Pies

Making miniature pie is an idea I always delayed, I don't know why. Last week I made some and now I'm an addict. I found some amazing crust pattern and edge style on the internet I definitely try in the future. I baked an apple and a cherry pie at first.

And the big mistake of the month (I hope it's not the first part of a terrible series),

I wanted to make a country breakfast board with handpainted jug. I planned a white one with blue pattern. After one hour painting I was going to finish the jug with acrylic gloss varnish. I have a lot of acrylic spray in various colors and I never put the cap back onto the bottle, because it's a pain to remove the safety cap (I'm an impatient and lazy person). So the only way to tell apart the colors is checking the lettering on the bottom of the bottle, and I always check it. Well, always, except yesterday. One simple blow and I managed to cover the delicate blue pattern with shiny dark brown paint. After a shriek and some words I won't cite I decided to make a wonderful brown jug with white pattern. Here it is.

Lesson 1, always check the color of the spray bottle before use!

Crepes

My daughters are big fans of crepes, and I'm the same. Now I made my miniature versions of crepes in various flavours. My favoutite is the apricot jam filled roll. Of course the jam have to be homemade!

New book

This time I don't post about my works but a very useful and creative book written by a wonderfully talented hungarian diorama builder, László Adóba.  The book covers making of stone objects like flower pots, tombstones, fountains and more. The steps for each build are accompanied by 290 color photos over 64 pages.

I know he works in a different scale than we usually do, but the methods and tricks he shows in his book are just perfect for us, too. And I like how he uses absolutely simple materials and tools you can find even at home.

The book should be available from László Adóba’s website . 

I already mentioned this book in one of my previous post some months ago, but that was only in  hungarian. Now you can buy the english version.

Here are some sample page from the book,

Cheese cake again

I had made many cheese cakes with various flavour before, now it was the time to rethink it with hazelnut. Lucky I am I have a real hazelnut bush in my garden, so I had not to surf the net after photos. Well, I searched the bush and the ground beneath it, but I found only a few lame bunches of hazelnut. Our dog is a nut addict and devoured all the fallen hazelnuts. So much for the hot caramelized nuts at cold winter evenings...

Bench variations

About two or three weeks ago I made a bench with drawers. At first I wasn't sure the white-stained wood-blue color combination, but I found beatiful brown-blue flower pattern on the net and I was immediately convinced of the color trio.  

I liked so much the result I tried more color variations, too, and I even made experiments on the number of drawers.

Some months ago I realized I have to manage my furniture plans much more organised. From that time I print all the parts onto card paper and put them into their own envelope decorated with elevation draws. I numbered the paper parts and the elevation draws similarly, so I always know which part is which. Though the preliminary works are more with every first piece of furniture, making the remakes are always far more convenient and simple.

Making scones

August is the month of experiments. I have a lot of new plans in my mind and in my idea book. Now I try to make them one by one. This time I show you a preparation board and a bread box.
I love this blue floral ornament style named gzhel. It originates from Russia and they use it for ceramics. I used this blue design for the flour box and the rolling pin.
The bread box was my first try to make my own miniature hinges. I'm just whispering these are not the results of my fist attempt (and not the second...). At last I find the right materials and the right dimensions. Now I can make furniture not only with working drawers but working doors, too. As I imagine!

Sponge cake

This sponge cake is the most simple and the most complicated one at the same time I've ever made. At first I design the paper pieces of the cake pan on my computer, then plotted them in the correct scale. That was the time when I got shocked realizing how tiny these pieces are! Bot I'm not the type giving in and the result was worth all the efforts and time. 

Let me introduce you my little sponge cake just from the oven. The frame even burnt my finger!