Giveaway Winner!

And the winner of the Monster Hoodie Giveaway is...

Commenter #2, Lana Lyday! 

I'll contact you to arrange for shipping.

Thanks for playing along!

Monster Hoodie Giveaway

I had so much fun making my nephew a monster hoodie for Christmas that when I ran across a hoodie at the store the other day, I thought it might be fun to make another & do a monster hoodie giveaway.

This black hoodie is a 4T, but if you don't have a little one that size, 

it would also make for a super fun gift!

To enter to win, just leave a comment on this post, along with a way to contact you should you win. The winner will be chosen at random & announced in a post one week from today (Jan. 30). Happy commenting!

Buffalo Chickpea Baked Potato

When I stumbled upon this recipe for buffalo chickpea baked potatoes, I absolutely could not wait to try it for myself. There are few things I've missed since becoming a vegetarian, but buffalo chicken wings are one of them. The hub & I actually keep wing sauce on hand to put it on just about anything. Pizza? Yes, please! Sandwiches? Sure, why not? But, we've never thought to put it on chickpeas before & this turned out to be a great combination.

As I said, we used wing sauce (as opposed to hot sauce + butter) & we also split a can of chickpeas between the two of us, but those are the only changes that we made to the original recipe. We topped them with a bit of shredded mozzarella & I put a smidge of ranch dressing on mine. They were awesome (not to mention super filling) & I can't wait to make them again!

Black Bean & Squash Burritos

The hub & I made these black bean & butternut squash burritos tonight & they were super yum!

I didn't have any vegan cheese on hand. So I ended up subbing some shredded mozzarella, but that was the only change I made. Since the recipe only calls for 1.5 cups of the roasted squash, we ended up having some leftover that served as a side. Super good & super filling!

Gifts in action

Just wanted to share a few photos of the Christmas gifts
that the hub & I made in action. :)

 Our sweet niece in her new tutu...

and our nephew in his monster hoodie.

They both seemed to be a hit & we're thrilled that the kiddos like them.

Hope you & yours had a wonderful Christmas!

Monster Hoodie

Continuing on the homemade gifts kick, the hub & I made our 3-year-old nephew a monster hoodie. A while back, we made one for the hub's sister & it was a hit. So, we decided to make another for one of our favorite lil' guys.

Just a funny little gift, 

but we're pretty happy with how it turned out. :)

Some stiff, white felt made for good teeth for the 3T hoodie that we used. We cut out 1.5" tall x 2" wide teeth, leaving a 1.5" strip along the bottom for sewing the strip of teeth to the inside of the hoodie. 

We sewed on some felt eyes & that was it!

We're so hoping that our lil' nephew enjoys his new monster hoodie & can't wait to see him try it on come Christmas morning.

A Christmas Tutu

When asked what my sweet lil' 1.5-year-old niece wanted for Christmas, my sis-in-law said that she's into "looking pretty." I bounced around a few ideas & landed on making her a pretty pink & purple tutu.

I went looking & found several tutorials online before settling on this one.

I can't even tell you how easy peasy this is. I got my tulle here  & ended up using two whole rolls ('American Beauty' & 'Purple'). The elastic that I used was 1/2-inch.

And to top it off, the hub & I made her this sparkly crown. I already had the gems & ribbon handy. So, we just picked up a sheet of glittery, pink foam from the craft store, freehanded a template, & cut it out before hot gluing the gems & ribbon.

I'm really happy with how it turned out & I hope my lil' niece is, too. We're so looking forward to seeing her reaction on Christmas morning!