Although I haven't been blogging for a long while, I have been very busy. Here's a toybox that I painted up for the boys at the end of last year:

I used the book "The Tiger Who Came to Tea" by Judith Kerr as my reference, as it was my favourite book as a child, and the boys love it too.  The picture on the top of the box appears on the back of the book.

This is the side of the box, showing the Tiger drinking all the water from the taps so that Sophie can't have a bath that night (even as a child I knew this wasn't possible, but it didn't spoil the magic of the story!)

On the inside of the box I painted my favourite scene in the book. As the Tiger has eaten everything in the house, there is nothing for dinner, so Sophie puts on her coat and wellingtons over her nightdress and goes out to a cafe with mummy and daddy for sausages and chips and ice cream. As a child, I thought the idea of going out at night after bedtime (particularly in your nightie!) was just magical. As the lid is often open as the boys rummage around for bits of lego, this view is often on display.

Originally I had planned to paint scenes on the sides and back too, and I should really have painted the inside as well as it looks rather shoddy! But I'm afraid I had run out of patience by this point and was desparate to move onto something else! Being a bit of a perfectionist my eye is drawn to all the mistakes, but I am basically fairly pleased with the end result. I find painting furniture very enjoyable!