Project Handmade Christmas Presents: Hoodie-a-saurus

Okay, AH-dorable, right? So I will get back to these in just a sec.

So as Christmas approaches my brain goes into overload about gifts for others. My handmade gift to-do list pretty much is on overload. Last year I made a couple of handmade gifts...here, here, here, and oh yeah here...and this year once again I just couldn't help myself.

So this week I am going to share some handmade gift ideas with you. Gifts of all kinds, for all different people on your list. I am going to do a little holiday version of my Project Series. Project Handmade Christmas Presents.

I am going to start off the week with my Hoodie-a-saurus. Now, first off, I can't take the credit for the original idea of this super cute sweatshirt. I came across the original idea, where else...pinterest. I fell in love with the idea right away and with several dinosaur loving boys in our life, I knew it was a must.

I knew that I wanted to change it up just a bit. I wanted it to have a little more of a rocker embellished look.

I am so happy with how they turned out and I know our nephews will be too.

So I thought I would give a little run down on how I took her tutorial, tweaked it a bit and made my own version.

Here is what you will need:

cheap sweatshirt ( I got mine at The Mart)
felt, about 1/4 yard for 1 toddler sized sweatshirt
iron on stabilizer
coordinating felt or fabric for patch
coordinating thread
coordinating embroidery floss

First step is to work on the scales. The easiest way to do this is to first determine how big you want the scales to be. I liked mine a little bigger. Draw a triangle in that size. Fold your stabilizer up just enough to allow for your triangle to fit. The folded edge will be the bottom of your triangle. The point will go to the edge you folded up. Keep folding and tracing as many triangles as you will need to go from the back of the sweatshirt up to the front of the hood.

The 24 month sweatshirt took 7 and the 3T took 8.

Cut out your triangles, not cutting on the fold. They will then open up to this diamond shape.

Iron each diamond onto the felt you want. Follow the instructions that come with the stabilizer.

Once all of the diamonds are ironed on, cut out leaving about 1/4" edge all around the stabilizer.

Pin your diamonds with felt side down onto the back of your sweatshirt. Make sure measure what the middle of the back is. Pin first one just above the waist part. Follow up, point to point all the way up the hood. If there is a middle seam in the hood, the middle of the diamond should line up with it.

Pinning over the hood can be a bit tricky...just breath, be patient, and do the best you can.

To attach the scales, start at the diamond by the waist. Sew up the middle of each scale. Again, sewing on the hood is tricky. Go slowly. Again breath and be patient. I did have to rip out stitches on the blue hoodie once because I was trying to speed demon my way through.

Once the scales are sewn on. Fold in half so that you sandwich the stabilizer in. Pin together. Then with coordinating thread sew each scale closed. Starting at one bottom point going over the top of the triangle and stopping at the other bottom point. Repeat with all the scales.

Now you can stop here...but I just couldn't. I had to add some umph.

First I googled dinosaur silhouettes. I picked out a simple one. One that I wouldn't pull out my hair cutting out or sewing on.

This guy was the winner.

For the olive hoodie I used this orange felt. The glory of using felt is that you don't have to finish the edges. You can simply cut out the shape and sew it right on. No applique type techniques needed.

Then you can easy peasy add some rocker embellishment to the pocket with some coordinating embroidery floss. I simply just looped several times around the edge of one spot on each pocket with a needle. The beauty is that it can look a little messy. I mean they are supposed to be rocker dinosaurs, right?

So the blue hoodie was a little more difficult. I chose to use regular fabric for that dinosaur cut out. Which meant I had to either blanket stitch it on or satin stitch. The bad news is that I am not great at either...but because I was going for a rocker look, I knew I could purposely have it be a little rough around the edges...quite literally.

Now the hoodie or hoodies are all done.

I loved both of mine immediately. Not sure Littlest did. In fact during the photo shoot he was a little grumpy about the blue one.

So then I put on the olive one.

Happy it seems in his cousins hoodie-a-saurus.

So it only seemed...

I soon had a photo session catastrophe on my hands. If the hoodies weren't his, he didn't want them on.

So I took my prized handmade Christmas present off him before he could shed tears and probably snot on them.

Now they just need to be lovingly packaged and wrapped up for our dino-loving nephews. I can't wait till they try them on.

Do you have any dinosaur fanatics in your life? I am pretty sure they would love to have one of these! I am told my 19 year-old sister would even like one...hahaha...maybe someday K.

Linking here:
Made By You Monday: Skip to My Lou
Making Monday Marvelous: C.R.A.F.T.
Craft-O-Maniac Mondays: Craft-O-Maniac
We Did it Wednesday: Sew Much Ado
Show and Tell Wednesday: Blue Cricket Design

Weeks In a Nutshell: Turkey, Snow, Sugar

I have been somewhat of a slacker with these "Week In a Nutshell" posts. Notice how I am just getting to typing this up Sunday night? Isn't it supposed to be up Sunday morning? Apologies mostly to grandparents and other family members who wonder what in the heck we have been up to.

So quick recap. Thanksgiving was great. Went to Utah to spend time with family. Hubby had the honor of carving the bird...notice above...doesn't he look turkey legit?

Middle was very intrigued by the carving of the bird...mostly because he was starving and really had convinced himself he needed a drumstick. He ended up passing on it when he realized what the drumstick actually was and how big it was.

Oldest was so charming and let me take is picture mid meal...

Then when I asked for a second, I got this face...ah that is the "mom-put-the-camera-down-you-are-so-annoying" face I love so much.

I hardly took any pictures of the day. I get so flustered with all the running around I just forget. But don't worry I got a picture of Oldest enjoying his chocolate pie...

He thought he was being rather funny...

Nothing so sweet as a chocolate goatee. After this I had to threaten my kids with banishment if any of them did it again. Hard to sound threatening when everyone is laughing.

After Thanksgiving we came home, decorated for Christmas, and somewhat welcomed the chilly weather. With chilly weather comes SNOW.

The boys begged to play outside so I was a trooper and said okay. See how happy they are?

I say I was a trooper because Littlest got to be included this time, which meant that I had got to stay outside with them. I still can't bear to let him wander outside by himself. SO while he played...

...I took the opportunity to weird out my new neighbors and take some photos of myself for a distraction from the frigid temperature.

Yeah, I am sure that didn't look awkward to the passerby.

We also enjoyed our favorite winter treat...a grilled peanut butter and marshmallow cream sandwich. Oh, so delightfully gooey and warm. Trust me!

And speaking of sugar, I just had to throw these in of Littlest discovering the glory of Fun Dips.

"What is this sugar stick and this colored powder?"
"Say what? I am allowed to put this in my mouth?"
"Why haven't I tried these before?"

"Why are you laughing at me?"
"Is there something wrong with my tongue?"

So priceless!

There is our little recap of the last couple weeks. Hope you enjoyed it grandparents!

Deck the Halls

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

I love decorating for Christmas. Even when it is just one room, I love bringing in the cheer and joy of the Christmas season. I love the excitement of the boys just at the mere mention of putting up the tree, let alone actually putting it up. I love the patience of Hubby and the boys as I crazily orchestrate the perfect placement of each ornament.

I even love it when Oldest annoyed declares, "Why do you have to have everything match so much?"


Insert Hubby chuckling under his breath now. 

"Oh son...I just do!"

This year I added in some classic green and a dark blue. Thank you to The Mart for selling cheap ornaments.

I added the new ornaments in with the old red and white ones.

Remember these silhouette ones from last year? I will be making a new one for next year.

The new Christmas look is due to the fact that we can hang our stockings in the main room in this house. These stockings were made by my Grandma. She has made every single stocking in my family. Parents, siblings, and now siblings spouses and each new great-grandchild. They are so classically lovely. My boys LOVE them. Mine is over 30 years old. So great!

My Christmas place mats turned into throw pillows sit cozily on the sofa. A little bling on the lamps carried over from last year too.

I also added a strip of gingham fabric for a runner on our coffee table. Then I added our stack of Christmas books. Our boys get a new one every Christmas Eve morning. It's Christmas, David! was our book last year. Pretty sure it describes our boys exactly!

I added my new Cone Christmas trees into the adjoining kitchen.

I have a couple of other projects, but I am not stressing if they do not get done this year. I do not want to spend my whole Christmas season sitting at a sewing machine...

When it is so much better to have a cup of hot chocolate in my hands, snuggling next to Hubby sitting here...

Seriously I just love this time of year. Merry Christmas!

Rootbeer Pulled Pork with Coleslaw

What a gloriously delightful sandwich! The pork was perfection and super dooper easy to make. Slather a homemade roll with it and top it off with some coleslaw, and a choir of angels will sing in your mouth...okay maybe just your head.

I mean what's not to like...
rootbeer...good
pulled pork...good
coleslaw...say what??? Oh I mean GOOD.

Please tell me someone got my television reference above!!

This pregnancy is doing wackadoo things to my appetite. For reals. I mean anyone who knows me knows that me and coleslaw...well we are not friends. We are not even acquaintances. Heck, normally if I saw coleslaw walking near me on the street, I would purposely cross said street and give coleslaw the haughty cold shoulder...anyone else concerned that I just had coleslaw walking down a street???

ANYWAY...

Needless to say, I do not like coleslaw...

However, when I came across this pulled pork recipe I immediately wanted it in tiny slider form and, thanks to baby, I craved to top it with a scoop of homemade coleslaw.

So happy I listened to baby!

Not only does the coleslaw make it look prettier, but it also makes the sandwich all that is delightful. This sandwich was a winner at our house. Hubby was also quite impressed that I evolved enough to actually use the coleslaw.

So if you are looking for an easy, show-stopping recipe to feed the fam. This is a keeper.

Rootbeer Pulled Pork with Coleslaw


For the pork:
2 lb pork loin
1 bottle of bbq sauce (I chose an basic original flavor...not to spicy not sweetened)
12 oz rootbeer

Put pork, bottle of bbq sauce, and rootbeer into a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Until fall apart tender. Once cooked, pull out pork and shred with two forks. Then put shredded pork back into the slow cooker and coat with the sauce.

For the Coleslaw:
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 cup slivered or sliced carrots
**or you can buy a pre-packaged cabbage and carrot slaw mixture
1 Tablespoon diced onions
1/3 cup mayo
1 1/2 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon poppy seeds
dash of salt
If you are a coleslaw fan, double this recipe. Hubby would have liked more, I just wasn't sure how I felt about it yet.


Combine the cabbage, carrots, and onions in a bowl. In a separate container combine the rest of the ingredients. Wisk the dressing till well combined. Pour over the cabbage mixture. Coat well.

Assemble the pork on your favorite roll, homemade or store bought. Place a spoonful of coleslaw on top. Now you have the yummiest pulled pork slider and some pretty tasty coleslaw to boot.

ENJOY!