Errors all around

The previous post was originally written using the blog tool Windows Live Writer 2012. But when I clicked the “publish” button all I got was an error message. Working within IT, I’ve seen my fair share of error messages, but this one had me fumbled…

I know I haven’t been very actively blogging…only a post a month…but the program was working fine the last time I blogged. Well as usuall, Google to the rescue!

I found a very simple explanation…Windows Live Writer is no longer supported for Blogger, which is the service I use. A simple switch over to the open source version Open Live Writer and we are back in business (BTW, open source means free). This software is actively being updated, so features I am missing, like spell check and categorization of posts, will hopefully be available soon.

You can read more about the discontinuation of Windows Live Writer here

- what tool do you use to write your blog posts?

Tiny alphas

Since joining different planner and pocket letter groups on Facebook, I have gotten so many tips and so much inspiration. The other day I came over a blog post about how to make my own tiny alphabet stickers. Since I had all the tools necessary I felt I had to give it a try.

Here are some of the groups I have joined, these have some wonderful and very creative members:
- Pocket Letter Pals
- planner, Journals and everything in between!

What you’ll need;
- sticker sheets (I bought mine at Staples) like these
- an exacto knife
- metal ruler

Instructions are available in the blog post here. Now I finally have a simple way to create alphabet letters, and I even get the Norwegian letters æ, ø, å.

my first batch

It took some time putting a word file together, with all the letters and characters I wanted. I would up with a table consisting of 25 columns and 26 rows all fitted in a A4 sheet of paper. Let me know if you want the Word file I created as a template and I’ll email it to you. After printing my first batch and using them to make a pocket letter I will make the next letters a tad bit more narrow. Next time around…

Aren’t these cute!

Still need to work out how much pressure to use when cutting the printed sticker sheets. My first attempt yielded full sheets though some more cut than others.

- do you make your own stickers?

Now off to watch an episode of The 100.

I’m back

It’s been a few full weeks here at CasaR. With BabyS taking a few weeks Summer vacation from kindergarten I’ve had my hands full with BabyS and BabyL. The plan was for DaddyO to take a few weeks off from work simultaneously, but had to change his plans when there was some lousy vacation planning on his colleagues part. So DaddyO had to “work from home” while BabyS was home. In other words, hectic days.

On the plus side…we have been blessed with super fantastic weather here in Oslo, Norway. With temperature well into the thirties. No need to travel anywhere for Mediterranean forecasts.Sunny days and poolside lounging, no complaints here.

Now that BabyS is back in kindergarten I get naptime back so I might even have time to do some blogging again. Though I have to admit…I have had time to do some Ebaying lately. After joining the Facebook group Ebay Baby & Barn I get many great tips on stuff to buy for my two sweeties.

The arrival of BabyL on BabyS 2 year birthday hasn’t given me time to reflect over the fact that my “little BabyS” is becoming a big girl. Just a few weeks ago she “moved” from her cot over to a full size bed – after a diaper mishap we used as an excuse to move the cot out of her room. The cot is now in “quarantine” before moving in to BabyLs room – so that BabyS doesn’t feel she’s loosing her bed to her baby sister. These last weeks I’ve noticed her growing personality, and her temper... her vocabulary is growing and how talkative she is several times a day. The other day I realized that I have to talk more Cantonese to her, if I want her to master the art of Chinese…So note to self – say everything in both Cantonese and Norwegian. It’s fun to see how she loves to try things out herself now. Think it’s time to give BabyS a new nick on my blog – how does “SweetieS” sound?

- have you given your children cyber nicknames?
- how has your Summer been so far?

Not forgotten

I know I haven’t been very good at posting lately…but I have a good excuse! I’ve been taking time off from work to take care of BabyS. Next week she starts kindergarten…and I’m back to work. With BabyS being so mobile, I’ve had my hands full.

I do have to admit I’m looking forward to BabyS beginning in kindergarten, and getting an outlet for all that energy she has. At the same time I’m gonna miss spending the days with her. It’s scary leaving your little baby with others. And possibly missing all the sweet/cute/quirky/strange things she does. Not being able to experience that, just being told what happened by someone else. You can say I have mixed feelings with BabyS beginning in kindergarten…Maybe that’s why I have put off sitting down and putting nametags on everything BabyS is to bring to her kindergarten?

In preparation for BabyS time in kindergarten I have done some shopping. One of the things is several pairs of soft leather shoes. And they come is SO many cute styles! I’ve bought mine from a store on Ebay. Very happy with the quality of the leather and the service is impeccable. If you are looking into getting your hold of a few of these, here’s the Ebay store I’ve used. Did I mention they’re dirt cheap too?

aren’t these cute??? (pictures borrowed from the Ebay listing)

Another thing on the shopping list lately has been name labels. And I got labels with supercool Stitch – from the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch. Hopefully there aren’t other kids with the same label…At NordicPrint you can upload pictures and design your own labels, and in color! How cool is that??? If you don’t want to create your own design, they have some cool designs to choose from.

here are mine…

A tip I got from my wonderful sister-in-law is to get a mix of the sticker labels and the iron-on ones. With a hair straightener is should be a breeze to “iron on”. For that occasion I bought a mini straightener! I bought mine from Tinydeal.

it’s so cute…

Another tip I got - online - with iron-on labels, when ironing on use greased food paper between the iron and label. Makes the labeling easier. To help remove iron-on labels use “sandwich paper”.

In the evenings we have been planning our holiday for the year. A trip to Singapore! Can’t wait to travel to the heat in the middle of the Norwegian winter. It’s gonna be a trip for firsts…BabyS first trip to Singapore, BabyS first long haul, our first time traveling with children, first time travelling with my sister and her boyfriend to mention a few….

The evenings have also gone to knitting. I finally finished my first garment for BabyS! But I’m still waiting for the buttons I ordered. So holding of posting pictures until I get them…

Well enough procrastinating and off to labels some stuff for kindergarten…

- how did you deal with your baby starting kindergarten?
- how have you spent your summer?

Hoping to win another giveaway

While surfing around the World Wide Web in Blogglandia, I came across a sweet Norwegian knitting blog. Check out Synnøves’ blogg ‘with 100% love’ and enter to win a little giveaway.

- have you come across any blogs that caught your interest right away? 
- how do you find new blogs to follow?

Give away winner = TweedyBird!

A few weeks back I joined in on the Hero Arts 2013 Catalog Blog Hop with the Hero Hostesses. Seeing the wonderful creations the HA-hostesses had posted in their blogs were truly inspirational. During the blog hop there were also announced give aways. And yours truly won one of them!

Not being a born winner I had to read Kellys message a few times before I understood what she was asking me for. In her blog Lovin’ The life I Color she even had a post about me winning the give away.

Well today I received my stamp. Yay! Kelly added a little extra with my stamp…a super cute card with a personal message inside. Thank you Kelly!

I    the owl!

What did I win you ask?
A stamp from the new Hero Arts catalog, of course! It was a new release blog hop…
I look forward to play with this stamp (Kelly also added some ribbon too, she’s SO sweet)

The stamp is called CG516 Number Pattern. If you want one too, it’s available @SimonSaysStamp, here to be exact.

- have you ever won a give away?
- which stamps are your favorites in the 2013 Hero arts catalog?

...Off to enjoy the rest of my Saturday

Hero Arts giveaway

This week I’m joining in on the Hero Art blog hop. It’s CHA time and that means new releases! Yay!

“Love the smell of new stamps” hehe Maybe I will be lucky and win some of the new releases on the blog hop…one can hope.

Well Kathy Racoosin is doing a giveaway in the name of Hero Art. Hop on over to her blog for a chance to win some of this goodness…

How beautiful…

My little Valentine dress

I fell totally in love with this Valentine top by Stinemor, I love the wavy style. How cute wouldn’t a dress be for BabyS? Well I searched high and low after a knitting pattern I could follow, with no luck. So I thought I would try taking elements from several patterns I came across and put together my own pattern.

With BabyS slowly establishing a sleep pattern that means she sleeps from about 6 o’clock in the evening to about 9 in the morning – only waking for feedings – I suddenly have my evenings back! And I have had time to do some knitting! Yay! Hopefully I can finish this dress before she grows out the size I’m aiming for…

a sneak peak of the project so far…

Have you ever “made up” your own knitting pattern or is following knitting patterns hard enough?

Now if I only I was a knitting machine…I could start and finish all the other projects I have in my head.

BTW if you like knitting, check out Stinemors’ blog – she has the cutest knits (the blog is in Norwegian)

http://rubys-verden.blogspot.no/

Fonts galore

Once again I have been playing around with the design of this blog. This time I added a signature file to every blog post. Played around with a few fonts and colors and wound up with this signature…Like it?

While playing around, I came over a new site for free fonts, a nice collection of some cool free fonts. Have added more than a handful of new fonts to my already bountiful  collection. Can’t hurt to have too many fonts?

http://www.fontspace.com/

Doesn’t hurt that Windows 7 makes it so easy to install new fonts either. Just open a .ttf and there’s a Install-button on the top left side of the window. Can’t complain about that. How many fonts will you install???

Linking

When I come over blog widgets I like, I try to implement them here.

Two widgets I have added to my blog is inLinkz and LinkWithin. They are easy and simple to connect to Blogger. Check out their Support pages for step-by-step instructions.

inLinkz described on their website:

“…a widget that is inserted in your blog and allows you to receive link submissions from your readers”

screenie from the inLinkz blog

I added this widget to keep track on products used when crafting. Many of the scrapbooking blogs out there have similar widgets…

LinkWithin as described on their website:

“…a blog widget that appears under each post, linking to related stories from your blog archive”

snagged from the LinkWithin site

I liked the thought of being able to link to blog posts in the same category when reading a post. Still trying this widget out, but like what I see so far.

If you have a blog,why not try’em out?

Connecting to Facebook

After finally giving in and signing up to Facebook I wanted to connect this blog to my Facebook account. I did some searching and the easiest way was no longer available due to layout changes within Facebook.

I did some more searching and concluded that using Networkedblogs it the way to go. To connect Facebook and Networkedblogs you need an account at both sites.

After setup, all my posts come automatically on my wall with a link to my blog…sweet!

For those of you who want to know how to connect your blog to Facebook using Networkedblogs. I did the following;
(- assuming you already have a Facebook and blog)
- create an account @ Networkedblogs (if you don’t already have one)
- Register a blog on Facebook
- Setup your Networkedblogs (you’ll need to verify that you are the author of the blog)

I think that was it…doing these kinds of setup right before heading to bed doesn’t help the memory. Sorry.

Just to be on the safe side, I’ll add a link to “someone” who knows that they are talking about:
http://www.maine-seo.com/social-media/how-to-set-up-networked-blogs-on-facebook
or this one:
http://shesselfemployed.com/set-networkedblogs-facebook-fan-page/

Hope this was a helpful tip…enjoy!