Last two days went by and I completely forgot to blog. So a bit of a catching up.

First, I did complete the Sands of Time painting.

I received my order from Cheap Joe's, and stretched some watercolor paper on frames. I managed to stretch one 18x26 canvas and three 8x11 before I ran out of staples. I have more in my cart to be ordered.

I started on another painting as well, this one being a bit more fun and fantasy-like, just to test out this new paper. It is Kilamanjaro original bright white 140lb watercolor paper. I am not sure yet if I will stick to it. It uses a synthetic plant-based sizing, so for the vegans out there, it isn't bad at all. I'd say it performs as expected for that type of sizing. My issue is that I like to sculpt my watercolors. I don't mean in an overworking sense, but sometimes I will go back over dried layers and push the pigment around a bit, soften edges, or use it like a wet pastel. That's how I got the pastel-look effect on the Sands of Time painting. I need sizing that can hold up to that, and while this will handle some abuse, it can't handle the level of abuse that I put the Blick pad through, for example.

The next papers I have my eyes on are either Khadi or Indigo Artpapers. I have the Khadi sketchbook to play around with for now and test out how much it can handle. I suppose I could get the Indigo Artpapers wiropad to play with as well first.

I can still use it (and will), but I need to remember that I am limited as to how much sculpting I can get away with before I see the first signs of pilling.

In other news, my daughter (almost 10 years old) has been baking on her own a lot. I mean every day, there is something new to try, and she doesn't need any assistance (in fact she makes sure I stay away). And they're all good! I think the berry scones are my favorite so far, so I am sharing a photo of that below.

I do need to focus more on cleaning this week and a bit more homeschool planning as we approach August, and fight the temptation to work at the pace I've been going. It's hard to do when all I want to do is paint all day.