Tearing Down, Unloading and Building New

Just when I thought I was done with the book, the printer complained about the resolution on the back cover and wanted me to replace the artwork. The back cover looked fine by itself. (Note: This is just a screen shot of the PDF, so not a good representation, but just to give you an idea.)

I put in a couple of hours trying to replace the back, but every time I saved the full cover to a PDF, the back cover looked pixilated (all while the front looked nice and sharp). I had noticed a few days before that they have a new service called "templating," which just takes your artwork and puts it onto the template they have to use. It was going to cost me another $21 to get InDesign for another month, so the $99 for templating sounded pretty good. They said to allow three days for the service, but they were able to get to it right away. I will use it for all future books!

I decided to use slightly smaller type for this book. It already went over the length of the previous two books by ten pages. Using smaller type shortened it enough to get it into 70 pages.

Our vet nabbed me when I was in the office to pick up some medication for Rocky. He remembered seeing my iPhone tote/pouch and wanted to see if he could pay me to make one for his mother. I work for love but not for pay, so I said I would make one for her as a gift. She went to the University of Nebraska and wanted their colors. I finished the knitting in a couple of days.

The logo would be very difficult, because of the thin lines.

I was able to find an embroidered patch that will fit the pouch. It's on the way to me.

The felting was fairly quick and easy. I put it into a zippered pillowcase and washed it in hot water with detergent. I threw in a towel, so it wouldn't be lonely and set the washer for a small load. Then I ran it through the dryer until the towel was dry.

The Hinterland Pullover might actually get finished before winter. I picked up the stitches for the second sleeve.

Remember the shower that was ripped out to be replaced by a closet? (Photo from July, when we put in the new shower where the old soaking tub was.)

We found a good construction worker to build the closet for us. He was working on a neighbor's front deck. Charlie had a look at what he was doing and recognized good work. Monday he started on the closet. Let me introduce you to Joshua:

I have photos of the whole process, but  this is a quick summary. The walls were up about midweek.

Then by Saturday, it looked like this:

We have boxes of cedar paneling we've been moving around with us since we lined the master closet in our home in Dana Point about 1987. I don't know if we have enough of it to do the whole closet, but we can buy more if we need to. 

The front and back decks also need some work, and while we're at it, we decided to have our workers take down the cover over the hot tub (which leaks, so we can't use it). This is what it looked like three years before we ever saw the place.

The structure wasn't very well designed and was starting to lean. We were afraid it was going to fall over. Joshua's buddy, Vinnie, got most of it down on Saturday.

Charlie is taking the old greenhouse apart. It had collapsed in the middle (probably during some snowstorm) long before we took over the place, and we've never used it.

While we're tidying up the outside of the house, I decided it was time to get rid of the old chicken/rabbit hutch that had been left behind by some previous inhabitant. I listed it on Facebook Marketplace for free and gave it to the first person who responded. We had a total of 15 inquiries before I could mark it sold. It needed work, but she was just going to use it for her indoor bunny so he could spend some time outdoors when the weather is nice. Perfect! "Panda" has a new outdoor porch.

We've also had this tetherball pole in our front yard ever since we moved in. The ball had split open, so we threw it away. I listed the pole on Marketplace, too, and another young woman came to get it. The person who took the pole had a ball, but the base of her pole had broken; we matched up a good pole with a good ball for two little girls who love to play tetherball.

It was a bear to get the thing into the back of her pickup truck, but Joshua helped.

Sunday Joshua and Vinnie worked on putting up the doors on the old closets. (We had taken them off because they opened INTO the closet, making it impossible to put anything in that space. Who does that?)

In news of the Beaverton boys, they got spruced up for photo day at school.

Then on Saturday they participated in the Special Olympics. I love this photo of Soren. He has great form!

Olympian Gail Devers was helping with the Special Olympics. Here's Soren finishing his relay race and getting high-fives from Devers.

I'm sure this was Rocky's last "Blessing of the Animals." He continues to go downhill, but we have him on an anti-inflammatory every day and a mild sedative at night, which is helping him sleep. He still enjoys his food, so I don't think he's ready to move on yet. It took both of us to manage the dogs during the service. Rocky stayed in the stroller except for during the blessing. I took this screen shot from the video of the service. This is Dusty getting blessed, and Charlie is holding Rocky. If anyone got any good photos, I'll post those. 

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 our other books, 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: Finished knitting and felting (fulling) the iPhone pouch for our vet. Still working on the Hinterland Pullover (some progress made) and the EmPower People Kerchief is still hibernating.

What's on my loom: Dust, but I plan to make some placemats.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In We've Got Email! the dolls have a meeting to discuss their new email address. Pauly is uncertain at first whether he should be included or not, but he's definitely needed. He may not live with The Writer and the rest of the gang, but he's in the stories...an important addition!

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Big Dark Sky by Dean Koontz. 

What's in my wine glass: Cala de Poeti Sangiovese 2017. Really good with pizza.

What's my tip of the week: Hummingbirds don't need red food coloring in their feed, and it probably isn't good for them, since it isn't good for us. I mix one part sugar to four parts water to fill my feeders. If you need it in a hurry, you can divide your water and mix part of it with the sugar and microwave it for a few seconds, then add the cold water to it after the sugar has dissolved.

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 world wide. 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 take a bigger cut. If you want to order an autographed copy, email me at thedollsstorybook@icloud.com. 

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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