I've Been Reading...and Buying Adult Coloring Books at the Dollar Tree

The Coloring Cook, the second in the Pen and Ink series by Krista Davis, is a really entertaining read. The mystery starts with an estate sale where Florrie's friend, Dolly, discovers a rare book from the 1700s. The Florist was the first coloring book ever published and a lot of people want to get their hands on a copy. Not long after her discovery, Dolly is found dead with a scrap of paper in her hand that Florrie is sure came from the book, which is nowhere to be found.

In addition to working at Color me Read, a bookstore, Florrie illustrates adult coloring books. As she contemplates the events of her day, she draws. The way she thinks about the other characters while sketching them really helped the elements of the mystery pull together. There's a whole lot going on in this book and it all weaves together into a single engrossing plot.

I had some reservations after reading the first book of the series but after this one I'm definitely hooked for good and I'll be watching for the next one.

The coloring book hasn't quite bitten me yet, but I've been tempted. Over the past month I've found two really nice books at the Dollar Tree. One is intended for moms and moms to be, but does it matter what the title is if there are pretty pictures of yarn skeins and tea pots inside? The other is A Christmas Carol. I can absolutely see packing that one away with the holiday decorations and pulling it out every year...or could if I was that kind of organized.

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. 

Fireside Shawl

I had plenty of yarn left over after knitting the Campside shawl, enough to knit a second one. 

There's no pattern for this one. I made a triangular top down shawl, switched to k3p3 ribbing when I thought there was enough yarn left for a wide band of it, then kept knitting until I was down to what I thought was enough yarn for casting off.

This Week's Goals

Last week I made myself work on the entire list of current projects. This week, I'm going to play with the three that are the most fun. 

Early Morning Stitching

I was stitching on my hedgehogs before the sun was up this morning. There's just that corner of greenery to finish...along with filling in all of the other random stitches I skipped along the way for various reasons. I really should remember that skipping around too much makes things harder later.