How to clean and care wooden furniture

Is it just me, I am not sure, but I always feel extra energy in spring and urge to clean, tidy dressers, makeover rooms. With the sunny days, stains and dust is much more visible. Stains on furniture could be very frustrating, particularly if this is our favourite piece. But before I decide to buy something advertised on TV (usually rather expensive and inefficient), I try domestic and more 'green' stuff.

Try some of the recepies below, they really work.

'Green' tips and tricks how to remove stains from wooden furniture

 Remove ugly rings left  after wet glasses or vases

Mix equal amounts of (distilled) vinegar and olive oil, rub it with a soft cloth on the stain. Use another clean, soft cloth to remove excess oil and vinegar and polish with the surface. For leather furniture, use only  vinegar-soaked cloth.

Remove stains left after hot dishes 

Mix equal amounts of tooth paste and baking powder, rub it on the stain, leave few minutes and clean with wet cloth.

Thoroughly cleaning dust

Apple vinegar or beer are excellent for thoroughly cleaning stubborn dirt on furniture. Apply vinegar or beer on woolen cloth and rub the surface.

Read more "How to clean and care wooden furniture"

Spring is here, garden is waiting for us

It was such a beautiful Sunday, sunny all day, after dark, foggy, wet winter. I  finally started spring activities in my little garden and enjoy blossoms of Lonicera (variety that blossoms since December).

 Although  mornings are still rather cold, I bought geraniums on the market and planted them in pots.

 One of my favourite flowers is Nasturtium. I sown seeds in pot, can't wait to see first leaves coming out. 

This is modest and beautiful plant, and during past few years it spread all part of the garden - I just love it. Those photos were taken last year, during August.

Read more "Spring is here, garden is waiting for us "

Furniture makeover 3 - Benefits of Primer

      As the weather is improving, I am making plans for my furniture makeover - always have some pieces waiting to be refurbished. I don't have proper studio for such work, particularly for preparations eg. sanding, so I am waiting for warmer days to work outside, in the yard. Another reason is that I like to paint on daily light, as can better notice imperfections and flaws. 

      In addition to surface preparation, I usually use primer before painting and this post is actually about primer.


Read more about primer after the jump.

Read more "Furniture makeover 3 - Benefits of Primer"

Felted birds

Spring is near, birds are coming back!

                                 

Spring is near (I do hope so, although  snow is forecasted in Zagreb for this week), birds are coming back soon. After black/grey/brown season,  bring some colors in your life.  I had so much fun making these birds and new ideas hot to use them were popping in with each new bird. I made decorations,  brooch, garnish for my purse, key charm, just with little customisation.

Read more in the tutorial: How to make felted birds

Read more "Felted birds"

Flower made from egg cartons

There are a lot of discussion on internet whether it is OK to put other people's craft on your own blog or not. I feel sometimes I just need to pay tribute to some authors, this time I can't resist to this work of Jane LaFazio. She made this beautiful flowers from egg cartons and published also a tutorial how to make the flowers.

Read more "Flower made from egg cartons"

Word clouds

Or: How to play with words!

It might be a common knowledge for a lot of people, but somehow I missed the 'word clouds'. Of course, I saw them occasionally, but didn't know how to create them or even the terminology, and then of course, how to find right tools. And, as it often is, I accidentally found the right site. As I love letters and fonts, fell in love with them. It is actually very easy to create clouds and choose different shapes, font types, colors.

The best known is probably Wordle : it is a tool  for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. 
The Tagxedo Creator enables you to create various shapes and there are number of others. 
Read these reviews to find something more about other tools. And try some of them, it is realy fun to play.

On the examples above I tried the same text for all of them, see how different each of them is.

Read more "Word clouds"

Traditional wooden toys of Croatia

In today's consumeration world we are used on mass-production, same product found in New York, Zagreb or Tokio. It is my pleasure to show you these beautiful, handmade toys from Croatia, Hrvatsko zagorje (North-West part of our country). You can feel love and passion built in each of them. 
Wooden children’s toys are recognizable traditional products of Hrvatsko zagorje with a long history. Precisely in this area, a peculiar production of toys was developed in the 19th century and it has been preserved in some villages. From very simple reed toys, the assortment widened so that, at times, one hundred and twenty different toys were produced. The method of their production was passed on from generation to generation in some families and has been kept to this day. The peculiarity is that they are handmade by men and mostly painted by women. 

There can never be two completely identical toys since each one is handmade. The material used is soft wood from the area, willow, lime, beech and maple that craftsmen hew after drying and then cut and shape it with the help of wooden or cardboard models. In painting they use eco paint and their base colours are usually red, yellow or blue. They paint the toys with floral and geometrical ornaments. Today, about fifty types of toys are made, ranging from various reeds, tamburitzas, animal toys and objects of common use. In the year 2009 UNESCO  declared them as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Till the end of May, 2013 you can visit the interesting exhibition hold in Ethnographic museum in Zagreb: World of toys. 

Read more "Traditional wooden toys of Croatia"

Valentine sugar card

In my believe, it is always better to make cards and gifts by yourself - in that way you show people you do care about them - in the hectic and busy era we live, time is the most precious to give. This card is easy to make, I like to use material I can find at home.

Read this simple tutorial how to make Valentine sugar card.

Read more "Valentine sugar card"

Valentine cards

Valentine day is approaching and  although I don't like the commercial pressure of that day, it is nice to dedicate one day to love and friendship. In my country it is not custom to give  cards on that day, but as I like cards, I made some - it was fun and easy, and I have plan to make some more. They can be used also for birthdays, Christmas or any other special day. Of course, I used chalkboard paint again, I just love it and use it whenever I can.

Read more "Valentine cards"

What to pay attention when buy camera

As a  novice in photography, I decided to buy new camera, nothing very expensive but good enough to take quality photos, shoot my projects and learn 'tricks and tips' step-by-step, and one day, when reach better understanding and experience, take something more advanced. So, I started to google - shops, photo sites, forums, first to see what could be important for my level of (in)experience. 

      I learned that Megapixels over 12 MP is not so important but optical wide-angle zoom could be. The sensor choice -  CCD or CMOS  ( I read the CMOS is better - don't know why) could be important. Battery is also rather important - the plain AA or AAA are probably the best choice as could be bought everywhere.  The ease of use is also good to check. Video possibilities  were not interesting to me, so I didn't check them. Finally, after spending few hours on Internet, I decided to buy Olympus SZ-14. It is travel zoom digital camera -  a bridge between point-and-shoots and mega-zoom cameras. So far, I didn't shoot a lot, can't tell much about this. 

     The  pleasant  surprise is the PC software for photos storing and editing - very user-friendly with the number of possibilities. Unpleasant surprise was the equipment that came with the camera - I didn't get the memory card and got the USB-AC adapter FC-2AC  which is useless here in Croatia (need to buy FC-3AC separately). And in all materials I read, it was not clearly  written what you get with the camera. The memory card and adapter are rather inexpensive, but I am frustrated with the vendor's approach to hide those details. Few years ago, I bought compact camera from the same vendor and got everything - memory card and battery charger. So, as 'devil is in details', check literally everything before your purchase.

Read more "What to pay attention when buy camera"