Sock Monkey Hat Awesomeness

 This is a very awkward time for me, and I'm assuming that February will always come with a stigma from now on. I'm doing a good job keeping things even keel though.

To add to this bittersweet time of year, my nephew Liam turns one next Monday. Unfortunately I don't get to partake in the birthday party, but I finished my fancy-fancy present for him earlier tonight. 

I couldn't find the perfect crochet pattern online so I mixed and matched some ideas from a couple of different websites and then winged some of it myself. I used a post from Knotty Knotty Crochet as color/size guide and this post from Easy Makes Me Happy for the toddler sized pattern. I figured it was safer to use the toddler size so that Liam might get to wear it more than once. :) 

My childhood doll Big Baby tried to model my fabulous hat, but she apparently does not have a toddler sized head. 

Yes... I called it fabulous... And it is. I'm super proud of it. :) 

On a completely different note all together, I managed to get this great accidental picture of Scarlet as she inspected my lens Sunday evening. Quite possibly the best picture I've even captured of her. 

Darcy vs. Henbit, plus a sock monkey

Friday evening I came home to a wonderful surprise: my primrose jasmine is in bloom for the first time after 3 years!

Unfortunately, more than just my jasmine is blooming... The whole yard is abloom. The two years of drought that took it's toll on the lawn with the help of the recent rains and warm winter has allowed for a ridiculous crop of weeds to take over seemingly over night. My plan is to apply cornmeal on what is left of my lawn this week before TMEA. Hopefully I'm not too late for the cornmeal to act as a pre-emergent for warm weather weeds.

 All week I've been waging a war against one weed in particular: henbit. I'm willing to bet most of you have henbit invading right now. It's actually kinda pretty with its purply flowers. Once it goes to seed though, that pretty little plant spits out thousands of tiny seeds that then take over ad infinitum the next season.

With some KGSR going through my headphones, I managed to pull up 7 bags of henbit, dandelions, and a few random weeds over the course of about 2 hours. I'm trying to operate under the "weeding IS gardening" mantra, although planting is much more fun. I have about 20 bags worth more in the back, and I haven't even begun to attach the front.

My other project for the weekend is about half way done. I'm in the process of making a sock monkey hat for my nephew's first birthday. With nothing that I am remotely interested in watching on tv tonight, I should be able to finish it very soon. :)

Lucky & Handy

Only brief thoughts today.

I changed the weed eater string on my own today, and not with one of those pansy pre-wrapped spools either... I man-jobbed up and wrapped my own! Although, it did take me several attempts to figure out that the string isn't supposed to be 6" long sticking out of the little hole. I lost several chunks of string while learning that lesson.

The doglets and I took our first extended car trip alone. Ordinarily it would be a puppy in each lap, snuggling and snoozing down the road. The couple of short trips I took with the girls by myself proved unsafe. They are just too inquisitive and demanding of my attention. Two purchases made the trip a success: a booster seat with a harness hook-in that keeps them in one place and definitely safer AND the puppy equivalent of Xanax. They napped calmly both ways and didn't need to pop up to see where we were every time the car came to a stop. That was a huge relief for me as traveling with the girls is important to me.

Finally, I was reminded in a number of ways how lucky I was to have married such a loving man. In a time in which so many of my friends, despite how young we may be, are either divorced, in a tumultuous marriage, or just lacking that sparkle that you see in the eyes of two people who are deeply in love, I am at least thankful for my (however brief) marriage that was exceptional in the best definition of terms.

And now I must resign myself to the creation of a new, RED hat to go with my fancy black and white checked rain-trench that I found for an incredible bargain this past week. :) Ireland is approaching, and that is another blog in and of itself...