I just love these City Gym Shorts over at The Purl Bee. There is a link on the page to the free pattern.

Monster truck birthday cake and homemade boot covers

 

Well, someone had his fifth birthday and requested a monster truck cake. After perusing some photos on Pinterest, I came up with this idea. I got new cars and a monster truck at the dollar store, washed them all really well (duh) and baked this cake. To make the hill, I just cut off the last fifth of the cake, crumbled it up and mixed it with a spoonful of frosting. I basically made cake pop filling, which is easy to mold and keeps its shape well. The cake was delicious, the frosting fudgy and cocoa-y. I used this recipe for the cake but doctored it up: swapped 1/4 cup of the flour for cocoa, added 1 1/2 T. instant coffee, and additional 1/4 t. salt. Jack also insisted on chocolate chips IN the batter. : ) The frosting recipe I got here. Aren't the best recipes sometimes the ones on the package?

These boots I picked up at Primark in Ireland. They are so like these booties, which I love--but mine were only four pounds--about $7. But it being winter here, I wanted more warmth from my shoes. So I thought I'd make some versatile boot covers/ legwarmers. 

I love using scraps of fabric and re-purposing items so they don't end up in the landfill. I had this old, X-tra large gray sweater lying around; I'd made the body of it into an eternity scarf for my sister two Christmases ago. 

These bootcovers were really easy to make. I kept the sleeve cuffs on and wear that side toward my knee, to keep them up. I narrowed the cuff around the long side (using chalk), sewed it up right sides together and hemmed the other side. Then I dyed them black.

They go well over other my other short boots too!