Sew For Sandy and Shelter Appreciation Week

Happy Tuesday Everyone! I hope that you all are having a wonderful day!

This weekend, Domeek and I ventured to this magical store called Joann's...it housed an interesting collection of yummy smelling baking stuff, Holiday decorations, tons and tons of fabric, and weird almost-torture chamber instruments (tiny knives, tons of scissors, wheels of sharpness...hm?!)!

We bought a lovely assortment of beautiful fleece, that I helped pick out! ;-) My personal favorite was the top Native American inspired fabric that was unfortunately only a remnant, so we didn't have a lot!

Now most of you will know the reason for our excursion, but for those of you who don't...it's all apart of the Huffington Post's Sew For Sandy project, which is collecting home-made animal beds/blankets and then sending them off together to shelters on the East Coast! :-D

What's doubly impressive is that one of the main shelters that the Huffington Post is sending these items to is apart of the Iam's Home 4 The Holiday campaign, therefore part of BlogPaw's Shelter Appreciation Week BlogHop, and can (hopefully) win a $1000 that, I'm sure, would be of great necessity right now!!

Ocean County Animal Facility is located in Jackson and Manahawkin, New Jersey and is one of the shelters that is desperately needing assistance after Hurricane Sandy!  If you are looking for a shelter to donate to, this might be your perfect option! ;-)

Currently, this is there list of needed items:

• Dry and Canned Cat Food
• Dog Biscuits
• Small Rag Rugs (washable) - We no longer use newspaper
• Towels and Blankets
• Pet Toys
• Metal Dog Crates and Cat Carriers (in good condition only, please), and, of course
• Money

So, Domeek and I decided that we would create as many doggy and kitty blankets/beds as we could! :-D

First I had to inspect all the fabric to make sure that it was good enough for my fellow animals!

We had to set out all of our supplies for the project! 

Then I decided to take a break and turn into Destructo Puppy! ;-) I couldn't help myself, the scissor packet was just sitting there...calling to me!! 

I let Domeek take the reigns for a bit (ok, for the remainder of the project) so I could destroy and then take a really long nap!

See what I mean about the wheel of sharpness?!

Domeek says that if you want to create a no-sew blanket for pets or people, then it's super easy (see the pictures below)!

After waking up from my nap, I decided to make sure that "we" were progressing at a good rate and that "we" were doing a good job! 

I was pleasantly happy with "our" work and thought that the blankets were incredibly comfy and definitely warm (two very important necessities for my poor shelter brothers and sisters)!! 

After making about half, I decided that it was definitely time for another break, so I tried out one of the blankets!

Oh yes, I definitely approve (and so does Lamby!)!!!

This is what we ended up with...

It might look like a pile of fleece, but really all that fabric turned out to be:

• 4 Large (36 inch) Beds/Blankets for medium sized pups
• 6 Medium (24 inch) Beds/Blankets for small pups, like me!
• 3 Small (18 inch) Bed/Blankets for my kitty friends

I was pretty happy with how the project turned out and I think that our shelter friends will be happy with the results as well!

With the bits of fleece that we had left over, we even had the ability to create 30 kitty hanging ball toys too (my friend Baby got one too...he personally loves it!)! If you have squares of fleece in your craft cupboard, please take a look at these easy instructions and see if you can make some kitties happy this Holiday season! It only took about 10 minutes to put all of them together, so it's definitely an easy project!!

So, all of these beds/blankets and toys will be shipped off tomorrow morning for their long journey to the New Jersey coast and to lots of pups and kitties that need an extra lot of love!! 

We want to wish all of our animal and human friends on the East Coast continued recovery and well being! We know it's going to be a hard and long journey, but we know that it will be worth every second and hopefully donations (like these and the Red Cross) and love from around the World will help! :-D

Please try and help out a local shelter in need this week! No matter where you live and what your shelter has been through, they all need extra love, donations, and volunteers whenever possible but especially during the Holiday Season!! 

Thanks for stopping by, as always!!