Christmas Cut Along...

Yes, I know it is a Quilt Along...but how can I quilt or sew anything if the quilt top still needs to be cut out???  So I ironed a bunch of shirt parts and spent probably EIGHT hours cutting Saturday.  To make a 60 x 75 wall quilt for Christmas.  All day long...and I just finished.  It is 11:00 pm Saturday night.  On SundayI will take some pictures in the daylight and show you proof that I'm taking this Christmas idea seriously!!  Ok, here at the pics...before:  a big pile of shirt fronts, backs and sleeves.  Maybe a few yokes...

After, hundreds of pieces so that next Saturday (well, not next Sat. because I'll be in CA for Ryan's birthday) I can piece for Christmas....

Here is Buddy giving me the pathetic look because I've been cutting all day while he wastes away on the couch waiting for some affection.  He did get 2 hours worth of walks today, and some fresh chicken from Sunflower market, and part of my egg muffin this morning.  How much more spoiled can he get? 

Well, did I mention that I feed him homemade dog food?  Yes, last winter, after having Buddy for about 6 months, I realized that canned dog food was disgusting.  And he wouldn't eat dry food.  He would starve, I swear, if I didn't feed him occasional pizza and soft serve ice cream (all of which is bad for dogs, I know, but he was going to die of skinny-ness).  He only weighed about 8 pounds...

So I looked online for homemade dog food recipes and adapted them all to make Buddy's Chicken Slop (not such an appetizing name, but it stuck).  It involves lots of chicken, boiling chicken carcasses to make broth, Jasmine rice (his favorite), brown rice, carrots, zucchini, broccoli, corn, potatoes, oats and a little orzo.  The whole mess is boiled on the stove for an hour and comes out sort of like....thick oatmeal?  But chicken flavored.  It is then mixed on a small plate with rotisserie chicken and warmed up in the microwave for exactly 35 seconds.  It smells like chicken pot pie, but my daughter Allison tried a spoonful one day and said it was OK, but kind of bland..  Don't be alarmed, it is totally human food and great quality, I swear!!  Because Buddy is a snotty part-chihuahua mix, he frequently turns up his nose at the slop and walks away from the plate totally disguted at my efforts.  So then, a few hours later, we dump it in the trash and make him a new plate.  Max: 2 plates per day. 

I have to make the slop every 4 to 5 days so I spend lots of time cooking broth and slop.  Way more than any normal woman should ...but I worry about the fiber he gets, his veggies, protien allowance per day, etc.   Sadly, I then feed my kids Kraft Mac n Cheese and corn dogs.  I think makes me a good dog mom and a not so good mom mom....Hmmm.  But both are alive, and a healthy weight so I must be doing something right....Buddy is up to about 10 pounds and holding steady!!

Well, it is Sunday morning and I need to clean my hobby area because my friend Denise is coming over to make a rag quilt...more on that later!!