March Break Things

We  have had a great start to March break already.  Yesterday we just hung out at home (My Favourite Boy is still recuperating from whatever bug he caught) doing crafts and watching movies.  My Favourite Girl and I got into the Easter spirit and made a whole egg carton's worth of mini baskets:

It's so relaxing to just cut/paint/paste/embellish.  The snow swirled outside but we were snug and happy with our thoughts of spring.

I stitched a tiny little pillow with what I think are supposed to be jelly beans; though with the over-dyed thread I used they look more like painted eggs.  The thread is from Carrie's Creations and is called 'Spring Delight'.

I wanted to finish is as a biscournou, but the corners would not line up properly and I got tired of fiddling with it.  It doesn't look too out of place when I add it to some of my other stitched decorations, so for now it will just stay a tiny pillow.

The mail carrier left some exciting things in the mailbox yesterday:

...but don't tell anyone because technically I'm not supposed to be shopping for non-essential things over Lent!  I could, however, if pressed make a pretty convincing argument that 'technical manuals' and a needleworking mystery are essential purchases - especially over Lent when there is no television to be watched!

Have a great weekend:)

Weekend Fishing

The kids and I made some funky crayons this weekend. They were telling me about a crayon maker you can buy that uses broken crayons to make new ones.  I told them we could do it without the crayon maker and they were both gung-ho to try it.   I had picked up this mould at the thrift store a few months ago, thinking it would be good for just this thing.

They picked through their crayon box to find the best colour combinations.  Once they had the cavities filled with broken, peeled crayons, I put the mould in the oven at 375 degrees F. for about 10 minutes.  It's funny how you can tell the cheap crayons from the better ones once they melt:  cheap crayons turn very watery and lose a lot of their colour.  Crayola crayons take a lot longer to melt.

The' newly designed' crayons came out looking like this:

Nice and bright but all the tails cracked off when we were trying to get them out of the mould.  Now I know why it was at the thrift store!  

Anyway, the kids had fun and they like coloring with the fish crayons.  Next time we will pick a better mould.