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! 

The Post I Won't Share on Facebook: Complaining

I got home today, stupid early (it was awesome!), and after feeding and snuggling with my doglets made the wise decision to go to the gym and try out a new interval training of running and walking. It might be considered jogging with me, but I'm hoping it will yield positive results in my last minute quest to look a little better in a swim suit come my trip to Hawaii.

I came back, with every intention of walking the girls, but got sidetracked in the backyard with how much the weeds have grown in our fairly cool spring temperatures and with the recent rains. I pulled clover for a while and finally decided just to mow it all down. I love how the yard looks freshly mowed.

After consuming my gourmet dinner of Totino's Party Pizza (yes, I know... this probably cancels all that I did at the gym today), I poured myself a glass of wine and meandered through my backyard relishing in all of the work I've done back there over the past 3 years. I think it looks awesome.

And that got me pissed.

I'm about to turn 30. Who cares. That doesn't bother me. What does bother me is that not so long ago meandering through my yard was a social activity. I'm pissed because I'm 30 years old and somehow I'm right back at square one.

I had a plan.

I went on dates. I met "the guy" and fell in love. We got married, bought a house, adopted 2 pretty little dogs, and I started tearing up the backyard in the name of gardening. We'd sit outside at night, glass of wine in hand, admire the work, talk about the weekend, pet a pup, eventually notice that the sky was being taken over by stars one at a time, and realize we should go inside or at least turn on the Christmas lights. The plan was to keep doing that for like 30 years and then retire, hopefully acquiring a surprise windfall along the way to finance all of the European vacations we'd take. That was the plan.

I'm good at making plans and following through.
I chose a career and decided to get good at it. Check.
I zoned in on the specific area I wanted to live and work and made it happen. Check.
I wanted a fancy, eye-catching fireplace, so I bought Dad beer. Check.
I set lofty goals and then somehow or another actually met them. Check.

And here I am, a week away from 30, and I'm back at square one, alone in my yard. I realize that for whatever reason, the number attached to it does have some bearing. By the time you're 30 you're supposed to be kinda settled down, at least in the south. I've always known I wanted to be married. I work better with a partner; I just do. I really did have it all, and now I'm back at frickin square one, and I'm pissed about it!!!

My anger is seeping into really unfair places. I can't tell you how many Facebook friends I have strongly considered un-friending solely because they are A) pregnant, B) post pictures of their kids, or C) talk about how awesome their spouse is. Understand that what I say next I 100% know is completely ridiculous:

Don't you know how rude that is??? Can you not possibly imagine how insensitive it is to constantly rub your nice little tidy life in my face???

Granted, I don't feel that way all the time or even a majority of the time, but as my 30th birthday has been approaching, and as I transition from one job to another, this really angry voice that I don't generally entertain has been surfacing far more than is healthy. I'm an intelligent, decently attractive, successful, funny, and very loyal person, and damn it, I deserve not to be alone in my backyard!

New Life in the Gardens

Back during spring break, my folks, my good friend Anne, and I tilled up the front of my yard and replaced crappy, water hungry semi-grass for what will eventually be a very lush front butterfly garden! In just a couple of months a lot of the plants have started filling in nicely, especially my Wendy's Wish salvia (the HUGE mauve colored one) that is making it's appearance just about everywhere in Austin right now. It's a pretty incredible plant! You can see a lot of new growth on my bamboo muhly, right above my Texas stone, that has shot up thanks to this crazy stuff called rain! I was initially hesitant to make such a drastic change in my landscape, but I am very happy I did - as are the hummingbirds that are now frequenting what used to be a very sad little yard. :) 

Yesterday at a backyard fundraiser at a good friend of mine's east Austin chateau, I randomly met two of my landscaping idols - the guys from The Grackle. I'm sure it was a very awkward encounter as I introduced myself as Darcy who is obsessed with your yard. :) 

Yeah gardening! 

Busy, busy, busy

I can't begin to tell you how pleasantly hectic everything has been the last month.

I've done a lot of planting, a lot of purging, pretended to clean, puppy walking, (going with a 'p' theme here apparently), all on top of the craziness that comes with the life of a band director this time of year.

But today, I discovered that someone else has been busy, busy, busy, and I can't tell you how excited I am!

I'm also super nervous for this little bird and her nest as the wind today is CRAZY! I realize I have never built a bird's nest and that birds have been building nests for millions of years, but I'm worried for her to the point of fixation. :(

PS. I'm not this bad of a photographer. The wind and trying to take pictures through the window make me look terrible though!

Bloom Day : March 2012

All of my favorite gardening blogs participate in "bloom day" on the 15th of each month showing off the fruits (or rather flowers) of their labor. This is my first time to participate. Boy do I have quite a bit blooming after the recent rains. :)

pineapple sage 

not a true bloom, but the crape myrtles are about to pop!

evil, evil spiderwort buds....

you can tell from the leaves that i mow this stuff down all the time... 

the dianthus i planted, let die, never water, yet still comes back year after year

salvia greggii

verbena 

mexican bush sage coming back nicely

love, love, LOVE my hot lips salvia :)

white salvia greggii with my primrose jasmine in the background

some form of salvia i have never planted that randomly appeared between some bricks in the front 

the salvias i DID plan in the front :)

i think my redbud may be dying one limb at a time, so i need all the bloom pictures of it i can

Good Pinterest vs. Bad Pinterest

Inspiration #1 - GOOD

via

I thought this shirt was super cute and decided to try my hand at beading. I looked a little over the directions but improved it a bit. I used glass pearl beads, contrary to the instructions not too heavy, and while I did read the first few instructions, I decided that I didn't like how they attached the beads. In mine, I ran the thread in between the layers of the neck so that it is invisible sewing. Took about an hour maybe(?). The result was pretty awesome. :)

shirt bought for $6 at the Gap at Christmas, glass beads bought for 50% off at Hobby Lobby

i like that the pearls detract from the fact that i have no make up on :)

Inspiration #2 - BAD

via

I actually chose to follow the directions on this, and despite the fact that the picture makes these yogurt dots look just so precious, they were anything but. I dumped some Yoplait Harvest Peach yogurt into a plastic sandwich bag, cut off the corner like when applying frosting, and made little dots on some freezer paper. An hour later I had this:

Aw! Cute, just like in the blog... Only problem? As soon as you take them out of the freezer they start melting. IMMEDIATELY. Thick, soupy mess. Not the cute, genius idea I thought it was. Bummer. :(