Neither Lent nor Si-Lent any longer.

Well, that was a complete bust. I was so enamored of my weird, out-of-focus empty tire swing that nothing else seemed to compare.

You'll be pleased to hear that, while I was NOT blogging and NOT painting and NOT sewing and NOT paying attention to my family and BARELY EVEN COOKING, our lenten and easter observances at church went quite well. Working to create and curate them was extremely engaging, in a way not much has been in 2012 up until that point, with the possible exception of the Bejeweled App for the iPhone.

Some web sites I like:
Dapper Lou , which I discovered just this evening in the always-questionable Blogs Of Note roll. You all know I dig The Sartorialist (yes, how desperately original of me, I know.) Dapper Lou is another street fashion blog, and I like it a lot.

Before And After I believe I happened upon this from the Pantone site.

"Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone."

As a long-time fake designer, I must say this is some good shit.

And I really want one of these: Shutter Grip for the iPhone. Between the handle, the button and the tripod mount, I think that this could actually be worth forty of my hard-earned dollars. Or I could just start carrying my perfectly-good, more-megapixels camera again like I used to when I used to take millions of pictures. Hmmm.

In other news, I knit myself a chartreuse sweater over Lent. No one has ever been happier about a spring cold snap than I am these days. I made one damn cable and now I feel like (Knitting) Wonder Woman who can do literally any fucking thing in the (knitting) world.

So I am right now pondering yarns for a cardigan.

I bought a single stunningly beautiful (and local!) lace-weight skein dyed by the Verdant Griffinat the Homespun Yarn Party which I somehow found the cash for even though we were, um, between receivables, as we sometimes are.....but now I am anxious about what would be the PERFECT thing to make out of it. It looks like this:

except a bit smaller. But it's more than 700 yards! There must be something spectacular I can make.

I liked it so much that I dyed my hair that color a couple of weeks later.

I quite like it. I also gave myself an 80s bi-level bob, using my barber clippers, which looks great from the front, weird from the side, and I am in complete denial about the view from the back. As with the hotel mattresses and what goes on in restaurant kitchens, I'd just rather not know.

A little something for a cold evening.

I had planned to spend tonight reading this for my Thursday book club

but instead I am watching this

and I baked and am tasting this.

The TV show - great. Clear your schedule and watch this whole WEEK of specials about photography. See stunning pictures! Hear old cigar-chomping east coast guys talk about driving across the country in a borrowed VW bus in 1954! Seriously, it's quite a quick survey but very interesting and worth one's time.

The cake - worth one's time, but not as interesting. What's good about it: it's sweet, with a crispy sugary outside, and it only takes half an hour and is totally do-able with stuff from the pantry.

I would hate to indicate that I have become such a food snob that I cannot appreciate an easy recipe and a sweet, warm cake. (It may be true, I would just hate to indicate it.) But I kind of want this cake to be something besides just sweet - tarter, or saltier, or crunchier or something. (Hmmm - if you made it as cupcakes, there would be more crispy, sticky edges. You'd have to use pineapple chunks, and it would probably take more butter and sugar in the pans...but that would be lovely, right? Little individual upsidedown cakes? Perhaps with a little squirt of caramel or whiskey sauce? Hmmmm....)

I am digging this book. (Incidentally, unlike the recipe linked above, the book is written in American terms. Hooray! After the BATTLE OF THE FLAPJACK RECIPES, I cannot take this for granted.)Her 'goodness me, I'm adorable' smile begins to wear on one, but the food shots are gorgeous, and I must say - my cake came out looking precisely like hers.