{I've Been Reading} The Skeleton Makes a Friend

The Family Skeleton mystery series by Leigh Perry keeps getting better and better! You'd think that it might get hard to find believable new ways to get a living skeleton out into the world where he can help his best friend solve murders, but the author keeps making it happen.  In The Skeleton Makes a Friend, the rustic lakeside cabin that Georgia has rented while she's working at a college summer program is the perfect place for her daughter, Madison, and her skeleton friend, Sid, to enjoy the sun. If someone happens to wander by while they're swimming he can just sink to the bottom of the lake until the coast is clear.

Things get more complicated when a teenage girl comes to the cabin looking for Sid, who she met through an online game. A member of their group has gone missing and she wants Sid's help finding him, but of course it's impossible for him to meet up with her in real life. So Georgia helps her in person while Sid helps online. I loved this one. It kept me guessing until the very end.



Seances are for Suckers by Tamara Berry is the first in a new series and I immediately liked the heroine, Eleanor Wilde. She removes troublesome spirits and manifestations from the homes of her clients by putting on a supernatural (and also completely bogus) show while also quietly removing the source of the disturbance. Usually it's mice in the walls. Holding fake seances isn't the most honest work, but she's doing what she has to to provide her sister with needed medical care.

Nicholas Hartford approaches her to deal with a ghost at his family's ancestral estate, knowing full well that Eleanor's abilities are no more real than Xavier, the family ghost. His mother, on the other hand, believes in both. Eleanor is completely willing to do her thing for the ridiculous amount of cash that Nicholas is willing to pay, but there's something sinister happening at the estate and someone doesn't want her to succeed.

I highly recommend this one, especially if you enjoyed The White Magic Five and Dime series by Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco.

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with ARCs. 

{This Week's List} Stitch Alongs

I did get the floss sorted out for All is Calm. Whoever designed that kit and divided the colors into bundles did an amazing job. It was very easy to figure out which floss was which color and I didn't even have to rely on the DMC conversions and chart. The fabric is almost completely gridded and I'm ready to start stitching on Thursday. 

I got the heel on the Return to Oz socks done.  That project is just fiddly enough to keep me from doing it on auto-pilot.

And there's still no new shawl. I don't know why I'm so resistant to casting one on, but I keep telling myself I'll make a decision about yarn and a pattern and then keep putting it off. Even though I got stuff done, this week's list is a lot like last week's list.

-- figure out where I put the second skein of Salt and Pepper Fabel
-- start a new shawl
-- start stitching All is Calm

{Estate Sale Tempatations} Cornhuskers

You know how sometimes you find a thing and it needs to come live with you even though you don't know why? This box is one of those things.

I found it at an estate sale that had advertised itself as a lifetime collection of craft supplies.  Or something like that. It's been a while and I don't remember the exact phrasing, but the ad definitely over-promised. They didn't have much and it was one of those sales where almost nothing is priced.

But I had to ask about this box...and you can tell by the fact that I'm posting pictures I took in my own yard that it came home with me. The lady wanted two dollars and she had to tell me the story behind it. 

Of course if there's a story I need to hear it. The box was painted by her partner's mother, whose husband had made the box. To me that didn't sound like much of a story, but to the person running the estate sale, it was important...enough so that I'll probably write it on a card and tape it to the bottom of the box.  It's made of heavy plywood and the hinges need some TLC. It's also the shiniest tole painted thing I've ever stumbled across. Not that I've ever seen tole painting sealed behind a high gloss coat. 

There are corn husk people on all four sides, from the Cornhusker pattern books by Bonnie Seaman. Three of them look like corn husk dolls, but the lady with the sunk has an unsettlingly human nose. She's probably the reason I bought the box. 

There's also the fact that we had a painting from the same pattern book hanging in the upstairs hallway when I was growing up. And the fact that the handle on top is a lot like the door pulls in our kitchen were. Not an exact match, but close enough to make me feel nostalgic. 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {11/9/18}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.