New Hats for New Babes

I have had the rare opportunity to work from home this June as my previous band hall is being gutted and my new band hall has not been released to the school district by the construction company. Keeping my own hours is great as I can choose what time of day I work and what time of day I watch Real Housewives! I've been sliding into my normal summer routine of going to bed later and later while waking up barely in time for The View. :) You know you've slept too late if you miss hot topics!

One of my friends, who I am also lucky enough to work with during the school year, just had her first kid. With kids comes the excuse to pull out the yarn in the name of "gifts". Earlier this year I made my nephew this sock monkey hat born from online inspiration. A month or so ago I came across a newborn elephant hat on Etsy that had already been sold that was so dang cute I couldn't help but want to try it myself.

I had plenty of time! This kid wasn't due until nearly mid June!

But then life happens, as we all know it does, and there were just soooo many DVR episodes to catch up on, so many emails to send to square things away with my new school, so many Pinterest recipes to try! When I saw the Facebook update that my friend was in labor, I'm fairly certain that my exact thought was "shit!" I had to start that hat!

I ran up to Hobby Lobby and bought my grey, pink, white, and black yarn, and sat down determined to finish the hat before the kid was born. I used this site for my hat sizing. For the elephant ears though... I just had to stare at the original picture. It looked like the ear interior were two conjoined pink circles with then the grey outlining and giving the elephant shape.

Easier said than done... I remade the first ear 7 times. Seven times I made the complete ear, looked at it, and thought no, that is not a satisfactory elephant ear! Each time I frogged it, the size got a little better, the shape got a little better, and then I started getting inspired to put some curves into the actual form. The end result:

guess who's getting lots of junk made for him since my dogs won't wear sweaters?!?!?!

I was really happy with the result and think my version came out just as cute as the original, maybe a bit cuter. :) The ears have a slight Yoda look to them, but I like it! When Noah outgrows the hat it'll have to get passed around because it is just too awesome not to be worn. ;)

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Wonder what this is going to be...

Darcy Endorses: 3 Pinterest Reviews

This week I felt slightly domestic - not enough to clean or anything like that, but just enough to try out some Pinterest foods.



#1 - Pineapple Sangria - May I just say O.... M.... G.... This stuff was delicious!!! I even bought a little pot thingy to put it in, unfortunately not clear, so I didn't get the joy of seeing my amazing mixture, but I DID enjoy tasting it for several days. :) I didn't use the mint as garnish but chopped it and dumped it in the jug with everything else. It was QUITE strong, but you couldn't taste the alcohol hardly at all. This is definitely a must-make-again-and-again recipe, and for anyone who likes pineapple: please make it and invite me over. :)

#2 - No Bake Cake Balls  - I was a little concerned this was going to be a fail, but they were FABULOUS!!! Yum yum yum! My icing wasn't quite as pretty, but mine had far more sprinkles, therefore I win! :) I really like dense cookies/cakes, so they were perfect in my opinion.

#3 - Skinny Monkey Cookies  - I don't actually know how I feel about these. Have I eaten several? Yes. Are they delicious? I'm not sure. Will I eat more? Duh... The ones I sprinkled cinnamon on top of taste better than the other, but they are pretty good. I'm trying to teach myself not to crave sweets quite as much, and these definitely are not super sweet. They are a good replacement for regular cookies but I'm not sure they are truly that much healthier. :)

2.5 out of 3 isn't bad! :) 

Not really a review, but I also had a fun day at the vet today. Lucy got a little upset while having her nails trimmed and.... leaked... the gross, super smelly, butt leaking... She also got trimmed a little too close on one nail and ended up bleeding a bit. Of course, all of this happened on one of my favorite pair of jeans. LUCKILY, I pinned a miracle cleaner on Pinterest several months ago!

1 part dish washing soap, 2 parts hydrogen peroxide

Smelly butt juice - gone. Blood - gone. AWESOME!