Some you win .........

........... and some you loose.

So, yesterday I was all excited about crafting and I was determined to make those lovely crayons that I linked to. So after I picked up Oscar from school at 10.30am ( yes you read that right, he finishes school at 10.30am - he starts at 7.30am in case you were wondering) we went to a kind of supermarket / homewares store called The Sultan Centre and bought some ice cube trays in the shape of penguins, dolphins and seals - they were only 1 Riyal each, which is pretty good given that I saw the exact same ones in another shop for 4 Riyals each ! we also got a good load of crayons to melt and we were ready to go. So after I picked Jacob up from school at 2.10pm (he gets a bit of a longer day !), we did some jobs and then made our way home to make the crayons. We stripped the boxed crayons of their paper skins, colour coded them and then broke them up into pieces to fit into the mould. We waited impatiently for the oven to heat up and then the moment arrived and we put them in the oven. Everyone else disappeared off to do their own thing, whilst I stayed in the kitchen. A strange smell began eminating from the oven - I opened the door in a hurry to discover that the mould had totally melted !!!!



So that wasn't oven proof then !!!! Lucky we only tried one as a test though. I called the boys in to have a look and they spend about 45 minutes poking and proding the melted mess with bamboo skewers, coating their fingers and drawing on paper with them - they loved it !!! they wanted me to do another one just so they could do it all over again - I wasn't so sure the fumes were a good idea !!!!

I shall now order the proper oven proof moulds from the US - I think I'm going to get the Alphabet Letters and the Numbers 4 and 8 they'll be great for upcoming birthdays I'm planning all sorts of stuff to make in them.

On the plus side - I got new glasses - want to see ? I think they are a little bit Mad Men (a series that I am really struggling to get into by the way). It is taking me a while to get used to them - I've been wearing my old pair for over three years and it seems a little odd to look in the mirror and see myself looking totally different - they are nice though !



Also I bought a new cardy - I got it at Forever 21 - I'm quite new to Forever 21, I always thought it was for teenages, but then I saw a lot of the ladies who do What I Wore Wednesday wear stuff from Forever 21 and I thought I'd give it another go and wow - they have some fab stuff in there. So my new cardy is a teal colour, has a zip up the front, a v-neck and elastic on the three quarter length sleeves and around the botoom - I love it and it was only 9 Riyals, which is a bargain I can tell you - you can hardly get anything here for 9 Riyals. I'm so excited by it, and even more excited that the weather was cool enough yesterdy for me to wear it - yay - winter is coming !!!

Crafting

So it's that time of year again - Christmas is coming and my mind is buzzing with crafting ideas, unfortunately, as usual, I have left it too late to make all the wonderful things that I have in mind. I shall have to pick and choose.

Something that is making this MUCH harder is the 12 Days of Handmade Christmas over at Life In Grace - a beautiful blog that I have only just discovered.



Man - there are some BEAUTIFUL things over there that I am dying to make. I want those alphabet crayons that Meg made to give to all Oscar's School buddies for Christmas - what a lovely present that would be - unfortunately, I don't have the alphabet moulds - I might have to see if I can get hold of them, I'd think they are beautiful. There are many, many other things I'd like to be making too. I have agreed to knit a cardy and hat for a friends' little girl and they need it before they go back to the UK for Christmas - also I'm big into bunting right now and I've bought loads of Christmas fabrics to make lots of bunting - also I'm making these garlands, but in Christmassy colours, I've cut out probably 280 felt circles - all I have to do now is sew them together - bit nervous about doing it, but I'm taking the bull by the horns and getting on with it.

I have decided to try to make friends with my sewing machine - I have never really had the confidence to use it much and now is the time. I want to be able to sew and I will get on with it. Making bunting has really boosted my confidence !

On top of all of this, I have agreed to make chutney's and pickles to selll at the school Christmas fair. I am having trouble finding enough jars to use and it's quite frustrating, I need to put out an appeal to all my friends, or try again to find somewhere to buy them here - I'm not having much luck with that though - my fall back position will be to find the cheapest item in a jar that I can in the supermarket and reuse them - I don't want to waste the contents though - so this really will have to be a last resort.

We have got some holiday coming up soon. We are going to try to go to Dubai for a few days which will be fun - the boys love it up there and I can go to Ikea and buy Christmas decorations and the like, so what's not to like - I love going to Ikea.

So that's that then. I'm off to be crafty - I love that I'm feeling the craft again - I have missed it.