Crafty Ideas

So, I've had a crafty couple of days. I decided to make my dog a belly band. It's like a diaper for a male dog to prevent pee accidents in the house. In this process I found a good use for my hubby's old socks I've been saving for years with my crafts in hopes of finding a use for them. I also discovered that the very top stretchy part made a good scrunchy for me (not for public use but good to hold my overnight braid).

Doggy Belly Band Directions (I'm not a seamstress so bare with my terminology):

1. Measure dog around his back belly area.
2. Cut old mens sport sock between toe and heel from 2 socks. Leave tubular. Put one inside the other with terry facing out. This is your absorbent area.
3. Cut poly fleece an inch wider than socks and the length of the measurement from #1 + 1 inch. Make sure the long part (the part that goes around the dog) is the strechiest (if you pull the fabric one direction with stretch, the other will not).
4. Put terry in center of fleece.
5. Wrap and pin fleece around socks and continue fold over (for beauty) along each side of fleece.
6. Add velcro (male on ones side and female on other) on each side of fleece for securing around dog. Check to make sure velcro will tighten securely as the fleece stretches.

Then, yesterday, it was our coldest day yet and the dog needed as sweater if we wanted to take him to the park. So, I used my handy extra fleece and cut a rectangular piece that was the length of the dog including head and width to fit around top and sides. I was able to wrap this so that it fit securely under his Petco "Dog 101" vest harness. It functioned well and looked like a cap. Seemed appropriate. A blue cap for our dog we call "Super Nova."

Food for Life

I've enjoyed the yummy Gluten-free Pumpkin loaf I got fresh from my local Great Harvest Bread but I just see the carb load doubling my waistline by the minute and just don't feel it is consistent with my healthy life style as a regular option.

Well, today, I found "Food for Life's" Brown Rice Almond bread. Yummy and decent fiber/nutrient profile. I also rediscovered Sunshine Burgers. Today we had "burgers" with the new Mayo from the Amish, katchup, mustard, goat cheese, sourkrout and relish. Hit the spot. Felt nutritionally and tastily satisfied for the first time in days.

On another note, had a great time at our local homeschool nature class but unfortunately DS had the 4th grumpy afternoon in a row. He just won't nap anymore yet he really needs it. We need to figure out how we are going to adjust to this new phase while maintaining sanity.

Still Gluten-Free

I've nearly gotten off the wagon over the past 2 days but I've remained gluten-free. It is requiring quite a bit of self control as I buy my son whole wheat graham crackers and my husband brings home fresh baked whole grain bread. I really miss those things and find ready made gluten-free to be sub-par on the nutrition and taste front. I'm also not seeing the dramatic change I was hoping for however I really do feel I need to stick with it longer to really determine if wheat-free will help me.

I haven't baked in a few days. I did try to start my sourdough but it smelt rotten so I tried again today. I hope all goes well. I'm itching for some good hardy bread and some sweets would be nice too. I guess I better squeeze in a new cookie recipe while I wait for my sourdough to cure, I think.