Larissa Another Day

May 13, 2013

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!

May 11, 2013

Slow Cooker Saturday: Honey Sesame Chicken

Welcome to Slow Cooker Saturday.

I have a super delicious slow cooker recipe for you today.

This dish has quickly become a family favorite. We serve it over a hot helping of steamed rice and top it with fresh and crunchy green onions.

We serve it up family style on a big plate. Then we spoon ourselves a not-so-modest serving onto a plate.

Then we pretty much shovel the food into our mouths in a manner suggesting that we have not eaten in days.

Oh-so-good.

Sometimes I like to pretend that I have houseful of napkin-toting, fork-using, proper-manners, please-and-thank-you using Little Men.

Then there are times I am just gonna say it like it is...

They inhaled this meal. I am not sure napkins were even considered. I served it up and then the next thing I knew their plates were already empty, their little faces saucy (aka covered in sauce), and they were requesting seconds.

Note to self...double the recipe. I mean the Momma and Daddy have to eat too.

This is a great recipe and should definitely make your Slow Cooker rotation. I promise. This Momma does not take a yummy and family friendly recipe lightly.

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
adapted from Your Homebased Mom

Printable Recipe

2-3 chicken breasts
salt
pepper
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup honey
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sriracha
4 teaspoon cornstarch
1/3 cup water
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
3-4 green onions, sliced

Put the chicken in the crock pot and liberally salt and pepper on both sides.

In a bowl, combine onion, garlic, honey, ketchup, soy sauce, oil, and sriracha. Pour the sauce over the chicken.

Cook on low for 4-5 hours.

Remove chicken and shred. Set aside.

Combine the cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Strain the fat off the sauce that is in the slow cooker. Discard the fat and pour the sauce into a small sauce pan. Add in the cornstarch mixture. Cook the sauce over medium high heat, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes OR until the sauce thickens.

Pour the sauce over the shredded chicken.

Serve over rice. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onions.

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May 6, 2013

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!

May 5, 2013

Sunday Lessons: Forgiveness Handout

Happy Sunday! Over a month ago I gave a lesson in church about forgiveness.

A big part of the lesson was about the concept of letting go. When we hold on to grudges and allow past wrongs to continue to hurt us, really we are hurting ourselves more than the one we are not forgiving.

There is also a bit of the Golden Rule where forgiveness is concerned.

None of us are perfect, and we all are in need of forgiveness. As we hope for forgiveness, we must also be willing to give forgiveness.

That can be hard.

But it is doable.

I loved this quote by the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley--

"May God help us to be a little kinder, showing

greater forbearance, to be more forgiving,

more willing to walk the second milk,

to reach down and lift up...

to lay aside old grudges and nurture

them no more."

I centered my hand out for the girls on this quote.

Since forgiveness is all about healing, both others and ourselves, I thought it would be cute to attach a band-aid to the handout.

I simply printed off the Forgiveness Tags (which I made using PicMonkey...do you guys ever get tired of me talking about that site???).

Here is the tag for you--

(right click on the tag image, save to the computer and insert to a Word document)

Then just hole punch a bunch of band-aids and each handout. Tie the band-aids to the handouts.

A lovely little reminder of the importance of forgiving others. I love the part of the quote that says, "to lay old grudges and nurture them no more".

I think I shall work on that!

May 2, 2013

My Favorite Cinco de Mayo Recipes

First, I am over at Crafter Club celebrating Birthday Week.

I am sharing my favorite buttercream frosting recipe that is

great for birthday cakes, cupcakes, and sugar cookies.

Stop by and say HI!

The 5th of May would have totally sneaked up on me if it weren't for the fact that as I was menu planning for visiting family I realized that the Sunday they are here was Cinco de Mayo.

A perfect excuse to make a veritable Mexican (aka American version of Mexican food) feast. The last Mexican feast we had around here was on Bean's Mexican Fiesta First Birthday.

Uh that was over a month ago, and that is WAY too long to not have had Mexican food on our dinner table.

I excitedly put together my Cinco de Mayo menu.

Shredded Beef Tacos

Cheesy Rice

Refried Beans

Homemade Pico de Gallo

Guacamole

Homemade Salsa

Churros

Yum. I am wishing it were May 5th already.

As I was figuring out what to make, I realized that maybe Cinco de Mayo was sneaking up on some of you as well. So I put together a little round up of our favorite Mexican Food inspired recipes here on Just Another Day in Paradise.

Enjoy!

Cinco de Mayo Approved Recipes