Hey Laura, What...?

“An Art Lover at Heart” writes:

Can you recommend any reasonably priced, high quality art sets?  I am in search of two for christmas, one for an adult, one for a child.  I am thinking of sets that contain at least a few of the following:  watercolors, colored pencils, oil pastels, markers, crayons.

While you are at it, can you tell me some of the best brand names in art supplies?  Particularly of oil pastels?  Thank you!

A little about oil pastels
I really had to look around for this info. I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, so I didn’t have any clue about what brand is better than others! Wikipedia came to the rescue with this little explanation of “grades” of...

Matt writes:

If I make a Christmas ornament out of bakers clay, how many years will it last? How should I store it when its not Christmas season? Any helpful advice about how to prolong the lifespan?

Probably everyone’s mother has a little stash of homemade bread dough (aka bakers’ clay) ornaments in the Christmas decorations box, right? I fondly remember making these when I was a kid!

According to my research, it’s pretty easy to store bread dough ornaments long-term. You just need to keep them in an air tight container. Moisture is the main culprit in the ruination of these little guys. The other thing would be a varmint looking for a snack; air tight does the trick against both.

You...