Recycle, Reuse, ReDecorate! > Dog Sweater DIY

**Disclaimer**
No, I have not become one of "those people" who refer to their pets as, "one, of my children" nor do I paint my pet's toenails, let them eat at the table, or have them written into my will. I'm simply a gal, with a little dog, with a lot of goodwill sweaters laying around. Got it?!

Okay, now that I've reassured you and myself that I have not unwittingly joined the, "I'm way to obsessed with my dog" club; check out this adorable sweater Laurie and I repurposed from an old sweater from Goodwill!

(She luuvvvs it, can't you tell?!)

This is all really her fault ya know, because every time I make her go outside, she stands by the back door with this same grimace and shivers like she's in the Arctic. I felt like she was telling me, "I'm cold! Now make me an embarrassingly cute sweater, STAT!" or maybe it's that she's now just paying the price for being such a drama queen of a dog...Whichever works for me!

This sweater was so easy anyone (including me) can do. We started off with a small children's sweater like this:

Next, we cut off the arms and cut down one of the sides of the sweater, opening it up. Next you will need to turn the sweater inside out and place it on your dogs back with the ribbed sweater bottom hem, up around your dog's neck.

I'm going to be honest, this next part is a little dicey. You will then need to tranquilize your dog (or cat!) or bribe them with bacon strips like I did; to stand still while you use safety pins to pin around their neck, chest, and front legs, essentially making a pattern. You read safety pins, right? Because one poke with a sewing pin and your dog is never coming near you, or a sweater ever again. Make sure to mark where you want the sweater to stop on their back (i.e. -before their "business").

Once you have it snugly fitted, remove the sweater (without unpinning) and trim the excess on the outside of your pins. Next you will take your sewing machine and sew around the inside of your pins and all the raw edges with a zigzag stitch. Remove pins and turn right side out.  Now you have an adorable dog sweater for a bacon breathed, crabby dog. 

Viola!

Note: Save your scraps! This recycled sweater idea would work great for dolls clothes, winter head  bands, leg warmers, coffee cozies, etc.! Hmmm.. maybe we need a post on this. Stay tuned!

~Angela

**No animals were hurt or injured while making this sweater**

Well, not physically anyway...

I Need Minions > DIY Christmas Cookbook Gift

Okay, all of you amazing cooks with "secret" delicious recipes - now is the time to share the bounty with your family and friends.  A couple of years ago I made cookbooks for all my kids with all my recipes that I cooked while they were growing up, plus all the new things that I have added through the years.  This was appreciated by all - at least I think it was.  If you don't already have a cookbook for yourself this will help you out because while you're making everyone else's cookbook you can also make one for yourself.  Two gifts in one, woohoo!

This is a fairly easy project.

Supplies:
Lots of Paper and Printer Ink
Few sheets of Cardstock
All your recipes
3" 9X8 Binder - it's one of those smaller binders
2 Clear Project Files from Office Depot

I printed all my recipes out 2 to a page and cut paper in half so each recipe page is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2".  Then 3 hole punch each page to fit in binder.


Organize by category and put in binder.


Make divider sheet with tab for each category.   This one was made in Photoshop but you can make dividers in any program or you could cut scrapbook paper to the proper size and use that.

Leave the original cover or make a cute cover like the one above.

I also put 2 of these handy protectors in each cookbook so that they have a splatter free cover for easy use when they pull out a recipe.  I cut down a clear project file from Office Depot to 6" X 9" size and used my handy corner rounder to round the top right front corner.


As an extra bonus I am giving you this wonderful recipe for Pecan Tarts - I have been making these for about 30 years and they are the best tarts ever.  

PECAN TARTS

Shells:

½ c. butter                                1 tsp. almond extract

½ c. sugar                                 2 c. flour

2 egg yolks

Cream sugar & butter.  Stir in egg yolks, almond extract and flour.  Press evenly into tiny tart shells.  Bake in 400⁰ oven for 8 minutes. 

Filling:

½ c. butter                                1 c. chopped pecans

1/3 c. Karo dark corn syrup           1 c. powdered sugar

Bring butter, corn syrup and powdered sugar to boil.  Stir in pecans.  Spoon into baked shells.  Top with a pecan half.  Bake in 350⁰ oven for 5 minutes.

Note:  I don't usually top them with a pecan half before cooking.


Start printing & baking!
-Laurie