P is for ...

Today is ...

* Bicycle Day

* National Garlic Day

Today's Baker's Dozen Plus ...

1. perfect
2. purr
3. puma
4. pumpkin
5. palace
6. princess
7. prince
8. pounce
9. palisade
10. piglet
11. puce
12. pumice
13. panic
14. paper
15. poodle
16. puddle
17. pink
18. participate
19. particle
20. parable
21. practice
22. purple
23. Peter
24. piper
25. picked
26. peck
27. pickled
28. peppers

Pottery Tour ...

It is a lot of fun!  It is clay-spirational, too ... Meet the potters, see and buy their work.  It is the Annual Upper St. Croix Valley Potters Tour. 

While you are in the area, be sure to stop by the Franconia Sculpture Park!  Free and open year-'round.  There used to be an official Tour studio stop, and an unofficial studio Tour stop, very nearby in the area (one was the previous location of the Sculpture Park).  This year's map isn't showing these locations (well, they wouldn't show the "unofficial" one, would they?)  Keep your eyes open as you go through the Taylor's Falls area for signs to another studio having a sale at the same time -- if they are holding their sale this year at the same time, it is well worth taking your time to detour and stop by.

When you visit the tour webpage, click on links across the top for lots of info an all the participants and lots of other good info.

Oh, you might like to know that Richard Widmark, actor, was born in Sunrise Township -- and one of the pottery tour stops in in Sunrise ...

Unabashed "Plug" -- Prima ...


Back in November, I saw a YouTuba (I almost like that better than what is was supposed to say -- "YouTube") about the Prima watercolor pencils. 

In early December, after searching around the Net -- I decided to get a set of the Prima Watercolor pencils in the "basics" colors.  Got an excellent price on them from scrapbook.com
I did not get around to actually opening up the tin to use the set until early April.  I did not really remember where I had ordered them from but did a quick term-search for "prima watercolor pencil" in my email account and looked for an email that had been opened.  Found the invoice then wondered -- do I contact the seller or the manufacturer to deal with this.  Well, it was a packaging problem, so it was not the seller's problem to deal with.
Went to the PrimaMarketingInc website and found the contact us page.  I could email them.  I could use the box on the page.  Or I could call them.
I called and got the best customer service in the universe.  After getting really bad customer service from a few other companies recently, I was overjoyed by this.  I've decided that Prima is my Watercolor Pencil of choice (1) because the customer service was so awesome, and (2) the pigment and pencil lines dissolve very very well when water is applied with the paintbrush, even a slightly damp brush.  WOO HOO!
I received my new pencil (#16) -- the tin had held 2 white pencils and was missing the yellow -- by PRIORITY 3-Day mail!  WOW!
Peacock Spider

Be sure to click on the YouTube symbol on the second Peacock Spider video and go read the notes there under the video.  Fascinating creature.

I grew up next door to a children's amusement park that had peacocks in the aviary.  Imagine hearing the cry any time, day or night ... ugh ... sometimes it sounds like a scream for help and at others can mimic the sound of a baby crying ... and just once in a while it sounds just like a peacock.  :D

And, now for the "Best" "P is for ..."  --  Terry Pratchett

(There are tons and tons of Pratchett interviews at YouTube and more -- this is one of my favorites because of one statement -- about "plot" ...)

Piano Cat

Call to Action

There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...