Paint Chip Wall Art

After our relatives left, I really noticed how empty our place seemed.  Although we moved here almost a year ago, I haven't put much effort into making our place more personal.  Chuck's room is the only one that's sort of decorated.

So, I'm going to do my best to add some decorations to the walls.  I'm not too picky, but I do have three requirements for wall art:

1.  It must be bright and happy.
Chuck and I spend quite a bit of time at home.  We need to be surrounded by lovely, happy things.  

2.  It must be removable.
We live in an apartment.  We're not going to live here forever.  I really really don't want to re-paint rooms or fill holes when we leave.

3.  It must be relatively inexpensive.
I'm uber cheap.  One day we'd like to own our own house, so we're slowly saving up.  (Plus, we had a rather traumatic experience with movers breaking stuff, so I worry about expensive art being destroyed.)

Making wall art with paint chips fits all three requirements.  Inspired by A Beautiful Mess's modern paint chip wall art and How About Orange's triangle paint chip art, I thought I'd give paint chips a try.  Here's my result:

Make your own rainbow flowers

Last weekend, I made these rainbow flowers.

Aren't they purty?

Wanna bring some rainbow cheer into your life? 

They're easy to make.  Plus, you get to see science at work.

Hungry Caterpillar party prep: DIY multicolor crayons

I struggled with what to put in the children's goodie bags.  At first I was going to give them lollipops because that went along with the theme of the book.  But then I remembered that they were already going to get candy after bashing the pinata.  Images of screaming children on candy highs filled my mind, so I went another route:  DIY multicolor crayons.  (It sort of goes with the theme, right?  Colorful crayons.... colorful Eric Carle artwork? Ok...maybe it's a stretch...  Alright, you got me.  I just wanted to try this DIY out and I needed an excuse... )

Anywhoo... here's what I did:

(1)  I found a bunch of old crayons, ripped off their paper covers, and broke them up.

• Note 1:  My mom actually found these crayons at home...so that means they're at least 20 years old... ehhhh.... I think they're still good)  
• Note 2:  I had a tough time ripping off the covers.  So hubby and I ended up using a scissor to slice the paper right off.  Be careful!  I sliced my finger. 
• Note 3:  It was tough breaking crayons.  (Hmm, I sense a theme here.  I should probably go to the gym and work out my arms).  I ended up using my trusty pair of scissors and cutting the crayons up.  You could probably chop the crayons up too.  But I didn't want to get wax on my knives or cutting board.  

(2)  I put the broken crayons into some silicone candy molds.   (I've seen other people using cute ice-cube trays or cupcake trays.)

• Note 1:  You probably don't want to do this with a beloved tray.  The wax stains the silicone.
• Note 2:  I placed the silicone molds on top of a baking dish because I was afraid of spilling melted wax.  I spilled wax anyway...but at least it didn't get onto my floor.

(3)  Place the crayons into a 250 degree oven.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes (depending on how big  your crayon chunks are).  Watch them as they bake.  Take them out when the top layer is liquidy.

(4)  Once melted, take the tray out and let your melted wax cool and harden. (Mine took about 15 minutes to solidify.) 

• Note:  Melted crayons smell bad.  Really bad.  Open a window.  Wear a gas mask.  Do whatever you need to feel ok with this.... I kept reminding myself that crayons are non-toxic....*cough cough*

(5) Once cool, pop those babies out and admire your colorful handiwork.

• Note:  I placed mine in the  freezer for a bit before popping them out.  Some other blogger said to do that, but I don't think I really had to.

Voila!  An army of rainbow crayons ready to color the world!  Muah ha ha ha.

To see other things that we made for the party, click  here

DIY- Rainbow rice krispies

Rice krispy treats are my new favorite dessert.  They're perfect for satisfying my sweet tooth, super easy to make, and they're wheat/soy/nut free!  Score!

This Sunday our church held it's monthly potluck and of course, I really wanted to bring them.  Since I already brought them to the previous month's potluck (I told you they were my favorite dessert), I figured I should probably shnazz them up.   That's when I thought to make some St. Patrick's day themed rice krispy treats.  Oooh.      

To make them, I tweaked the basic rice krispy recipe.  After melting the marshmallows, I divided the goo into 6 different containers.  Then, I quickly added food coloring into each of the containers (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.)  Hubby quickly followed behind and stirred the food coloring into the melted marshmallows while I added rice krispies into the mixture.

It was crazy.  I felt like Lucy, rushing to eat the chocolates off the conveyer belt.  Hubby was mixing, I was mixing, rice krispies were falling onto the floor, the marshmallows were hardening a little too quickly, and in the midst of it all we actually broke a spoon.

As each color finished, I quickly scooped the sticky mixture into one of four mini bread loaf pans that I previously buttered.  I added color on top of color and then got these:    

Ooooh.  Here I am slicing a colorful ricey log.

Rainbows for everyone!  (Note:  Pot of  gold not included.)

Looking back, I probably should have just made one color first, then made one layer of colorful rice krispies, and then moved onto each of the following colors.  The layers would have been neater and things wouldn't have gotten so out of hand.  Oh well, there's always next time!

Special thanks to hubby for being a good sous chef.


To see my Academy Awards rice krispy treats, click here.
To see my Peep rice krispy treat, click here

Pot o'sushi

Happy St. Patrick's  Day!  

According to Irish legends, leprechauns store treasures at the end of rainbows.  If I were a leprechaun I would store sushi at the end of my rainbow.

I miss eating sushi and I've tried curbing my cravings with homemade attempts, but they never satisfy.

 Sad pseudo sushi

Once the baby pops out, I'm going to (1) hug baby and (2) eat a piece of sashimi.

Will my hospital will serve meals like this?

Chirashi image taken from here

Taste the rainbow

Tonight I made rainbow soup.

If I eat vegetables and vegetables eat sunlight, then do I eat sunlight?