yesterday i received some disturbing news (nothing life-threatening, but something that upset me).

to deal with said news, i did this craft that i had read about a long time ago, but finally got around to doing!

i melted crayons and mixed some colors together to make new crayons!

i read about this in a kid’s magazine forever ago, but i decided that even though i’m a mere few weeks from turning 30, why can’t i melt down my crayons that i’m not using and make something new out of them?

the best thing about this (for those of you with kids) is that you just take all your broken up, old crayons and recycle them! since i’m old, and don’t really break my crayons or use them to their full potential, what is pictured here is just an old box of crayons that were in my room unused for the past few years.

this would be a great craft for a birthday party – kids can pick their own color crayons to make! this batch i gave away to the kids up the road – and they immediately started drawing and coloring with them (so that’s a good sign).

what you’d need to make your own crayons:

• old crayons (the more broken up and worn the better – that means less breaking for you and less time peeling the labels off)
• a muffin tin
• cooking spray
• oven (set to 275 degrees)

only the best! crayola!

i wasn’t sure how many crayon bits i’d need to fill one mini-cupcake tin, so i grouped some crayons that i thought would be cool to melt together.

pink and orange

red and pink

this could look neat

baby blues!

next i unwrapped the crayons (i bet kids would really like this part…i had SO much crayon stuck under my thumb nails!)

unwrapping

hopefully it works!

next i took a mini muffin tin sprayed with cooking spray and placed the crayon bits in the tins.

crayons ready to melt

then i placed the muffin tin into the oven which had been preheated to 275. keep them in the oven for about 7-8 minutes, or until they are melted.

hurry up and melt!

while the crayons melted, i cleaned up my mess.

what a mess!

finally it was time to check on my masterpieces!

fresh out of the oven!

before they started to cool, i took a toothpick and swirled some of them, to give a neat marbleized look on the top of the new crayon.

swirly

after letting the crayons cool completely in the muffin tins, i simply turned them upside down and tapped on the bottom. the crayons came right out, and were ready for use!

final result

stay tuned for crayons in different shapes!!!

i awoke this morning to a beautiful softly snow covered day!

it was much nicer today to wake up without a migraine. i had a horrible one yesterday, and felt so bad for my friend clair who was visiting. i was not at all a good hostess as i lay on the couch in pain trying to continue making conversation. i had taken one imitrex to ward off the migraine when i woke up, but it didn’t even touch the pain, so i ended up having to take another one after she left. finally i was feeling somewhat normal again.

we had a great visit though – and my mom’s friend dale was down from vermont visiting as well. we had some fantastic pizza monday night, and then just sat around chatting and knitting. clair was so patient and taught me how to properly purl and how to cable! i’m excited to start a cabling project now! i’m so glad that clair was able to stop on her way north, i love having my friends come and meet my family.

after i started to feel better yesterday kevin and i went to acquire a lemon tree. if you know anything about my house it is that we need absolutely NO more plants in it. but i really wanted a lemon tree – because how cool would it be to just use your own lemons? so we headed over to whole foods (who was having a local food sampling…yum!) and snagged a lemon tree! its teeny now, but will grow bigger (naturally). i can’t wait to use my own fresh lemons!

lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet

but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat

when i woke up we had a nice dusting of snow, but more than enough for me to have to shovel the driveway. dad did our driveway so i snapped a few shots of the yard, and took the dog out. then headed up the street to shovel my elderly neighbor’s driveway and sidewalk. it was warm enough that i had to take my hat and gloves off. and as i sit here now i can hear the snow dripping and melting outside.

snowy lights

snowy lights

snowy lights

luv adores the snow

snowy dog nose

many years ago, a close friend of mine started me on this habit of staying ‘rabbit rabbit’ on the first day of every month. it is an old tradition from england. they say that the first person to say ‘rabbit rabbit’ on the first day of the month will have good luck for the rest of the month!

i keep up this tradition with my boyfriend and my friend robert

credit to 'leviathor' on flickr

over the weekend i got a fair bit done on my blue and green scarf – and made some cookies and macaroons! can you believe i made cookies on saturday (a double batch) and they are just about gone?!

yummy chocolate chip cookies

i was especially excited about the way the macaroons came out – i used evaporated cane juice in place of the sugar the recipe calls for…and also used unsweetened dehydrated coconut for half of what the coconut calls for and then regular sweetened baking coconut for the other half. (i’m not supposed to be eating anything with sugar in it, and my mom is diabetic – so i’m trying to make things on the healthier side. we learned the hard way that chocolate chip cookies can’t really be altered too much). the macaroons however came out great! i was afraid they’d be too dry with the dehydrated coconut, but not so!

pre-bake

fresh outta the oven!

i did NOT however, get around to cutting kevin’s hair…hopefully today!

happy weekend everyone! i hope you all have fun things planned.

this weekend i have just a few things to do:

• make chocolate chip cookies
• make macaroons
• finish the scarves i’m knitting

this is taking forever because of the trellis yarn, but it looks nice

the first thing i have ever made with 2 different colors of yarn!

• get ready for my good friend clair’s visit on monday (YAY!!!)

yay clair!!!

• cut kevin’s hair

the pic is from nz, but his hair is just as long again

• play with the dog

what a cutie

for the first few weeks of our time together in new zealand, we stayed in a beach town called new brighton. it is just a short bus ride from chirstchurch city centre, and is a great place to unwind.

just off the pier there, is an amazing man named peter donnelly who creates amazing artwork in the sand! he rides his bike to the beach, and makes beautiful and breathtaking artwork in the sand. we were able to watch almost the whole process one day AND chat with peter himself!

he never plans out what he’s going to draw, he just comes to the beach and draws whatever comes to him. it was such a cool thing to watch!

some of these photos were taken by kevin, the first day we went to see him. the second bit of sand art was created by the time we got to the beach, so we didn’t see peter that day.

if anyone is in the norwalk, ct area – tonight there will be a screening of the short film ’sand dancer’ about peter!

photo by kevin - peter's bike

many more awesome pics here!

way back in november when we were still on our grand tour of new zealand, kevin and i stayed with some extended family in the auckland area. on one of our days there we took the bus from their house down to the city, and then took a ferry over to devonport.

devonport is home to the devonport naval base, home of the royal nz. navy. there are tons of little antique shops and cute cottages, not to mention devonport chocolate which was pretty amazing. however it was pissing down rain and a miserable day.

we opted to take a bus tour of devonport when we arrived, and it was well worth the money!

auckland from the devonport shore

more pics here

holy crow, 2 posts in one day, you say??

just keeping you in the loop – look forward to some changes to the blog in the near future! some cute, exciting things are in the works, and i know you don’t want to miss it!

i’ve joined with a group of etsy sellers in my area, and we have created a blog for that as well. you can find it here:

team hartbeat!

okeedokes, i’m going to get some work done here!

hey everyone, its been a while since i’ve posted, and i have loads to tell you! i’ve been home in the states since mid-november, and figuring out my next moves.

nothing is concrete yet, but i am in the states for a while.

the big news is that i have signed up to try selling some of my stuff on etsy.com – so look for me there under ‘imagesbyemily’ !

more soon!

larisa (my coworker) and i took a nice trip out of town a few weeks ago and did a 2 hour horseback trek. the owners are lovely folks, and all the horses are former race and rodeo horses. these horses live to run, and they love racing each other in empty paddocks.

we had a great day, and lovely views!

they look so calm waiting for us

pretty horses!

a few weeks ago i was lucky enough to take a little drive out to akaroa with some of my friends. it is a cute little village by the sea that was settled by the french way back in the day. there is a very fierce french history here (we just missed the french festival by a few days!) i plan on going back later in the trip – and can’t wait to do a little bit more exploring.

akaroa harbor

click for more photos