Ask The Helpful Housewife

MyPunchbowl.com Contest Winners...

OK, due to underwhelming interest in the contest (I am SOOOO disappointed, you all.  This is an awesome site!), I decided to choose winners anyway!  I plugged in the names of the followers of this blog from Facebook and found two winners from a random generator.  And the winners are (drumroll please.....)

Lisa Smith and Christie Nutkins!!!!  Watch for an email ladies!!

A Contest Give-A-Way!!!

 

I am a little (OK, a LOT!) late in getting this news out to you... this month has been crazy hectic for us.  But the lovely Ms. Stephanie Fader at mypunchbowl.com emailed me a while ago with a great idea for a contest!  And of course, I agreed because this site is just fantastic. 

To introduce all of you to this amazing virtual destination, we are giving away two, count 'em, TWO free premium memberships to mypunchbowl.com, valued at $49.95 each!  What does a membership include, do you ask?  Well, all of the amenities of the site!  Here's what mypunchbowl.com is all about!

As busy moms and housewives, we  have all had to plan the kids' birthday parties or family events and so many other happy occasions.  And it gets to be overwhelming, doesn't it?  This site does so much of it for you!  From here, you can manage your guest lists, set your date for your event (even coordinate it with your guests beforehand), send out free e-cards and e-invitations, order gifts, get great theme and decorating ideas, and SO MUCH MORE!  I can't tell you any  more details because it's part of the contest. 

Here is what you need to do:  In order to possibly win one of these two memberships, you need to post a comment here letting me know at least one feature of the site you like the most or an event you would use it for.  You can comment as many times as you like, but it will still only get you one entry!  If you become a follower of this blog on facebook, this will get you an additional entry.  If you send an email to thehelpfulhousewife@hotmail.com with one feature from the site that you love, you will get an additional entry.  Add a link to Ask The Helpful Housewife on your blog homepage and that's another chance to win.  There's four entries for you all together!  If you have completed all four items, go back to our blog page on facebook (click from the home page here) and post it in the comments section, along with your blog url.  That way I can be sure you've completed all four and can go back and check them all! 

You have until June 2nd to enter this amazing opportunity that Stephanie has given us.  I wish everyone luck!  I'm definitely going to be using this site for all of our events from now on!  I'm already starting to make a list of the summer parties I want to have just to use the site....

Good Luck, Everyone!

Colorful Muffins

  I saw a segment on the Today show about recession proof toys.  They mentioned melting down broken crayons in muffin tins to make "muffin crayons" - a free way to make a new toy!  Of course I had to try it out!  I love this idea, but in the process, I did discover a few tips to pass along that they didn't specify in the segment.  They have time restraints, so they can't get too technical in instruction.  Here is the wisdom I gained in my go round. 

As you know, I suffer from mild obsessive compulsive disorder, so I couldn't bring myself to mix the colors together.  Maybe next time I'll get brave!  So of course each of my little "muffins" is one color.  Go ahead and make them multi-color if you want.  They would be lots of fun for your kids.  I used mini-tins, but you can use full size muffin cups.  Set your oven to 325 to 350 degrees.  Line your muffin tins with liners.  Here's something I learned.  I used paper liners.  The wax leached right through and puddled up in my pan.  Use the metal coated papers, the nice shiny ones that are heavier weight.  They didn't mention this on the show, but it would greatly help.  They said to let them go for about 8 minutes.  This left clumps in my muffin cups, so I left them in longer.  Bad idea!  It separated out the wax from the coloring too much, and they began to smoke a little in the oven.  What I should have done was pull them out and stir them with a toothpick a little bit.  If you use the larger cups, then you could leave them in about 9 - 10 minutes I suppose.  But for the mini-tins, 8 minutes is about right. 

Pull the tin out of the oven and let sit for a couple minutes.  Then carefully pull the cups out of the tin and set them on wax paper or parchment paper to cool. An old paper grocery bag works well, also.  When completely cool, simply peel the paper cup off the wax crayon and you have a muffin crayon ready to use for artistic masterpieces!  The best part?  They are great for little hands to hold on to!  If you have a toddler in the house, this is a great way to recycle your older child's crayons into art supplies for your younger one's use!  We are loving our new crayons, and I didn't have spend a single penny on them!