Archive for the ‘pet projects’ Category

I’m a sucker for ’60s/’70s home decor and one of my weaknesses is vintage bedding. I used to buy floral sheets whenever I’d go on thrifting excursions. But these days, I have to be a little more neutral when it comes to bedding (Tim isn’t so fond of all those flowers), so I put away all my secondhand sheets. Over the weekend, I came upon a big pile of these sheets and decided to donate most of them to the Goodwill. But I also kept one of my favorites and spruced up the kitties’ old corduroy cat bed, which is functional, but kinda generic. Using a fitted yellow and brown sheet, an old pillow, and my sewing machine, I crafted up a slip cover for the bottom pad and three small pillows to create a snug cozy daybed that’ll also be a lot easier to clean than the corduroy. Hope the kitties like it!

Holy crap, I love Christmas cookies. I love baking them, eating them… feeling guilty for eating them… then drowning my guilt with a glass of eggnog and yet another cookie. Holiday treats are of course best made and enjoyed with a crowd, preferably with sprinkle-crazy kids. Since it’s just my husband and I, genuine Christmas cookies – the ones you have to roll out, cut and decorate – are just too much work. Except for the doggie cookies, that is! Tomorrow I plan to spend my day off baking up something special for my pretty pup, while she plays the role of official taste tester. Check out my recipe after the jump!
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In Gida’s holiday wish list, she slyly mentioned her love of Stone Bones: dog treats made from the spent grain used in beer-making. Think of spent grain like used tea.

Lucky for Gida, we have our own home brewer in the family now. After a few batches, Jeff and his brewing pal took a turn at making dog treats. Here’s how you, too, can make dog treats like the one pictured above. It’s an easy way to make your dog happy and keep your compost bin clear for other stuff.

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Tech geek Ben Heckendorn, or Ben Heck as he’s called on his show on element14, is a master of hacking old electronics to create new mods. For folks in the Bay Area, Ben’s the kind o’ guy you’d find at Maker Faire building cool gadgets, or in the case of this year, judging the fair’s Hackerspace Challenge. Appropriately, for the recent Thanksgiving holiday episode, he used electronics “leftovers” to build an automated cat exerciser for cats whose owners are too busy (or too lazy) to exercise them.

I won’t lie — the video was a bit too technical for me to keep my interest (I’m more analog/This Old House), but you can’t help but be impressed by his handiwork. And I love that you can register for a chance to win Ben’s custom cat exerciser! FYI – the contest ends on Dec. 31, 2011, so there’s still time to enter. Read the rest of this entry »