Making Crayons

This week the kiddos I watch are on Spring Break, so we've been having a lot of fun! I wrote out a bunch of free (or nearly free) activities, then cut them in strips and put them in a cup. The boys are picking three activities a day from the cup so that they know the schedule for the day, and have some fun things to look forward to. Today they picked going bowling (we have coupons for 2 free games), making a fort, and making crayons then coloring a picture with them. Many of you probably already know how to make crayons, but they turned out cute so I thought I'd share how to with you just in case you didn't know.

Materials: crayons (we used ones that were dull or already broken)
muffin tin
oven
exacto knife (optional)

Step 1: Peel all the paper off of the crayons. This is where the exacto knife comes into play; it's a lot easier to take off the paper if you cut a line in the paper first.

Step 2: Break the crayons into small pieces, about an inch or so. Arrange the colors in the muffin tin however you'd like (we grouped similar colors, but didn't use more than one of the same colored crayon because the boys wanted theirs to be "rainbow").

Step 3: Put it in the oven on low heat (250* F or so) until the crayons melt together and you can no longer see the shape of the individual pieces (it took ours about 6 minutes).

Step 4: Let the crayons cool completely, then run a knife around the edges of the tin and pop the crayons out. Enjoy coloring!

Some of our crayons cracked a little, but the boys loved it, and even the baby (15 months old) got in on the action. They were much easier for the baby to grip than the regular skinny crayons, and the older boys thought it was neat that the same crayon produced different colors.

Yummy Ranch Chicken

I was looking through an old copy of Food Network Magazine and came across this recipe for Ranch Wings. I liked the idea of it, but wasn't really feeling like deep frying stuff, so I tweeked the recipe a little and used boneless skinless chicken tenders and baked it in the oven at 400*F for 20 minutes. It was delicious, but not very crunchy...I think maybe if I make it again I'll do in in the skillet like making fried chicken.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken wings,split at the joint, tips removed ( I used a 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast tender pack, and then halved all the other ingredients)
  
• 3 1-ounce packets ranch dressing mix
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Freshly ground pepper
• 3 large eggs
• Vegetable oil, for frying
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1/4 cup honey

Directions

Toss the wings with 1 packet dressing mix in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or up to 4 hours.

Whisk the flour, 1 teaspoon pepper and 1 packet dressing mix in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, 2 tablespoons water and the remaining packet dressing mix. Dredge the wings a few at a time in the seasoned flour, then dip into the egg mixture and return to the flour mixture, turning to coat. Transfer to a rack.

Heat 1/2 inch vegetable oil in a medium cast-iron skillet over medium heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 350 degrees F. Fry the wings in batches until crisp and golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes per side. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Whisk the hot sauce and honey in a bowl. Serve with the wings.

We had it with a salad mix and some Alexia Chipotle Sweet Potato fries. Delicious!

Five Favorite Finds (and the Versatile Blogger Award)

I haven't been crafting a lot lately, but I have been adding to my list of crafts I want to make. All of the following are things on my list!


wall art from Styrofoam and scrapbook paper

menu planning organizer from Little Big Girl Studio

formula cans turned utensil holders from First Lady of the House


chevron canvas from Artsy-Fartsy Mama

photograph letters from My Repurposed Life

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In other exciting news, Charity from A Scrap of Time was kind enough to award me
How nice of her! She's found some cute stuff, and has some great ideas to share, so go check out her site! The tasks from the award are to

• Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their site in your original post.Tell us seven things about yourself.


• Pass along the award to 6 newly discovered bloggers.


• Contact these bloggers and let them know they got this award

So, seven things about myself
1.I'm obsessed with sharpies and expo markers...a little too obsessed.
2.I love organizational tools, and could browse the container store for hours, but I'm actually a very disorganized person and the cute organizational tools sit around the house being more clutter than helpful.
3.My favorite colors are orange and pink, but my favorite decorating colors are currently grays!
4.I have had 10 jobs in the past 9 years, many of them overlapped though (so I'm not quite as flaky as it makes me sound); 5 in restaurants, 2 in retail, and 3 in education.
5.Key West, FL and Savannah, GA are my two favorite places to visit. If you haven't been, you should go...now!
6.I've recently discovered I LOVE hockey and am hoping to get season tickets to the local team here (Go Canes!).
7.I've lived in North Carolina my whole life.

Now for the newly discovered blogs (they were newly discovered to me...I guess that's what I'm supposed to do), I'm going with those who have been nice enough to comment on my projects and follow my blog!

1. My newest follower Simple Home Life
2. Crafting in the Dojo
3. Our Seven Dwarfs
4. A Perfectly Crazy Life
5. The Lazy Novice Crafter
6. My first follower Where Beauty Meets Function

Thanks ladies for viewing my blog, and for the awesome projects and posts on your blogs!

Five Favorite Finds

Here are my 5 Favorite Finds from this week. Hope you like them too!
Sugar Scrub from Maybe Matilda - I'm thinking about making this in the saved baby food jars I have as a favor for guests at my sister's baby shower

Spring image from My Owl Barn - owls are quickly becoming my new obsession

DIY Custom Corkboard from Design*Sponge - I know this is a post from long ago, but it's new to me, and maybe to you too :)

Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread from A Pretty Life In The Suburbs - looks amazing!

Beautiful Nursery at Lay Baby Lay - I love the colors, and the family tree in the room above the dresser



We've had some crazy weather in and around our area today...tornado's everywhere which is not really that common for NC. Glad everyone I know is safe and sound and hope the same for all of you reading! Take care...and be on the lookout for a house tour this week!

Thrifted Desk Makeover

I've been looking for a desk for a while now, but couldn't justify spending major money on it since I'm not sure entirely how much I'll use it. I decided to just keep checking in at my local thrift store every now and then, and luckily I found this "beauty" for $39 after only about 3 weeks of hunting!

This is a picture of it on it's side with the glass removed...didn't think to take pictures before, and didn't feel like reassembling

The desk was going in our bonus room, and the hubsters desk that's already in there is white, so I spray painted it with a primer (no pics, sorry), then used one of the many sample size paints we bought when testing out colors for our kitchen to paint the desk. The color is from Home Depot and is Behr's Baked Brie.
I went to JoAnn's Fabric and picked out this fabric...

then wrapped it around the upper glass part of the desk after my husband was nice enough to carry it all upstairs for me! The fabric's held on by scotch tape now, so I should probably find a more permanent solution, but I just couldn't wait long enough to find/figure one out.

What do you think!? I'm so excited! This was my first furniture makeover and I love it! I need to get a couple baskets to put along the bottom and hold some things, and now I need a desk chair, but I love the way it turned out! Here's a side by side before and after for the fun of it...

Coat Rack

Here's a quick project we (I came up with the concept but my husband did the nailing and measuring) did not too long ago. We needed a place to hang our jacket, and to hang the jackets of our guests when they came over. Due to the layout of our house, we've turned a corner of our long skinny living room into kind of a catch all place, because it also is where our back door is located. There's already a bench there with some baskets to hide our shoes and the dog toys/leashes, so it was logical to put our coats there too. All it is is a pre-made rack from Home Depot, 5 small frames from Kohl's, and some printed out letters from Leo Reynolds' Photostream (he's got a ton of cool stuff, but it can be kind of overwhelming).

TaDah! Simple, but cute and usable! Yay!

Five Favorite Finds

Sorry I've been missing this week, it's been super busy and I've been super unmotivated to do anything once I get down time! I do have some stuff in the works, just nothing completed yet. Look for a dresser redo, a desk redo, and some room redos coming up soon (hopefully). In the meantime, I've decided to feature my top five things I've found in blogland and/or pinterest this week. Some are new posts in the blogs I follow, some are things I've found on pinterest that might be old, but are new to me(by the way to the lady who requested a pinterest invite in my first post about this awesomeness, read the comments...I can't get ahold of you but I do have a few invites left).

Two Girls Being Crafty made this awesome paint chip canvas

I love this pink and grey baby shower at Creating Couture Parties, there's even a tutorial to make the cute grey poms on the napkins
This Zebra Onesie from Daydream Believers is really cute, and as soon as I get a sewing machine I will be making it
Martha Stewart has a how to for this cute Bird Mobile
and these Ham and Cheese Sliders from The Girl Who Ate Everything were my most repinned (shared) thing on Pinterest this week

What do you think about these? Inspire you to make anything? I love reading all of your blogs and looking at all the awesome ideas! Your creativity is amazing! Keep it up, and be on the lookout for some reveals soon. :D

P.S. I'm tryingoping to get an "I Was Featured On Copy Cat Crafter" button soon to make myself feel special! :)

Final Four

Enjoying the cake I made while we watch the game.

Can you tell who we want to win in our house? Who do you want to win?E