Sewing Project #2

Yes, you read that correctly, I already finished another project! This one was a lot easier actually, and maybe should have been my first one? Oh well, its another one under my belt. So we have been tyring failing to get the dogs to sleep on the floor instead of on our bed. It sounds kinda mean, but we have been having some obedience issues with Gaius, and are just trying out anything we can to make sure that pecking order is very clear. Apparently, when a dog sleeps on your bed, well, he probably thinks that he is on equal level with humans. At least, that is what a trainer has told us. But I digress. The main point is that we bought some nice cushy dog beds for our dogs and put them on the floor hoping they would be an acceptable alternative to our bed. They are still my babies and I want them to be comfortable! Well, turns out that they kinda hate them, and I think it may be the micro-fiber covering that is too hot and doesn't feel good next to all their fur. So I went and got some clearance fabric that feels similar to our bedspread thinking it might make the beds more appealing. I just made pillow-cases for the beds to cover up the microfiber fabric. They are slightly sloppy if you look real close at the inside seams, but who looks at those anyways? I think they turned out good, and will be very easy to remove and wash when they get dirty. I did make a rookie mistake by not washing the fabric before I sewed the pillowcases Oh well, too late now. Hopefully they won't shrink too much when I do wash them.

The beds before 

Fancy top-stitching (excuse the shadow)

These really were very quick and easy to make. I took 1 Yard of each fabric, cut it in half, lined the 2 pieces up and sewed 3 sides together, leaving 1 of the short sides open. After I turned it inside-out, I folded the seams of the open side down into the pillow-case  and picked a fun stitch to sew it down and make my edges clean. I hope the pups like them better and actually start sleeping on them!

Sewing Project #1

I finally finished my first sewing project!! Took me a little while (I guess that will happen when you work full-time), and thankfully I didn't have any major mishaps to discourage me. As recommended for an easy first project, I covered some pillows for my upstairs futon. I already had 2 of the pillows, and I bought 2 more pillow forms to add to the collection. They are def not perfect, but I think they turned out pretty great!

My pillows- I already had the rectangle ones, and the square ones are the pillow forms that I bought

The fabric is a little different, but I think they are pretty fun.  The black and white is a music pattern, and the purple has roses all over it. Coming up next: covers for the dog beds!

Garage Makeover

My awesome husband decided to organize and clean out the garage a couple of weeks ago when he was off. He  has been green with garage-envy of other people in the neighborhood, so I'm glad he was able to have some time off to make it look the way he wanted. He built some shelves kinda high up so that stuff is out of the way, and was able to get almost everything up off the floor. I wish I had taken pictures of what it looked like before, because the difference is pretty crazy. There is so much room in there now! I just hope that we can keep it looking this good for a long time....

Ranger

Meet Ranger!

He is our first official foster dog! He is about 6-7 years old (the vet estimates), and really sweet. We picked him up Saturday evening, and he has been doing good. He is pretty underweight, which is sad, but hopefully we can fatten him up quickly. He looks like a springer spaniel with all the right markings, but his frame is really small, and he will probably have a max weight of only 35-40 pounds. We think he may have some cavelier king charles spaniel mixed in him. He was found as a stray, so we have no background on him, and have no idea how long he has been on his own. We are guessing that its been for a little while just based on how underweight he is. He is adjusting pretty well so far; he quickly attached himself to us, and doesn't have any issues with our dogs. I think he is still learning about and familiarizing himself to a new environment though because he doesn't seem to be interested in toys (but loves bones) or in playing much with the dogs. He does like laying on the soft couch! He is gonna get checked out by the vet again on Saturday, so I hope we can get some good weight on him before then. I think he is gonna fit in well here, look at what a great cuddler he is already!

Friday Five

Yay for Friday!! So here's 5 random things from this week.

1. Doggy Daycare: We found a nice place that is right next to our house to take the dogs to every once in awhile when we want them to get really worn out (with no effort on our part). Plus its good for socialization too. This place is brand new and we were pretty happy to find it. They went on Wednesday, and when we picked them up, they were so worn out! The owners are really sweet and said that our pups had a great time. I wish we could take them every day!

2. Meal Planning: This week is my first week for starting to meal plan. I blogged awhile ago about trying to waste less food and shop once a month etc. and that was working out ok, we have been doing very good with wasting less food, and the shopping thing was pretty alright. But the bad part was that it wasn't the healthiest thing that's for sure. Mostly because obviously fresh fruits and veggies don't last for a whole month. So I got a marker board from target for the fridge, a couple of magazines for new healthy recipe ideas, and have a pretty good plan. It has been so so so nice to come home from work and have the meal decision already made! I am trying to get us to eat better, which will be an ongoing process for sure. I am also trying to keep looking for new recipes to add to the ones I already have in my cookbooks for more variety. My plan at this point is to pick the meals on Sunday, write them out on my board for the week (with page numbers for the recipe) and then we are set! Plus this way, if Michael gets home first, he can start working on dinner, which is just another perk of this plan :).

3. New Year!: It's 2012 already! I was just telling Michael on Sunday that I am pretty excited for this upcoming year. I am not really sure why exactly, it has never really meant that much to me before, but I think that it is going to be a great year. I made a few resolutions (but I won't bore you with them), and I am pretty excited to see what God is going to do with us and in our lives this year.

4. Sewing: I got a sewing machine for christmas! Its kinda awesome. I have NO idea how to sew, but I started learning a little bit this week when Rachel came over for a play day on Monday. My first project is going to be covering the pillows on the futon upstairs. There is nothing wrong with how they are now, but its the easiest first project we could think of for me to try. Seeing as how I didn't even know how to turn my machine on when I got it, I figured I should start slow. I got one of them partially finished and so far so good! Stay tuned for project updates!

5. New workout routine: I have lost about 10 pounds since last august. That is not too shabby, but over the holidays, I ate a lot of food. (Don't worry, it was very good food). I also have felt like I have been in a bit of a "workout funk" doing the same stuff and feeling less and less motivated. I ran a race (the warrior dash) in November, and prior to that, I was pretty motivated to train for it. So now I need a new motivator. I kinda want to do another race like that and have toyed with the idea of running a tough mudder race, but I have heard that its kinda crazy hard-core. So maybe that won't work out. But I did download the training workout they suggest and have been trying out some of the exercises this week. And when I say trying out the exercises, I really mean doing 4 of them in a modified fashion lol. I am sooooo sore already which means they are working! But anyone who knows of other good workouts, just let me know :).

So that's been my week! Tomorrow we go pick up Molly (my in-law's dog) to keep while they are gone next week on a cruise, so that will liven things up around here. Have a good weekend!

Holidays

Christmas weekend for us was really fun and we got to see a lot of family. We are extremely lucky and only have to go to one place to see pretty much everyone. Half of the weekend we were with my family and half with Michael's family. I am sooo glad that my job lets me be off for all the holidays, b/c it was so awesome to go home for 4 days and be able to just hang out. We also made out like bandits and got some really great gifts. I am extra excited about all the UT ornaments I got to help deck out my tree.

Here's some pictures of all the fun!

aww all the siblings!

Christmas morning

Hannah

Abby

Jacob loved the pups!

Hannah and Alex

Merry (late) Christmas!!