thimbly things

Doesn’t that sound nice and dramatic? :)

So Emily’s crayons were getting a little crazy.  They were chewed, broken, and generally kinda gross.  And hazardous to our newly-mobile Jacob.  And hazardous to our walls.  I mean all it takes is one little bit of overlooked crayon left on the floor, and the living room walls are a pre-pre-K art project.

Somewhere on someone’s blog a long, long time ago, I saw pretty little crayon cakes made by melting crayons in a muffin tin.  So I searched the Internets and found that there are only about a gazillion different directions for this project.  So I’m gonna tell you what I did using the materials I had on hand.

Supplies:

• broken crayons
• mini-muffin tin
• cooking oil
• cooling rack
• oven :)

Directions:

1. Peel paper off crayons (if your child hasn’t already), and break each crayon into about 4 pieces.
2. Separate by color or however you wish into greased muffin tin.  I think it would be fun to experiment with color here, but I separated the Roy G. Bivs, browns, and then all the leftover neutrals (black, white, and greys).  Oh, and don’t overfill the vessels.
3. Heat oven to 275 degrees.  You can probably stick the pan in anytime before the oven is fully heated.
4. Monitor crayons carefully.  Mine took about 12 minutes to melt.
5. Carefully remove and place pan on cooling rack (keep pan as level as possible).
6. After the crayons have hardened, flip over pan and tap on each vessel to release crayons.  I was surprised by how easily they came out.  But I did use something large and metal to “tap” on the pan.
7. Voila!  Go color something.

A Mouse House, party hat, Beki’s fabric mixed with some of my own, some little patchwork for another (different) Autumn wreath, and the other usual suspects.  I had to borrow Emily’s birthday present to photograph it on my desk.  I just love it so much!  It definitely reminds me of some adorable handmade houses I’ve seen around, and it makes me want to make about a dozen of these little ornaments.

Happy Hump Day, everyone!  It’s an exciting Recycling Day here, and it’s Project Runway Finale Night!!!!  Is anyone else watching?  Who do you think will win?

These yummies were inspired by this recipe. When I realized I didn’t have enough powdered sugar, I found this recipe (which has a couple mistakes: says “butter” in the ingredients list and “margarine” in the directions, and doesn’t tell you when to add the vanilla extract). The dough was weird and mushy in some spots, but they turned out pretty great and very buttery (a plus in my book!).

Then I made Culinary Concoctions’ cookie icing, dipped a couple dozen cookies in it, and sprinkled on some stars (you know, for the Star Wars-themed party). Yum!

I almost bought cookie icing from the grocery store, but then I looked at the ingredients list. Yikes. Definitely a few too many questionable bits in that. I love that this recipe has 3 ingredients (I left out the food coloring) and takes about 30 seconds to whip up.

As for sprinkles… your safest bet is to sprinkle on some raw sugar, but I like color.

It wasn’t all finished until late last night, or I would have shared sooner.

I think she likes it.

Wearing the only thing she asked for for her birthday.  A Party Hat.  Now, I sure can’t deny a simple request such as that, can I?  She’s also eating the only thing she wanted this morning: raisins.  Well, those and milk.

Note the glistening under her nose.  Poor girl.  She hardly ever gets sick.  And what happens in the wee small hours of the morning on her birthday?  She wakes up crying and snotty with a scratchy throat. :(  But she’s had a sunny attitude all day long, singing The Birthday Song to herself and playing with a few early birthday presents.

We’re having a little gathering tonight, and I’ll be back again tomorrow to share about that and Emily’s gifts.

Happy Friday!

My sweet baby girl, I cannot believe the little person you are growing to be.  Brilliant, eloquent, beautiful.

Here are some of the things you love right now:

• Pony rides on Mama or Daddy
• Going to the library and everything that entails
• Singing Winkle, Winkle, Winkle Star and the Doodlebops theme (and just about anything else)
• Reading books from your pack-pack early in the morning
• Speaking “Pirate”
• Oatmeal
• Drawing pictures
• Playing outside
• Raisins
• When Mama or Daddy hold you
• Getting tickled
• When Brother touches you (makes you giggle)

I wish you felt better today.  But we’ll have a grand party no matter what.

Happy Birthday!  We love you, Little Lady.

Happy Friday!!!  Inspired by my last day with some sweet kids and an upcoming birthday, today I decided to share a few of my Flickr Faves.  These are some sweet little things I’ve starred over the last few months.

1. Little Acorn Girl, 2. Marcia No. 10, 3. Anouk, 4. Matryoshka Felt Companion, 5. Japanese Craft Book-Handmade Rilakkuma, 6. Avon Glace, 7. Country Girl Clothespin Doll Group, 8. baby sheep, 9. Heather Bailey christmas matryoshkas

The one I found here and talked about here.  And despite the progress I seemed to be making, I’m about to unravel about half of what I’ve done.  Oh, well.  At least it’s a pretty heap lying there on my desk.  And it will be a pretty finished cardigan some day.

By the way, the lesson learned from this is that one absolutely must move his/her stitch markers up with each new row.  Every row.  Really.  You must.  Or you will see crooked increases several rows later and then proceed in smacking yourself repeatedly.

Doesn’t Desk look so neat and tidy this week?

to sew/craft/make.  D decorated this sock, and I sewed on the buttons.  It’s too bad she’s the only kiddo genuinely interested in making stuff (and mature enough to understand the task at hand).  Her daddy makes puppets for real.  For real.  Like, gets paid to do it.  Cool, huh?

By the way, this was all accomplished before 9 in the AM. *jittery sigh*

EDIT: Just realized that statement about D being “the only kiddo genuinely interested in making stuff” was kinda unfair.  All the kids love painting.  And Emily loves to draw and color.  She just can’t handle anything too complicated yet.   Sorry.  Felt the need to revise.

 Because Meet Me at Mike’s does it.