giving

Wedding favors are a funny business.  It seems like the cool kids are all over the map on the subject.  Some people are doing really neat, crafty things.  Other people are making donations to favorite non-profits in honor of their guests.  And still other people are just skipping the whole thing altogether.

At first, it seemed we might end up in the third category.  We thought it was silly to spend money on dumb little pieces of monogrammed junk that our friends and family would just throw away after the wedding.  I've seen my fair share of "Jack+Jill 2003" ashtrays and coffee mugs at the Goodwill, and I really don't want to unload something like that on our loved ones.

As time went on, though, I started seeing really sweet, thoughtful wedding favors out there in the world, and I decided to get in on the action.   For a little awhile, I was trying to talk my partner-in-crime into these little things.  (This was back when I wanted to have a bird-themed wedding, an idea that never really gained much traction, unfortunately...)

We've been scheming a bit since then, and it turns out we are going to have favors at our wedding.  Not the birdseed hearts.  Something better, I assure you.

I'm not going to say what they are.  You know that I can't.  I have decided, though, to show you all what we're hoping to give to our littlest wedding guests in June.

I've been collecting crayons for awhile now, from garage sales and thrift stores.  A few years ago, I saw a magazine article about melting down broken and stubby little left-over crayons into fun, exciting new ones.  I don't know where that article is now.  Last night, I mostly just did things that sort of made sense.

First, I peeled a bunch of crayons.  If that doesn't sound time-consuming, then I'm not saying it right.  It was okay, though.  Sort of Zen.

Then I sorted the crayons into colors.  Of course, there are a dozen different shades of each color, which makes everything more fun, I think.

I chopped the crayons into small pieces--about  an eighth or a quarter of an inch and put the pieces into a silicon muffin pan that I found at the Goodwill last weekend for ninety-nine cents.

And then things got a little interesting.  A few different sources on on the Internet suggested putting the pan in the oven for twenty or thirty minutes at 150 degrees.  Instead, it ended up taking about four times as long, and I cranked the oven up to 180 or 185.

When everything looked all melted and soupy, I took the pan out and let it cool overnight.  In the morning, I had six little heart-shaped crayons.

It was a good time and pretty darn easy.  I'm going to do it all again, too, a few more times before this summer.  In the meantime, don't tell the little ones, okay?  You know how much I love a surprise.