{crafts} recycled crayons

If you have a lot of old crayons laying around, you can easily recycle them!

Step 1. Gather your crayons

Step 2: Chop them up into small pieces

Step 3: Fill an ice cube tray, if you can find one that has cute shapes, your crayons will be fun shapes!

Step 4: Bake them at about 225 degrees for 20 minutes, keep a close eye on them and take them out when they are melted.

Step 5: Allow to cool, and pop them out of the molds.

{a thought for Thursday} One step at at time

In honor of all NaNoWriMo participants:
"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night.  You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." -- E.L. Doctorow

{wordless wednesday} Bright Pink

{read: YA bestseller} The Hunger Games

I picked this book up after hearing rave reviews from several friends, even though I'm not usually a sci-fi fan. The straightforward narration made it a quick and easy read, good for NaNo. I couldn't always predict what was going to happen next, and I liked the futuristic hybrid mutations, like the tracker jackers and the mockingjays. I did see Katniss's crisis at the end of the book coming from almost the beginning, though, and am hoping the series doesn't revert into predictability. Although I knew she was going to live through the Hunger Games to make it to books 2 and 3, it was sort of like watching Mission Impossible: the enjoyment is in seeing how the characters get out of impossible situations. The editing wasn't that great and I wish more attention had been paid to punctuation, but I'll definitely finish this trilogy.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, 2008)
My rating: 3 stars

{crafts} Thanksgiving Turkey Shirt

I saw a tutorial for a cute Thanksgiving Turkey Shirt on The Crafty Nest. I created one for my son to wear to his school's Thanksgiving Feast:

{DIY Tutorial} Turkey Handprint Shirt

Thanksgiving just isn't complete without a handprint turkey. I turned Logan's little hand into a felt turkey and ironed it on to a shirt that he can wear for the turkey eating festivities. The hardest part of this project was getting a 16 month old to sit still long enough to trace his hand. I plan on cutting out the little turkey and framing it, to be used in my Thanksgiving decorating next year. Happy Turkey Day!

Materials
Shirt (I found mine on clearance at Target)
Heat-n-Bond No Sew Iron On Adhesive
6 Pieces of Different Colored Felt (large enough to fit a tiny handprint)
Scissors
Pen or Pencil
1 Piece of Cardstock
Iron

Directions
Step 1: Trace your little one's handprint on a piece of cardstock. Cut out the handprint.

Step 2: Iron a small piece (big enough for a handprint) of no sew Heat-n-Bond onto the 6 pieces of felt.

Step 3: Trace the entire handprint onto the Heat-n-Bond backing of the piece of felt that you want to use for the turkey's body. I used a brown piece of felt for the body.

Step 4: Trace each finger (except the thumb) onto the Heat-n-Bond backing of 4 different colors of felt. Each finger will get a different color of felt. Cut out the fingers.

Step 5: Cut a wattle (that wobbly red thing on the turkey's neck) out of the remaining piece of felt that you adhered Heat-n-Bond to.

Step 6: Iron the whole handprint onto the shirt. Next, iron on each individual finger and the wattle.

Step 7: Place shirt on child and enjoy your turkey!

{a thought for Thursday} Reincarnation through translation

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. . . . —John Donne

{wordless wednesday} Ice

Time to start getting into the holiday mood!

This was from a show in Washington DC. Everything was made of ice! It was a cold exhibit.