Into the Woods...Again!

After the kids' visit, we had just a couple of days to get ready for our last camping trip of the season. I put the clean sheets on the bed, which is a challenge because the bed is surrounded on 3 1/2 sides by walls. That means tucking sheets under the mattress while kneeling on it. 

We got it done, though, and loaded everything we needed, mostly food. Fortunately, the drive wasn't too long. We drove to LaPine on Wednesday. We found Jim already there and in his camping spot. (He drove up from Florence on Tuesday.)

We were across the road from Jim. We had to camp at South Loop this time. The other loops are closed for the season. South Loop has full hookups, but they turned off the water on Thursday, so it's basically just power. We could use our electric space heater and the convection/microwave, so at least we had that.

Thursday was our only whole day with Jim. We got in some hiking, a total of 6.44 miles during the four days we were there.

We like to start out at the off-leash area, so the pups can get their wiggles out before we start hiking.

If we're the only ones on the trail, we let the dogs off leash for a short time. 

Dogs are allowed off-leash at the river's edge. It's hard to swim when you're on a leash. The water level was pretty low. 

There were sand bars out in the middle, but in some places the water was deep enough to swim. There wasn't too much current out in the middle, so it was pretty safe to let them swim.

While we were camping in LaPine, we got the news of the school shooting in our city. The school that was involved is less than a mile away from our home. Some of the victims were known to members of our church. We have to work together to find a way to stop this from happening.

We came home on Saturday. I finished the Gracie Cardigan I started last week. This will be for the doll we're giving our honorary granddaughter Elsie. Here it is, blocked and ready to have the button sewn on.

I followed the pattern until the divide for the sleeves. Then I worked the left front, then the sleeve stitches as I came to them, turned the work and knitted back across the sleeve stitches. Then I turned it again and bound off the sleeve stitches, using the first stitch of the back to finish the bind off. I worked across the back, worked the stitches for the other sleeve and worked those the way I did the first sleeve. After that, I worked the right front. When I worked back on the wrong side, I picked up a stitch at each edge of the sleeve and passed the first picked-up stitch over the second one. By doing this, I didn't have to cut the yarn for the whole project and the base of each sleeve was tidy.

The pajamas I ordered for Elsie's doll came on Tuesday. I tried it on Jolena, who looks the most like Elsie's doll Emily. I wanted to be sure the fit was OK. I thought the slippers were cute.

The preclue for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knitalong arrived in my emails on Wednesday, while we were still home. I had a look through my yarn stash and found some yarn that should work for the project. 

I've been checking on my new book's listing on Amazon and other booksellers' websites. I found this on Amazon: "90 days free of Amazon Music with purchase." I thought that could be taken to mean you could be free of Amazon Music, which I am, but of course, I already have a copy. LOL! I wonder if AI writes their promotional content.

The kids left some of their veggie share with us, including eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower and one poblano chile. I made a nice stew with it with lots of cumin. oregano and cilantro. I also used onions, garlic, canned tomatoes, a carrot, a celery stalk, black beans, some TVP, bouillon cubes and some of the leftover cooked brown rice. It was tasty.

Charlie had bought a set of puzzles. The kids started it, but couldn't finish it before they left to go home. Charlie has been working on it. It lives on our kitchen table.

Sunday was very busy. The Diocesan Convention (Diocese of Eastern Oregon) ended their meeting in Prineville with a worship service. The choir from Trinity went along to sing. Some singers from other churches joined us. It was inspiring and, after the school shooting in our community, therapeutic. My friend and fellow choir member Julie, who often drives me to choir practice and to church, gave me a ride to Prineville. She's also in the bell choir. We went back to Trinity after the Prineville event and attended bell choir practice. I think I'm on the verge of getting the hang of it. 

For some cuteness, here's Soren, who is....

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Mandy's Little Science Lessons: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them. 

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Speculoos Sweater, but also the gauge swatch for the 2027 Yarn Crawl Mystery Knitalong. Finished the Gracie Cardigan.

What's on my iPhone: Finished Wildwood by Colin Meloy and looking forward to seeing the film on October 23rd! Downloaded The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

What's on my sewing machine: Doll clothes.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In The Hair-raising Adventure Part II, this week's story from The Doll's Storybook, Emil and Billy get their wigs, but will a wig make Billy into a real boy?
.

What's my tip of the week: We often reuse bread bags and bagel bags. I've found I can flatten them for storage by folding them longitudinally, then smoothing any air bubbles, starting at the bottom of the bag to the top where they can escape, folding again the same way and repeating the process once before folding the bag once horizontally.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog, and they are reproduced in print with a few changes.

Book #7 is available in BookBaby's Bookshop right now. Amazon, B&N and other booksellers has it available for presale. The release date is October 27th.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Racked Up

The pot rack is up!

You may remember that we thought Josh could take out the pot light and use his little periscope to look around in the ceiling. It turned out that the pot light is in a box, so that didn’t work. However, a stud finder worked well, as long as you don’t press it too hard against the ceiling. About an hour and $25 later, the rack was up.

I got out my copper pots and pans, which I haven't been able to use because I had no place to keep them in the kitchen. They needed some cleaning, because the copper had tarnished while they had been stored. A mix of white vinegar and salt, combined with a little elbow grease, did the trick.

As you can see from the first photo, I’ve added a few things. We ran out of hooks, but when I get more, I’ll be able to add a few more items to the rack.

You may remember the renovations going on in the bathroom over the summer. Just to refresh your memory, here’s how it was. First the existing shower, which was smaller than it looks, because there was a seat in the molded enclosure taking up half of the floor space. (It’s behind the towel.)

We also had taken the doors off the closets on each side of the soaking tub because they opened into the closets. We had Josh install them so they open out.

This is what it looks like now.

Of course, we needed a shower. What we didn’t need was this huge soaking tub.

This is what we did. We’re happy with our new shower. It even has controls that allow us to adjust the temperature easily.

Besides his and hers closets on each side of the new shower also have a linen closet in the hall. What we needed was a cedar closet for all our knitted items. We had been carrying around some cedar boards left over from a closet in our house in Dana Point, California, which we moved into back in 1987. We didn’t have enough to finish this project, so we bought more. Then shelves went in to hold plastic bins for our woolens. Charlie did all the work himself. 

I have more plastic bins coming this week for the rest of our woolens, which are still in big plastic zipper bags in my closet.

I finished the first clue for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL on Wednesday.

Here’s what I had by Saturday night. The second clue changed to the other color. I’m about halfway through the second clue.

I received one more 1942 birthday gift from our daughter this week, a coffee mug. It’s covered with important things to know about 1942. (The Battle of Stalingrad isn’t mentioned.)

I’m still doing this on my iPad. Here’s an update on my laptop, however. I learned on 

Friday that it had been repaired and was ready to ship back. When I checked on Saturday, it had been shipped. When it arrives at Best Buy, I’ll go pick it up., which will probably be this week. I managed to get Friday's story done on the iPad. It’s getting easier to manipulate the photos and enlarge them. To enlarge a photo in Blogger using an iPad, you have to pull the text box up close to the top so the bottom of the photo barely shows and then tap the photo, then pick the size. It might take several tries.  It’s still much easier on the laptop. One thing that’s easier on the iPad is typing. I may continue to type the stories and my blog on the iPad and then put the photos in using the laptop. I should have it back before I have to do another story. 😅

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil and Mariah, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL, the Talvinen cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating, of course).

What's on my loom: I still plan to make some placemats. Right now, it’s shielding our Christmas tree (in its box) so we don’t trip over it.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt. 🙄 (One advantage of having to use the iPad is the access to emojis.) 

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress, but it’s calling me. I may try to get it done after I finish the Mystery KAL.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Holly and Sam Get New Wheels," Emil gets a letter from his friend Holly and finds out that Sam is in the choir at school. She got to ride in the big school bus with her classmates to a concert. The dolls are excited to hear all about it.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to listening to Das Vermächtnis der Drachenreiter (Eragon 1) by Christopher Paolini. I’m about halfway through the story. 

What's in my wine glass: El Accorde Merlot 2019 from San Juan, Argentina. Nice.

What's my tip of the week: Tarnished copper and brass can be cleaned without using regular tarnish remover. Wet a sponge with white vinegar, sprinkle on some regular salt and start rubbing. Add more vinegar and salt as needed. Finish with a nice bath in hot soapy water.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 

Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Problem Solving

The Mystery KAL is coming along. Here's all I can show you, because I don't want to spoil the surprise for anyone.

I'm about halfway through Clue #2. The new clue comes out on Wednesday.

I had to go and get more yarn to finish Dolly's turtleneck. The yarn I used didn't have enough in 50g. I'll find something to do with the leftover yarn, though.

The skirt was a challenge. I had a hard time getting all the pleats to be identical and still have it come out right to fit the yoke. It's very easy normally. The instructions are here. I cut the skirt width-of-fabric and the yoke at 13" for Dolly, otherwise the same as for the Happy Kidz. I ended up trimming the WOF a bit to get the pleats to turn out right. She's ready to join Gabi and the Glitter Girls Serinia at the LYS. I plan to take her on Tuesday.

I've done some cooking this week, but this was the only thing I got a photo of: my banana-oatmeal waffles, made with my GE waffle maker from 1965.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
• 2 medium bananas
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla 
• 1/4 C milk
• 1 T Oil
• 1 C rolled oats
• 1/4 C oat bran
• 1 T all-purpose flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt

Directions
Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. Bake in waffle iron.

With Omicron in our area now, there has been a huge uptick in new Covid-19 cases, so the choir isn't singing in person. I miss it, but our new cases are running 700-900 a day, more than six times what our running average has been. I'm staying out of stores as much as possible, because most people aren't wearing their masks. It's the law, but businesses aren't enforcing it.

Friday night I made about 10 Mexican TV dinners to use up the big batch of Spanish rice I made up.

Tuesday we went for a long walk. Rocky walked about half of it. He rode in the stroller the rest of the time.

Dusty had his teeth cleaned on Wednesday.

Thursday I gave myself a haircut. It was very successful, because I had less hair when I got done. That's my measure of quality now.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: The Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along, Clue #2.

What's on my loom: Still the trailer rugs.

What's on my sewing machine: The cover was off all day on Saturday while I made the skirt for Dolly (above). I hope to get working on the T-shirt quilt this week.

What's in my hoop: Still the whole-cloth quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "Earning a Living," Gabi goes off to promote our books in the local yarn shop. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Luìs Vieira IG Lisboa Montaria Aragonez Alicante Bouschet 2018. A change of pace, and nice.

What's my tip of the week: I tend to lose track when I'm counting stitches, so I leave a marker every 20 stitches. Then if I lose track, I only have to count up to 20. (You do have to be able to count by 20s, though, to find out how many stitches you end up with, or at least multiply 20 by how many markers you had to use and then add how many are left after the last marker.) 

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less. 

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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