more pictures of cupcakes (and a story).

I made cupcakes for Mother's Day, and when I told my sister they were vegan, it brought the inevitable questions: "Do they have tofu in them?* And why would you make vegan cupcakes if you're not vegan?" A fair question deserves a fair answer.

This is why you make vegan cupcakes. You are in college and you are working, erm, volunteering at a coffee shop that is almost entirely employed by volunteers. It is warm, friendly, has cheap coffee and cheap homemade lunch, and you bake there for an afternoon once a week. But it is mostly run by volunteers, and sometimes things don't get done when people aren't getting paid. You make vegan cupcakes because one day you are supposed to bake, and there are no eggs. No eggs! You make vegan cupcakes because you found a recipe in the Joy of Cooking that looks simple, has no eggs, has no tofu, and also has none of that weird fake egg in a box stuff that's sitting on the shelf. (You are not a vegan baker by trade, and you are afraid of the non-eggs in a box.) You make vegan cupcakes because not only is there a vegan cake recipe, there is a frosting recipe that can easily be made vegan with coffee and soy butter.* You make vegan cupcakes because you know your audience - vegans come to eat here, as do people who won't run away at the mention of vegan dessert. You make vegan cupcakes because they look like snow covered chocolate mountains when you sprinkle them with powdered sugar. You continue to make vegan cupcakes because the people love them and they say, "I can't believe they're vegan!"

There's your answer. That's why you make vegan cupcakes.

*(I did make a cake with tofu once. It wasn't good. This isn't to say it can never be good, but I probably won't repeat that again.)
*(Also, I didn't make these particular cupcakes with vegan frosting because I'm not vegan, and what's the point?)

omg shoes.

So I decided to keep these shoes:


I debuted them at the Peter Bjorn and John show. Unfortunately, I now have two blisters on my left toes, one of which is looking kind of bad. Oops.

So hooray for new shoes. But I am still on the lookout for cute espadrilles that do not have 4 inch heels. I swear, they barely exist! I'm still thinking about these ones. But I need to decide soon or they will run away. [haha. shoes. running away.] Anyway, in looking at possibly every shoe website imaginable, I must say that my new favorite is endless.com. Their search options are awesome, and it looks like right now they are paying you to send you stuff in the mail. Sweet!

(p.s. thank you to whoever thought of wedge heels. You are a delight.)
(p.p.s. I almost forgot! This is just...well, yeah. Wow.)

pb&j

Sometimes it's a total fluke of how I end up listening to certain music. There's some mp3 blogs I scan from my bloglines - I don't read them religiously, and I don't download everything on there. But when something catches my eye, I'll download it. And most of the time it will sit around without being listened to for a few weeks or months.

Such was the case with the song "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John. One day a few weeks ago I loaded up a bunch of downloaded songs and very quickly became infatuated with this song. Which quickly led to me buying the cd from amazon (along with a sewing book), which led to me to seeing them in concert a few nights ago at First Ave.

I ended up going all alone, and I'd like to share some tips for show-going on your own.

• Timing is important. You don't want to get there too early. If doors open at 8, you can be pretty sure that the first band won't start until 9 or later. And really, the first band doesn't always matter. Later is better (as long as you're not worried about it selling out).
• Earplugs. They're important because they're just good for your ears. But! The added bonus is that they take out most of the stupid conversations going on around you. You can be a bubble.
• Have something to look at. Whether it's other people or movies playing between sets (thanks, First Ave!), you need some distractions.
• Dance and don't really give a shit about what other people think. By the way, this helps too with show back pain.
  

Yeah. So the show was really fun. I danced and had a good time. Hooray for music! Wow, I could use some work on my reviews.

(Apologies: I promise to never start an entry and then finish it two days later. That just does not work.)

someday I'll be creative again.

I'm still not a huge fan of buying books for the sake of buying books, UNLESS they can be used over and over again as reference books. As a result of this, I've bought a relatively huge amount of craft related books in the past few months.

Craftivity - by Tsia Carson
I think I saw this originally on notmartha, and I got it as a birthday present. It's a tad disappointing, to be honest. I really only found a couple of things I actually wanted to make in there. There are some cool ideas, but a lot of it is just too much. [I do love the shrinky dink necklaces, though. Mine here.] Maybe part of the problem is that I've seen a few of the ideas on getcrafty.com, back when it was getcrafty and not supernaturale or whatever happened. Why pay for a book when it's all online?

Simple Sewing - by Lotta Jansdotter
Another notmartha recommendation, and a total whim purchase from amazon. While I'm sad there are no patterns for actual clothes, the other projects (aprons, handbags, duvets, oh my!) are adorable. They could potentially make really nice gifts, too. Not to mention, this book is laid out beautifully with crisp pictures.

The Crafter Culture Handbook - by Amy Spencer
I found this one on a recommendation shelf while at the Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle. [The recommendation shelf at a massive book store is a blessed thing indeed.] The projects in here are all over the place, in a totally good way. Sewing projects, reused objects, and homemade bath stuff...it's all there. It also has fun little articles from crafters.


So yeah. School is over in about a month. Summer projects? Oh yes.

it has sprung.

It hinted, it hid, it came out again and ran away, I saw it in Seattle and came back to 30 degrees, but finally I can say that it is here, with confidence. Yes, spring is here.

For the past week I have taking in the buds on the trees, the warmth, the ability to wear a sundress (with a cardigan) without feeling like I'm jumping the gun, the blossoms, the faint scent of lilacs as I run, and birds happily chirping when I go to work with the sun out.

Pretty soon the trees on my street and others will be reaching out across the cars and people below them, making a beautiful arch of green. Don't you love that?