Getting Around

The whole-cloth quilt is moving along. I really want to see it finished now. Just to see how it's going to look, I finished one corner.

I work from the center outwards, so I don't catch any bubbles on the back, which might happen, even though the quilt layers are basted together. Then I went back to working on the swags. I only have eight to go, and they're pretty straightforward, no corners to turn or decisions to make. Then on to the upside-down hearts, as you can see, the feathers and cross-hatching.

Remember the dolls who went to the local yarn shop a while back? They were wearing knitted items from my patterns using yarn from the shop, to promote the books. They came home this week, as they are no longer on display, although my books are.

While I was there, this spinning fiber caught my eye and begged to come home with me. I hope to get back to spinning soon.

We have continued to walk most days, but Charlie has been working on going through stuff in the garage, so it has mostly been just the two dogs and me. We noticed this fence around a large part of the wilderness area near us known as Pinewood Natural Area. It is privately owned and due for development: apartment houses and small single-family residences. 

When we got closer, we could see they were digging up trees and taking them out.

We will no longer be able to walk through the woods, which I've circled in red on this map. I don't know what's going to happen with the hiking trail that currently runs through it and on to Ponderosa Park, where we often take the dogs.

Clearly, we will be able to walk on the streets that will go through the development, but hiking on streets isn't as pleasant as walking through the woods.

On Saturday, we had the first practice of the choir for our annual Sound Fourth Independence Day concert. We picked up our music as we came in, and when everyone got there we had perhaps 60 or so singers.

Our daughter's family has been in Europe, traveling with her husband's family for the past few weeks. They will be home in a couple of days.

Sunday night I made Pizza Blanca, no tomatoes or tomato sauce. (That's faux pepperoni, not real.)

I read through the new book and made a few wording corrections. After one more read-through to look for absent punctuation and other errors, it will be ready to send to my proofreaders/editors.

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 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: Still working on The Love of Spiders shawl by Melanie Berg. Only a couple of rows done this week.

What's on my iPhone: Finished listening to Autopsy by Patricia Cornwell. Now listening to The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Emily Rankin on the Audiobooks Now app.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting on some dish towels or something.

What's in my hoop: My whole cloth quilt. Lots of progress this week because we were home.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The dolls come back from a walk to discover they're locked out of the house. Dolls are good at being patient, but they can still get bored while they wait for The Writer and her husband to come back. What will they do? Find out in Locked Out!

What's my tip of the week: Be kind. It's good for us.

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

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 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, because the publisher gets a cut. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well.

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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Winding Down the Year

Christmas day at our house started out like this:

It execrated from there. In a word: Bedlam!

The day after Christmas is my birthday. Rather than go out to breakfast as we usually do, we ate at home and the ladies went out for pedicures. Miss Daphne got her first pedicure.

She got little flowers on her golden toes.

When we got done there, we walked a few doors down to Wasatch & Wool, where I received a surprise: a gift certificate from DS1 and DDIL1. I already had some spending money from DD and DSIL. I promptly blew my spending money and gift certificate on spinning fiber and yarn for a cardigan. Then we went to lunch across the street.

My birthday haul also included a knitting bag, "take-out lamb" and a book mark from my friend Joanie, and a finger pulse and O2 meter from DH. This last was needed because I never can find my own pulse at Silver Sneakers before the time is up on counting. The reddish yarn is a brick color. I was drawn to it somehow and had to have it.

DS2 and DDIL2 are leaving with Soren and Johan later today. I will miss them! At least we have DD and her family for a few more days.

As I write this, DH is out buying a new microwave for the kitchen. Our old one was great for 11 years, but died on my birthday. Fortunately, we had a small microwave in the utility room downstairs to reheat coffee or tea while busy down there. It's very basic, but made a good spare in this case. The kitchen microwave had a sensor and special settings for cooking potatoes and vegetables in general. It was also a lot bigger. We have had a lot of problems with appliances lately!

What's on my needles: About 4" of the Sandy Beach scarf. Family members are doing this as a teaching KAL led by DDIL2 for her mother and sister. I'm trying very hard not to CO the new cardigan until the scarf is done.

What's on my Featherweight: Put away in its case for now. I hope to finish DD's wedding quilt during 2015. I only started it five years ago.

What's on my loom: Still some warp for another scarf, but folded up to allow space for playing with the bear house.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Didn't get far with Dyeing Wishes by Molly MacRae from Audible because of family fun, but will get back to it soon. Finished Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel, from Book Bub on the iBook app. I haven't started a new book yet.

What's my app of the week: Zoo Train, a great app for preschoolers.

What's in my wine glass: Nathanson Creek Merlot, the big bottle with the frog on it. Frog for knitters who sometimes have to frog.

What's my tip of the week: Keep devices charged up during the winter, in case of a power outage.

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.