FORTUNE'S PAWN has been reviewed again!

Much to my utter surprise and delight, my first novel, FORTUNE'S PAWN, which came out a year ago in August, has continued to garner ardent fans. I was blown away today to find yet another rave review awaiting me. What a wonderful holiday gift that turned out to be! 

You can read all about it at the link below. 

~Nancy

http://dominatr37.blogspot.com/2012/12/fortunes-pawn-review.html

No woodworking yet.

This weekend was one of crochet and truck work.

My truck was in the shop for headlight repairs early in the week. The part was fairly cheap. Finding that the part was bad and knowing how to replace it was a bit more expensive. I did get good news. The truck may not need to go into the shop for quite a while. Let's hope that is correct.

Mom had a yard sale. I brought some battery powered drills that were unusable. A pair of craftsman drills where the charger was bad, an electric screwdriver that froze up and a off brand drill without a battery. The screwdriver and lone drill went to the Salvation army to throw away. I sold the other two drills cheep.

I have some wood turnings that need work on them to make them presentable, and I am unlikely ever going to work on them. I put them out at the yard sale, with a $3 a piece your choice price, and a woman purchased three of them. I was quite surprised at two of the three she picked up. I would haven ever considered them to sell. That actually was a nice pat on the back to have sold them. 

During the yard sale, I finished a special crochet project I started last weekend. It looks good.
A hot pad I was making in yellow, red, and green yarn, was coming out all wrong. I ripped it out completely, I restarted it using white yarn instead of three. Other than edging, it is done. I am going to make two, possibly three of these washcloths, depending on how long the yarn lasts. I am getting a little bit more proficient at the basic stitches in crochet. 

My eventual goal for crochet is to make "STUFFIES" -- stuffed animals, dolls and such. To really do this, I need to learn how to read crochet instructions. all my work so far has been basically "free hand" where the pattern is not needed, such as the granny square or a bunch of single or double crochet.

On Sunday, I sanded on, washed and then re-painted the hood of my truck. One the previous owners used a paint brush to paint the hood. the streaks turned grey. Last weekend I gave it a quick sanding, and this Sunday, I took out black spray paint and painted the hood. I was warned that it would be splotchy. I gave it about four coats of black, then two coats of a varnish. Yes, it is a little splotchy as warned. It is a whole lot better than it was, though. 
What I really need to do is to sand it down to the base paint color, and re-paint it as some paint brush ridges can still be seen. More likely, I will wait until I have money to have it professionally repainted, if I keep the truck that long. 

I hope eventually to get back to wood working. A lot of my lack of work is laziness. It is easier to sit and do nothing than to get to work and covered in wood chips and sawdust.  I know I need to get out of that kind of mood. Part of it is that I still have vestiges of an allergic reaction I had to IV IODINE and still have a little bit of itch. Sawdust can get a little itchy. The added itching is something I have not quite been ready to face.

My lack of wood working, also caused by a still sore wrist from the accident or the recovery from it, has prevented me from making Christmas ornaments this year. I usually make a dozen of four kinds ornaments each year, or give it a valiant effort. This year, I explored one design by trying to rough carve it, and found my wrist would not take it, and basically gave up.

I will have to see what I can get done next week.