HighFiber: choir

Showing posts with label choir. Show all posts

Monday, June 13, 2022

Finally Progress!

Some progress happened this week. A few more rows on the Hinterland Pullover. Mindless knitting goes faster, of course...except that it doesn't, because it isn't as interesting. When I have a meeting or a Zoom call with the kids, though, I can get a few more rows done.

I published my pattern for Pauly's Stripy Pullover a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to see if I could make the transition to the ribbing look smoother, so I'm making a new one. It's working, so I plan to publish an update to the pattern.

I have the sashing strips for the T-shirt quilt all sewn to the strips of blocks, so now I have to finish sewing the rows together. It's going quickly...when I get to it.

I had my mammogram this week, and while I was waiting another lady stopped to see what I was knitting. We chatted, and I found out she was a quilter, too, and in the course of conversation, I obtained the name and phone number of a machine quilter in Terrabonne (town close to Suttle Lake, which has been mentioned in my blog before, so not too far away). That gives me a potential place to get my T-shirt quilt quilted.

We had four bananas that were getting a bit...ripe, so I made oatmeal banana bread.

Usually when I have a couple of overripe bananas, I either make my banana-oat waffles or use them in a smoothie. Four was a bit much, though, thus the banana bread. (Recipe below.)

As is the case each week, I made a loaf of sourdough bread and bed my starter, which responded by expanding in its jars. I rarely use purchased yeast anymore.

Saturday we participated in the local gun-safety march. It was raining, but we met at Drake park, where at least the ducks and geese were happy.

The rain was mostly just a drizzle, and we wore our parkas. We had umbrellas with us in case the rain got too heavy.

I meant to get selfies of us, but we were late getting there, and as soon as we had finished signing petitions, the march took off. We passed people sitting and eating at sidewalk restaurants. I did manage to catch Dusty in one photo, though. He had a great time.

Rocky rode in his stroller. He was wearing his red fleece jacket. The back and sides of the stroller have mesh windows, so you can see Rocky, labeled here, "Dog." That's my foot in the lower part of the photo.

Sunday was our last day to sing as a choir. We had a baptism and confirmation, so the bishop was there. Our bishop lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and drove over on Saturday.

Later that afternoon, the choir had a party. We met at one of the choir member's homes. They have a lovely lake with ducks.

I should have taken photos of her lovely quilting studio. She makes art quilts and has a long-arm quilting machine. The workshop was impressive to say the least.

The grandkids and their activities are always fun to include. Here's Johan with Louis. I don't know where Soren was; probably home with Dad.

The other grandkids were in Florida with their parents this past week. They saw all the sights: Disney World, Epcot Center, Universal Studios and Disney Springs. They will remember this trip forever.

I have looked at so many of their photos showing where they went, my feet hurt!

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: Still the Hinterland Pullover, a few more rows done, and the emPower People Kerchief, removed from the dog stroller 😆. (I guess that's progress!) First sleeve of the blue and white Stripy Pullover for Pippa.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hinterland-5

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/empower-people

What's on my loom: No progress.

What's on my sewing machine: T-shirt Quilt.

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

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Rolling Into Summer Camp. Emil gets a letter from Pen Pal Holly, who is at summer camp with her human child. The camp is special for children who need to use a wheelchair to get around. Holly included photos.(I was able to get permission from Boise Parks and Recreation to use their photos from a similar program they have for kids who use wheelchairs or otherwise have challenges making regular camp impractical.)

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app.

What's in my wine glass: Sancho Garcés Rioja Tempranillo from Spain. Nice. Different.

What's my tip of the week: Here's my recipe for Oatmeal Banana Bread:

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup slow-cooking rolled oats

1/4 cup oat bran

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Spray a bread loaf pan with cooking spray.

Place bananas, eggs, maple syrup, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and oats in blender. Blend until smooth.. Add in whole wheat pastry flour, Mix until just combined. Pour batter bread pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

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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Monday, January 31, 2022

Staying Safe and Trying To Have Fun

I still can't show you my progress on the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL, but it's coming along. I can only give you this peek. It has been a busy week, but I've made some progress and am well into Clue #4.

My new iPad hasn't shipped yet, but it should be soon. I'm making do with my old one and my laptop. I've figured out which apps will work and which ones won't. However, I wanted to print another copy of Veronika's Birthday, the little book I printed before I ever started writing the story blog for children.

The copies I had Apple print through the Photo App were just for family and friends. I ended up giving away my last copy, so this week I decided I needed to have another one printed. Since Apple no longer provides this service, I downloaded the Mimeo App and used it to send my PDF to them to be printed. I should have it soon, and we'll see if it looks as good as the original ones.

Last week I said that the Recipe Box app was no longer available for iPad, but I found out I was mistaken. I was trying to find it in the Apple App Store from my computer. When one of the developers told me it was still available, I looked for it using my iPad, and there it was.

They also have a The Recipe Box To Go for the phone, which I added to my phone. Now I have to figure out how to open my recipes in the phone app. I use the app all the time. During the week I made the No-Boil Lasagne and my favorite Easy Corn Salad, which you may remember from a previous post.

I often make this recipe to have with enchiladas, tamales or burritos:

Easy Rice-cooker Spanish Rice

Servings: 5 cups cooked rice

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, diced

• 1 T olive oil

• 2 cups brown rice (3 rice-cooker cups)
• 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juice
• 1 4-ounce can chopped green chilis
• 4½ cups water
• 2 boullion cubes or 3 tsp. Better than Boullion
• 2 T. chili powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cumin or smoked cumin
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. cilantro
• Cilantro for garnish

Directions
Sauté onion in the oil.
Place the rice in the bottom of the rice cooker and then add the diced tomatoes, chopped chilis and water. Add the onions and remaining ingredients and stir to dissolve the spices in the water. Cook according to manufacturer's instructions.

It takes about an hour once I start the cooker.

Adapted from Bless This Mess

I sometimes like to make Dutch Oven Bread, but our Dutch oven is family size, so we ordered a smaller one. I think this will work for half the recipe, one that takes 1 1/2 cups of flour. I'm going to try it out today. (The spoon is for scale.)

We had sort of an adventure with our taxes this week, but not last year's. We received a letter saying that IRS did not have our 2020 tax return, and to please submit it to the address on the letter. They also had a phone number. We both immediately were certain it was a scam, but what if it wasn't? Charlie had the copy of the cancelled check IRS had cashed. He didn't want to call the number on the letter, in case it was a scam, and when he researched the address, he found the entity listed as occupying the location was an office of the IRS. He tried to reach the IRS through their main number, but couldn't get through to a person to talk to, and none of the automated options provided a category that was related to the issue. After some time waiting on the line and giving up, he did some digging. He found this article and this. Apparently, because of staffing shortages during the pandemic (which are continuing), the IRS developed a backlog of 2020 returns that had not been looked at. This triggered the automatic dispatch of letters to the taxpayers whose returns had not yet been looked at, as if they had never been received. Not a scam, but also not a legitimate demand for our return from 2020. In the article, the recommendation from IRS was: "...taxpayers who received a notice now regarding a 2020 return would not have to send a copy of the return if they already filed a 2020 return and know that their payment went through." They have stopped the letters, but not before a lot of consternation on the part of taxpayers. So there was that.

We have had some cold weather, but have managed to walk a few times. Saturday was really nice, so we decided to walk to the dog park, so Dusty could socialize a bit. It was no problem to take the stroller, so Rocky could ride until we got there. He walked around in the park, and Dusty played with other dogs or chased the ball. Then, when we were walking home, Rocky decided he wanted to walk, so we let him out of the stroller, and he walked most of the way home. (The .73 miles was one-way. We stopped the Walk for a Dog app when we got to the park.

The choir isn't meeting in person, as we've had a lot of Omicron cases in our area. I think they're tapering off. We feel fairly safe, in spite of the fact that many people ignore the mask mandate in stores. First of all, our case numbers seem to be dropping, and secondly, we found this report on vaccinated vs. unvaccinated patients ending up in the hospital.

Of course, we passed 64 some time ago. The choir is meeting via Zoom again for now, but we're hoping to get back to in-person practice and performing soon. People who are vaccinated and masked are still allowed to attend services. Singing together is more risky than sitting in church.

We had a nice Zoom call on Sunday with family.

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 KAL shawl.

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

What's on my sewing machine: The T-shirt rugs.

What's in my hoop: Still the whole-cloth quilt. No progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In A Bigger Footprint? Part Two, Mandy explains to Jolena what she is already doing and what we all can do to reduce our carbon footprint.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app. Fascinating. I wish I had the time to just listen and knit!

What's in my wine glass: Clausthaler Original non-alcoholic beer.

What's my tip of the week: If you have a chance to get a basil plant and you like basil, do. It will be happy for some time on a sunny windowsill if you keep it in a dish of water that keeps the roots wet and protect it from the cold.

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.

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Monday, December 6, 2021

Unfinished Business

When I looked at my photos, which is how I usually figure out what I've done during the week, it looked as if I didn't do anything to take photos of. Then I decided to make a list of the things I did this week, and then I took a couple of appropriate photos. Here's my list:

1.) Wrote the holiday letter. (It's too long and needs editing.)

2.) Finally got around to cleaning the Fisher-Price Jenny doll with baking soda and then putting her through the laundry, followed up by a conditioning rinse for her hair. (See photo below.)

3.) I polished up Friday's story, then wrote three more, which will take us through most of December and took all the photos for the Christmas Eve story.

4.) Tidied the workroom and organized the yarn so it would all fit back in the Billy cabinets. Also consolidated the books to get rid of one box and went through most of our daughter's stuff she didn't want, to see if it would be worth donating.

5.) Supervised Rocky's coming and going, and gave him his medications and eye drops. Also too him to the doggie ophthalmologist, who was encouraged by his progress. Continue the drops and take him back in six months if he's still with us.

6.) Took Dusty to get his haircut.

7.) Two trips to the post office to mail books.

8.) Laundry (with Jenny in one load).

9.) Cooked meals, baked bread, etc..

10.) Cleaned one ~~bathroom~~ shower stall.

11.) A few rows of knitting (Jackson's sweater).

12.) Ordered a few Christmas presents.

13.) Choir practice. (We had a lot this week. It's "Lessons and Carols" for the second Sunday in Lent.)

14.) A couple of walks with the dogs.

15.) Sang all that stuff at Church.

So here's Jenny after cleaning:

Here's Jackson's sweater. Almost ready to divide for the sleeves.

This is the "after" photo for the cleaning of the workroom.

Here's a screen shot of our performance. First, our wonderful instrumentalists:

Then the choir. How did we get to be so many? (I think it has to do with our director.)

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 Bright Lights sweater for Jackson.

What's on my loom: No progress.

What's on my sewing machine: Its cover. I had hoped to piece the quilt this week, but just couldn't manage it.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt, no progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Charlotte and Emil, and The Festival of Lights. Emil got to light the candles all week. He explains the origin story of Hanukkah on the first night and deals with Pippa's unintentional upstaging.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to State of Terror, a novel, by Louise Perry and Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Audible app. Fascinating so far.

What's in my wine glass: Madroña Vineyars's Lake Tahoe Zinfandel, 2016. It was a bad year for us, in some ways, but a good year for this wine.

What's my tip of the week: Unsalted butter works well to replace shortening..

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.

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Monday, November 1, 2021

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.

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.

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