I spent yesterday in my sewing room and it felt so good to just dink around in there for an afternoon! Of course I had to spend the first 30 minutes cleaning, sorting and organizing because it tends to become a dumping ground of fabrics, findings, materials and items that need to be repaired...but I digress.
Lopi was limping around and unable to jump onto our bed or go up and down the stairs about a week into the second strike this summer. The alarmist in me panicked because I was just sure she had hip dysplasia or something seriously awful and when you're not working, the last thing you want to do is take a dog to the vet. We took her in and it turns out she has the arthritis in her knees and now takes a doggy NSAID every day as well as some glucosamine. I joke every morning that she has to take her pills and supplements. She's doing so much better and you'd hardly know she'd had any trouble. Another recommendation of the vet was to keep her joints warm which can be a trick in Minnesota.
I had an idea to make a new dog bed for her and cover it with leftover
Insul-Bright batting. Striking nurses have little extra petty cash so going to Joann's just wasn't an option. I didn't have any stuffing material so I thought about shredding up old clothes or fabric scraps. Whenever I make a quilt there is always an 18" or so margin of batting leftover from the large queen size pieces I buy and I save
everything because you never know when you might need it. Well thank goodness I did, and I was a little embarrassed that I had
so much scrap batting saved, but I used it all up! I folded it and sandwiched and wrapped it around itself to make a padded dog bed and didn't sew a stitch so it took about 10 minutes
and I used up scraps that were taking up space in my sewing room. Win-win!
Next I wrapped around a layer of Insul-Bright to seal and contain it, blanket stitched the edges and whip stitched through the middle with yarn and an upholstery needle. Not too shabby! You can see in this picture how messy and cluttered my sewing room is. I need to sew more to use up stash!
I made a large pillowcase for it out of some stash fabric and
voila--an arthritis dog bed! Zak and Lopi both lay on this and it was absolutely free!
I made 2 dog arthritis blankets yesterday using Insul-Bright for the batting and doggy and critter prints. Insul-Bright reflects energy back to it's source, both hot and cold, so it is ideal for cooler bags, casserole carriers, coats, etc. I've seen dog arthritis blankets in catalogs which is where I got this idea. We have a blanket on the couch upstairs and down so now anywhere they lay, they can keep a little warmer. My dad is currently traveling in Israel, but were he here he'd shake his head and say, "You need to have children."
And I don't know about you guys, but I think today is definitely a macaron day. I fancied something sweet with my afternoon coffee and they hit the spot. I also had to make a little room in my freezer for the deals I scored at Target between my
Cartwheel and
coupons. When I was single and mortgage-free, I never shopped for deals or clipped coupons and just bought whatever I wanted. Now I play a serious saving game and actually
plan my shopping trips and delight in the money I save. It certainly served me well this summer when preparing for and actually weathering a labor strike. Now I continue to do it and stash the savings for a rainy day. Have a warm and sunny Minnesota Sunday! :)
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