Picnic Blankets and Picking Blackberry in the Park

After cursing at the bright sun on the first morning of November, I actually ended up suggesting to Marissa we have a picnic in the park in the afternoon. We were there for less than five minutes before the cutest four-and-a-half-year-old boy to ever exist came running over to us to say "Hi." When he found out Marissa was twenty, he told her that was his favorite number and if she wanted to play catch with him. They spent over an hour playing ball and racing Hot Wheels.

Little boys love Marissa! She always ends up with one sitting on her lap at Disneyland. They scoot closer and closer to her until suddenly a five-year-old is plopped down and saying, "If you're ever in Arizona, come visit me. I live in the brown house."

While Marissa was masquerading as a modern-day Mary Poppins, I was crushing hard on the Leisure Arts Quick and Cozy Afghans book I borrowed from the library! I can go page-by-page through stacks of crochet pattern books and not come across anything appealing, but with Quick and Cozy Afghans (which is only $10 at Amazon and is so going on my Christmas wishlist!), I am experiencing the rare dilemma of choosing which one of the dozen or more blankets I want to crochet first!

I decided on the Lacy Blocks throw, which looks as though it's made up of  joined blocks, but is actually worked all in one piece using only single, double and treble crochet stitches. This required teaching myself  how to do the single crochet stitch ... again. Clusters, shells, ripples, double and treble crochet stitches are a breeze to me, but the single most simple crochet stitch ... the single crochet ... is the one I find most complicated. Apparently, I may be a few sandwiches short of a picnic.


I'm already visualizing how to make a tri-color throw, but for now I'm going to start this one out solid using Caron Simply Soft Collection in Blackberry. And we all know how well I stick with my first idea. Which reminds me: I'm not bored with the Bollywood Blanket! Just ran out of the Buff-color yarn and haven't gone for more yet!

When we spread out the picnic blanket, I noticed this leaf because of its butterfly shape. I put it on the blanket to take home with me, but it kept blowing away. Finally I realized that it was a living thing and maybe the leaf saw itself as a butterfly too and I was stopping it from flying like one. I let it go and was grateful for the time I had to appreciate its beauty. I wish more people would give other people the same kind of appreciation when it comes to living as the person you feel you are.