Bag of pretty

Villa Carton Biplane - product review

2013-05-10T11:35:00.001+02:00

We liked the Villa Carton Biplane even before we received it. But when the package came and we assembled it we absolutely loved it.

Unlike the City blocks we reviewed last time, the biplane is not really suitable for children under 3-4 years of age I'd say, so we had to be careful not to let P's 17 months old little brother get it. The plane is also a bit more complicated to assemble, because it consists of smaller parts, but P enjoys building now and he especially enjoyed doing this with his dad. I lover that even though this is a cardboard toy, there are movable parts on it, the wheels are turning and so is the propeller. Design of it is simply fantastic, so much detail, and there is even a pilot sitting in the plane.

We live near Chain Bridge and on May 1st we were lucky to see an Air Show. Planes flew over and under the bridge and P went nuts.

And when we got home biplane got it's turn:)

Villa Carton
Villa Carton on facebook
Villa Carton on twitter

Striped PJs are OK

2013-04-25T09:29:00.001+02:00

You know when you get a piece of clothing for your kids but you can't really picture wearing it, or at least not in that actual form?

They are too big for the baby, and too short and weird shaped for the boy, but you like the fabric. It looks good and is soft to the touch. Use an acceptable PJs to trace, add some cuffs and you are done. I think this was less than 30 minutes project, I even managed to use the original waist line, only hat to stitch it along the cut together with the elastic that was already there.

Good Morning Sunshine:)

You can find the tute for the top he is wearing here.

My skinny little boy being an angel:)

Messed up Submarine Pullover

2013-04-23T23:27:00.000+02:00

A while ago I got this Shauna from Shwin & Shwin sent me the Submarine Pullover pattern to test. I did most of it, and the the whole family got down with the flu, bad one.
Here it is now...the patter calls for thinner fabric, but I wanted to try this out and used coat fabric instead. Great choice, since it is going to be steaming hot from now to eternity, they say.
The pattern is for intermediate sewers, but I believe beginners can also tackle it without fear, maybe leave out the button holes (like I did, although button holes were never on my list of problems sewingwise). I also did something wrong with the hood so I had problems lining it up, and due to the thickness of the fabric it wasn't pleasant, but in the end I just decided to take it in and leave the placket outside the hood area. What I am trying to say is, there is always a way around things. Sometimes the solutions you find because you messed things up are the best ones and even though the garment might not be perfect it will make it unique:)

I used daddy's shrunk sweater for the cuffs.

and cuffs of daddy's old polo shirt sleeves for the pockets and the rest of the shirt for the lining of the hood.

And now on the kid:

For a short while he tried to be a good sport.

ENOUGH!

Linking to The Train to Crazy

Tropical Dream, new Jungle collection by EFVVA

2013-04-23T14:08:00.003+02:00

I don't know about you, but over here the weather is incredible. We totally jumped from winter into Summer. They are already announcing tropical heat wave in a few days. 30 degrees Celsius in tropical in April I should think. And with tropical heat you need

TROPICAL DREAM

DISCOVER JUNGLE SPRING SUMMER COLLECTION BY EFVVA

Photos:PinkWings

Models:Antonina,Eryk,Eunice,Helena,Jeremi.

I love those pastel freckles and red haired kiddos and the collection is really wild, don't you think?

COLLECTION AVAILABLE HERE.

The HooDress for Valentina

2013-04-22T23:04:00.001+02:00

Rarely do I have the chance to sew something for girls so I was really happy when this time KCWC, Merrily we Sewalong with Two-Tee dress theme and a visit of my friend Monika and her little girl Valentina coincided. Nothing like three birds with one stone, right?
Oh, and I am still not buying fabric, so only upcycling in this house.

I started with two of my tops I used to love dearly and my sons T-shirt for the pattern and the measures, since him and Valentina are both 16 months old, only a few days apart, but living a world apart from each other. We are in Hungary and she is in Aspen, USA.

And ended up with this.

I even made a label, my first, yeeey!:) Couldn't get a better photo, she was moving all the time:)

Birthday Cake Series: #5

2013-04-18T22:21:00.001+02:00

I completely forgot I never showed you out 4th birthday cake.
Yes, yes, it is cake #5, because this cake messed up our numbering.

P had one request, he wanted a cake to be really, really big.

His face expression was priceless!

Cake had P's name and age stamped all over it.

I used the same recipe as here, plus the food coloring but top of the cake was fondant (to be able to stamp) and layers were fixed together with homemade rose hip marmalade.

And that is that on the cake #5. My next cake is due in December...

Soup with a straw

2013-04-16T23:38:00.001+02:00

P is not a big eater. He is usually 'sooooo full' after half a bite. So, sometimes I use tricks...like say...give him soup in a cup to 'eat' with a straw. He likes unusual things, especially things he finds funny.

Soup P is drinking in a photo is a Wild Garlic soup, for the recipe jump here.

Happy soup drinking!

Tree softie for a baby

2013-04-15T16:07:00.000+02:00

I made this softie during nap time, for the baby boy we went to visit yesterday. Very simple project from an old Ikea Fredrika fabric with tree prints.

Note: stump needs to be made wider otherwise it will fold over because it can't keep the weight of the tree top.

P woke up and had a complete meltdown over the tree softie. He's never been interested in softies, but if I make a toy for someone else he needs it really, really bad.

Playground season - SHOW ME YOUR PLAYGROUND CALLOUT

2013-04-12T14:13:00.000+02:00

Finally, the playground season is here. I don't have to put tons of clothes on myself and kids to get out of the house and we can stay outside after daycare. Here in Budapest we go to the playground an luckily for us there are tons. I love the fact that you can find playgrounds in most unexpected places among old buildings or in the shopping area. Most of them are in pretty good condition, fenced and some are equipped with crazy constructions my boys love, like planes, trains or little adrenalin park features.

What is it like in your country? Do you go to the playground or you have your own in your back yard? Please join us in the SHOW ME YOUR PLAYGROUND SERIES! Contact me if you'd like to participate, I'd love to hear from you!

Happy belated spring!:)

IKEA goes cardboard

2013-04-11T09:52:00.001+02:00

...and IKEA goes cardboard too, not at all expensive: SKYLTA market stand.

A different take on Gulliver

2013-04-05T12:25:00.003+02:00

Same authors I wrote about several days ago when I posted about Snow White made this award winning movie. See this take on Guliver and let me know what you think:

GULIVER movie from ZDENKO BASIC on Vimeo.

International Children's Book Day: Snow White non-Disney way

2013-04-02T23:44:00.001+02:00

Ever since 1967 April 2 is the day to celebrate children's books. I am not sure how you do it, but I really try to bring quality reading into my children's lives. It is not so easy and sometimes kids like things you don't or would like them not to, but even though I will not force them or forbid books that are not on my top favorites list I do feel it is important to show P there is a whole magic world of fairy-tales beyond Disney.

The book you should definitely try to get hold of is a Snow White, magically retold by Stella Gurney and illustrated by two incredibly talented Croatian guys: Zdenko Bašić and Manuel Šumberac.

source

I like this version so much more than the one we read hundreds of times. Isn't it so much more likely that dwarfs' house would be really tidy and clean?:)

source

The story is wonderful and illustration exquisite. Check out the whole illustrated book here (no text). Zdenko Bašić and Manuel Šumberac are winning award after award for whatever they touch and you really need to know them. Other book in their opus include: The Night Before Christmas and Pinocchio, while Zdenko Bašić also did Alice in Wanderland and The Cleverest Spider.

And guess what, they are making a movie Tales of the Wind, based on this book:

So incredibly beautiful! I can't wait...

Easter Foods

2013-03-31T14:06:00.004+02:00

My favorite Easter meal is breakfast. Whole family around the table, cooked ham, horseradish, boiled eggs, sweet bread...What are you eating on Easter?
See more about our and some other Easter European traditional foods on EastOK Europe.
Happy Easter!

Smallgarden - the dream shop

2013-03-26T22:47:00.002+01:00

I am happy...and a little bi jelous it wasn't me who opened this shop.

Smallgarden – with repertoire consisting of unique clothes, design objects and accessories for children - started as an initiative filling the gap on the market. Design shop where people can find stylish and quality clothes, accessories, toys and furniture for the little ones in the family.

Owners of this shop strongly believe that creative visual environment in childhood determines the personality, creativity and further interests of the kid.

The aim of Smallgarden is similar to that of Bag of Pretty: to pass the works of the talented local artists to a broader public interested in creative children's design and to introduce some less known foreign designers to the Hungarian public.

Some Hungarian designers in the collection are alredy known to BoP reader: Marbushka, Eszterda, Manuela as well as foreigners, eg. Makedo (you know I am a big fan).

I am particularly happy they have Tattyoo temporary tattoos. I'm getting this for the boys as soon as the weather gets warm enough for them to show their biceps.

How I saved our car seat cover

2013-03-25T18:00:00.000+01:00

After 3 years of use our car seat looked like this:

until I did this:

leather knee pads. My fingers are pierced and hurt, but I love how it turned out.

Nutella is cure

2013-03-22T15:15:00.000+01:00

Spring was already here and then winter hit us again. It was a shock you can only survive with food.
I've been playing with the idea of homemade Nutella for quite a long time. My attitude was sort of a 'why bother, the store bought one is perfect". But recently we started reading the labels more. Let me tell you, there is less and less products on our shopping list every day. We make our own bread, cheese spread...there is almost no packaged ham or salami that is not full of preservatives that are NOT GOOD.

So anyway...Nutella...In this make-it-at-home mood we decided to give it a try. There are numerous recipes online. The basis is obviously hazelnuts, but then there are varieties with chocolate, almonds, etc...we went with what we had at home and took it from there. I liked the Browne Eyed Baker recipe because it seems pretty simple and the ingredients were really basic (if you ignore the hazelnut oil and use your regular vegetable one).

Here is how we did it:

Ingredients:

2 cups sweetened hazelnuts (I buy the sweetened version sometimes, because they are already roasted and ground, and because I am lazy)
⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I guess flavor is much nicer if you have hazelnut of walnut oil on you, but I wouldn't go buying it just for this purpose)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
handful of kids chocolate cubes (ours was Schogetten for Kids)

Process hazelnuts in the food processor until it sort of becomes moist. In the beginning it looks like it's never going to happen, but then id does at one point. This is not the most entertaining activity you could wish for, especially if your food processor is not self standing and can not be used continuously for more than a few seconds, but it can be done. I attach photos below as evidence.

After hazelnuts are processed you add everything else and process some more, until the mixture is compact and starts looking and smelling like Nutella. I tell you, the smell of processed hazelnuts is nuts:)

(Note: If your hazelnuts are not sweetened, you will need to add sugar!)

You can either store it in an airtight container, I hear it will last up to a month if refrigerated. OR you get daddy to make pancakes/crepes and just eat it all.

I think it is obvious which one we chose this time...

Have you ever made your own hazelnut spread? Please leave a comment, I am dying to know!

Happy Macaron Day 2013

2013-03-20T23:08:00.001+01:00

For more macarons go here and here.

I am awesome T-Shirt

2013-03-18T10:47:00.001+01:00

As the title says, I think I am awesome! My whole life I was freaked out of sewing with knits. I started a while ago with some upcycles and it really wasn't that bad at all. But to make a T-Shirt was impossible to imagine for me. I thought I needed a serger, my machine isn't good enough and that I would fail miserably. But reading all the sewing blogs out there and seeing how people do wanders without sergers and any special equipment I though it is time to give it a go. Plus, what is the worst that can happen? T-Shirt turns out to be a disaster, I wasted a little time (not the first) and fabric (I upcycle anyway, so no biggie).

But I didn't fail:)
I am quite happy with the result. There are some things I will do differently next time, but in general, this is a perfectly wearable piece of clothes.

It is a little loose on him, but he loves it and he'll grow into it in no time anyway. I made it a bit longer than the pattern suggests. This T is made of two old T-shirts of mine. I used the old neck ribbing. Dana from MADE did a tutorial on this recently if you are not familiar with the process. I also made cuffs bigger and wider.

Pattern from Tank Engine (free, available in sizes 110, 120, 130). It is in Japanese, but there are photos if you are new to sewing, otherwise you will figure it out for yourself, it is a 3 piece pattern. The pattern lines up real nice and is very easy to work with.

What do you think?

Are you following my Free Sewing Patterns board on Pinterest yet?

Linking to The Train To Crazy

Tini clothes

2013-03-12T22:59:00.000+01:00

Baby I started a nursery and he is not too happy about it. He cried a lot, so they asked me to bring in his favorite toy, but he had none so they told me to bring something in anyway. I went home and picked the softest plushie we had and hoped it would work and he'd accept his new friend. And he did! The bonded instantly, and he's been sucking on his ear ever since.
When I cleared out the closet this weekend I found some tiny clothes I just new I wouldn't be able to throw away and on Sunday night I decided to make a surprise gift for the new friends. Ilija is already into dressing, always trying to pull socks onto his head. I can tell you he was really pleased with what I came up with and it made him laugh out loud.

Blue vest is on the sheep because Ilija went nuts when I put it on his friend and started screaming NO, NO, NO! He loved the little overall but hated the vest for some reason. If I could see into their brains for a minute or two...

What do you do with the clothes your kids have outgrown?

Liebster award for Bag of Pretty

2013-03-11T10:29:00.002+01:00

Yesterday evening when I checked out the blow I was in for a nice surprise from Valentina from Studio13.
Some of you may know Valentina from the Carnival series I did a little while ago. The best thing about blogging is I get to meet creative mama's from all around the world. This time I am getting some traffic from Slovenia, because that is where Valentina is from and she was kind enough to put Bag of Pretty forward for the

Here is a little about what the award is all about:
This award was designed to be a blog award in the "pay it forward" fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to five blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage new visitors to visit these blogs.

The rules for accepting this award are:
You need to thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award!

Next you need to PAY IT FORWARD!

And now for my selection of five (some of this blogs might have more than 200 followers, not everybody displays the followers on their page, but they should be followed nevertheless:) Enjoy!

Buttnumbered pants GIVEAWAY

2013-03-08T11:16:00.003+01:00

Hi all!

Thanks to Dana from Made this little project of mine became very popular in the last few days.

And since my little guy wore it twice before he grew it out I decided to give it away.
If you have a 6-9 months old and you like these, enter now:)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Shoes

2013-03-07T14:17:00.000+01:00

Many people who know me now might not be aware of the fact I really, really love shoes. If you love shoes too, jump over to EastOK Europe, where I talk about some Eastern European shoe designers. Some kiddo shoe designers are in the selection too.

Gucio
EFFVA
LaLa Shoes

Aren't they the cutest?

My Two things - again

2013-03-01T09:34:00.000+01:00

I can't believe it's been a year already! And here it is again, Dr Seuss' birthday is tomorrow! I want to show you a project I did for the boys last year, originally posted on Budapest Moms.

Exactly a year ago today, P & I stood wondering

How did it get so late so soon?
Its night before its afternoon.

We sat there with P

We sat there, we two.
And I said, “How I wish
We had something to do!”
So all we could do was to
Sit!
Sit!

Sit!
Sit!
And we did not like it.
Not one little bit.
And then
Something went BUMP!
How that bump made us jump!
We looked!
Then we saw him step in on the mat!
We looked!
And we saw him!
The Cat in the Hat!

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, more places you’ll go.

So we read…but this was still not the project I needed so badly to do for Dr Seuss Day.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the things you can think up if only you try!

I could always print out the Cat in the Hat and stick it to P’s T-Shirt, but I am not too fond of cartoon characters on clothing, or anything else to be honest. I am more for subtly pointing out the obvious.

I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

And really, my troubles were all gone when The Cat said:

I will pick up the hook.

You will see something new.

Two things. And I call them

Thing One and Thing Two.

These Things will not bite you.

They want to have fun.

Then, out of the box

Came Thing Two and Thing One!

Original illustration from The Cat in the Hat

And immediately it hit me. I have two boys. It is late. I need a project, and I need something easy, fast and funny.

From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.

So after they went to bed, I made these:

I created a template in ~~Picnik~~ but Picnik is gone now, so you can try using Ipiccy to create printables from scratch. Picnic didn't have that possibility and my background turned a bit greyish, so if you use my downloads be aware of that.

I printed them on iron-on paper. Don’t forget to print it in mirror image, otherwise it will be backwards, which can also be fun sometimes…
After that I only had to iron it on a white T-shirt and a onesie I had for the boys. It is really important to do the ironing on a stable surface, so you can press the iron as hard as you can. The harder you press it, the better the result will be. An ironing board is not the best choice, although I did this on an ironing board yesterday.
And here they are, on Dr. Seuss’s birthday. My Two Things

Will you try this?

If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.

Birthday Cake Series: #4

2013-02-26T23:49:00.001+01:00

P will soon be 4, but the real cake #4 is actually Baby I's cake #1. Since I only ever make cakes for my boys birthdays, I will stay with chronological numbering, which basically means, cake #4 of my life.

You have already seen a glimpse of this cake here, but I will tell you now how it was made. See, unlike Cake#1 which was a no-bake cake, Cake #2 which wasn't really a cake at all, and Cake #3 which was a super cool mostly no-bake cake p is still talking about, cake #4 was my first REAL, made-from-scratch, baked cake.

The recipe I used was the Funfetti cake, and it is really tasty. It is a simple, no fuss recipe for a great looking cake and it was supposed to look like this:

but for reasons exceeding my culinary knowledge, it came out like this:

The sprinkles we have here don't seem to be very good ones, so they bled all over batter as soon as I put them in. The recipe also calls for bleached flour which I never even knew existed. All considered, the cake still came out perfect. It looked just the way I imagined it on the outside, and it tasted great!

I also decorated some Oreos with leftover icing and sprinkles. Boys probably loved that part best.

The cake wasn't bad either though

Bella loved it too:)

Shopping for glasses

2013-02-20T08:36:00.001+01:00

Yes, I wear glasses.
No, I'm not trying to be a hipster, I actually need them.

I've been wearing eyeglasses since I was 19 when I suddenly realized I can't read billboards from across the road. My mom thinks this unhappy occurrence is due to the fact I fell on my head when I was, say, 17. I say it was bound to be! See, since I can remember I wanted to wear glasses. Hipsterism was not invented, yet every year during the yearly checkup I remember standing in line and praying to God and Angels to give me: bad sight?!? What was wrong with me, nobody knows. Twenty something years ago it was completely uncool to wear glasses. It was dorky and embarrassing, yet I wanted it so badly that years later, when I was really in need of an eyeglasses prescription nobody would give it to me because they thought I was making it up.

So, when I finally found an optometrist who stared into my eyes once and decided I did indeed need glasses I was confronted with my worst nightmare: THE CHOICE. Seriously, how is one supposed to choose only ONE frame and wear it over and over and over again, day by day by day. In my years of longing to be bespectacled I used to imagine having different frames for every outfit and every occasion. When the moment of bespectacleness came I had to realize that was not going to happen. What a slap in the face, right? Not only my eyes were bad, I had to settle for one accessory to wear all the time, for years to come. And that is not all...did I tell you I hate shopping? I have this problem of indecisiveness, especially if an item of this sort is in question. Having sales people bringing more and more frames to me and expecting me to make a choice does not help my condition.

To tell you the truth, I am playing with the idea of online eyeglasses. Has any of you done that yet? Any advices?

Just look how sophisticated I look on this photo. I just tried over 20 pairs of frames from my armchair at home. Beats sweating at the shop for sure. Frames I like the most look lame on me both virtually and in real life, so I'm thinking this tool is pretty cool. Try it out below! They also have a test that will tell you if you are a FASHIONISTA, like me and narrow the frames selection for you accordingly.

If you find something that you like here is a perk for you, GlassesUSA is offering my readers 15% off your entire order amount + FREE shipping (orders over $50) with code: FS15 (storewide offer) or 10% off any order of prescription glasses with code: Blog10

This post is sponsored by GlassesUSA.com