Seven Friday Shorts

1. I am having trouble in the bread making department. I think my choice of flour is the culprit. Everything else is the same as it was when my bread was good except for the environment and my choice of mixer but I think I can reasonably say that they are not the reasons for my failure. So far, for flour I have tried the whole wheat flour of both Hodgson Mill and Pillsbury. My last batch was using King Arthur whole wheat and that batch was the best so far. It was still lacking in some areas though. :(

2. Earlier this year, when I was looking to buy my first stand mixer I settled for a KitchenAid Pro 600. I am not entirely satisfied. First, the mixer is ginormous, it takes up a lot of space and is very heavy. It also struggles when I try to knead bread, it just doesn't seem to have the power for the bigger jobs. (What good is a mixer that can't do the heavy lifting?) I wish I had gotten the dual team of the smaller KitchenAid and the Bosch mixer. I would have the KitchenAid for the small jobs that the Bosch can't do and the Bosch for the big jobs that the KitchenAid can't do. Only problems is that the Bosch's most recent mixer is uuugly. I would rather get the older model because of the nicer styling. From what I have seen you can still buy the attachments for the older model online.

3. Sewing isn't really my thing. I don't sew as a rule. That is, until my employer gave me a logo shirt to wear for working and it didn't fit. So obviously, I decided to alter it! I bought a scrap of fabric from the discount bin at Joann's along with a pack of needles, pins, a pair of scissors, thread, and a measuring grid thingy. I cut out a little fabric on each side of the shirt and replaced it with a piece of fabric that was slightly bigger than what I cut out. The arm hole area was a little tricky but I made it work in the end. I am currently using parts of the sleeves to make a new, bigger collar. The hand sewing gets to be pretty tedious but I am pretty happy with my work so far.

4. My first attempt on the shirt collar went pretty poorly. I couldn't find any tutorials online for sewing the kind of collar I wanted so I just winged it. The results were less than satisfactory. I searched online some more (after wasting my time trying to figure it out myself) and found a good tutorial. I am currently ripping out the seams of my first attempt and trying again.

5. On Tuesday I got my first ever tooth filling. I was a little nervous at first and then when they numbed me up via needle and I start to feel lightheaded and passy outy which only made me more nervous. Once they got started though, I didn't feel a thing so I just laid back, closed my eyes, and tried to just relax and stay calm. I think I did pretty well over all. My mouth stayed numb for a long time afterward. Eating when you can't feel your face? Difficult and annoying.

6. FYI. I washed my hair with shampoo this morning. Couldn't handle the dandruff. I caved and used shampoo but that does not mean that I have given up!

7. My sister and I are going on a big shopping excursion tomorrow! I am excited and nervous because the way is riddled with construction and I have never driven there before. It will be fun though! Hanging out and doing fun girl stuff. She is on a bra mission, I am going to be tempted to drop $70 for a new one too. I loooove the bra that our destination sold me on my last visit. It is so worth the money to be comfortable. (If I find cute shoes I will be buying them too!)