Books, Balls, Birds and Boys

They're here! The new books arrived on Monday, right on schedule. I think Sandy was hoping for something dog-related.

I always open these boxes with great trepidation, but I don't know why; they're always beautifully printed.

The book is available from BookBaby here, and Amazon has it listed but with no image of the cover yet. It will be available after December 12th. Barnes & Noble has it listed, also with no image, but it says it is available for preorder here. If you want to encourage big booksellers to carry the book, click on one of the links provided or go to the website and enter the title of the book. The books are stocked based on clicks, like everything else they sell. I just want to add that BookBaby is the only place to buy the book right now for delivery right away. Also, BookBaby, as the publisher, pays 50% of the purchase price in royalties, while third-party outlets only pay 8%. (That's a big difference!) However, every purchase helps, and all the proceeds go to St. Jude, a worthy charity.

On Tuesday we had to go out to pick up a couple of prescriptions, so I suggested we stop at Alpenglow Park to give the dogs a run, since it's pretty close to where we were getting our prescriptions. There were a lot of dogs there. One lady had a Chuckit, Dusty's favorite thing ever. She threw the ball for her dog, and of course all of the dogs who noticed it ran after it.

Can you guess who ended up with the ball? The smallest dog in the pack.

Dusty has occasionally outrun whippets and other fast dogs with long legs. What he lacks in size he makes up for in enthusiasm. He also pays attention to where the ball is being thrown, quickly calculating the trajectory, and often gets the ball on the first bounce. Of course, he brought the ball to us.

We walked on the trail while we were there. A good part of it is within the fenced (off-leash for all dogs) area. Dusty brought us two other abandoned tennis balls, which we tossed into the dogs' play area.

Since we were watching the World Series, I got some knitting in. I finished the Gentle Spirit Tee.

I didn't use the lace wires to block it: I just patted down the sleeve, neck and bottom edging, so it was straight.

I wore it to church on Sunday. I was happy with the fit. I still have a pretty good-sized ball of this yarn left.

Of course, I had to cast on a new project, because I have to have something to work on during our trip this week to Wisconsin. I thought socks would be good, because they're a compact project, and I can use short wooden needles or wooden circular needles. The pattern is Front Range Socks by Lynn Zimmerman. I'm using a ball of Lana Grossa Meilenweit in "Spicy."

I've already made pretty good progress, but I'm packing some extra yarn and another pattern, in case I finish the socks. They don't take up much room.

Friday was Halloween, of course. We put Victor the Vulture in the high window next to the door. I moved a floor lamp into position where it would give him some light.

We had quite a few kids stop by the house. Some of them said they noticed Victor, and I'm sure he had a good time watching the kids come and go. There were some interesting patterns, including The Grim Reaper, which at our age is always scary! We still have candy left.

We didn't dress up for Halloween, but I remembered our costumes from 2009, when the H1N1 "Swine" flu was going around. We dressed up as H1 and N1, with pig noses and signs on our backs that read, "Ban Tamiflu!" We carried strings loaded with cold medicine packages. We wore these to a party with the Park City Mountain Sports Club. Fun times. 

Sunday was All Saints Day, and we sang "When the Saints Come Marching In." It's a fun piece to sing.

The service was broadcast on YouTube. If you want to listen, our piece began about 106:45.

For some cuteness, here's Soren playing ping-pong at his school's "Monster Mash" social. (I can hardly believe he's in middle school!)

Meanwhile, Johan returned home from "outdoor school." He says he's now called "Storm," and his pronouns are "he" and "them." 

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 and B&N and search for More Classic Tales Retold or Our Favorite Verses: Poems 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 or More Classic Tales Retold, 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 Gentle Spirit Tee. Just started a pair of socks to take on the trip.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to The Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang on the AudiobooksNow app. Almost finished.

What's on my sewing machine: Put away.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The stories always come out on Friday, and since Friday this year was also Halloween, we ran Victor the Vulture from Our Favorite Verses. This is one of my favorites!

What's my tip of the week: Like cabbage, cut edges of celery turn brown. That's why, instead of taking one stalk at a time to chop I start from the top, cutting off what I need from the cut edge. Sometimes we get celery that's already cut into stalks. In that case, I cut a little from the top and bottom of each stalk. No waste!

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

The stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

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

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook 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,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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Cookin' the Books

Well, not in the sense that phrase usually means. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is coming out of the oven. The first batch has arrived and copies are going out to purchasers. My personal supply came on Wednesday, all 100 of them.

By Sunday, one box of 50 was half full (or maybe I should say "half empty," since emptying it is a good thing). Thirteen books (12 Emils and 1 Mariah) went off by mail on Friday afternoon, which included books for grandkids plus half of my preorders. I hand-delivered one of each book (one Emil and one Mariah) to a local address and two more Emils as local gifts. I have a box of 11 packed and another single going out this morning. This book is going faster than Mariah went, and some people are wanting both. I think that adds up to 27 copies of Emil and two copies of Mariah. 

I'm charging $16 for these, as publishing costs have gone up a bit, and $4 just about covers shipping (postage and envelopes) on one book within the US. Sales of the 100 books I had sent to me will reimburse me for my investment. All of the royalties from the book (as is the case with our first book) go directly to St. Jude. They get half of the purchase price of all sales through Book Baby Other retailers take a bigger cut, but some of the price will still go to this great charity. If you ask your library to carry the book, it will help get it out there.

If you want to help promote the book, do a search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" and click on a few links. If you're on Goodreads, you can also find the book there and click on "Stores." Some will have it and some won't. Clicking on the links doesn't hurt, though. They will carry it if enough people click on the links. Amazon throughout the Northern Hemisphere and Australia/New Zealand has it available for preorder. I haven't checked all countries around the world, but any place that has an Amazon presence should have it, and any bookseller can get it. If you have a copy of our first book, please leave an honest review on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads and anywhere else that gives you that option.

In knitting news, the Taina Shawlette is finally finished. It actually is a fairly quick knit, but I got sidetracked with other things, as usual (mostly book-related). Here it is blocking.

It's long! Here's another view. Since the dining room table wasn't long enough, either, I put a tray table on the end of the table in my workroom and put the blocking mat box on top of that. It still hung over the other edge a bit.

I was happy with it when the blocking was done. The colorway name "Sea Slug" doesn't sound as pretty as it looks. Here's the project page on Ravelry, if you want details.

I managed to get one section of hand-quilting done this week. Now I'm on the second section.

It was a challenge to watch the first few World Series games. We resorted to using my iPad for one game, then used one of the laptops, because we couldn't get it on the TV. It was cozy, with the fireplace going, Dusty on his bed, a glass of wine and either my knitting or my quilting.

We had to listen to Saturday's game on the radio, because we used up the online previews. We got to see Sunday's game on the TV, though. For some reason, it was broadcast.

Speaking on Sunday, this fellow came to sing with us in the choir. He's a little strange, but we needed another tenor. (He isn't trying to be obscene; he just can't control his fingers.)

As you know, Sunday was Halloween. We captured our first two trick-or-treaters and put them in a box in the front window.

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

What's on my needles: Ready to CO for the first of a couple of sweaters for grandkids' dolls for Christmas.

What's on my loom: STILL the trailer rugs. No progress this week, but things should quiet down now that the first batch of books has been sent out.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its cover.

What's in my hoop: Still the whole-cloth quilt, some progress made.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The special for Halloween was Victor, the Cultured Vulture, a somewhat spooky take on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven."

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colen Malloy on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Mildiani Saperavi 2018, from Georgia (the country, not the US state). We liked this when we tried it before.

What's my tip of the week: TV tray tables are handy. If you need a place to serve someone or just a place to put your sewing or knitting supplies while you're working on a project, they are quick and easy to set up. I like to set one up to the left front of my sewing machine cabinet to hold the weight of a large project when I'm sewing long seams on a quilt.

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. 

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.

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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Tales of Lotte and Rocky

What a week!

Halloween, the World Series, Common Threads, two deliveries of doll stuff and dealing with a doggie injury. Whew!

DH had bought "Halloween costumes" for the dogs, but they didn't cooperate by wearing them. We tired them on Vroni and Mandy, and they worked pretty well.

When trick-or-treaters showed up at our door, we told them that we were surprised that they dared come to our house, after what we did to the first kids who showed up. They looked at the dolls, their eyes got huge, and then they laughed. One of the older ones even said, "Honey, I shrunk the kids!"

After most of the trick-or-treating had tapered off, the "girls" were allowed to sit and watch the World Series game, while helping themselves to some Halloween candy.

The package from My Doll Best Friend (two pairs of shoes, my prize for having my photo selected to be in their In-Site online magazine) had come early in the day, so Mandy was wearing her new sandals. She was the model for the photo, you might remember, so she got to pick. Vroni was happy with the white satin flats, but they were dress shoes, so she put on Lotte's new dress before she tried them on. The ankle straps are too big, but I can fix that, and they look good without the straps, too. Mandy's sandals must be for the beach, because the soles have little sea shells embossed on them.

I had already finished the dress, coat, hat and turtleneck for Lotte, but Mandy, who modeled it, said she needed one, too. I finished it November 1st, just in time to start the colorwork KAL (knit-along) on the first day we could participate. Here's Mandy modeling her turtleneck.

I made this one with the button/buttonhole bands knitted with the body of the sweater as one unit, to save having to weave in four more tails.

I told Mandy it made me feel cold to see her wearing sandals and to go put on something warmer. This is what she did.

I give up! We discovered that the turtlenecks also made great cardigans.

Common Threads met at Margareth's. She and Karan have been working on wool flannel quilting projects (shown in previous blog posts), and Margareth had made this new project bag, using one of the motifs she had used to make some wool flannel coasters.

She also was working on this bird:

Speaking of birds, Lynda was working on some knitted birds from a book, The Field Guide to Knitted Birds by Arne & Carlos. Very cute and funny!

That afternoon, we found that the gardener had come to prune the neighbor's bushes.

She had a young apprentice with her, probably a family member. They bedded down on the other side of our backyard for the night, so they were there again in the morning. I guess they hadn't finished their work. Needless to say, the pups had a lot to say to them.

Friday, tracking on my big package indicated that it had reached Park City and would be delivered by 8:00 PM. The "girls" took turns watching for the mail lady.

Vroni and Mandy were on hand when the package was delivered.

We could hear whinnying, barking and cries of "Let me out!" I had to get the kitchen scissors to get it open. Inside we found the horses packed carefully on top of Lotte. (She was in her own sturdy box, so was unhurt. It took a while to get to her box. Vroni climbed up to look in, and Mandy asked for a lift.

After we got Lotte out, the "girls" decided they wanted a group photo, but, of course, they all wanted to be next to Lotte in the photo. This was how we compromised. (You can barely see Dolly, but she's the one who is closest to Lotte, so she doesn't mind.)

The horses will be a present for the two grandkids who are learning to ride at their other grandparents' ranch in Texas.

Lotte said her little dog needed to go out, so even though she was dying to get out of her travel clothes, she put on her new coat over her traveling dress, and they went out to the back. I got this photo of her before we came back in.

The girls offered her a choice of pajamas, even though the pink ones were made just for her, thinking she might be sick of pink. She said that she loves all colors, but pink is her favorite. She changed into them right away and had a nice lie down, looking out the window at the trees.

When she got up from her rest, she tried on her new dress:

Then her turtleneck and slacks.

The girls turned in early, because it had been an exciting day, and they were looking forward to more of the same. I think Lotte looks a little zonked.

As often happens, life got in the way of the planned tea party, for which they need me. The "girls" had just gone to bed, when Rocky got up from his nap on the couch, where he had been since early afternoon. I noticed he was limping and licking his right front paw. Closer inspection revealed that it was very swollen and hot. We piled into the car and drove down to Salt Lake City to doggy (and other animal) urgent care. After a long wait (there were other, more life-threatening cases that took priority), the cause was revealed as an abscess between the toes. They kept him to clean it out and sew it up when they had time during the night, and I went back in the wee hours of the morning to pick him up.

Rocky's already doing better, but working his regular medication (thyroid) into his pain meds and antibiotic has been a challenge because some need to be given on an empty stomach and some with food. Some every eight hours and some every twelve. Then we had the time change to deal with. Thank heaven for my iPhone!

Not much sleep for me for three nights. He knows not to lick his injury, but we also have to keep him from getting up on or down off of the furniture by himself, playing with Dusty or using the stairs. 

Wouldn't you know it snowed early Sunday morning. We have to bag up Rocky's foot so he can go out without getting it wet.

With any luck, the tea party will be in next week's report.

What's on my needles: Mandy’s Fair Isle sweater

What's on my Featherweight: Pajamas for Alister and Gabi.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to practice tapes for Park City Singers. Finished Amy Corwin’s novel All She Loves on the Kindle app, but haven’t started another yet. I like this author for a clean romance. The stories are well written and entertaining, and the characters are not just good or evil.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec.

What's my tip of the week: A pill cutter is a very handy and inexpensive item to have, especially when the dose is "1 and 1/4 tablet."

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.