Girly Grad Gift: Aprons

 Last night I had a pretty fun night with the young women at church celebrating the girls who were graduating. We had a little Senior Shower and got them all ready to head off to college. Each girl had a laundry basketful of useful little gifts that the other girls had brought them.

One of the girls next to me even excitedly whispered to me, "I got them an awesome gift. I got them plungers." To which we both giggled.

Sitting there among all that youth and beauty took me back.

As I stared at the Seniors we were celebrating, I just kept thinking to myself, "Was is it really that long ago?"

Unfortunately the answer was, "yeah it was that long ago".

No I would never want to go back to those days...I mean I still have the occasional dream I am back in college and I have forgotten to go to one of my classes for the whole semester. Needless to say I wake up in a cold sweat  every time.

However I do miss the excitement of striking out on my own for the first time.  I was such a geek and I loved every spatula, set of dishes, and dish towel I got. I loved picking out sheets and a comforter for my little dorm bed. 

I loved everything about it.

Now I get to give the grad gift of geek and get them all ready to be out on their own.

My little gift...

Aprons.

Cute little vintage looking aprons.

I have made aprons before. These lovely Ric Rac Aprons were probably my favorite. 

However, these lovely vintagey ones are coming in a close second.

They even fold up nicely and can be tied sweetly with their own apron strings. No wrapping needed.

Pair this little apron with some recipe cards or a little cookbook.

Happy Graduation!

Oh going to college and striking out on your own is so much fun.

Father's Day Gift: World's Best Pop

Here in our house we think we have the world's best Dad...er uh Pop. This very special Pop has been warned to stay away from the blog today and any other day in the future that might be about gifts for his very fatheriffic self.

Back to our house and our bestest dad, well I am sure you feel the same way at your house.

Pretty soon there is a whole extra special day just to celebrate the one and only very special dad.

This year one of the things we are giving our dad is Soda...or Pop...

Soda...

Pop...

What do you say? Soda? Pop?

Me: Soda

Hubs: Pop

It is an on-going battle. Each of insisting we are the correct party.

For Father's Day (and only Father's Day) I will concede.

For Father's Day, it will be Pop. I gave a little hint about this project on Instagram. (Follow along @larissa_anotherday).

So for a Father's Day Gift, our World's Best Pop is getting a special crate of six different and unique bottles of soda. My boys had tons of fun picking out different soda, although I am pretty sure they only picked the soda according to the brightest color.

After they picked out the soda, I bought a plain crate and some spray paint.

I used some retro fonts and cut my phrase out of vinyl.

I spray painted the box white first. Then I applied the vinyl. Then I spray painted several coats of red over the vinyl.

After the paint dried, I peeled off the vinyl.

Then I sanded the crate to make it look a little more vintage.

I loaded up the  crate with some shredded paper and safely nestled the bottles in the crate. I printed off a little tag listing the flavors, so he knows all the yummy flavors he is getting.

The boys are already way to excited to give it to him and I am going to be lucky if this stays a secret until Father's Day.

I have a few other Father's Day gifts I am excited to show you. All really easy. All themed based (you know me and my love of themes). All made with love for our Bestest Dad.


So stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Linking Here:

Sugar Bee Crafts, Today's Creative Blog,
Not Just A Housewife
Your Homebased Mom
Thirty Handmade Days,
The 36th Avenue
Reasons to Skip the Housework

Slow Cooker Saturday: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

Slow Cooker Saturday. Yum. Yum. I have another great Slow Cooker Recipe for you.

School is officially out. We can be a little more leisurely in the morning. A fact for which I am super duper excited.

Breakfasts are a bit of a battle at our house. Mostly because pancakes are the only thing that is unanimously agreed upon and I would rather not make them every morning.

Enter a breakfast that I can start the night before. Then make that breakfast appleicious and all cinnamontastic. Oh and did I mention that it is a healthy and filling oatmeal breakfast as well.

Sold.

Kiddos happily devoured it all while snugly in their jammies.

Double Sold. 

Now that I know I can make breakfast in a slow cooker...well that might just be happening a lot more.

There will be far less squabbling at breakfast table now...well at least less squabbling about the food...hahaha...

Slow Cooker Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal 
adapted from Baked by Rachel

3 apples, cored and cut into 1/2" cubes
1 cup apple juice
1/2 cup water
1 cup steel-cut oats
2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
1/4 teaspoon salt
chopped pecans, garnish

Coat the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray. Be generous, because if you aren't then it could super stick.

Add all the ingredients, but the pecans, into the slow cooker. Stir everything together and put the lid on. Cook on low for 7 hours.

Serve hot topped with the pecans.

Happy eating.

Have a "Kool" Summer Printables

The end of school is right there. Preschool actually already ended.

I decided it might be nice for Little to have something to give his classmates.

As are most things in my life, this was kind of last minute. I was sitting around with an extra minute or two and decided, "Why the heck not."

I raided Hubby's not-so-secret stash of Kool-aid. Found puh-lenty of those little packets.

Next I grabbed some striped paper straws from my not-so-secret stash of party supplies.

Then I went to my trusted PicMonkey and I made up some simple tags.

Put it all together...BAM easiest little end of the summer treat ever. 

I made a sheet of these simple and fun printables and now you can make your very own KOOL gifts.  Click on the link and you can download them to your computer.
 

Download HERE

 Then before you know it you will have a whole pile all ready to go to school with your little one.

Then you can pretty much guarantee they will be just the most liked ever. Plus they will smell like Kool-aid.

What is not to like about that???

Only a few more days of school over here. Ahhh. Then the invasion begins.

Linking Here:

Sugar Bee Crafts, Today's Creative Blog,
Not Just A Housewife

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?