I've left the blog until late because I had no idea what I was going to write about today.  I've been baking, sewing and cooking.  So I decided to just tippity-tap around and see where this goes.

​First off, I tried baking sourdough again.  It turned out much better this time.  It still had quite a bit of sourness to it, but it was within the range of the sour that sourdough is supposed to be, as opposed to the last loaf that was so sour I couldn't stand it.  That first loaf did not rise hardly at all, as well.  It wound up as a treat for cats or birds or whatever.  I hope it didn't hurt any local wandering animals.

This time, it did rise better and I was actually able to slash the loaf before baking (the last time the dough was so gooey, when I tried to slash it, it just kind of glumped back over) and I got kind of a nice pattern going.  I think I did bake it a little too much.  

It didn't rise as much as I would have wanted, but I'll figure that out next time.  

So, what did I change?  I didn't let it rise on the counter overnight.  I put it in the refrigerator to rise overnight.  I kneaded it on the counter more than the other loaf, as well.  I did use a lot of starter.  I used 1.5 cups of bread flour and 1.5 cups of whole wheat.  I also used the dollar store colander with the parchment paper trick I learned on YouTube.  I use the colander in place of a banneton.  I also didn't use the Dutch oven this time, I used the cast iron skillet with a metal bowl over top of the bread.  It worked out fine.  I do think I need new oven mitts that can take more heat, though.

For dinner I kind of made up my own recipe today.  I get tired of canned tuna, canned salmon, fish whatever, on Fridays.  So I looked up some rice and beans recipes and converted one.  I changed quite a bit from the original.  But it turned out really good so I'm going to have to write down what I did!

So, basically, you mix together beans, corn, green pepper, onion, garlic, veggie stock, cheese, a few spices, and cooked rice together and bake it in a casserole dish until everything is creamy and yummy.  I didn't have the beans the recipe called for, nor the cheese called for.  I changed some of the spices and I used saffron rice instead of brown rice. I cooked things a little differently than called for, as well.

So, here's what I did.

I a diced up a small, yellow onion and a yellow bell pepper and dumped them in my trusty cast iron skillet (not the same one I used for the bread, by the way) along with some olive oil.  The recipe said one tablespoon.  I have no idea.  I usually don't measure olive oil when I do this.  I used my garlic press to press through three cloves of garlic right into the pan.  The recipe said to cook this 4-5 minutes until things were a bit soft.  Nope.  I cooked these quite a bit.  I wanted the onions to start to caramelize and the peppers to get quite a bit softer and sweeter.  Just when things started to brown is when I stopped.  I dumped these into a big mixing bowl.  I added 2 cans of kidney beans and one can of whole kernel corn (drained), one cup of vegetable broth, some salt, pepper, a bunch of cumin, some parsley, some turmeric and an 8-oz package of shredded Colby Jack&Cheddar cheese.  Next came the cooked rice.  I cooked a 9-oz package of saffron rice in my rice cooker.  I had to wait for it to finish because I didn't time things just right  I poured it in hot and it started melting the cheese.  It was okay.  All that got mixed together well and poured into my biggest casserole dish.  I baked it for 30 minutes until it was hot, bubbly and wonderful.

This was a delightful change from tuna salad.  I'm sure it's going to become a staple in my kitchen.  You could vary it in so many ways, as well, switching out cheeses, beans, onions, peppers, spices, adding toppings like sour cream or cream cheese, salsa........

So many things.

Well, that's kind of it for today.  I waited so long that I have to start thinking about winding down my day and getting ready for tomorrow.  If you do a meatless day (or more) during the week, how do you change it up? 

​Ciao for now! 

First off, a little housekeeping.  I've joined the Amazon Affiliate program, and I want to put the disclaimer in every post just in case: The operator of this website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.  Therefore, some links in this blog may be affiliate links.  I might get paid if you buy something or take actions after clicking one of these links.

OK.  That's out of the way.

​So....the sourdough starters have been stored in the fridge for the last week.  They seem to be doing well.  I decided Wednesday was going to be my designated day to feed the starters once per week.  The whole wheat is more active than the bread flour and smells better.  The bread flour one doesn't smell bad....just different in a way that is less pleasant than the whole wheat one. I may eventually decide to get rid of that starter and either just rely on the wheat or make another bread flour one, possibly using the dried backslop I have put aside.

Next order of business was trying out an idea I had.  Using my usual Emmymade bread recipe, I switched out 1/3 of the bread flour with whole wheat.  It wound up changing the whole character of the loaf, but we'll get to that later.

By the way, I put a link to Emmy's video on my links page, in case anyone is interested.

At any rate, I looked up some instructions on how to substitute flours, luckily whole wheat flour is still fairly high in gluten, unlike some other flours, especially "flours" made from non-grain sources like nut flours.  With those, you either need a lot of bread flour or Xanthan Gum if you want to make a yeast bread.  Just about everything I read noted two things: 1) start with about 1/3 flour substitution and  2) work your way up from there to a consistency you like and keep in mind that you'll have a stickier dough (well, they didn't say "sticky" they talked about "hydration" and stuff but I'm not that advanced yet).  This dough was much more sticky as we'll see later.

By the way, do you like the containers?  I ordered these off of Amazon, they come with the labels and a chalk marker.  I guess this is going to be my very first affiliate link!  It says it is a 12 piece set, which sounds impressive, until you realize that it is two big containers, 4 smaller containers and 6 lids.  But it is still a nice set.  Get it here: Food Storage Containers.

​I sift all my dry ingredients in the stand mixer bowl.  This is a simple recipe with only one twist which is making the tangzhong (did I spell that right?).  I don't even proof the yeast....but it comes out OK.  Think bread machine kind of technique here.  Simple.  Sift the dry ingredients in and give them a whisk to mix them up so they are well distributed.

Yup--yeast and everything not wet is in there: flours, yeast, salt, sugar, etc.

​

Ok, so I was substituting so I had to do some math.  It wasn't too hard.  but since the original amount of flour was 2 1/2 cups of flour, the amount of whole wheat flour I had to put in was 5/6 cup.  Easy peasy: that's 2/3 cup of wheat flour plus 1/2 of the 1/3 cup measure of flour, pictured here.

I forget what I figured out what the amount of bread flour in sixths was.  I was just pretty proud of myself for figuring an easy way to measure out 5/6 of a cup.

I know it really isn't that big of a deal, but it meant a lot to me.

​And as long as we're substituting things, I figured I'd switch out the white sugar and use brown sugar instead.  It doesn't really change much, they are nutritionally the same.  I thought brown sugar was somehow more healthy--nope!  Just tastes different.  Has molasses in it or something.  I do like the flavor of brown sugar, so in it went.

​Here are all the wet ingredients.  We'll be adding those a bit later.  But here they are all ready to go.  It's ok if the milk is a bit cold.  It can be room temp too, but just don't warm it.  You'll find out why in a moment.  Also, melt the butter now if you haven't already.  You want that to cool down so you don't kill your yeast or cook the egg when you add it in.  

​Here are the ingredients for the tangzhong: water and milk in the saucepan and flour waiting to go in.  This is what helps to hydrate the bread and make it fluffy, almost like that Hawaiian bread stuff.  We'll need that hydration with the added wheat flour.  By the way, I'm using bread flour for the tangzhong.  I guess you could use all-purpose, too, but as I was using bread flour for the rest of the loaf, I just used what I had already taken out of the cupboard. 

​Dump the flour into the saucepan BEFORE turning on the heat.  Whisk it until it is mixed in and smooth, no lumps.  You can even sift it in if you want, I didn't this time and it worked out OK.

Next, turn the heat on kind of med-low and KEEP WHISKING.  I cannot stress that enough.

​This is the kind of consistency I go for.  In her video, Emmy says to heat it until you can just see the whisk marks in the pan.  I go a bit further than that as Joshua Weismann says to get it to be a lump.  I go for the middle of the road on that, I guess.  It seems to work.  The bread turns out delicious.  Could it be just dumb luck?  I don't know, but it works, so I do it.

All right, so I skipped over some pictures here, but you don't really need them.  Remember the wet ingredients from before?  Well, you mix the cold or cool milk in with the tangzhong and the egg and the melted butter.  I do that first, although Emmy just says to mix the milk in to cool the tangzhong (see, that's why we don't want the milk heated, you're cooling the tangzhong off from the cooking so we don't have to wait to use it so you don't kill your yeast).  I just put all the wet ingredients together and mix them up until well combined, then pour them in the stand mixer a bit at a time, mixing after each addition.

This pic is after all the wet ingredients have been added and it's been mixing for a bit.  Mix for about 8 minutes on your mixer's knead setting.  I stop mine occasionally because I'm kind of paranoid I'm going to wear my mixer out and make the motor crap out.

After the 8 minutes are up, you're going to dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface.  

​There have been times with this recipe I haven't had to add any extra flour but with the added extra whole wheat flour this dough is more sticky.  On the left is the lump just dumped out of the mixer bowl. 

You have to knead it just a little bit once you've got it out of the bowl.  I just knead until I have a nice smooth ball of dough.

​Pop that dough into an oiled bowl and turn it around a time or two to get the oil all over the dough.  Cover with a damp towel, put it in a warm place, or just a place where it's not drafty or near an A/C vent, for about and hour.  Maybe an hour and a half if it's a cold day.

​You can tell it's risen quite a bit, but how do you know it's risen enough?

I've heard that if you poke your finger in and the hole stays and the dough doesn't spring right back, it's ready.  I tried this at about the half-hour mark, and you pretty much couldn't tell where I poked the bread a few seconds after I had poked it.  This looks really good, though.  

We're ready for the next step.

I had something special planned for this dough, though.

​Measuring and portioning was going to be pretty important this time, so I used my kitchen scale (I would recommend using one, like this kitchen scale: handy dandy scale)

I measured it out and divided it into six approximately equal portions.  I rolled each into cute little balls.

Then I did something totally different.  Well, kind of different.  You'll see.

​Well, I've done this before. I froze some regular bread flour loaves a day or so ago.  I used my mini-loaf pans for that, though.  This time I just put each ball of dough into extra big muffin cups. Just 5 of them.  The 6th was saved for something special.

By the way, this is BEFORE the second rise.

Then, I popped them into the freezer.  Instructions I read say to freeze them for 10 hours before you wrap them individually.  I just freeze them until they seem pretty solid and are easy to get out of the muffin cups.

After they seem very solid, I wrap them individually in wrap and seal, then put them into a zippy bag that I've labeled with what they are and the date.  You can freeze them for up to 6 months.

The last one I sort of free-formed into a mini artisanal loaf. I've never made a loaf free form like this.  I always have used a loaf pan or made balls and put them side-by-side touching in a pan.

This time I thought I'd just go for it.

I put it in a warm place and covered it with a damp paper towel and let it do its second rise.  This time I let it rise for about 45 minutes.  It doesn't have to double but you want a noticeable difference.

This little loaf is going to be baked at about 350 F for about 8 minutes, I think.  Bake until it's nicely browned and when you thump on the bottom of the loaf it sounds hollow.

​ 

​Here it is!  Nicely browned.  I was going to use an egg wash but I forgot to.  It didn't really matter.  The loaf was very nice anyway.

I let it cool for about 10 minutes and I just couldn't stand it, I had to try some.  The texture was more coarse and **not quite** as fluffy as a purely bread flour loaf, but the different texture was very nice.  A little more "tooth" to it, I guess you could say.  I'm not sure I would like it with more whole wheat flour or not.

Also, I like my bread with Brummel & Brown.  It's yummy.

​There's the muffin tin in the freezer.  Also, the banana expresso/choc chip muffins and the white bread mini loaves.  The whole wheat ones will be wrapped and and packaged when they're more solid.

When you want to use one, take it out, let it come to room temp and then start watching it for the second rise.  Obviously it will take quite a bit longer because of it having been frozen.  At least, that is what I read about it.  I haven't made one of these loaves from frozen yet.  I'll update you when I do.

Wow! And that was my bread baking morning this past Wednesday.  It was quite a lot, wasn't it?  All those pictures at each step make it seem more complicated than it was. 

I hope the links weren't too intrusive.  I really did order those things and use them frequently, though.  I'm thinking I might order another set of those containers.  They really are handy.

Have a great week, I'll write at you next Friday!  Ciao!

I've been so focused on doing the sourdough thing, I haven't done any sewing or other things lately.  The sourdough loaf was a failure.  **Sad Face**  What happened is that I let it over-ferment, and it tasted too sour.  But it's supposed to be sour, right? Well, not pucker your face sour.  So it got chucked in the yard for the birds.  In the rain.  So it softened.  Actually the cats will probably get it first.  Oh well.

But, I finished that box I was talking about before.  I didn't cover it with fabric.  I just used contact paper.  It was easier, and I can easily wipe it off.  I didn't cover the inside, just the outside and a little overlap to the inside.

Next subject: food prep for recipes.  I used to fly more by the seat of my pants when cooking but now I'm trying to learn more about stacking processes, measuring out the ingredients ahead of time and so on.  I made Beef Bourguignon a week and a half ago that was not only delicious, but I was less frazzled by the time it was done and things turned out perfectly on time and all parts of the dinner were warm at the same time.  Well, except for the Jell-O which was supposed to be cold.  But it was gelled perfectly on time, too. 

Today, it being Friday, I'm making tuna.  Canned tuna.  I know, I know.  But it's easy.  But it's so hard to make it fresh.  It's all mayo and thick sauce and with pasta (as requested by my fiancé) it just tends to get too heavy.   So I'm going to try and use a simple but lighter recipe.  

But I'm still going to pre-measure ingredients, and I've prepared some glazed carrots ahead of time, they are in a glass container and can be warmed for dinner at last minute.  The rest is ready to go.  The recipe is supposed to take about 15 minutes.  

The biggest container in the pic is not corn, by the way, it's Ditalini. 

So, today I had started to get hungry around 11:00 am or so, but I promised myself I wouldn't have lunch until I finished today's task: making banana pudding.....well, I used the basic banana pudding recipe I found on a package of Bud's Best Vanilla Wafers years ago (with a real homemade custard, not instant pudding!) and used my own tweaks to make it Piña Colada Pudding.

I didn't realize one big looking can of crushed pineapple was not enough.  That only did two layers of pineapple, and not very thick ones at that! The last layer was made with pineapple slices that I tore up.  I washed my hands, don't worry!

(You can see a peak of those wonderful milk rolls, too)

It's actually a pretty simple recipe that comes together quickly.  Talk about getting your ingredients ready before you start!  The only thing I would tell you to wait on is that you can wait to whip the egg whites so they are at peak efficiency (HA HA HA HA HA) when you slap them on top of the pudding/custard. But it was done in short order so.......

.....it being Friday, I made myself a non-meat sandwich.  Peanut butter and banana.

Take two slices of bread, spread peanut butter on both, slap some banana slices on one slice, slap that other slice over the banana-covered slice, cut in half.

Follow me for more recipes like this one, wink.

(I blurred the screen on my Lenovo Yoga Tablet because I was watching a YouTube cooking video and I didn't know if showing that picture was infringing on someone else's intellectual property.  It was Joshua Weissman making fermented ketchup, by the way.  Looks good, but I don't lacto-ferment veggies so I'll probably not be making that.)

I have taken over my fiancé's nice hardwood desk he got at a thrift store and have started using it as my work space.  You can see here my cute mousepad I made (should I make them and sell them?) and my ever-present coffee cup on one of the kitchen coasters, also of my own design.

Is it easier than working on my bed with my lap desk?  

It doesn't make it easier to think of things to write.  It's ultimately more comfortable, although lounging in bed on soft covers seems comfortable at first.  It really is easier on the back to sit in an office chair at a desk instead of hunching over a lap desk.

We shall see if this makes me more productive.

The tomato here doesn't have anything to do with anything, I just like my tomato plants.  They are still alive!  Look up my tomato blog for info on that.

I've had fun today putting together a hodge-podge of subjects to put in this post.  So putting in a random picture of my tomatoes seems like a fitting way to end this post.

Also, by the way, I've applied to the Amazon Affiliate program, so I'm probably going to put affiliate links in my posts. Don't worry, I'll warn you about them.  I'm just going to see how that works.  No pressure.  I've even put ads on my podcast.  Again, no pressure.  But I want to expand what I can offer you guys, so I'm going to have to do something.   Someday I'd like to actually open a store with my products.  But I'm not a big time seller, I'm never going to offer hundreds of cheap products, I just want to sell some of the things I make that I really put time and effort in to make them pretty and make them well.

Well, that's it for now.  Ciao guys, have a good week!

I've been a busy little bee making some cloth napkins for the kitchen.  The first set I made match the place mats and coasters.  Very casual.  I made another set (not pictured) to match the wine, grapes and bread placemats on the kitchen table, I couldn't find one fabric I liked so I got purple, dark green and goldish-yellow (2 of each, because my table seats six) that coordinate nicely with the colors in the placemats.  I figure I can get or make some napkin rings all of the same kind to bring it together.  They have the added advantage of being kind of Mardi Gras-ish. I'll show that off later.

​There's the pics.  I didn't do my own tutorial because I went to Paige Handmade's YouTube channel for excellent instructions on how to perfectly miter corners on napkins, how big to make them, advice on hem width, etc.  I'll put a link in on my links page. The only thing I did different was put in a grommet in each corner of the casual napkins so I could hang them right next to the bar.  I only made two of these because the bar has two place settings. At lunchtime I can sit at the bar and just reach over and grab a napkin off the hook.

Well, that's it for today, please check out Paige Handmade's channel, she has lots of good stuff, I previously followed her directions for a half-circle skirt and it turned out great.

​Ciao!

I've been doing bunches of different things and not doing any major projects lately.  Here's a short roundup of things that I've been doing.

I've learned some new stuff about bread, so I wanted to make a little bread box to put over the loaf as it, well, loafs (ha ha) on the counter. I made a foam board box that I'm going to cover with fabric, but stupid me didn't figure on how I was going to get the fabric cover around this thing.

Pics A&B are mostly of my calculations.  Do you know that saying "measure twice, cut once?" Yeah, I didn't do that and I messed up on one of my cuts.  It turned out OK though.

Pics C&D are mostly of the box itself.  I would love to get some kind of fabric that has like bread loaves or wheat sheaves on it or maybe something with baking utensils like whisks and spatulas and so on.  I don't want it to coordinate with either the kitchen veggie placemats on my counter or the wine, bread and grapes placemats on the table.  Something different.

​I recently got the Moda Fabrics Spring Chicken Mini Charm pack.  It had been on pre-order and I'm very glad that it has finally arrived.

You can see the half square in the lower left.  At first I was upset.  I didn't count the number of squares in the pack (and I'm not going to), so I can't be 100% sure I was shorted, but there was only one square each of similar squares in other colors, so I probably was only supposed to get one of these squares anyway, and this would have been the second block, so I'm not particularly fussed.

Did you think yellow, grey, green and pink would  be great together?  Well, they do.

So cute!  This needs to go into some kind of kitchen project.  Maybe worked into a table runner or a larger mat for the island, sorry, peninsula.

I had one poor banana left so I wanted to do a banana bread in a mug this morning and I found a "healthy" recipe.  It said to use spelt or rye flour, neither of which I have, so I thought "wheat flour would be good" right?  :And espresso chips are healthy, right?  While mixing it didn't look very interesting, I really think it needed some egg.  I guess the banana was supposed to serve that need in addition to flavor?  Well, flavor was meh.  I would not advise wheat flour.  And if you can tolerate them (or you aren't avoiding them for other reasons) I would suggest finding a recipe that includes eggs.

I also was looking for a place to put my first aid spray.  At first I was going to put it on the counter next to the stove so it would be handy in case of burns,  That is a particularly bad idea, though, as it would sit quite near the olive oil cooking spray.  So, up into the cabinet it went.

I'm also doing some sourdough starter, but more on that later.  I'm covering that more in my podcast.

Well, I'm off to find more projects to get into.  Ciao!

​

If you listen to my blog (link to come later) you know there was a thing that happened last week that threw my whole schedule off.  That's why I didn't post last week and why things are early this week.  There's not a lot going on crafty-wise right now, although there are some things in the pipeline.  

Ciao Friends!

I didn't get going as soon as I wanted to this morning.  One problem was that I had tried to sew myself a new mousepad.  My old one was quite a disappointment.  I didn't sew it, I bought it off of Amazon.  I had ordered a pink sparkle round mouse pad.

​The picture is not really out of focus.  It just was printed blurry.  It's supposed to be pink and sparkly, but it just looks like a piece of baloney that's going bad.  Ick.

​This is what I wound up making today.  The first one I attempted yesterday did not turn out too well, the fabric wrinkled and I wound up with lumps and bumps and bad sewing and all of that.

In addition to making a casserole for dinner, I was trying to take apart the first mousepad I sewed, figure out how I was going to fix it, and sewing up the new version.  It took a long time and and I overworked my seam ripper to get Mousepad V1.0 apart.

Mousepad V1.0 had a shelf liner layer as the back of the mousepad, I sewed it to the front and then turned and finished it that way.  I think that's what made the lumps and bumps.  I don't have a walking foot and getting that non-slip material to sew correctly was horrible.  This time I decided to sew a regular mat with no non-slip stuff first.  Then I sewed the non-slip stuff on the back of the mat.  That worked much better.

​Here is the back of the mousepad.  Basically that stuff is just some shelf liner that I folded the edges over on, and sort of appliqued it to the back of the mat.  The backside of the mat is pretty wild fabric, but I figured it didn't matter because it wasn't really going to be seen.

I think both sides are an improvement over the rancid baloney mousepad.

So, until I got the mousepad done I held off on using my laptop.  I could have used the bad baloney mousepad, that wasn't an issue really, I just knew that if I didn't get this done, I would just put up with the messed up mousepad or the baloney one because the task of pulling apart the V1.0 looked really daunting.  I figured the sooner I fixed it the better.  Mousepad V2.0 is so much better.

​The only other thing I wanted to show you today was my BuJo spread for June.  I can't show anything else of it right now because I'd have to blur personal info and I don't feel like doing that right now.  I'll try and remember to post the rest of the spread.

But isn't it glorious?  Wild, I know.  But I'm a sucker for Gelly Roll pens.

So much glitter gel pen here. 

And the florescent colors!  We used to love some florescent colors back in the day. I remember learning about them in art class back in.....well, a while ago.

Well, that's it for now.  I don't know if I'm going to post next week, I've got an appointment I'm going to have to go to and I don't know what day it will be yet or how it's going to affect my schedule.  I'll at least post just a short update to let you kow.  It may not be a real post next week.

Ciao!

I'm working on a linen half circle skirt.  I should have taken pictures of the process, but I really got into it and didn't think about pics until it was too late.  At this point I'm hemming up the bottom by hand using a silk thread that blends with the fabric.  I'll hem up the lining the same way with a silk.  Then I'll machine hem around the bottom and do a decorative stitch with the bronze thread as well.  Probably do a decorative stitch around the waistband as well.

More to come when I've got it finished.

​To be continued....

I am (remotely) attending the Truth Over Fear Summit this week, so I'm busy with that as well as some sewing projects while I'm watching presentations.  I'll type at you next week!

I had such plans for the blog today! But as I pondered my breakfast, I had some other ideas.  I know I said I was going to outline what I learned from making the hexie quilt.  Never fear! That day will come.  But as I pondered the making of Egg(s) with a Hat, I started to feel....playful.  As always, the Greek seasoning is included.  I think I use this stuff on everything.  Can I buy a barrel of it?  I need a bigger container for sure.

At any rate, I became a little less, I don't know, focused on what I wanted my blog to be.  I puttered around in the kitchen, rearranging some things, becoming reacquainted with my Aerobie Aeropress coffee maker, just stuff in general.  

After my third tiny cup of espresso...well..."espresso like" beverage (you're probably never going to get a true espresso out of an Aerobie) I knew sitting down and being logical was just not happening today.  Luckily for me, logic is not all there is to life.  I looked at my to-do list, and saw one item that I at first deemed "frivolous" and considered deleting it.  Then I thought, "no way!"  Sometimes it's those "frivolous" things that get us through the day.  And sometimes what seems "frivolous" on the surface is actually quite necessary.

Not that things are that bad for me right now.  Actually, I am in quite a good position and I thank God heartily for that.  But I have been having a kind of creative block lately.  I can't seem to get color combinations right even after reading up on color theory and even buying Joen Wolfrom's 3-in-1 Color Tool which has, don't get me wrong, been incredibly useful, I just can't seem to get things together creatively lately.  I think sometimes it's a matter of having too many options to play with rather than less.  Sometimes if you force yourself to work with limited options it can release your creativity to solve problems.  However, that's a subject for another day, I think.

Instead I think I'm just going to take time and do some "frivolous" playing around today.  That's what all those things in the pic to the right are about...they all represent modes of play for me. Coloring, sewing, noodling around with Gimp or ArtRage on my computer, even making a spread in my BuJo or noodling with some other creative electronic device.  Sometimes you just have to let your imagination go for a bit.  

Therein you get the title of today's blog: The Power of Play.   Take some time to play today!