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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Led Astray But Still Fun--Mostly

Well, this first photo is just to show I've made a bit more progress on the Hinterland Pullover. Just a little less than two inches to go before the bottom ribbing.

On Monday, we drove out to the coast to visit my BIL, Jim, in his new digs in Florence. I thought I might get a lot done on this project during the trip, but it was not to be. (I did get a few more rows done while we Zoomed with our daughter on Sunday, though.)

I worked on another project (a sweater for Pippa) for part of the drive, but I had to help navigate, and then Rocky became stressed, so I had to comfort him. We ended up going way out of our way to the north on the way there. It took an extra two hours, including stops for us and the dogs.

We followed Jim's directions to his new home. It's a manufactured home in a gated community. The house was a real mess when he bought it. It was covered with some kind of black moss, as were the statue, wishing well and bench out in front. He pressure-washed the outside of the house and the other things. Then he had the house repainted, a new back deck put on and the house reroofed. The landscaping was also a mess, of course. He spent a lot of time on that, as well. Inside, he needed to do a lot of repairs and pull up old carpeting in the great room. I think it looks nice on the outside now, and he will get the inside in shape with a bit of time.

Monday's supper was a simple but tasty meal, with a bottle of bubbly to go along with it.

Here's a look at mine. Some salmon, a wild rice dish and three-bean salad, all prepared by our host.

Tuesday, we went to the beach, but it was "blowing up something fierce," as they used to say in the old movies. Not exactly gale-force, but too strong for the beach to be pleasant, so we put the stroller back in the car and drove in to Old Town Florence. We took the stroller out again and strolled up and down the main street. We saw the RV campground where we plan to stay in August, if we can ever figure out how to get there more directly than by going almost to Portland. (More about that later.)

On Wednesday, we took the dogs to an open area near Jim's home so they could run. The houses are built on dunes that have become compacted over the years. The trees and bushes seem to have really deep roots. Dusty loves chasing a ball. 

This is Rocky's idea of "going for a run." He seemed enjoy it. New smells and feeling the sun on his back were undoubtedly pleasant.

On Thursday, the wind had died down enough that it was pleasant on the beach, at least during the morning. The guys (two-legged and four-legged ones) enjoyed a walk on the beach, and Dusty got to chase the ball a bit more.

I was surprised that Dusty didn't chase the birds, but he was happy just going after the ball.

My main objective in going to the beach was to get some photos of Pippa and Pauly on the beach. Even though the wind had let up a lot, there were still gusts that gave me problems. Pauly seemed to know how to keep his hat on, but Pippa's hat went flying several times, and I had to chase it down the beach. I also had to chase the bag I used to bring the dolls in, along with the two plastic newspaper bags I had them in to protect them. The angle of the sun was still fairly low, so I had to deal with my shadow when taking photos with the sun behind me and the bright sand causing the dolls to be backlit when I took photos from the other direction.  The photos are pretty much OK with some editing, however.

We came across this empty crab carapace when we were walking back up the beach to where we were parked. I think it's a Pacific Rock Crab, but you really need the legs and underbelly to identify it for sure. (It found its way into the story.)

Friday we drove home. We tried to go a different way, but somehow missed a turn without realizing it and got off the road we planned to use. I asked Siri for help, and she directed us from there. Again Rocky was unhappy, so it wasn't a pleasant trip. It was better, though, than it was for someone. We passed this wreck. I've been trying to find out what happened to anyone who was in this car. No snow or ice at fault, so I can only guess it was either the driver's negligence or another vehicle (now gone) was involved.

This is where we were when we encountered the flipped-over car, on Hwy 58. This road brought us back to the main road through Bend, but we got on it quite a ways south of town. We think we have our mistake figured out for our trip next month with the trailer. (Fingers crossed.)

I'm planning on asking the vet about Rocky's distress. Maybe he was car sick because he can't see where we're going, but he never threw up. If his ears hurt from the elevation changes, they stopped when he got out of the car, so maybe not that. It's puzzling. He has always been a good traveler.

For some cuteness––or maybe some silliness––here's Johan, ready to go to PE camp. Not silly, you say? Just give him a few minutes.

This week's plan is for a partial bathroom remodel in our master bath. This shower stall is going to be removed and made into an additional closet. The workers will just rip this one out, and we will hire someone else to finish it as a closet. My plan is for cedar lining.

Where will we shower, you ask? We're having the big soaking tub removed and replaced with a classy new shower stall. Here's the "before" photo:

The piece of tile broken off is from the asbestos test, required by state law. The person who removed it also drilled a couple of holes in the wall to test other places around the existing tub. Apparently they found no asbestos, because they are ready to go (we think). It's costing us extra to use this space instead of the existing shower, but we think it will be a much nicer shower, especially with the window. Stay tuned for updates!

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 Hinterland Pullover, Pippa's Seattle Sweater and again no progress on the emPower People Kerchief this week.

What's on my loom: Still the Trailer Rugs, no progress this week.

What's on my sewing machine: Maybe a bathing suit for Pauly is needed..

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In The Balancing Trick, Veronika shows Billy and Jolena how The Writer fills out a check and keeps track of the checks she writes.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: We finished listening to The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin. We started it when we drove up to Beaverton in February. We didn't have too much trouble figuring out where we were. It was a great book! Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app. I'm a little closer to the end of it. It's good, too.   

What's in my wine glass: Arriccio Merlot 2019. Pretty good!

What's my tip of the week: We often use olive oil in place of butter on our bread, sometimes mixed with a little granulated garlic and some herb mixture like Penzeys "Justice" seasoning, a little salt and maybe some pepper. It's great for dipping, but it can be messy if you pour it on. I like to mix it up first in a small jar, then put it into the fridge until it solidifies. Then you can spread it nicely. You have to leave it refrigerated until you need it, then put it back in the fridge, though, because if you leave it out, it will "melt" (or return to its liquid state).

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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Home Again...Again

First, progress on the Main Memories Cardigan.

I'm getting close to starting the ribbing.

I also received my first clue for the Rose City Yarn Crawl and finished it, after frogging (ripping out) and starting over with a smaller needle. The beginning of the project makes a great gauge swatch! The next clue comes out today. I can't show you my work, because it would be a spoiler for anyone reading my blog who is participating in the KAL and not wanting to see what it's supposed to look like. If you really want to see what I've done, you can look here and go to comment #306. I'll show it when it's done and no one is left to be disappointed to find out what it looks like.

As for most of the rest of my time this past week, it has been taken up with jobs associated with the painting of the cabinets in our kitchen and bathrooms. Just to refresh your memory, this was how the cabinets looked when we moved in. Not bad in a photo.

However, when you looked closely (as in from 10 feed or closer), you could see the wood was faded, worn, scratched and dirty. I don't mind outdated. (Jane Austen could be viewed as outdated, and she's one of my favorite authors.) However, faded, worn, scratched and especially, dirty, isn't very appealing. That's why we decided to have the cabinets painted. It would have been a lot more expensive to replace them or even just to replace the doors. All of the cabinets in the kitchen, the kitchen eating area and all three bathrooms were in a similar condition. The laundry room has cabinets with formica, which were probably what all the original cabinets in the house were like. They are dated, but in excellent condition. Here's a reminder photo of the work in progress, which I think looks like something out of a horror or science fiction movie:

You may remember we had to move out of the house, so we went to stay with my DBIL, three blocks away. However, he had a guest coming to stay on Wednesday, so we needed to vacate his guest room on that day. Fortunately, the fumes in our house weren't too bad by then, and we were able to sleep in our own guest room, which is at the opposite end of the upstairs from the two upstairs bathrooms. We kept the door closed and the window open. It was pleasant.
Thursday they were still finishing the doors, having finished the cabinet bodies and drawer fronts. They did the painting in the garage, however, so the smell wasn't too bad. All they had left on Friday was to remove the masking tape and plastic all over the house, including the plastic and paper they had put down on the floors. By Friday night we had most of our kitchen things put back where they belonged. I took these photos. (The color isn't white, although it looks almost white in the photos. It's a pale grey.) The updated look is a plus.

We still need to install hardware, which we have picked out. We think handles and knobs will keep dirty or wet fingers away from the lovely cabinet doors and drawers.

The grey color shows up more in the eating area buffet.

Remember Mr. and Mrs. Jellyfingers? All traces of them are gone from the cabinets. We are by no means finished working on the house! The work on the cabinets was done by the same company that did our exterior in August.

Somehow I managed to get the photos taken for Friday's story. (Details and a link are below.) This is Jolena, trying to distract a friend from some bullies in the school yard.

DS2 and his lovely wife were in Los Angeles for the Annie Awards Saturday night.

Here he is with the others on his team. The the team was nominated for special effects in an animated feature film, Missing Link.

They didn't win, but it's their second nomination, which is an honor. We watched the awards ceremony live through online streaming. It was very interesting, and we learned a lot about the industry. It was when I got most of my knitting done on the cardigan. Because of the steek, I'm working always on the right side, and I don't need to look at what I'm doing.

What's on my needles: Still the Maine Memories Cardigan, and the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL project.

What's on my sewing machine: Outfit for Billy for the Victorian Valentine Tea JAL on Ravelry.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress. One of my New Year's Resolutions, though, was to finish it this year.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: A Different Challenge. Emil wonders about a classmate with Tourette Syndrome and some bullies picking on the boy.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still Blowout by Rachel Madow. Not much progress...busy week.

What's in my wine glass: Skyland Ridge Montevina Barbera from Amador County, 2016. One of the nicer ones.

What's my tip of the week: Have dough (bread dough or pie crust) or some other food stuck to your countertop or work surface? A dough scraper will clean that stuff right off, but if you don't have one, you can use a clean credit card or other plastic card to get all the food up. It's a good use for an old credit card or membership card that you don't need anymore, washed first, of course.

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.