Daycare Freedom: Rice Warmer

I love Fridays! They are the first day of my weekend (love Summer Quarter for this reason), and Elijah still goes to daycare. Five whole hours to myself! Today, after I dropped Elijah off, I went to run some errands. I made the obligatory Target run and decided that I had to go home.

For the last two months or so, off and on (but mostly on), I have been suffering from a muscle spasm deep in my left shoulder. There are times it's just a little annoying, and there are times (like today) where it is pulling so tight that the muscles running underneath my collar bone feel like they're going to tear in half.

I wanted heat. I wanted to lay in bed with a heating pad wrapped around my shoulder. I wanted muscle relaxers (that has to wait for bedtime though). I got home, and went on a mad search for our heating pad - no luck! I briefly thought about using our heated blanket, but it's too big. Then I had a thought - I could make one of those rice heating pads. All I needed was a bag of rice (and what good, self-respecting half-Asian household doesn't have one of those? BTW, my husband is Korean.), a dish towel (which I had left over from Mike and Andrea's wedding gift), a funnel, and my sewing machine. I got to work and in 15 minutes (plus 2 for microwaving), here I am writing to you about it!

Here's what I did:

I cut the towel into a smaller piece - about 15" x 10" (I was not being exact at all with this project - I was in pain!)

I cut the hem off the side of the towel and cut it in half to use for handles.

I pinned the handles to one side of the towel.

I folded the towel over and pinned it.

I sewed around the towel, leaving a 3" turning space.
I turned the towel inside out.
I sewed the opening almost shut - leaving just enough room to put the funnel in.

 

I added 1 and 1/2 funnels of rice to the inside of the bag. I made a stitch to keep the rice in place in the first section. I added 2 more funnels of rice, and again, another row of stitches. Then I added the last 1 and 1/2 funnels of rice (this one takes the most time, and sewed up the small opening.

 

I heated the pad in the microwave on a plate (because I'm really not sure when the last time the microwave was cleaned was) for 2 minutes (which ended up being too hot - 1 1/2 minutes would probably have been perfect in my microwave) and tossed it over my shoulder.

Blessed heat! Hopefully, this will help relax that huge knot that keeps showing up in there. Once I'm feeling a little less pain, I'll make it a cute little cover!

Now, to reheat this thing and try to enjoy the rest of my five hours of freedom!