Melted Crayon Hearts

So many crayons sat in a tub and were rarely used. Markers, pencils, and pens are the utensil of choice in our house. I'm not sure why because I love colouring with crayons and the diversity they offer. If you press really hard, the colour is bold. If you hardly touch the crayon to paper, the colour is soft. I fairly recently discovered how to make a rainbow of melted crayons. I'll post about that another day. I also learned how to melt crayons to make new crayons. What a great way to get the kids to use their crayons again! 

I had this idea on my Pinterest board and experimented with it last week when my little girl had a friend over. First, we peeled all the "bad" crayons. We saved the crayons that were still in pristine condition and put them back in the tub. 

Once they were all peeled, we broke them up into little pieces My 2 year old boy liked this part of the process. Next, we placed similar colours into heart shaped silicone baking molds (from Poundland!). We found some good tips from this blog for the baking (melting) aspect. Ours took about 20 minutes to melt with the oven set at 110ºC (230ºF). 

I did check them once or twice while they were melting because I was a little paranoid about them melting too much (is that possible?) or burning (is that possible?). It was also fun for the kids to peek into the oven from a safe distance and see the process. After they were completely melted, I let them sit on a cooling rack for a couple minutes and then stuck them in the freezer for faster cooling. They solidified pretty quickly and were super easy to peel out of the molds. 

I did not expect them to be nearly as beautiful as they were. My little boy didn't try, but he did ask initially if he could eat one. I told him about five times that they were not food. They were for colouring. It was so ingrained that he went around telling the same thing to all his little friends again and again for the next hour. 

My kids are now colouring with crayons again and have found other uses for the hearts as well (stacking, sorting, etc.). They were such a success that we're going to make them as Valentine gifts for my little girl's classmates!

If you make one, I'd love to see it. Feel free to share a picture on my flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/sunnystitching/

Old Pants New Pants

I have to admit that it sounds a little strange to write pants as the heading to this post after just looking at loads of UK mom blogs. However, since the focus of this post is on some pants made from a US pattern called Kid Pants from Made, I'm going to leave it. 

The story of these pants begins probably close to 15 years ago when my husband (who I didn't know yet) bought a pair of black corduroy cargos. He loved them and they remained one of his favourites when we met about 10 years ago, and even still when we got married 8 years ago. 

They lasted through the birth of two children and then slowly began to fall apart. Because they were so loved, they were repaired now and again through the years until the repairs were no longer possible. But, there was still plenty of useful fabric in them!  

So, I used the above mentioned pattern and turned the old favourite's into my little boy's newest favourites pair of cords. Finished last night!

I added a lining from my old pair of lounge pants and cuffed the hem because I was too impatient to check the length in the morning. Now I can fold them up as high as I need and they'll also last a little longer because, of course, the cuffed hem was too long.

Friday Foto - Love Colour (4 of 52)

We made these today.

linked to...

Chips

 Hmmm...what should we do with all this kale from our organic veg box?

 Eat it.

Or make Kale Chips! How do we do that??

 1. Wash & Dry Kale

2. Spread & Sprinkle Kale

(spray olive oil on sheet and on kale, then sprinkle with salt)

3. Cook Kale 

(10-15 minutes at 180ºC/350ºF)

 4. Eat Kale Chips

 mmm...crunchy!

And since we have so many potatoes that are beginning to sprout, let's make potato chips, too! 

1. Slice potatoes very thin with a mandoline. 

(I recommend doing this slowly and carefully with dry hands so you don't slice your finger like I did!)

2. Soak potatoes in very cold water for 1/2 hour.

3. Dry potatoes.

4. Heat vegetable oil until it's very hot. 

(I don't have a thermometer so I tested a few potato slices until the oil was hot enough.)

5. Cook potatoes in oil in small portions until they're golden brown.

6. Scoop potatoes from oil with a strainer and place on kitchen paper to drain excess oil.

7. Sprinkle with salt and eat!

These were so good that I was eating them practically straight out of the pan...and I wasn't even hungry. It took all my willpower to bag them and seal them up so everyone could enjoy them later.