You're Hot Then You're Cold, You're Yes Then You're No

So there's this thing called 'Arts and Crafts' and some of you may or may not have experienced this phenomenon once or twice in your life. I am all over the artsy side, but the crafty is a bit different for me.

I'm not a very crafty person, but on a whim Momma and I decided to make those hot/cold scented pads. You know, the ones you can buy in a mall or so and they go in the microwave or the freezer depending on how achey your muscles are?

Yeah, we thought we would undertake the task of creating one. Off to Hancock Fabrics we went to buy fabric and thread. All the fabric and thread has to be 100% cotton, and since we didn't have any of that just laying around the house, we jetted off to the store.

I picked out some blue fabric, because blue is my absolute favorite color. I couldn't decide between two of them, so I go both. We just got some fat quaters because it was cheaper.

The fat quarters we bought measured in at 18" by 22" so we cut them down to 18" by 9" for our intended size. Just big enough to span shoulders, stomach or back. You know, whatever strikes your fancy.

I got some blue cotton thread to match. Mom broke out her sewing machine and we double seamed the edges to be safe. Since we were filling them with a rice mixture, we didn't want one seam to break and then have a rice spill all over the place.

After we sewed the edges, it looked like this:


We sewed chambers to fill with rice. The tubes were filled 2/3 of the way with a mixture made from regular white rice and Bengal Spice Tea (which smells divine when heated).

After we filled the chambers with rice, we sewed the open end shut with another double seam.

We heated the new creation in the microwave for 3 min. It came out piping hot and nearly burned TheKeeper, who reacted by prancing around the kitchen as though he had ants in his pants.

Too bad I didn't get any video of that.

Anyway, I would advise only heating it for 2 to 2 and half minutes. It stays warm for a quite a while, smells good. It was only 5 dollars for the fabric, four for two spools of thread, and it took maybe only half a day to do.

I'm only guessing on the time because Momma left me for over an hour to take TheMechanic and DP to an orthodontist appointment.

TheKeeper enjoying the end product:

I had to take this picture while he was actually laughing. Otherwise you would have seen him throwing up a peace sign and making a weird face. Typical teenage boy. Ha, ha, ha.