Motivation to Diet

John and I are on a diet.  We're spending this month focusing on diet and exercise - with the hopes of losing weight, being healthier, and saving money.

Now me?  I've been trying to lose weight for at least two years now - ever since I started taking birth control pills and jumped 50 lbs in 6 months.  I don't have to be the same size I was in college, but I'd like to not be in the "overweight" category! 

On the other hand, John seems to have no real trouble with his weight.  When he's busy or stressed or happy, he sometimes forgets to eat, and loses weight no problem.  But he's a big guy, and it wouldn't hurt him to lose a bit of weight as well.  His motivation right now is China.

See, he's working in a lab that is full of Chinese people.  The primarily language of the lab is Mandarin, and John is loving it.  We both had Asian roommates in college, so we're much more familiar with the culture than most Americans (I think).  Both of us are interested in the possibility of moving to China or Taiwan or someplace someday.

And Chinese people (for the most part) are much smaller than Americans.  They don't weigh as much, and there is a greater emphasis on appearances there.  If we are working towards being able to move there and be a part of that culture, the best thing for us to do is to work on trying to "fit in" - as much as we can, of course.

And while my short-term motivation happens to be my brother's wedding (he still hasn't asked her yet - but it's supposed to be this summer!), I will admit that I'd certainly feel better moving to China if I were about 30-40 lbs lighter ...

A Dog Bed for Honey

Ever since she was a puppy, Honey has loved anything soft.  From the moment we brought her home, if there was any type of pillow or soft blanket around, it was hers to curl up with.   

Honey quickly decided that our pillows were much nicer than her mere blankets.

I think it might have something to do with her mixed heritage - that perhaps her joints aren't all that comfortable at times.  Considering she limped and messed up both her hind legs just running around the back yard when she was 6 months to a year old ... I'm going with that theory.  It gives me an excuse to pamper her with soft things!

For the most part, Honey is fine wandering the house, sleeping on the couch or our bed.  But she's grown into a fairly good-sized dog - 61 lbs when I took her to the vet this summer.  Sometimes we like to sleep at night without her lying on top of us or having to kick her to let us get some blankets (yes, she hogs the blankets).  We also like to sleep through the night, without her waking us up to go outside at 3:30 am.  And sometimes she just misbehaves and needs a time-out.

That's what her bed is for.  She is crate trained - and honestly doesn't mind being in there at all.  The only times she gets upset when I put her in her bed is when she thinks she's missing out on something, or if she's in trouble.  I had made a pillow for her bed a few years ago when I first got my sewing machine.  It was my very first project, and a little bit sad.  It looked fine at first, but then all the stuffing got stomped down and now it's hardly a pillow at all. 

So, I finally worked up the energy to make her another pillow.  (Please be nice - I'm totally self-trained on the sewing machine, and am very slowly learning!)

First off, I found two pieces of fabric in my stash - whenever I go to a craft store I check out their clearance fabric section to see what I can find.  Those two pieces of fabric probably cost me less than $5.  The only problem was that they were both super thin - and that worried me.  I didn't want Honey's nails to ruin the fabric just through normal use!

So, I got out some batting, and sewed a piece of batting to each piece of fabric, creating a quilted design on each side.  The batting became thoroughly attached to the fabric, and made the overall piece much sturdier.  I think the batting was about $10, but I've still got most of the package left.

Side One - with diamonds

Side Two - it's hard to see, but each square is quilted.

After that I sewed the two pieces together, leaving a space for the stuffing to go in.  Having learned from the last pillow that the stuffing will most likely get matted down and flatten the pillow out, I wanted to create a way to re-stuff the pillow at a later time.  Solution:  velcro!

I left a tab on each side of the open seam, and sewed the velcro pieces to the respective fabric pieces.  I then used some iron-on stitches to clean it up a bit.  It looks a bit rough, and I didn't take any pictures of it, but honestly, I was just winging it.  All the messiness is inside the pillow, so as long as it looks good from the outside, that's fine.  Right?

I didn't have any stuffing immediately on hand, but was so excited to have a (nearly) finished project that I called Honey over for a photo shoot!

You want me to do what again?

I'm only here because I love you.  In two seconds, I'm going to go see if there's a squirrel outside.

Rather than pay a bunch of money for bags of stuffing, John and I went to Fred's and bought 4 pillows for $10 and ripped them open.  We then stuffed the pillow (the Velcro works wonderfully) and surprised Honey with it!

She wasn't really interested.

Notice:  the lack of a dog in this picture.

Although, to be fair, we'd left her home alone most of the day, and this was only about 5 minutes after we got home.  She was too excited to see us to sit still for the camera or check out something new.  All she wanted to do was get some love and attention.  And maybe play.  And take a walk.  And cuddle.  All at once.

So, we moved the pillow into her bed - considering my lack of measurements (I just picked two pieces of cloth that were relatively the same size and cut them to match each other), I'm thrilled to say that the pillow fits her bed perfectly!

Perfection!

Once it was in her bed, Honey finally took interest and started checking the pillow out.  She seemed pleased.

Actually, we bribed her by putting a treat in her bed.  She was still too excited to be still.

Since then, I've noticed Honey going "missing" at random times, and found her curled up on her pillow in her bed.  She always gets up quickly when I walk in - so as not to let me think that she likes being in her bed, but over the past 4 days I've walked in on her a good 6-7 times. 

I think she likes it!