Teacher Gift: A TOTEally Awesome Teacher- FREE Printable

I can't believe the end of the school year is practically here. 

I can't believe it is almost Summer and all too soon I am going to have to be entertaining a small pack of wild and crazies. Ugh, let's not think about that just yet...

For now let's focus on all the wonderful teachers. I love great teachers. Every time I go into one of the boys' classrooms and help out I am reminded at just how hard it is to be a teacher. I sure want to make sure great teachers know they are great teachers.

Teacher's Appreciation Week was only a few weeks ago. I shared with you my Teacher Appreciation Gift "Thanks for Being a SOAPer Teacher".

Even though the two are close together, I also like giving an end of the school year gift to our teachers.

I really wanted to make a tote and use the cheesy phrase "TOTEally Awesome Teacher." Then I found this gloriously Summery chevron and I knew the bag was meant to be.

I gave a little sneak peak of this Teacher Gift yesterday on Instagram. 

Yes people I have finally joined and I am slowly...okay not so slowly...and very surely loading up my Instagram with photos. Follow along (@larissa_anotherday)

I designed and sewed this little tote bag. (tutorial in the works)

Perfect for our teachers to haul things to the beach, the library, or a park during their Summer break.

Then once school is back in they can TOTE around (hehehe, sorry I had to) planners, lunch, books, and other teachery things.

I folded the bag up and added in a coordinating little chalk board. I was fortunate to have some of these chalkboards left over from Little's Charlie Brown Birthday Party.

I tied it all up with a scrap of fabric that I had left over from the inside lining.

Then I printed off  the tag that I designed in PicMonkey.

Then I slipped the tag on the gift. One TOTEally easy and TOTEally lovely gift for one TOTEally awesome teacher. Really I just couldn't seem to help myself...hahaha.

Such an easy and fun way to thank a teacher. 

Here is a tag you can download by right clicking and saving it to your computer.

You can just attach it to any tote--store bought or handmade. Easy as that.

What is your favorite way to thank your awesome teachers?

The Sweetheart Sewing Kit

Recently my baby sister left to serve an 18 month mission for our Church.

There was a lot of preparation in getting ready for her to leave.

One day my mom was listing off what they still needed and one of the items was a sewing kit.

I excitedly said, "Oooh let me take care of that!" Yeah I am a nerd like that and something as little as a sewing kit excites me.

I know I could have bought one, but heck she is the baby and she is doing something fantastically awesome. So I figured she could use a little sewing kit made with love.

I designed the sewing kit to open and close like a tiny notebook.

I used some of my more vintagey and lovely fabrics. She is going to Oklahoma and I really wanted a gingham dress and eyelet lace petticoat kind of feel. Basically I wanted it to scream county fair, blue ribbon pies, and mending on the front porch of a ranch house.

I have watched Oklahoma! the musical way too many times...

Funny story, once on Christmas Eve (technically Christmas Day) at three in the morning my siblings and I found ourselves unable to sleep. We were under strict instructions not to wake up our parents until 6am. As a tradition on Christmas Eve, we all slept in the same room. This room just happened to have a TV. So we turned it on and randomly enough this movie was all that was playing. So we all watched this movie together.

Ahh...good times.

Okay back to the sewing kit and wanting it to like a county fair...

This might be a little over the top with my theme...but I kind of love it.

There are pockets on both sides.

One side is a divided pocket to hold the cutest and daintiest scissors. There is also a felt flag banner to keep safety pins on.

I also managed to find a pink measuring tape.

My sister insisted that she didn't think she would need a measuring tape, since there probably wouldn't be much measuring. I went along with her...

...until I found the pink measuring tape.

Could.Not.Resist.

The pocket on the other side is a vinyl pocket with a velcro closure.

I bought mini rolls of thread and displayed them proudly in the clear pocket.

I added more felt details...because when have I ever not LOVED adding felt to a project.

I sewed a heart-shaped piece that holds needles.

I also cut more felt banners to hold spare buttons. I only attached these banners at the top so that the buttons were accessible.

The whole sewing kit easily folds closed and velcros shut. She can easily pack it away. It takes up no room at all.

She will always be ready to face any sewing/mending mishaps. AND she can do it with pure Oklahoman style.

Plus, I hope when ever she uses it she will remember how much I love her.

Kind of like I am sending her the prettiest hug from so far away.

Baby Gift: Baby Bath Towels

One of my friends just had the most beautiful and precious little girl.

Oh, she is just so sweet. There is almost nothing better than holding a newborn baby.

I wanted to give my friend and baby a little baby gift.

I was tempted to get dresses and frilly things (you know since I never get to buy those things), but I knew her mom had already got/made her tons of cute new clothes.

After thinking a bit, I remembered the Hooded Baby Towels I made right after Bean was born.

Then during a trip to Target I saw these fun and girly towels.

Could you die??? Ack! I love them!

I grabbed that towel and a coordinating solid one and head home for some sewing.

I made some biased tape out of a solid softer pink fabric.

I followed the same instructions from my Hooded Baby Towel tutorial.

I used the pattern towel to make a hood on the solid towel. I thought that would be a fun twist on a completely solid towel.

Bam! Two towels done.

I folded them up, wrapped them with a strip of fabric and gave them to my friend to wrap up her sweet baby after her little baths.

These towels are really easy to make (especially if you already have the biased tape made). 

I had so much fun making these. I also had so much fun doing a girly project. I don't get to do too many of those.

Such an easy homemade gift.

So did you get that I said they were easy to make?

Easy peasy.

Enjoy sweet baby girl!

Teacher Appreciation Week: For a SOAPer Teacher

EDIT: I have fixed the post, so that the printable images 

are now available! Just scroll down.

It is Teacher Appreciation week. We love our teachers! We have had some fabulous, fabulous teachers.

Today I am sharing one of our teacher appreciation gifts.

This year one of the ideas I had involved some gloriously, lovely, and altogether delightful smelling handmade soap. Then I came up with on oh-so clever tag line...

"Thanks for being a SOAPer teacher"

I know, I know you are dying from my cleverness.

 I ordered my handmade soap from Rachael's Homemade Soap Shop. I ordered black raspberry vanilla and honey almond oatmeal.

They are so pretty!

They also smell divine. Divine I tell you.

Then I whipped up two different tags in Picmonkey. One telling the kind of soap, and the other with the SOAPer teacher tag line.

I packaged up the soap in a berry container. Then I tied some fabric around it and used a clothespin to attach the tags.
 

Here are the tags just for you. You can click and save them to your computer. Then just insert it into a Word document and print it off. You could use this idea with handmade soap or even fancy and lovely hand soap in a pump.

Happy Teacher Appreciation week to all the fabulous teachers we know!

A Pinteresting Wednesday: A Cinderella Apron

Woohoo. Another A Pinteresting Wednesday is upon us!

I have had quite a long list of "want-to-accomplish" items from my pinboards for several weeks. I had lofty ambitions to bust a bunch of them out. Several of them are in the B-U stage of being BUSTED out.

AKA, they are started but not close to being finished. Hahaha, short and unfinished story of my life as of late.

This little project was an immediate put on list, go buy fabric, and sew in an afternoon. I originally saw a pin of this awesomely girly array of these princess aprons created by Giggleberry.

I pinned it to my Gifts for Others board.

We have a oh-so-sweet neighbor girl who just happens to be Little's bestest friend. We had previous bought her the cutest tea set from IKEA and had been holding on to it for her birthday.

After seeing these aprons, I decided she needed to have a Cinderella apron to go with her tea set.

Here is a little known fact about yours truly...

All through my preteen and teenage years, I collected Cinderella items.

I loved the movie AND I loved Cinderella. I kind of wanted to be her and was majorly bummed out when I found out that there was a height requirement to be a Disney Princess at Disneyland. My meager 5'5" height was not fitting the 5'7" requirement.

Boo.
Dreams dashed.
How was I supposed to meet Prince Charming? (That one ended up working out for me even without Disneyland).

Fast forward a few years...or a few ten...

Now I had all of this Cinderella stuff and not a single Little Lady in our home. I very happily went through it and passed it on to our cute little neighbor girl.

Now she has one more thing for her pile of Cinderella stuff.

There was no tutorial for the apron. I just kind of made it up as I went a long. I mostly like how it turned out. I made the "skirt" part wider than the "bodice" part of the apron. In theory I thought that would be better that way so that it looked more like a skirt.

I think I will tweek it a little more next time. I will probably have the skirt and top meet up better.

Even with the little imperfections and the differences in look from Giggleberry's aprons, I still like how it turned out. I have plans (and fabric) to make more. Aurora is next on the list, so little girl cousins be prepared.

I am also dying to try and recreate her Ariel one. LOVE it.

I made a little gift tag with one of the main themes from Cinderella. It also happens to be one of my favorite Disney songs and a song I have sung repeatedly to all of my babies.

Apron done and present ready to give to one of the cutest little princesses we know.

This was a really fun and easy project. I look forward to making more princess aprons.

One more Pinterest projects knocked off the list. Yippee!

I would love for you to follow along with Just Another Day in Paradise

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Thanks for reading!

Mother's Day Poster (Free Download)

Just the other day I was walking up our stairs with Little by my side. As he often does, he reached out with his sweet little hand and grabbed my hand. Tightly he holds on, at first for stability but then it turns into simple sweet hand holding. 

I glanced down at his precious glasses-clad cherub face. My heart was immediately happy and filled with so much love. A Momma's Love.

Then I had the fleeting thought, he won't always want to hold my hand like this.

No, he won't. Someday he will be a little bigger and hand holding with his mom won't be necessary or cool. And that is okay. He has to grow up. They all do.

But for now he does want to hold my hand. He happily and eagerly does.

So I will keep on holding his little hand while he will let me. And I will hold it even after we have safely made it up the stairs, across the road, or through a crowd.

It is totally true, that a momma holds their children's hands for just a little while.

So I will cherish teeny tiny hand holding while I get it.

Between all this love, and warm and fuzzy feelings overflowing, and the fact that Mother's Day is quickly approaching I decided I wanted to make a poster with this saying I found.

This saying really captured all of the tender Momma feelings I had experienced while walking Little up the stairs. 

This poster would make a lovely Mother's Day gift. 

You can print it as a poster and frame it, or print it smaller and make it a magnet. Oh the endless possibilities.

You can also do what I did and print it and put in your house to remind you of all your warm and fuzzy feelings.

I hope you enjoy this print and that it helps with your Mother's Day gift giving.

Just right click on the image and save the jpeg to your computer.

Then you can print if off as large as an 11x14.

Happy hand-holding with your little ones.

Happy Mother's Day.

Easy Superhero Boy Gift with Printable

Happy Monday! I am getting this week started a little late. We had a great family-filled weekend and we got back late, and very exhausted, yesterday.

Here I am after a slow start to share with you this SUPER easy, SUPER awesome, and SUPER boy SUPERHERO gift idea.

P.S. Was that one too many supers? I just couldn't seem to help myself.

One of Little's friends had a birthday several weeks ago. His birthday fell smack dab in the middle of my t-shirt craze.

Who am I kidding? I am not sure I am out of it.

Anyhoo, since I had a stack of blank t-shirts and I had just made Middle his Simple Avengers T-shirt, I decided that I should make another one and it would be a perfect birthday gift for this little boy.

I made the Avengers Tee on a blank basic tee.

Then I designed a Superhero Gift Tag to go on the present. I made the tag really easily in PicMonkey.

Download Here

To wish you all a Happy Monday, I have made the tags available for a download. Woohoo!

Print, cut out and punch a hole in the tag.

Don't worry about wrapping it in paper. For a simpler, yet still awesome way to present your gift just roll up the t-shirt so the Avenger symbols are showing.

Grab a strip of coordinating fabric and tie is around the rolled-up t-shirt. Attach the tag and tie a knot.

Birthday present done just like that.

Come back tomorrow for a new t-shirt design from a galaxy far, far away...

Toy Story Play Dough Present

We had a birthday party to go to this weekend for a sweet little two-year-old boy. We will forgo mentioning that we ended up not being able to go because of a sick kiddo. Back to the party...you know what that means...birthday present fun.

I really enjoying coming up with present ideas. We have given superhero capes, dolls (yes we occasionally get invited to little girl parties), and movie themed presents just to name a few.

Before Christmas I had thought up this present idea for homemade play dough with a coordinating fun place mat. I thought it would be perfect to give to some of Little's friends.

Well, then, I ran out of time...Christmas came and went. Luckily for me the idea stayed in my head. That my friends is rare occurrence. Thoughts typically do not stay in my head. They rattle around for a day or two and then roll on out.


A few weeks ago whilst grocery shopping I walked past some cute plastic placemats and was reminded of my idea. I picked out a few for future present giving and stored them for later.

Fast forward to now. For this little boy's present I decided to go with the Toy Story place mat. Toy Story pretty much rocks any Little Man's world. My Little Men have even been Buzz Lightyear and Woody.

How awesome is Buzz Lightyear? 

For the Toy Story themed play dough I chose to use purple and green for Buzz and yellow and blue for Woody.

I followed my favorite Homemade Play Dough recipe. Buzz approved.

I had been saving up Bean's baby food containers since before Christmas when I originally wanted to make play dough.

I sectioned off just enough play dough to fit into the small container.

The extra play dough was immediately put to good use.

I filled all the little containers.

Then I went to my good old stand by PicMonkey and I created some labels for the tops.

I cut them out and stuck them to the top.

Yellow made me the happiest. Well hello and howdy to you!

 Play dough done. Roll up the place mat, tie some fabric around it and BAM...present.

Fun present for a fun little friend! This was a fun and super easy to make. I better keep saving those baby food containers!