DIY: Cover For the LoveSac (Happy Birthday to CJ and me!)

We didn't really do anything for CJs birthday many, many months ago, we were in the middle of buying a house and neither of us felt like spending much extra money.  Fast forward a few months later (but still a few months ago) and I decided that I'd get CJ a LoveSac for his birthday so he could comfortably play his video games.  While perusing the site I saw something called a PillowSac - basically a LoveSac but could be more easily shaped into a seat or a bed.  It took some time to figure out how to fit it into the budget but I did figure it out and a few days later we had a PillowSac in our house.

One way I could fit the PillowSac into the budget was to not buy a cover for it; they can be up to an additional $250!  We decided that we'd just buy a set of $20 sheets and put that over the PillowSac.  The sheets worked for a while but . . . rabbits.  The rabbits themselves didn't do anything to destroy (it wasn't at all destroyed, just some snags) the PillowSac's basic cover but the fence that we put up to keep the rabbits in approved locations happens to be right next to where we put the PillowSac in the loft and then when the sheets would fall of (which was often, they weren't a very good fit) the fence would snag the PillowSac (in the picture above you can see the fence between the blue couch and the PillowSac).

Long story just a little bit longer . . . a few weeks ago CJ decided we needed a good, durable cover for the PillowSac.  Problem was, they were still $250 on the LoveSac website and I didn't have a way to make one even though upholstery fabric was 50% off at Jo-Ann (I bought the fabric anyway; can't pass up 50% off on something I know I'm going to need when it is no longer on sale).

Enter my birthday.

It isn't my birthday yet but I've known what I've wanted for a little while - a sewing machine.  I told CJ this but he looked a bit like a deer in headlights so I also told my Mom who had a strange look of her own but that turned out to be because she didn't think I'd ever want a sewing machine.  Ever.

I think Mom got a little excited when she realized I was serious and she realized that Jo-Ann also had sewing machines on sale and also realized that Little Sister was about to graduate college and also asked for a sewing machine for that milestone.  So she bought them before my birthday and before Little Sister was technically graduated (can't blame her, it's hard to pass up a good sale on something you know you are going to need when it is no longer on sale).

Around this same time I also had other sewing projects I've been waiting to work on (those will appear on this blog in the near future) so I decided to take the two days after Labor Day off work so I could go down to Mom's and get these projects going.  Well, turns out I didn't remind Mom of this when I should have (I kept thinking "I should call or send an email" but I never did; my bad) and she ended up going to Big Sister's house to tile with Dad.

When we realized our planning errors Mom decided that she'd just hand over my sewing machine and let me loose on my projects by myself which was terribly frightening at first since I've never in my life sewn without her supervision (yeah, I'm almost 29 and not afraid to say that).  She gave me a quick lesson when giving me the machine (thanks Mom, it's wonderful!) and sent me on my way.  Luckily things turned out pretty well; I didn't even cry.  All the project completed beautifully (or as beautifully as I had planned).

Anyway, Wednesday, my last day off work, I decided to tackle the PillowSac cover.  The fabric was already washed and ready to go so I laid it out and began to figure out where and how much to cut.  To my surprise I learned that I had 3/4 yard less of the fabric than I paid for.  This put a damper in my original plan and I had to completely re-plan how I was going to do the project

For the record, Jo-Ann's refunded the 3/4 yard with just a receipt because I didn't have time to go in with the fabric, get the refund, get back home (it was the Jo-Ann's close to work, not the Jo-Ann's close to home), and finish the project on my last day off work.

Here's the plan I came up with:

The plan is hard to read for a few reasons.  First, it is small here.  Second, I started out using ink in places I should have used pencil.  Third, it looks a bit like how I thought of it - in spurts.  Anyway, we'll get to that in a minute.  First is tools needed and cost.

1. 6 3/4 yard durable fabric (I used outdoor upholstery fabric) @ $9.99/yard on sale = $67.43 before sales tax.
2. 1 250 yard spool of thread @ $1.39/spool on sale = $1.39 before taxes.
3. Sewing machine = priceless.
4. Fabric scissors - previously purchased for another project and turning out to be incredibly useful.
5. Some way to measure - I used the measuring tape out of CJ's tool kit.
6. Pins would have been nice but I didn't have any so I used some safety pins.
7. Fusible Velcro @ $7.79 for 5ft on sale = $7.79 before tax.  I used all 5ft because the PillowSac is just wider than that.

That brings the total cost to $76.61 before taxes, a lot cheaper than buying one from LoveSac.

Ok, here are the steps I took.

1. Cut the Fabric.  The PillowSac's seams are 82" x 70".  I decided to cut the main pieces to 70" because I didn't have enough fabric (it was 54" wide) to cut it to 82" (this is the figure in the top right of the image above).  But even with this I was missing 2" of 70" in long fabric so I ended up cutting the fabric into 5 pieces which I labelled A - E.

A, B, and C = 54" x 70"
D and E = 2" x 35"

To be honest, I didn't really cut to those specifications.  I cut the length of A, B, and C to 71" to leave room for seams and error and I cut D and E to 8" x 36" to leave room for seams and error.

2. Iron the Fabric.  Maybe this is just personal preference but I much prefer to sew ironed fabric than wrinkled fabric.

3. Sew.  This is actually steps 1 - 6 in the image above.  Don't forget to sew outside sides together - like would be done if making a pillow.
     a. Sew A and B together @ 70" sides.
     b. Sew B and C together @ 70" sides.
     c. Sew D and E together @ 2" sides (this makes the combination of those two pieces 70" long).
     d. Sew D+E to A @ 70" sides.
     e. Hem C's open side.
     f.  Hem D+E's open side.
     (Actually, I did f before e because I already had D+E near the sewing machine from step d.)

Now we have a really, really long piece of fabric.

4. Attach Velcro.  (Steps 7 and 8 in the image.)  This was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  All I had to do was take the Velcro off it's sticky, attach it on the fabric where I wanted it, turn over the fabric, and iron until the Velcro was bonded to the fabric.  No sewing of the Velcro was needed which was a huge relief to me.  I attached the Velcro on the hemmed sides of C and D+E - you can see these as dark rectangles in the doodle to the far right of the image above.

Here is where I veered from my written plan so I'm just going to write what I did and not what I had planned to do.

5. Sew.  Now that I had a really long piece of fabric I needed to close up the long sides, like a pillow.  I folded the fabric over on itself making sure the two Velcro pieces were lined up right and I sewed both sides together.  This is also where I made my big mistake.

In the image, the doodle to the left shows that I planned on having the Velcro'd section near the middle of the back of the PillowSac.  My mistake was that I didn't line up the Velcro in the middle of the back before sewing the long sides together.  They were at the end, so when I sewed the long sides together, the Velcro section ended up being at the bottom (or top, or right, or left depending on how you look at it) of the PillowSac instead of the middle of the back.

Luckily this isn't a big problem.  While attaching the Velcro I decided that I wanted an over hang so the Velcro would never be seen.  That over hang came in handy with my mistake because now it over hangs over the bottom of the PillowSac keeping it hidden and away from the prying teeth of the rabbits.

6. Turn Inside Out.  Now that all the sides are sewn up, the last thing to do is turn the cover inside out (which is actually turning it outside out because it was sewn with the inside in) and put the PillowSac in the cover which wasn't easy since it is filled with little pieces of foamy stuff and weighs 30 lb.

Here's the finished product:

CJ and I are pretty excited for the new cover.  Unlike the sheets, it actually stays in place and feels durable.

Meet Locke

On Tuesday July 26th CJ and I adopted another rabbit - we call him Locke.

For quite some time CJ has been browsing the Human Society web-site and KSL for rabbits that are available to adopt while I'd been reading up on bonding multiple rabbits - bonding means making them love each other. Neither of us knew what the other was doing until CJ found Peter on KSL and just had to show me, that was Monday the 25th of July. One look at that precious little rabbit (as seen in the picture to the right) and we had to have him even though he looks so much like Samus and I had kept saying that if we got another rabbit I didn't want a black one because I wanted to be able to tell my rabbits apart from each other - I justified it because he is smaller than Samus and would, therefore, be easy to tell apart. We called up his owners and set up a time to meet the next day.

We'd both been thinking about adopting another rabbit because we felt bad for leaving Samus alone all day while we were at work. We knew that rabbits are social animals and like having another rabbit as a companion. I had also read that having a rabbit companion for a pet rabbit can keep each rabbit happier than it would be by itself and therefore less aggressive and prone to bad behavior (unless, of course, they are both evil, evil rabbits and start working together to fulfill their evil plans).

For our meeting we decided to take Samus with us to see how the two interacted together. There were three ways it could go:

1. Love at first site - they instantly fall in love with each other and decide to live happily ever after.
2. They ignore each other - this is a good sign. If they ignore each other it means they don't hate each other.
3. One tries to dominate the other who also wants to be dominate, a fight ensues - this isn't the end of the world. Given time, most rabbits can come to love each other.

As we drove all the way down to Provo we wondered what would happen. We hoped for love at first site but knew the chances of that were low. I guess our most realistic expectation was to hope that they wouldn't fight.

When we got to Peter's place he was already out and about the apartment, running around and hiding in packed boxes (his original owners were getting ready to move to West Virginia to go to medical school). We immediately noticed that he was a lot smaller than we thought he would be. I set Samus's carrier on the couch and Peter immediately got interested. Samus, on the other hand, was reluctant to come out into the open.

She eventually stuck her head out and Peter licked her on her nose then proceeded to try to mount her (could be a sign he wants to be dominant or could be a sign that he's just horny - too soon to tell at this point). We immediately noticed how much smaller Peter was compared to Samus. Samus didn't seem to enjoy being mounted but came out of her carrier anyway, which is when Peter then proceeded to try to mount her again. Samus wasn't going to have any of it so she turned around and mounted him (because she has been spayed, this was a definite sign that she wanted to be dominant).

After a little more of the same behavior we put Samus back in her carrier (she didn't complain, I think she had grown tired of the little boy rabbit) and chatted with Peter's then owners. We decided to take him home and assured the Provo couple that he'd be in good hands.


While driving back home our conversation rested mostly on what to name him because, let's be honest, "Peter" is not a very original name for a rabbit. We didn't come to a conclusion during that car ride or while at home that evening. We came up with a lot of good names but nothing seemed to fit when we actually called him those names. Eventually we settled on "Locke" - a sneaky thief (as rabbits tend to be) from the video game Final Fantasy VI - originally called Final Fantasy III in the US, the nerds know why.

Locke spent his first day and half at our place "squeaking" like a mad man. "Squeaking" equals his horny grunts but since he is so small he just sounded like a little squeak toy. On the second morning we had him I took him to the vet to be neutered - he doesn't squeak as much anymore and he doesn't try to mount Samus as much either.

While at the vet we learned that Locke was 2.1 pounds and Samus, who was at the vet for her yearly check-up, was 5.1 pounds, 2.2 pounds more than she was on her visit last year. We've concluded that Locke needs to put on some weight.


Locke has proven to be a very social rabbit. He likes being around people and Samus (more about how he and Samus have bonded is coming in a later blog post), he doesn't bite or nip, he rarely thumps, he's an excellent jumper and runner, and he enjoys just laying around people and being touched.

He's also turned out to be quite the eater. I think he consumed his body weight in hay every day for the first two weeks we had him, plus eating his vegetables and rabbit food pellets plus he'll steal Samus's vegetables at any chance he gets. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have gained any weight.

Right now his only downside is that he's having a hard time consistently using his litter box. He'll leave poop almost everywhere in his cage and he tends to pee half in his litter box, half out of his litter box leaving a mess for us to clean up daily. To the right is a picture of Locke just laying around his litter box. He'll also sit in it while he eats which is probably for the best because he often poops while he eats.

Overall, we are very excited to have Locke. Samus is happier and less aggressive and they keep each other entertained. But don't worry, two is enough for us.

Book Review: The Lovely Bones

I just finished reading The Lovely Bones. It took me well over a month to finish it - not because it was long but because every time I picked it up, I never felt like I had to keep reading.

That sounds like a negative but in this case it really wasn't a bad thing. It was nice to be able to read a book for just a few hours once a week and never feel like when I picked it up again I might be lost or I might have forgotten what had happened since the last time I read.

The back of the book reads:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her - her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.

With the above description I figured it would be some kind of murder mystery type book but we find out who killed Susie on the second page. That's when I thought that maybe it isn't a mystery to the reader but it will be a murder mystery to the characters in the book who are still living. It wasn't that either. The whole book is written from Susie's point of view - which was a little different (in a good way) considering she was dead the whole time - and was basically just Susie watching the lives of her family and friends from heaven.

You'd think that a big climax of the book would be the fate of her murdering, but it was really anti-climatic, just a little blurb toward the end - it was written in a way that made it hardly seem important. Any maybe, given everything else that happens, it wasn't important - I still thought it was strange that so little emphasis was put on it when a good chunk of the beginning and middle of the book focuses on the murderer.

The back of the book also indicates that the story might contain some humor, but to be honest, I don't recall thinking anything in the story was funny at all. It is actually a quite disturbing story at times and it was on the sixth or seventh page when I went "Oh, that's why the movie was rated R."

Overall I'd say The Lovely Bones was good. Not great, but good.

Recipe: Mission Casserole

As mentioned in a previous post, CJ really likes chips. One day he was sitting at the kitchen counter eating chips and salsa. The bag of chips was sitting on the counter and CJ proceeded to read the recipes on the bag. He came across one he though sounded interesting: Mexican Beef Casserole. I wasn't immediately convinced but I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try, so we tried it, and I was surprised how much I liked it.

This happened the next few times we had Mission Casserole - CJ wanted to put in on the menu, I wasn't excited about but did it anyway and was always surprised how much I liked it once it was cooked up and being eaten. We've now had it enough times that I'm no longer surprised at how good it is.

As I'm sure you noticed, the bag called the recipe Mexican Beef Casserole but I'm referring to it as Mission Casserole - that is because it was on a bag of Mission brand chips. The first few times CJ and I had it we couldn't remember what it was really called so we just called it Mission Casserole and it kind of stuck with us.

If you want to see the recipe for yourself it is on the Mission brand triangle chips - not the circles or the strips, just the triangles. I think we used the triangles the first time but we get our chips at Costco in a 3lb bag that costs a lot less per ounce than buying the same brand at Walmart (technically the bag says they are Kirkland brand but the bag also says they are made by Mission, so basically the same thing). We did, however, have to go to Walmart to get the recipe off a bag of triangles once because we lost it where we had written it down before. I didn't write all the actual cooking instructions down so what I have below is paraphrased.

Ingredients:
1 pound beef
1 onion
1 tomato
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 - 10 ounces Velveeta
1 7 ounce can green chilis
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
tortilla chips

To Make:
1. Saute meat, onions, and tomatoes until meat is cooked through.
2. Combine soup, cheese, chilies, and milk. Heat until cheese is melted.


3. Layer chips then meat mix then cheese mix in a greased 9 x 13 pan.









4. Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.


My Tips:
- CJ doesn't like tomatoes and I don't like cooked tomatoes so we don't add the tomato to the meat and onion. Instead I just cut up the tomato and put it on top when the casserole is done.

- The recipe just does one layer of everything but CJ likes to do multiple layers: 1/2 the chips then 1/2 the meat then 1/2 the cheese then 1/2 the chips then 1/2 the meat then 1/2 the cheese. It works out fine either way.

- After it is cooked we'll also add different toppings: tomatoes, bell peppers, salsa, extra cheese, jalapenos, etc. It's nice that CJ can put what he likes on his while I can put what I like on mine.






Nutritional Information:
These Nutritional Facts assume that each casserole has 8 servings, that 6 ounces of chips, lean beef, 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, and Velveeta made from 2% milk (as opposed the whole milk in the original kind of Velveeta) is used.

DIY: Bar Stool Re-Upholstery

Now that I have a kitchen table I have all kinds of plans for DIY projects in the kitchen. I decided to start with re-upholstering my bar stools.

I've had these bar stools for years. I think I bought them for $25 each from Walmart for my first birthday out of college, so several years. They work just fine but they're pretty boring - just plain brown. I wanted to spruce them up a bit.

Like my last fabric project I started out by choosing fabric. I wanted a main fabric with an interesting pattern and colors that incorporated the colors of paint in my downstairs (a tealy-blue in the kitchen, light yellow in the dining area, and an out-doorsy green in the living room) as well as incorporating my accept color - deep pink. Sounds like a tall order and it was. That's a lot of colors to try to get into one fabric. Then I also wanted a solid color, anything but yellow, and a pink fabric with a simple pattern. As soon as I found the main fabric I completely fell in love with it and the other two came pretty simply. Here are the fabrics that I will be using with my kitchen DIY projects:


I especially love that the fabric with all the colors also has brown in it because my kitchen table and server are brown. It's the best.

Re-upholstering bar stools is easy enough. Here are the supplies I needed and the costs.

1. About 2 yards of fabric. I used the one with all the different colors, it was about $6.99 per yard and I didn't use a coupon (I should have waited until I had a coupon but its too late now for that). That's a total fabric cost of about $14.

2. A staple gun. I didn't have one of these so I had to purchase one. I ended up buying one at Sears for about $23. I hope to get a lot of good use out of it.

3. Staples. I read on a blog once that re-upholstering projects can use a surprising number of staples so, even though the staple gun came with a few, I decided to buy an extra box. The box had 1,000 staples for about $3. I have plenty left over for later projects.

4. Fabric scissors. I purchased these with a previous fabric project, so no new costs.

That's a total cost of $40 for this project, but that does include the staple gun and staples which will be good for future projects. I actually spent a lot more than that on fabric but I'm only including the cost of the fabric for this one project. I decided to start with the bar stools project because I don't own a sewing machine and my other projects will require sewing. Actually re-upholstering the stools was super easy!

1. Cut the fabric. Make sure to cut plenty for fitting around the base of the stool. When I did some measuring I decided that 24" x 24" inches would probably be ideal but my fabric wasn't 48" wide and I wanted to be able to cut out two for the width of the fabric. I think I ended up cutting the fabric 24" x 20" which worked out just fine.

2. Iron the fabric back-side up. Ok, this probably could have been step #1 and in a lot of cases ironing the fabric should come before cutting but the cutting for this didn't exactly need to be perfect, so I did it a little backwards.

3. Staple the fabric to the back of the base of the stool. I like how the base is round so I didn't have to worry about making sure that the pattern was going the right direction or the same direction on every stool; made it easy.

Also since the base was round I had to figure out how to staple the fabric without leaving wrinkles in the up-side of the stool base. I ended up putting one staple in on each of the four main sides (circles don't have sides but whatever) then folding in the fabric between staples making sure to pull tight (but not too tight).

By the way, using the staple gun was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I thought my hand would be tired by the time I finished the first bar stool but it didn't start to hurt until halfway through the third but I was still good to finish all four bar stools. And, using the staple gun was some seriously good fun!

4. Cut the extra fabric.

5. Place bases back on the bar stool.

Side notes: I just used a basic fabric from the quilting section. Mom said that if I didn't use an upholstery fabric I should leave on the heavy-duty fabric that was already on the bases of my bar stools, so that's exactly what I did. I image there would be several more steps if I had to take the original fabric off.

Also, since my bar stools are old and cheap, I didn't have to do anything to get the bases off or back on the actual stools - the screws that were keeping them attached fell out long ago. If they were better quality bar stools there probably would have been a few more steps for getting the bases off and back on.

Recipe: Honeyed-Orange Almond Chicken

Once upon time I read an article that spoke of all the great health benefits of honey. After reading the article I went to kraftrecipes.com and searched for recipes that included honey. Here is one that I found that I have loved - CJ likes it too.

The Recipe:

Honeyed-Orange Almond Chicken

2 Tbsp. honey

1/4 tsp. each salt and black pepper

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1/4 cup orange marmalade

1/2 cup Sliced Almonds

Preheat broiler. Mix honey, salt and pepper; brush evenly on chicken. Place on rack of broiler pan.
Broil chicken 4 to 6 inches from heat 5 to 7 min. on each side or until cooked through (170ºF). Brush chicken with marmalade; sprinkle with almonds. Broil an additional 1 to 2 min. or until almonds are lightly toasted.

My Tips:

1. Don't Broil! I found out the first time that broiling chicken that has honey on it will make any honey that has made its way off the chicken and onto the pan bubble and burn and it smells like the food is burning when it really isn't.
Instead of broiling, bake the chicken at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes on each side (side 1 for 10 minutes, side 2 for 10 minutes, side 1 for 5 minutes, side 2 for 5 minutes). However, I do support broiling for the last minute or so to brown the almonds.
2. Don't Mix Other Ingredients With Honey. I don't recommend this because it makes the chicken turn out badly but because it is hard to mix anything with sticky honey.
Instead of mixing these ingredients, just put salt and pepper on the chicken, then drizzle the honey on the chicken.
3. Filet the Chicken. This is another tip for ease. I found that if I just put a chicken breast on the pan and put honey on it, the honey finds its way off the sides of the chicken pretty quickly.
Instead of just placing whole chicken breasts on the pan, cut each breast in half width wise. This will create a flat surface on which to put the honey (flat side up on the pan).
4. Use Tin Foil. Even with baking the chicken instead of broiling, the honey will make a bit of a mess, I recommend placing tin foil on the pan you use before you place the chicken on it.
I really like the flavor of this chicken, it is sweet with just a little orange taste and crunchy almonds. It is simple and pretty fast to make. I like to eat broccoli or green beans on the side with brown rice.
Nutritional Information (4 servings per recipe above):

Book Review: The Help

Apparently Costco is my new book store. Whenever I'm there I always end up browsing the books section; my only wish is that it were organized better.

The first time I saw The Help I didn't buy it. It sounded kind of interesting but wasn't what I was looking for at the time. I filed it away in my head as something I might read later. Then I saw a movie trailer for it and figured that if it was good enough to make a movie out of it might be worth reading.

Here is what the back cover has to say:


Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step . . .

Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, raising her seventeenth white child. She's always taken orders quietly, but lately it leaves her with a bitterness she can no longer bit back. Her friend Minny has certainly never held her tongue, or held on to a job for very long, but now she's working for a newcomer with secrets that leave her speechless. And white socialite Skeeter has just returned from college with ambition and a degree but, to her mother's lament, no husband. Normally Skeeter would find solace in Constantine, the beloved maid who raised her, but Constantine has inexplicably disappeared.

Together, these seemingly different women join to work on a project that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town - to write, in secret, a tell-all book about what it's really like to work as a black maid in the white homes of the South. Despite the terrible risks they will have to take, and the sometimes humorous boundaries they will have to cross, these three women unite with one intention: hope for a better day.


I bought The Help as something to read during down time on vacation. I think it was a good vacation read - not too serious, not too jovial. There were times when I was really into it and times when I wondered if it were ever going to get to the point.

It was interesting to see a little into the lives of the black maids during that time and to hear some of their stories but I wish there were more of their stories. A lot of the book focuses on Skeeter and her relationships with her other socialite friends and a potential spouse, which is also interesting because of the way they treat her after they suspect she has any amount of sympathy for the black population, but I could have done with a little less of the day to day aspects of those relationships.

I also wish there were a little more about the woman Minny worked for, specifically what happened to her in regards to her relationship with the women in town (she wasn't one of the socialites) after a shocking event toward the end of the book. She was an interesting character and I would have liked to know if she ever got what she wanted out of life.

I occasionally found the book hard to follow. The chapters can be from either Aibileen, Minny, or Skeeter's point of view with one of the chapters being from a third person point of view. When the point of view changes, the name of the person whose point of view it is is given with the chapter number but whenever I put the book down in the middle of someone's point of view, when I picked the book back up again I had to start reading to figure out whose point of view it was. I liked hearing the three points of view but I wonder if there could have been a better way to indicate whose point of view it was.

Overall I'd say that the book was good but not fantastic. I can see how it would make a good movie and I suspect the movie might be better than the book because it will all be compacted down to just a few hours, leaving out anything that dragged on a little too long.