecessary periods of trial and error. My hope is that through NoToes, toe amputees will begin to realize that they’re not alone. Every toe amputee deserves to know that someone else understands what they’re going through, that they can live without constant pain – physical or emotional – and that they needn’t be ashamed of their bare feet. If NoToes can encourage even one more amputee to wear sandals again, it will all be worth it. So please, check it out, and let me know what you think. And hey, if you know a toe amputee, spread the word, then tell them how cute their feet are.