Friday-12:45pm

My chopper contraption arrived yesterday--but only the large one? I went back and read the information. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/cw369_1/index.cfm?pkey=cnewctl Says I would get the both of them. There is no place to order the small one separately? I emailed the company and told them I had expected both of the choppers because of their advertising on the website. We'll see what they say.

Anyways, it looks nice! I haven't used it yet, but it feels very sturdy and I like the fact it has interchangeable parts for slicing and dicing different sizes.

I reached part of my goals yesterday. Baked bread, washed clothes--but never cooked up extra food for nuking. Ran out of steam, shall we say.

I discovered that I don't really care for the new silicone bread pans. Leah let me borrow one to try it. They are so soft and pliable that the loaf bowed out on the sides (left). I guess I prefer the glass pans (right). The silicone pan made the loaf browner all over--not a bad or good quality, just noted.
I washed the sheets, too. Miss Karma likes to get made right into the bed.
She often stays there for hours, as she did yesterday. Seems to like me to lay the warm clothes right on top of her as I am sorting, folding, and hanging. Yes--she's under there! She didn't come out until 9:30pm! I don't think she's ever slept that long in there!
We had four weather alerts simultaneously last night in our area--some overlapping. There was a blizzard warning, winter storm warning, flood watch, and a winter weather advisory. Here in the Fargo/Moorhead area we had rain that turned to snow. Looked awful out there! But because we had the rain we didn't get the 4-6 inches of snow they thought we would get. It's only 33 degrees right now, but it is still melting. It was a heavy, sticky snow and chunks are quite loudly falling off the building every so often this afternoon. The snow won't stay on the ground long in the spring.

Last night I got down my zip lock bags of watercolor paints and counted how many tubes I have in the two sample sets that I own. My Schmincke set has six tubes and the Sennelier has eight. The Schmincke was perfect for the Sucrets palette! So, I glued in the pans, filled them up, and set them up high and out of the reach of you know who--as I have to leave the cover open for many days for drying. :) I made up a sticker to go on the top of the box.

The first set of artist quality watercolors that I bought many years ago was my Holbein set of 24. Now, when you have that many colors to choose from and don't know anything at all about what you are doing--you just use the colors you have. Too easy to just reach for another color, I guess. Truth is--I have never learned how to mix my own colors. Have never mixed a green, for example. This is why I have barely touched the two small sets--didn't really know how to use a limited palette.

This is why I am so excited about making these small, inexpensive palettes. I can have one for each brand I buy--with just a very few colors in each one--can buy the smallest tubes. My goal is to learn how to mix and blend colors. I may never take the little portable palettes on the road, so to speak, to paint outdoors--which is what most people use them for--but you never know? Right now, for me, this is a way to try different brands fairly cheaply and not take up much space. And if I limit myself only to the colors in that particular palette, it will force me to learn a new skill--hehe! I shall have to mix colors--for example, there's no green in this Schmincke set--chuckle! I have basically not used anything but the Holbein paints. Have heard so much about the many brands and how different they are--little by little I'd like to find out for myself. :)

I did a lot yesterday. Maybe too much for one day. We'll see how today goes. Might be a movie day--hehe! Could be worse things, eh? :):)