Tuesday, January 29, 2008

And What Do I Do When I'm Frustrated?

The usual equation goes:

wine + tequila (on especially bad nights) + reality TV = decompress

Healthy, no?

Tonight, however, I did something a little more productive. Generally not my style, being productive, but my kids are getting older. I have a feeling I'm going get roped into making dioramas and paper mache crap more and more often as they progress through life, so I figured why not get a jump on things.

Valentine's day happens to fall on a Thursday this year, which is a school day in our house. Instead of the traditional candy/cookie/cupcake trifecta of sugar I decided to make a little craft for each kid in Sam's class. I'm sure that the parents and teachers will appreciate one less dose of sugar.

If you've ever read a parenting/crafting magazine then you've probably seen some variation of this composite crayon thing-a-ma-jig. Since we already had some heart shaped ice cube trays and approximately 14,893 crayons I thought how perfect! All you need is some crayons, a way to chop them up, a mold, and a microwave. Observe!

You see, I peeled and chopped the crayons with a chef's knife.


Then you take the pieces and put them into the mold of your choice.


Microwave for about 3 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds or so to press the nubs down with a popsicle stick or spoon.


Once they cool entirely, pop them out and arrange on a paper towel for a lovely photo opportunity.

--

I did make an appointment for Sam's hearing test on Friday. I'll keep you all posted!

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey its a very nice idea.. wow u really made a new thing.. hahahaha but i realy appreciated ! wonderful i never thought of such a thing from a crayon.. gr8 job ! afi

Arizaphale said...

In all my years of teaching I have never seen this done! I guess that's because we never had silicon icecube trays in the old days...especially heart shaped ones!!!!! COOL idea. I will be onto it. They have Australia shaped icecube trays here....a gift for next year perhaps??? (26th Jan = Australia day)