Revamped tiny chest of drawers

I bought this chest ast a charity shop and removed most of the paint on it with my black and decker mouse sander. I can't find the pic I made of the original state of the chest, but here is a post-sanded photo...

I removed the small handles to make painting the drawers easier and more even, and re-glued them once the paint had dried. I painted a border pattern around the edges of each drawer and the top of the chest. Then, I could not resist the urge to add hearts to the handles... A bit much? What do you think?

 I plan to use it to store rubber bands, erasers and other random stuff that is usually scattered around the house but can never be found when I need one. :)

birds on resalvaged wood

I wanted to add a personal touch to my messy kitchen, to show that while being a messy slob I am at least a (slightly) creative one... We found a nice piece of wood awhile back on our way home from school. It seemed to be a piece of a cabinet that had been taken apart. I really liked the color and the size, not to mention the nifty little hole at the top. I decided to put scrapbook paper birds on it, and used acryllic paint for the beak, eyes, outline as well as the border. The border detail matches a little drawer cabinet that I revamped. I left the background as it is to show the lovely color of the wood, but I did use a matt finish. I threaded some satin ribbon through the hole so I could hang it.

Felt Christmas decorations: garland and heart shaped wreath

I haven't posted in a long time, but I have spent quite a bit of time crafting. Unfortunately I just realized I forgot to take pics of some of my new creations and have given them to friends...
Anyway. As we moved to the Uk, I now had to find new sources for crafting. One of my favourites is   Wilkinsons...for basically anything else btw. I was able to pick up some really soft easy to sew felt and nice
ribbons, and best of all, a great assortment of cute red, white, grey buttons to match the felt.



This is the garland I made for the fire place. The birds and hearts were originally just christmas tree ornaments that I pulled the ribbon through and secured with alternating red and white cross stitches.

Merry Christmas!

Strawberry Yogurt loaf (or what to do with slightly expired yogurt)

I really like baking with my kids, and they like being able to help with grown up tasks like using the whisk, knife, scissors or in the case of the little one, a wooden spoon. I try to get them involved in the kitchen. During the summer when both were at home, I tried to involve both of them, giving them tasks that would suit their abilities.
This recipe is a great way to make use of yogurt that is a little bit past its due date.... but fresh yogurt works just as well :). The benefit of fruit yogurt is that it lends a nice fruity taste to the cake. Here I used  yogurt that is high in fat, strawberry flavored Yopiat Filous Fromage Frais and added some creme fraiche. The creme fresh/fromage frais or soured cream is used as shortening. If you use less fatty yogurt you need to add a tablespoon or so of vegetable oil.




2 beaten eggs
1 mug (about 200 ml) of sugar
1 mug of joghurt/creme fraiche/soured creme
2 mugs of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
0.5 teaspoon of salt
strawberries or other fruit

My sons love to break the eggs... shells can be fished out with a spoon or fork

 1. Beat eggs
2. Add sugar and beat some more.
3. Add yoghurt
4. Add all other dry ingredients
5. Top with fruit
6. Bake for about 30-40 minutes at 180 C.

The little one helped take the green bits off the strawberries.

We all put the strawberries on top.

. 

Note: It should not be this brown :)

This is an alternative to a cake that is made with sour cream in Hungary and is topped with seasonal fruit. A big favorite with my mom and grandma. They usually add sour cherries or sometimes apples and walnuts on top. I've made it with rasberries and even canned pineapples. My mom also adds poppy seeds to the batter to feed my dad's poppy addiction :)

painted UFO cupboard knob

I haven't posted anything in a long time! To make up for it, I'll try to share a few things we did over the summer/fall.

One of our projects was the revamp of a night-table for my son. Since it is made out of laminated wood, my options were quite limited. Also, most of the furniture in the kids room is white or pine so white was fine by me.

The original nighttable

I really did not like the painted aluminium knob on the door of the nightstand. So when I came across a bag of there handles at a charity shops, I bought them.

The theme of the kids' new bedroom is SPACE in so far as there is a with stars, a rocket pillow and some drawers with space themed stickers on them. (I was trying to think of something that was appropriate for both my 2.5 year old but not too babyish for my 7.5 year old.) So, I painted an alien on the handle:

As always, I used acrylic paint and an acrylic varnish so it will wear better.

My son helped me out with the screwdriver!

The finished piece.

Fiona Watts bird-spiration 2: be-birded tray

Fueled by the success of my other bird doodle projects( see http://thefeverishfeltist.blogspot.hu/2013/05/fiona-watts-bird-spiration.html) (and also the fact that I enjoy drawing them) I made a tray for my husband's grandma as a birthday present. I bought a plain wooden tray at the craftshop and used acrylic paint and a permanent marker for the contour and varnish.

I was able to finish this during roughly 1.5 nap-times discounting the varnish. Of course nap-times are subject to variability given the difference between children... so I'd say about 2- 2.5 hours for the whole tray, but I used a hair blow drier to hasten the drying of the paint.:)

I plan to make one for our house as well.

City scape on wood

Another Fiona Watts inspired project...

In her book 365 things to make and do, there is a section that shows readers how to doodle cityscapes.
I took it up a knotch and drew the cityscape on painted wood with a permanent pens (fine and medium) sized tips. I liked the outcome so much that I made a second one with colorful buildings.