Mistakes

Well, the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL Shawl is finished. Here it is, blocking:

It just fit the dining table with the blocking mats angled diagonally from one near corner to one far corner at the other end. I didn't have to add another leaf to the table. (Its too long for the table in my fiber studio.) No mistakes here. Well, nothing serious.

Here's how it looks after blocking.

But I digress. We didn't do much of anything special for Valentine's Day. I did make a chocolate pie, using my recipe for silken tofu pudding to have with my Italian Pronto entree (basically, polenta, a jar of bruschetta, some frozen vegetables, a can of beans and a little cheese, layered and heated up) and some of my Dutch oven bread with a nice salad.

However, the next night, we had one of our monthly online Zoom get-togethers with the owner of Madroña Vineyards. Almost everyone who participated had made he recipe the vineyard had sent out, Penne Pasta with Italian Sausage and fresh spinach. Some of us had ordered the "correct" wine to go with it, their 2018 Cabernet Franc. The vineyard shipped them out, along with the recipe.

Of course, we used vegetarian Italian sausage. We used the one made by Tofurky, which is our favorite, when it comes to faux sausage. We had some shaved pecorino cheese on it. (That piece of paper on the other side of the wine bottle is the recipe they sent.) No mistakes here.

We made use of some leaves from our current resident basil plant. Basil lives in our kitchen window, in a bowl that always has about an inch or so of water in it. At night, I take him down from the window and put the shade down. Basil plants don't like the cooler temperatures.

Rocky went to the groomer on Wednesday, although we're only having him bathed and face and...um...butt shaved. He doesn't know whether it's day or night, these days, and we can't let him have access to the back yard unless we're awake to watch, so we close the dog door at night now, putting down towels in front of the door, in case he can't hold it. I get up at 5:00 AM to open the dog door. Then I can go back to sleep...usually. The sweet old thing gets a treat every day just for breathing. No mistakes here. Not mine, anyway.

We managed to walk several days, as the weather was pleasant enough. The highlight of our walks was this Daddy-Dusty Doggie--Deer encounter.

That deer had friends. We counted five more.

They aren't as dangerous as the moose we used to encounter in our Summit Park neighborhood in Utah. If they don't like you, they just leave. A good example for all of us. We left them alone. No mistakes here.

I also spent some time outdoors taking photos for a story for The Doll's Storybook that will come out the end of this week, when I expect to be gone. Here's one of the "outtakes." Clearly, it won't do. 1.) There's no snow, so the ground can't show. (Insert laughing emoji here) and 2.) The doll (Jolena) is supposed to be up in the air. Not to worry; I did manage to get some good shots that work for what I needed. Jolena is a good sport. OK, here's a mistake. At least I took a lot of photos.

I've been replacing some kitchen equipment and had ordered a couple of bowls the size of one I cracked beyond use and one I cracked slightly, but is till useable. I ordered these two bowls that were reasonably priced, but when they arrived on Friday, there was an unpleasant rattling sound in the box. Here's what I found when I opened the box. This was a major mistake, but not mine.

Here's what they looked like taken out of the box. They must have been improperly packed.

They would be pretty, though. (Replacements are on the way. I wonder what we would have done before smart phones, cameras and email. Maybe I would have had to send the pieces back to them.)

I thought you would appreciate some cuteness, so here is Soren, reading "Peter Rabbit" to his mother. High fives!

We'll see him and the rest of his family on Wednesday, when we head up there for the Rose City Yarn Crawl.

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 emPower Kerchief.

What's on my loom: Still!

What's on my sewing machine: Still.

What's in my hoop: Still!

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Songwriting. Mariah writes the lyrics for some songs, and Charlotte will write the music. Any mistakes have been erased and fixed.

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

What's in my wine glass: Tucana Cabernet Sauvignon Pinotage 2019 from South Africa. Yum!

What's my tip of the week: Parchment paper works better than foil for many purposes, although in the oven, the edges will darken with high temperatures. It can go into the microwave. It's great for wrapping up a sandwich or a burrito to heat up. Food doesn't stick to it very easily and it often can be wiped clean and reused a few times. 

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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