Semi-Homemade Crayons

This was a Pinterest inspired project but it is not exactly a new concept.
I tell my sister all of the time that she needs to be the one with a blog since she does stuff like this all of the time, but she isnt really into the whole “blogging” thing. In fact, she doesn’t even read mine or friends unless I ask her to lol.
She was here last week and we decided to clean out my crayon box of all of the old broken crayons and melt them to make new ones. She had these silicone molds that were in shapes of vehicles (cars, boats, airplanes) so we thought it would be the best thing to use.
It’s really pretty self explanatory, but we simply took all of the crayon bits and pieces and filled the mold.

Put them in the oven on 350 degrees (I bumped it up to 400 after it was taking a while)

Once the were completely melted and all of the chunks looked like they were gone, we pulled them out and let them cool

Voila! new crayons that the kids LOVED! A quick, easy, “kid tested, mother approved” kind of craft that didn’t cost anything, cleaned something up, and made the kids very happy. Win-win for sure!
My sister remembers doing this as a kid using egg shells. I don’t remember this, but she said our dad would hollow out an egg (like making confetti eggs) and fill them with the melted crayons and then when it cooled, peel the shell off. Like I said, not a new concept, just a different way to do it. Oldy but goody craft, guess you could say.

New Hobby

I have been wanting to learn how to knit for about 2 years now. As most of you know, I already have several hobbies but every single one of them limit me to being in my craft room or sitting in front of my sewing machine, or painting something in the garage. I really wanted to find something that I could do while watching TV at night or able to bring with me on trips. I can not sit still long enough to watch a single movie; I feel like it is a waste of time when I could be doing something productive. My husband hates this about me since he wants to watch movies all of the time and it used to drive my college room mate crazy since she was a big movie buff too. Sorry guys!  I think I have found a cure, though!
When a friend mentioned that she enjoyed knitting I had to stop her mid sentence and was like, “wait, what?! you knit?!” I bought several “teach yourself to knit” books and some starter kits but could never figure it out myself. I am such a visual learner that I needed to watch someone do it and walk me through it. She was excited to teach me so we spent a whole Sunday together knitting and learning. I fell in love! It’s only been a week now but I know that this is going to be a long term relationship lol.
I have made several little “swatches” of different styles of stitches that I have learned. (now that she showed me the basics, I can understand a bit better what the books are talking about) Avery loves my sample swatches and seems to run off with them for her doll house. Here’s 2 that I made, though.

If you are a knitter you are probably laughing at how excited I am about such simple beginner things, but I am so proud of myself!

I even watched a YouTube video on how to make a Center Pull ball of yarn.

It seems that yard is a really fun toy for toddlers. You would think I had 2 cats running around here the way they get excited when I pull out the balls of yarn lol.

Right now I am making just a hand towel so that I can learn how to incorporate different colors and practice several stitches. Kind of a “hodge podge” project but I have to start somewhere.

*Sorry for the poor iPhone pics but I was too lazy to get up and get my camera while working on these.
My first real project will be a head band for the girls. Avery was sitting with me while looking at patterns online and she really liked this one and insisted she NEEDED a pink headband. Why not? lol I told her I needed some more practice but I would make it for her very soon.

Source

I’ve made a new board on Pinterest for knitting projects and ideas. I hope I get good enough for them!!

Looks like I am going to have to add another category to the top of this blog page, too!

Wish me luck in my adventures in Knitting!! :)