Reduce, reuse, recycle

Yes, now I have that catchy Jack Johnson song from the Curious George soundtrack bouncing around in my head. Ah, but this post isn't about that. I was pretty impressed with a project I did yesterday. I was feeling tired, achy and weak so I figured I'd find a nice quiet activity to do. We moved into this house almost five years ago (this is only a slight tangent and it does relate to the project so bear with me) and it took me until about two months ago to finally replace the previous owners' kitchen curtains with something I liked. Home decorating has not been a high priority in my world for various reasons; this is just one sign of that. Anyway, I didn't throw those old curtains out, I washed them and put them away, thinking that maybe I could find another use for them. Yesterday, a little light came on over my head and I thought cat bed. Perfect. This would be a low energy project to keep me busy during the day and it should amuse the kids enough to watch me doing the various steps that I wouldn't have to be too energetic with them. On top of that this project might assuage some of my guilt I've been experiencing in regards to the cats. My son's latest allergy tests showed an increased allergic reaction to cats so they've been sequestered in my office for the past two weeks. Granted, it's a nice room with lots of windows, a bird feeder right outside the window and lots of cat furniture. However, it is just one room and there are four of them. They've been a little stressed as a result and I was hoping this token might help them to feel that they really are still loved.

So, I googled cat bed and got a bunch of hits on how to make them. Most of them were pretty confusing, at least to me, but I got the general idea. I really enjoyed ripping the stitches out of the old curtains because I know they were created by the previous owners and I was never a big fan of them. However, that's another story. After that was done I got out a brown paper grocery bag and traced a big circle to use as a pattern. During this time I took the opportunity to explain the whole reduce, reuse, recycle thing to my son. I told him that I could've thrown the curtains (and the brown paper bag) out but instead we found another use for them. He was more than happy to further reuse the paper bag by coloring on it.

Well, the whole project took me most of yesterday to finish because I had to sew the thing by hand. I admit that I was pretty sloppy with my stitches and I don't expect this to last forever but I am pretty pleased with my first attempt at this. After all, a new cat bed in a store costs about $20 or more and I don't think my cats would have been quite as happy as they are with my homemade efforts. I really think Lucy looks like she's smiling here:
I did enjoy this project and now I'm thinking that if I ever do get a sewing machine (and figure out how to make the bottom a little more rigid) I might do some of these for profit or even donate a few to a local animal shelter. Just a thought.