A melted skyline

Last summer I decided to make some melted crayon art for my office at the daycare. Well, I no longer have an office, but the art is hanging up in my classroom now. One of my moms noticed it a few weeks ago and suggested that I make more to sell at the upcoming school auction and carnival. I suggested it to my director and she wanted to know if I could somehow make it go with the Seattle theme...so I set out to make a Seattle skyline...using melted crayons!

All my supplies: canvas (16x20), crayons, glue gun, hair dryer, tape, and a picture of the skyline.

It took a while, but I finally got a taped off version of a Seattle skyline.

For more specific directions on how I melted the crayons, you can check out my previous blog post here. This time it took about 45 minutes to melt the crayons and get all the area covered, but I think it was worth it! (the wax did melt through the tape in a few places, but I fixed that problem with a bit of white paint)

Drum roll please.......

Ta-da! What do you think? Anyone have a suggestion on how much we should sell it for?

Sweet Cinnamon Cherry Granola

Despite the fact that I completely loathe, abhor, and despise yogurt in all forms, I really like granola. The problem is that the two are normally assumed to go together, kind of like peanut butter and jelly. So it's sometimes difficult to find a good granola that can stand on it's own as a cereal.

Enter, The Kitchen is My Playground. I was browsing different granola options on pinterest and came across this blog with lots of yummy looking granola recipes.

Like any recipe that I attempt, I ended up changing it a bit, but that's the best part of granola right?

The original recipe for Chai Granola can be found here.

This is what I did:
Sweet Cinnamon Cherry Granola
3 c. old-fashioned oats
1/2 c. sliced almonds
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1/3 c. shredded coconut
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 c. honey
1/3 c. canola oil 
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. dried cherries

1.  In a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, coconut, and pecans.  Stir in cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.

2.  Place honey, oil, and vanilla in a small bowl; stir to combine. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture; mix together until oats are evenly coated with the honey mixture.

3.   Spread granola mixture onto a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring about every 10 minutes.

4.  Remove from oven and stir in dried cherries. Let cool completely. Store tightly covered.

I've had this for breakfast, with a bit of almond milk, every day this week and I'm addicted! It has the perfect balance of sweet and spice, a good crunch, and its filled with things I love. I can't wait to try making more variations of granola. Once again I am thankful for new recipes!