So just to wrap the month (I fully intend to blog more frequently from here on out…), I wanted to leave you with songs that make me smile…maybe you will add them to your play list and think of me when you hear them…

And please-what songs make you smile, jump out of your seat and dance or just bring you some joy? I want to know…

My favorite tango song–just melts me and makes me think of being on the tango floor with a smile on my face…It is Corazon de Ora, a “vals” (waltz)–it’s hard to find even just a clip, but here’s one using the song…

I always go back to this song, Stand by Me by Playing for Change…I just love the song anyway and this version is touching.

Marc Broussard’s Home–this gets me moving..

Yesterday’s post about the most popular posts for me this month led some to comment on the random, rather wide-reaching subject matter of the popular posts. This is true, which may mean I need to refocus the blog itself…I think the 31 days of blogging lets me wander a bit off track with subject matter and that’s fine, but if I want you to “feast with me,” I really should be blogging about…food.

Things I’ve Learned:

1. I need to focus more.
2. I need to really write a lot to get a little of great. Essays require craft and honing and editing. I need to write more and edit more to get a few good posts a week, in hopes that I’ll end up with a few great posts every year.
3. I love reading compilations. I learn a lot when someone takes the time to show me what they’ve been reading. I think I will keep this feature, but focus more on the food world.
4. I need to set firmer hours for work. True, the freelance life is about flexibility, but there have been days when I’ve flexed myself right out of any work at all. Not a good way to be a successful freelancer.
5. I need to give myself permission to read more during those work hours. Reading about what’s going in in the food world is part of my job. I think I sometimes feel almost guilty about “just” reading…but that’s crazy.
6. There is always room for improvement. My goal for the next year is to really hone the craft of writing. Focus on craft and focus on business. Because in the end I really do like to write.
7. Sometimes a photo is enough.
8. Even *I* can write a haiku, one that might make someone smile or tug at your heart a bit.
9. Wordle is always fun.

What have you learned?

We are on the downward slope of the blogathon!! As usual, I’ve enjoyed it. I like thinking about it, coming up with ideas, really keeping tabs on the thoughts I have as I go through life just so I can sit down and write a few words about one thought or another.

I have enjoyed sharing watercolors and photos with my blog readers..

That said, I’m always curious what posts prove most popular–If you are wondering, too, here are the top five Babette Feasts posts of the month:

1. Rules to Break in the Kitchen. This post was top post when I wrote it before–it was a re-blogged post..does this mean we are all kitchen rebels?

2. Guest Poster Charmian Christie–she’s fun, funny and has a following of her own at Christie’s Corner, so she brought readers. Note to self: have more guest posters.

3. Second Act: Barb, Triathlete. I think this resonated with other women AND it was picked up as a link on Second Act’s own page. Again, broadening the audience, linking to other spots and having others link back is always a good idea.

4. Calendar Watch. This post marked the one-year anniversary of my brother’s death. For better or for worse, the blogathon, if held in May, will always mark the anniversary of his death. I think it is for better, as I can share the good memories and remind myself to bake some bread or make some homemade pizza, as I did this year. I think, again, this post just touched a lot of readers.

5. Five New Things–this is about great things I found to eat or to use in the kitchen. Again–a list, useful info, and a little bit of fun.

What were your top-read posts? Why do you think they were popular?

Editing to add that Jackie Dishner, a.k.a. The Bike Lady took today to look at blog stats, too…great minds and all that…

Wordles are always fun–I like looking back at my words. It doesn’t mean much. But it is fun. Painting, photo, geochaching, watercolor. Those words jump out. And try and trying…

What does your wordle look like? Leave a link!

I love the way I caught the sun shining through the leaves of this hibiscus. A simple shot but nice.

Have a peaceful Sunday.

If you’ve heard me talk at all about blogs I love, you know I’m insanely jealous of  crazy about Food52. This week, I had a good read over there on “Oats In All Their Many Forms.” Now at least I know what the answer is to that age-old question, “What ARE steel-cut oats?”

I took a walk this week and saw an OCTOPUS IN THE OCEAN. And all I could think was: Dinner.
No, just kidding. Sort of. But it really was cool and it put me in mind of this most awesome video of an octopus working its camouflage magic–we saw the octopus, which was trying hard to look like the rocks it was nestled into, change color in a flash. Watch this video, which was shot by Dr. Roger Hanlon and see just how cool and quickly they CAN do that…if I were a kid and saw this video? I would SO grow up wanting to be a marine biologist studying octopi. Octopuses. Octopi.

You know what I mean.

And this was funny–Stolen iPhone Adventures. A woman’s phone is stolen while on a Disney cruise and the phone starts auto-uploading photos to her Facebook page…um, yep, including photos of the alleged thief, Nelson, who happens to work for the cruise ship. Oops.

And now for some inspiration–a teen invented an inexpensive and easy-to-administer test for pancreatic cancer. Kinda gives you some hope for the next generation, right? Do add he won the Intel Science Talent Search?

And remember the Make it Count Nike ad video link from last Saturday’s roundup? I just read (and loved, of course) this piece about Director Casey Niestat taking the risk and going rogue to make this ad.

And this just in–it brought tears to my eyes…So joyful!

I am heading off to watercolor right now…hope I have something lovely to post upon my return…just putting this up as a placeholder!

Back!

So I took this photo of a lovely gate in St. George’s:

 And here’s my start (the photo is very dark of the pairing…it’s not so sepia-colored)…

I am already off…Perspective, everything. I may finish and then do it again, working to correct my lines.

Also, the print of the photo from my machine does no justice to the photo…so I am trying to justify an iPad for my photos…hah. I’ll try anything….

If I finish, I’ll add the finished painting to this post.
In other painting news I actually gifted the photo of the chimney top to a friend. My first gift of art…It was nice to give something so personal.

Nothing to do with food today, but I wonder what have you done that is new lately?

In the past year and a bit, I’ve tried tango, renewed my love of watercolor painting and, very recently, tried geocaching, just to name a few.

The geocaching is something I’ve wanted to try for years…It’s like treasure hunting with a hand-held GPS. There are geocachers the world over, and they have quite a network. From what I’ve seen, if you geocache, you can find a connection almost wherever you go.

What I love about it is that it’s a reason to be out and walking, getting to know a place and there’s this little nugget of a reward if you find the cache. Open it up, sign the log and check out where in the world others who have found the cache came from…It happens to be a great family activity, too. Kind geocachers leave trinkets for the kids–marbles, inexpensive charms, that kind of thing…

Here’s how the Geocaching official website defines it:

Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.

Check out the site, find a group and give it a try if you have even a bit of interest. You will probably like it and you may just find yourself some new friends…

Six things to tell you about what I’d do differently OR the same:

1. Buy your name and pay for it for about 10 years AND use an email account you read. One you read often. I lost the URL babettefeasts.com because I read the first post about “we are renewing your URL. Expect a charge” email but MISSED the one saying the charge didn’t go through because we had moved and our address didn’t match the one on file. Life goes on, but I kinda hate that I lost the URL. Now I’m babfeasts.com, which is okay. But it really took the wind out of my sails for a bit.

2. Play with all the features. Just because they are there. It’s worth having a look around.

3. Stick to it year round, not just during the blogathon. Every year, when I do blogathon (this is year three), I realize that the more you do it, the easier it is. I see ideas everywhere, I write them down and I really have fun with it. My blog is in my mind…it’s worth it to blog often.

4. Ignore any negative comments. I haven’t ever gotten many (my blog is not exactly controversial), but when I have, it’s felt as if I insulted someone. But the truth it, I haven’t…I just get hung up about wanting everyone to like me. That’s just silly. Delete the comment and move on.

5. SHARE the blog. Post links places, encourage people to click over, make it easy for them to comment.

6. Read and comment on other blogs. You’ll find readers and friends and good things to read all at once. You won’t like every blog you read, and not everyone will like yours…not to worry. The blog world is a big one. We all fit.

No, I haven’t moved to soft-core porn (although I am about to read 50 Shades of Gray, and I hear that maybe I WILL be reading writing some soft porn. I hear it’s lucrative….I digress).

To celebrate a friend’s birthday, another mutual friend volunteered to make a pink panty cake (because one of the birthday girl’s favorite drinks happens to be something called pink panty: pina colada frozen mix, melon rum, coconut rum, grenadine and pineapple juice)…with me.

 HUH? I don’t bake much–although I love to decorate…But anyway, after googling “how to make a butt-cheek-shaped cake” (don’t do it. results are ugly), I realized we’d have to go it alone…and this is what we came up with. We are delighted with the results, it was a fun cake to present, and it was even delicious…

To make it, I baked one round layer and two cereal bowls of Dorie Greenspan’s pound cake. After some discussion of ideas, Kerrie had the vision that became the finished cake. (She’s done this before..)

We sliced the round layer in half on the horizontal, then used that for the legs and the waist/back. We carved the bowls into a lovely bum, and then we “glued” it together with strawberry jelly (no fruit pieces) and covered if first with the flesh-colored fondant, then the little panty, then the ruffles and then the pink pearl trim. I still think we should have covered the entire thing with buttercream to smooth it out, but that was my learning curve….

Anyway, we loved making it, and I will have fun making more decorated cakes in the future…

And Dorie’s pound cake is the perfect medium for these sculpting efforts…
(And for those of you wondering, we put the candles in little cocktail glasses to the side of the cake…it just didn’t seem right to put candles…well, ANYwhere into the cake…)

And Ps. I am especially proud of us for having done this without any template at all, just a vision and collaboration…