Stormy Weekend & Crochet Team Spirit Hat

Happy Monday everyone! What a weekend we had!  My teenager called me to tell me the power was flickering Saturday morning.  Then he told me it went out, but it came back on real fast.  I was at a medical work conference so I wasn't able to get them prepared.  Then I got a text from my hubby saying the power went out not too long after my son had texted me.  My son was a bit worried so he had knocked on my bedroom door to talk to dad.  Dad said he got them fed and got them each a flashlight.  I wouldn't have believed them but I had stepped outside and went right back into the building.  It was like southern tornado weather outside!  I ended up going home early when everyone went to lunch.  We ended up going without power for over thirty hours!  Thank goodness we have a generator so we didn't loose all our stock of food in the fridge and garage freezer!

My husband had put in a request for a hat with dreadlocks.  I know it sounds crazy but I try to make him happy even if he doesn't ask me how my day at work went.  So without power I can't sew, but I did make this creation!

I am very new to the crocheting world.  I don't know the name of the stitches but I can make my own interpretation of them and create my own thing.  I learned off of YouTube and patterns from Pinterest. It takes a lot of patience to learn.  I usually end up with a wad of yarn.  It has taken a few years of watching videos to come up with something like this.  I use the start of a pattern like this one here.  Just leave off the ear-flaps for a hat like the one above.  Or you could use something like this without ear-flaps.  I made my own pattern for the braids, just measure how long you want them, double it and stick them between stitches and braid. Tie at the end in a knot and trim any excess off.

My model isn't very happy she has to wear the "daddy hat"  she thinks it is very strange and I guaranteed her that her face wouldn't show in the picture!  It's a little big on me, but fits my hubby perfectly!

So that about wraps up what I did when our power was out!  What did you do to stay safe and entertained?

Sunflowers

This past school year for Mother's Day my son's first grade class planted sunflower seeds in Dixie cups!  They were about one inch tall when I got my present.  About a week later they were planted in containers and fed fertilizer, lots of it.  First used was the blue crystal like stuff, I think it is the 20-20-20. They grew taller and my hubby put in a pole and then baggie tied the plant to the pole.  As the plant got bigger the baggie tie came off and was replaced with a loose zip tie.  More fertilizer, but in the form of chicken manure, earthworm castings, or fish compost (I call it all chicken poop, worm poop, or fish guts) was used to make these beauties grow big and strong!

Our weather went from being in the ninety degrees down to mid sixty and very rainy. We needed the rain really bad! The first sunflower died.  My BBQ King thinks he can bring it back to life.  The flower head is droopy and the petals are wilted, but it has been a week and nothing!  We are now back in the heat wave of nearly ninety degrees again!  The second sunflower plant, is now thriving in the heat!

Begging for sunshine and warm weather, sounds like me!  I love summer!

Another cloudy day for the second sunflower!  This one is actually about two feet taller than the first plant!  Maybe it is 3! Still begging for sunshine!

Almost there!  The sunflower and I are enjoying the warm weather today, and yesterday!  When I got home from work I went out to water all the plants and found Miss sunflower like this!

This is leaning up against the yellow ghost pepper plant!  I think a mole or gofer was underground and knocked it over!  Or maybe it was the wind, although it wasn't windy!  I guess it will be a mystery but I like the critter idea!  I helped this beauty up and found only two peppers on the ground which I stuck into the mound of dirt by the fence, hence the critter idea!  I think he was digging his underground maze and bumped the bucket, because he was too close to the surface!

So there you have it!  Sunflowers started from a seed in a Dixie cup, planted into a container bucket can grow!  Sunflowers are an excellent way to bring bees to your garden to get the other flowering plants pollinated to grow!

Did you grow a garden this year?

Tomatoes

I've really loved growing different things in container buckets this summer.  With the right fertilizer and love these plants have really grown.  This next week I will be sharing things we have grown.  Let's get down to it!  

First up is tomatoes.  We swore last year we would never do this again!  They got brown rot on the bottoms and the year before they weren't very tasty.  We never used any kind of fertilizer back then.  This year we have been which has made a big difference.

Now I am not much of a tomato person.  Tomatoes are meant to be turned into other food items like salsa, tomato sauce, or ketchup!  This picture doesn't even begin to describe the inside of these tomatoes!

The above picture was taken with a flash!  The bright, rich red in this picture describes the insides of the tomatoes!  I turned these into salsa for the husband!  He said they were so much better than last years or the year before!  I was just surprised he liked them, because he is always so picky and I was surprised he actually bought the plants in the first place!

We also have in the backyard, growing in containers strawberries, zucchini, pumpkins, watermelon, green beans, sunflowers, and cucumbers! Also My BBQ King's Ghost Chilly Pepper plants! I'll blog about them too along with some good ole yummy BBQ coming up in the next few weeks and maybe post some of my crafty works I've made this past summer!