Porcelain pen duel: Pebeo vs HobbyLine

As I am home for the holidays, I have a bit of time on my hands. I do a lot of ceramic mugs so I’m always on the hunt for good porcelain paint.

Lately I have been really into black&white, graphic kind of stuff, and I bought not one, but two porcelain pens/markers. I like them both, but you kind of have to know what you will need them for, before you make the purchase. 

To make it easier for you, here’s a brief review:

I needed a catch-all dish for my nightstand so this was the perfect thing to test out the markers.

Here are the contestants; first we have HobbyLine PorcelainPen Brilliant. 

It is water-based, intended for porcelain, glazed ceramics, glass and even metal. The colour becomes dishwasher safe after baking it in an oven for about an hour and a half on 160°C (320°F). I have bought this one first, have two mugs painted with it and it holds up very nicely even with daily use and dishwashing. The tip is like a regular marker tip, 2-4 mm wide, so not very good for precise tiny drawings. It leaves a rich, really black trace which is a plus, because you don’t have to go over it twice. The only problem I’ve encountered while drawing with this marker is that it had run on me once. Not much, but a nuisance nonetheless. Aaaaand, they come in different colours, which is cool if you’re into colours.

Secondly we have Pebeo Porcelaine 150 pen. Also water-based, as the name suggests you have to bake it on 150°C (302°F) for 35 minutes, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but seems to work just fine. The tip is harder and much more narrow at only 0,7 mm. This makes for a great precision pen, but not much else. It is my go-to pen for really dainty drawings, like cat’s whiskers. Since the trace is so narrow, it is also somewhat lighter, which I don’t like so I use it a little less.

The poorly drawn cat strikes again!

 Generally speaking, I use the HobbyLine marker much more because I like a solid bold line. Oh, and this is in no way a paid advertisement, since I don't have any readers and nobody would pay me to write. 

The armoire renovation

This armoire (Is there another word for this kind of furniture?) was picked up on a flea market and it was in  really bad shape. Paint was piled on thick, the hinges were busted, and there was even some damage from woodworms.

But the shape of it and the tiny soap tray on top convinced me it could be a potentially very interesting project.

 So first of course it needed a good wash. After that I unscrewed the hinges and pulls. Then I had to melt off all the old layers of old paint (Yuck!). If you ever do something like that be sure you are doing it outside or in a well ventilated area.
Next came the sanding and filling in the damage. I forgot to take pictures of the process of course, but just to give you an idea, here is a picture of putty-filled wormholes (I know, sounds bad).

After the armoire was sufficiently sanded down came a coat of primer. At this point it started to look quite decent and I was seriously considering just leaving it white, because it had a French countryside vibe to it, which I kind of like in small quantities.   

But after some thought I stuck to the original plan to paint it this dulled down blue.

And I managed to find new hinges and pulls that worked well with what I intended, but the pulls weren’t that special, so I’m still looking for new Ideas on that front. 

The end result? Not bad right?

Bonus picture of a dog. 

Is this the most cheerful tray you've ever seen?

I don't know about you, but in our house we have an extensive collection of melamine trays in this weird faux-wood finish. They’re probably all from grandma, they’re not very pretty and we only use them for major baking projects.

So I was quite interested in sneaking off with one and trying to paint over it, to see if it would work.

First I sanded it down, because the melamine was obviously glossy. Then I used the usual acrylic craft paint, three coats of it because the original finish was quite dark. After I painted it I used the spray on varnish, to make it more durable.

Aaaaand, the end result?

Quite nice, and so far it held up very well. Most importantly it makes me smile every time I use it, which is kind of the point of these projects. 

Magic custard cake | Magični biskvit z jajčno kremo

Prejšnji teden sem na Facebooku zasledila sliko tortice, ki je izgledala tako slastno, da sem bila prepričana da je blazno komplicirana za izdelavo. Baje je ta tortica slavna tudi na Pinterestu, podobno kot tisti japonski cheescake. 
Ampak, ker je bila danes malo bolj počasna nedelja in, ker vedno paše nekaj sladkega, sem se odločila raziskati recept in zadevo preizkusiti. 

Last week this interesting cake popped up on my Facebook feed, and it looked so delicious I just had to make it. Turns out the cake is also quite popular on Pinterest. 
Since it was a slow Sunday I tried the recipe in the first link below, just to see what all the fuss was about. 
The end result was satisfactory but I'm not deeply impressed or anything. The bottom layer had a funny texture to it. In a slightly chewy or half-baked way. 
I mean it is by no means a bad tasting cake, and it is fairly easy to make, so I recommend it to custard lovers. 
I'll probably try the chocolate version some day, since chocolate has the tendency to improve desserts. 

Dve različici recepta v angleščini | Two versions of the recipe:
http://hugsandcookiesxoxo.com/2014/04/magic-custard-cake.html

http://whiteonricecouple.com/recipes/magic-custard-cake/

Sama sem delala po prvi različici, ker ne maram dodajati kisa v slaščice, če ni absolutno nujno. 

Sestavine:

• 4 jajca, ločimo rumenjake in beljake
• vanilijev ekstrakt (jaz imam raje vanili sladkor, 3 vrečice)
• 100 gr sladkorja
• 113 gr masla
• 100 gr moke
• 450 ml mleka
• Sladkor v prahu za posipanje

1. Prižgemo pečico na 160°C, brez ventilacije.
2. Beljake stepemo v čvrst sneg.
3. V drugi skledi rumenjake zmešamo s sladkorjem, da se penijo
4. Rumenjakom dodamo maslo in mešamo dokler ne nastane enotna zmes (do dve minuti).
5. Vmešamo moko
6. Postopoma dodajamo sneg in lepo nežno vmešamo v testo. 
7. Maso, ki se vam bo najbrž zdela čisto preredka vlijemo v pekač (moj je bil okrogel, 28 cm premera) in pečemo okoli 60 minut, da je vrh lepo zlato zapečen.
8. Torto ohladimo in posujemo s sladkorjem v prahu, po okusu. 

Celoten postopek priprave vzame okoli 20 minut, čas peke precej zavisi od pekača in pečice, moja torta je izgledala pečena že po okoli pol ure. 

Sveže iz pečice

Končni rezultat je zadovoljiv, morda bom naslednjič poskusila s čokoladno različico ali pa bom poskusila narediti okus bolj limonast, saj nisem pretirana ljubiteljica jajčne kreme. 

Najbolj zanimivo je, da se masa res razdeli v tri sloje, tako, da torta izgleda veliko bolj zahtevna za izdelavo kot je v resnici. 

Končni rezultat

Hi there!

I've been a fan of blogs for years now. It started out as a way to follow fashion (I still love Garance Doré and Fashionisima) but gradually my interests shifted from fashion to do-it-yourself and interior decoration (Decor8 for example, is seriously dreamy and yes, I'm a total sucker for room makeovers and all the cool stuff I can't realistically afford).

But since most of my favourites are moving to slow blogging I have decided to make my own site, to share ventures and mishaps, whether it be at cooking, sewing or renewing old furniture.