Headband storage

The headband storage in SweetieLs room has been a frustration lately. As it hang right next to the door I keep getting snagged by the headband and wind up pulling a bunch on the floor. Pintrest to the rescue! And I have now found a new storage solution for SweetieLs growing headband collection.

pass at own risk

I found that the box for fireplace starter cubes were the perfect dimension. So just needed to air out the smell. And with some black felt fabric I had laying around I went to work

before picture

I used a glue gun to attach the fabric around the box. I left about 5 cm hanging to be wrapped around the edge.

with fabric over the edge

I recommend cutting the overhanging edge in flaps. This way it was much easier to glue to the inside. On the first round around I glued every second flap. One The second round, I glued the remaining flaps to the inside.

glue the flaps and then nice and smooth

SweetieL choose a pink lace ribbon and it was ready to replace the old solution. This solution can also be “upgraded” with another “box” if/when necessary.

done

Now less hazardous to pass when walking thru the doorway. And SweetieL is very happy with having something big sister doesn't have...

- have you done any reorganization lately?
- how do you store headbands?

Knitting up a storm

Winter is coming, no doubt about that. Yesterday I woke up to a thin white blanket covering the streets infront of my house. Not long until I will be shoveling snow again.

In preparation for winter, the girls need a layer of warm clothes to wear with their overalls. I concluded I would use the Drops “Starshine” pattern and make my own pattern on the yolk. For the pants I started with the pattern for “Power leggings” but didn’t like the shape of the finished pants. So after recommendations from a good colleague, I ended up using “Winter wolf” for all three sets .  I bought Drops Karisma yarn when they had a sale earlier this year. I even made a set for my niece, hope she likes it.

For the waist I followed a youtube video on how to knit an icord.

For my niece I used the colors “dark purple” (uni color 76) for the pattern and “rose” (uni color 80) for the rest. She got two pair of pants as I made that one first with elastics in the waistline. I used 5 skeins of the main color for the sweater and 5 skeins for the pants. for the accents I used 2 skeins.

for my niece….

For SweetieL I used the colors “light denim blue” (uni color 30) for the pattern and “navy blue” (uni color 17) for the rest. When I was almost done , SweetieL requested the waist cord to be in a different color. So she got to choose from some yarns I had in my stash. She was still not happy with the end result until we added the pom poms. On this set I also used 5 skeins of the main color and 1 skein for the accents for a total of 12 skeins of Karisma.

for SweetieL….

And the last set, for SweetieS, I used the colors  “light grey green” (uni color 69) for the pattern and “sea green” (mix 50) for the rest. SweetieS got her set in a bigger size. So for her set I used 6 skeins for the sweater and 5 on the pants in addition to the 2 skeins for the accents.

the picture doesn’t do the color justice…

These would make great Christmas gifts, but the girls need these garments now. Not in a few weeks….so will just have to go shopping for other gifts for Christmas.

Before I forget., Drops is having a sale on all alpaca yarn. 14 different alpaca yarns to choose from and beautiful colors. With 30% discount you can save some $$$. The sale lasts thruout the year, so stock up while you can.

- what are you knitting these days?

- any knitted Christmas presents?

PJ masks birthday party

FYI: picture heavy post…

This years big happening was the girls birthday party with their kindergarten friends. This year we opted to have their birthday party together as they have many common friends. With over 20 invites handed out (and we only invited the girls) I was a bit nervous as to how many would be coming. Luckily “only” 16 girls came.

The invites was made using a template I found online, thanx to Pintrest. Here to be exact.. The Oh my fiesta webpage is a great resource for birthday printables, and ideas. So do check them out for some great ideas. I did some reasearch on comic book fonts and guidelines. I wound up using the font “Comic book” that can be downloaded from dafont.com for free,.

and here are the invites…

With the invites sent out, I started preparing all the other stuff I wanted for the birthday. First thing of…a picture to make a large target wall for the girls to throw sticky splats at. I did some surfing and found the “bad guys” from PJ masks and using the poster print function in my pdf software Adobe Acrobat Pro, I was able to blow it up 400% (!). Now came the hard work, assemble the 16 A3 format sheets of paper. It took about two evenings (after the girls had gone to bed) to get it together, reenforce the back so that it doesn’t easily break.

puzzled together, now for the holes…

The biggest challenge was how to make a temporary stand to hold it up. the finished poster measured about 1,7meters wide and 1,2 meters high and was too big for one adult to just hold it ut. With stuff we had around the house we were able to make a stand that I could staple the poster to.

pretty happy with the result…

For sticky splats (“klistreklæsj” in the Norwegian version) I had filled latex gloves wiith water, some with just plain water and some with colored water. Just fill, tie and cut of the exccess part of the glove.

I wanted all the kids coming to be able to dress for the PJ masks theme, without adding pressure to the parents to buy themed costumes/clothes for the party. So in advance I had put in orders for PJ mask sets which consisted of masks, bracelets and a cape. Since I knew I was going for the PJ masks theme, I had put in orders already in February. You never know how long packages from China will take. I bought mine from these two sellers on AliExpress: Shop3271008 and COS Store.. In my attempt to gift the sets to the kids, I had wrapped them in for each kid to open its own set. For the “seals” I printed some PJ mask pictures meant for cupcake toppers on some sticker paper and punched them out using a hole punch.

gifts for all….

To make sure that the kids would sit at the table and not run aimlessly around, I had put together an activity pamphlet for each kid. Just a little google search for some coloring pages, connect-the.-dots and some mind-activities, all PJ masked themed of course. Together with a table filled with coloring penciles, the kids sat longer at the table and not just for the food. On our latest UK trip I had bought Kellogg’s Froot Loops.. Paired with elastic string, the kids could make their own edible necklace/bracelet.

activity folder when sitting at the table

The last thing I prepped before going to bed…decorating the cakes. I had baked the cake earlier (thank you Gunhild for the supertasty cakes, recipes in Norwegian can be found in Gunhilds blog. Chocolate here and carrot cake here) and they had been cooling down for the most of the day. Just needed to wip up some frosting. Well one cake didn’t take much work as it was a carrot cake with frosting, we just called it sticky splat cake since the frosting looked like something sticky. As for the the other cake I had to put in some more work as the request was a gecko cake. I had printed out a gecko silhouette and cut it out using my trusty Gyro-cut tool. Great when cutting out shapes.. I used the negative as a template when adding the green Wilton sugar sprinkles.

yummy yummy, both tasted great

After two hours of 16 kids running around the house, I was ready for a break. But no rest for the weary….We had to get the house ready for the family coming to celebrate the girls. By evening all members of CasaR were popped and ready for bed.

Thanks to all family and friends who made the day great!

Welcome to the world baby Emily

This past Easter baby Emily came into this world like a comet. Well her birth was long awaited and when the time came for her birth it was over almost before it began. And now my sisters family has added another girl to the family roster. Welcome Emily, wishing you a wonderful life blessed with love and fun!

I had to knit something for little Emily, so this time I opted for a blanket. From my experience with the girls, I made a baby blanket larger than the usual baby size. I went for more junior size,  the blanket ended up being around 80x100cm in size. I like the idea that the blanket can be used beyond the baby days/years.

I used a cloth pattern by Bitta Mikkelborg called Tusenfryd as a starting point. Did some calculations and ended up with this blanket. Did you know that tusenfryd is Norwegian for daisy?

a field of daisies

I have already started on another blanket, this time for another baby coming very soon. Pictures will be posted when it is given to the recipient..

-how did you spend your Easter?

Another weekend with Teddy

The past weekend we got to have SweetieS kindergarten mascot Teddy for a visit.It’s been about a year since we had him for a visit. (in case you missed it, here is the post)

Sine we last saw him Teddy has been “upgraded” with new clothes and a new buddy, Little Teddy. This time SweetieS put in a request for a new hat for Teddy. With temperature rapid falling these days, SweetieS felt Teddy need a warm hat. So I was put to work. I did a quick Google search to have a base to start with. I found this pattern. Starting with 68 stitches I knitted until I felt it was big enough.

I’m still looking for Lille Teddy. He went to bed with Teddy and SweetieS and has yet to show up…I’ve emptied the bed (SweetieS has “a few” stuffed animals) and still no sign of him…

These days the windows in our house are being changed. So the weekend was spendt clearing and getting ready for the upcoming renovation, while the girls had a sleep over at the grand parents.

- how have you spendt your weekend?

A sunny day

Summer is slowly coming to Oslo, Norway. On this this beautiful sunny day we went for a longer drive and visited a friend DaffyM in Bødalen (Norwegian for boo-valley). Mostly because SweetieL is very intimidated by dogs, and my friend has a cute little jack russell terrier called Bella. We planned a longer visit for SweetieL to warm up to Bella. A few hours later SweetieL isn’t runing after dogs, but she doesn’t run the opposite direction either. So some progress. We might have to give it a few more rounds before SweetieL warms up to dogs…

Part of warming up for our visit, I have been showing SweetieL pictures of Bella. And this picture on the Garnstudio website is a nice picture of a jack. In this pciture there is a very nice coat for dogs. So why not make it for little Bella? well just a few days before our visit I dug out the necessary yarns and started. After making a major mistake (I misread the pattern) I had to almost restart this project. But with a few hours less sleep this weekend I finished in time for our visit…

sweet little Bella

I followed the pattern called “The lookout” by Drops design. I did however make it shorter than the measurements for the medium size. Bella is on the petite side of Jack Russells. I used 3 skeins of Drops karisma In the color Lavendel – 074), I had some left over from a My sister & me project, where I made matching tunicas for the girls. Luckily Bella tested the coat long enough for a snap.

- how have you spent this beautiful day off?

Busy bee

First of all Happy Chinese New Year to all my readers in “Bloglandia”. Or Gong Xi Fa Chai for those whom understand Chinese. In the lack of massive amounts of energy, this year we opted for just cleaning house and not decorating for the Chinese New Year as we have done earlier years. Out new year dinner was as tradition entales, steamboat. Yummy!

The year of the Monkey ended with bumps and scratches for all the girls in CasaR. The last day of the year was a cold one and resulted in icy streets and super slippery. If you happened to be in our neighborhood Friday afternoon, you would have seen the three of us scattered over the sidewalk as we all slipped on the icy sidewalks. To this day, my” mummy heart” still hurts a little when seen SweetieLs face…Hopefully the year of the Rooster will be better…

poor little one

This weekend I did some repair work on SweetieS winter coveralls. Just before the weekend I saw that the seam had started to fall apart. Rather than wasting a perfectly usable coverall, I looked into how to patch it up.

So Saturday I took a trip to my local fabric store Stoff og Stil and looked for fabrics I could use. My requirements for the fabric were “simple”, it had to be durable and semi-waterproof. I found some waxed (I think it’s waxed) and a cool Paw Patrol fabric. SweetieS was superhappy with the result. Now to see how it holds up with the daily wear and tear SweetieS puts it to…

I also finally finished my second Skappelgenser. Well this one has a twist to the original pattern. I had knitted it one size too small. Rather than starting over I added cables on the sides. This sweater is knitted with Drops Big Delight in the color Rosehage (01) and Drops Brushed Alpaca Silke Lys beige (04) on 7mm needles. For this project I used about 7 skeins of each.

finally done…	close up of the cable along the sides

Now of to play with my latest toy, the Gyro-cutter. I bought this cutter iwth plans to kiss cut stickers for my planner. So far my first impression is that it works great. I bought mine of Ebay, from this seller.

Here I cut out the text “April” from a printed label sticker.

- How have you started your year of the Rooster?

Foiled dividers

Heard of the minc machine by Heidi Swapp? If you’ve heard of it you know what this post about. If not…take a look at this video

the wonderful Jennifer Mcguire recaps foiling in a great way

Since I have a laminator, I had to give it a try. But getting a hold of foil paper was more expensive than I thought. There are so many beautiful colors to choose from…what color to choose? Well actually I wound up with another option. Instead of using the recommended foil paper, I used foil meant for nail design, since I had it laying around from an earlier nail project. And the results…really nice

This only works with toner printed so I printed a few transparencies with beautiful black and white patterns I found online. As I wanted to make new dividers for my planner, I cut them into size before foiling them.

With the hearts divider, I choose to make one heart in another color….so I added a silver heart…

Still waiting for a copper and turquoise colored foil for the last dividers. So still missing the last of my new dividers for my planner setup for 2017… Oh and I used these nail foils…bought of ebay of course…

- have you tried foiling with a laminator?
- what are your 2017 planner plans?

Now what to foil next?

“Just the 3 of us”

I finally finished and remembered to take some pictures. This weekend I finished sewing on the buttons and fastening the last loose threads. So the jackets are ready for use. Just in the nick of time if you ask me. Temperatures here in Oslo have dropped below 10 degrees Celsius and the mornings here at home are starting at just a few degrees above zero.

Just the 3 of us: mine, SweetieS and SweetieL

As I mentioned in the post when I started, these jackets are knitted with a thread of Drops Alpaca and a thread of Marks & Kattens Fame trend Paljett yarn. The jackets are more white than the impression from the picture above. The color code are the same for all three jackets. Drops Alpaca in the color natur (color code: 0100), Marks & Kittens Fame Trend sequins yarn in white (color code: 683) and I used knitting needles in the sizes 4mm and 5mm.

Now off to finish a project I started with yarn I have left over from previous projects…hats for SweetieS and SweetieL.
- what are you doing on these chilly Autumn days?

Upgraded Mommy & Me project

With SweetieS growing…she’s already 4 years old! The need to upgrade her bling jacket I made a while back is due..The one I knitted for SweetieS after I had made one for myself (original post here).

So this week I started to look a patterns and how to make a new one slightly larger. I had som yarn left over from the first two jackets, so I thought I would have enough for one more….

how cute is that Hello kitty measuring tape =)

or so I thought…off to the yarn store for one skein of Drops Alpaca….

Will post a finished picture as soon as I finish …until then have a nice weekend!

- fall has come to Norway, how are you enjoying your days?

The first of many?

Not sure yet…but hoping this is the first of many future knitting projects that I can tag “my sister & me”.

I thought I had posted this picture of my latest project…tunicas for SweetieS and BabyL.

Well since this picture was taken a while ago, I have actually finished this project!

I modified the Starshine pattern by Garnstudio…with shorter sleeves and longer body I ended up with a tunica style sweater for the girls.

For this project I used Drops Karisma for the first time.The edge at the bottom, sleeve and neck were knitted in the color Petrol cerise (75), I used less than two skeins for both tunikas. The stripes are made up of Petrol (73) and Lavendel(74). For both tunicas I used about 5 skeins of each color.

Both for future reference…maybe not making stripes like these. There were SO many loose threads to finish. I had to fasten the threads over the course of several evenings.

Now going to catch me some Pokemons before I start my next project…

- have you caught them all? (yes, that’s a nerdy Pokemon reference)

In the works

The other day my yarn order from Garnstudios last wool sale arrived. With my maritime project finished I was ready to embark on a new project. I don’t like having several ongoing projects. I’m not good at following patterns to the letter, so having one project at a time keeps me “in control”.

Amongst the yarns I orders were several skeins of Drops Karisma. I’ll show pictures as soon as I’ve snapped some pictures. In the meantime…

These look so lovely together. Here are the colors Lavender (74), Petrol cerise (75) and Petrol (73).

- what are you doing this wonderful Summer day?

Maritime jacket

for yours truly. Well not correct to say maritime..but it is navyblue and white. At a Tjorven yarn sale a small eternity ago I bought ten skeins of Big Fabel Mouline yarn. I has plans on making sweaters for SweetieS…but never got around to starting them. So the other day I came over this pattern called Cathrine on Garnstudios website and I thought it would be a nice project for the yarn I have laying around.
And inspired by this picture I came across while looking a fancy nails, I made a few changes to the pattern….well I didn’t follow the coloring pattern at all.

The stripes are made with some navy blue Nepal yarn leftovers.
I used about 8 skeins Big fabel for this jacket. Knitted on needle size 4,5mm for the cuffs and front band. The rest of the jacket is knitted on 5mm needles.

As it is with knitting projects I make for myself, SweetieS also wants one. So with the two leftover skeins I had, I started on a jacket for SweetieS. I found this jacket pattern (Drops Children 26-12) so I had an estimate on how many stitches I would need. Just as I was finishing of the yoke/body, SweetieS commented that she wanted a vest, not a jacket. Perfect! I was running out of yarn and dreaded the tough of knitting the sleeves. As I didn’t have any more navy blue yarn left, SweetieS got purple stripes instead.

Another Mommy and Me knit project completed. Allthough we are in July, the mornings are still cold and the jacket and vest have been used already.
- do you have any Mommy and Me projects to share?

Feeding my OCD

Most of you who know me in person, know I have my OCD moments. This Christmas I got to experience SweetieS love for beading with Hama beads. Remember those small yet colorful little plastic beads? Put the beads on pegboards to create a “pattern” and iron to “fuse” them together for a long-lasting keepsake.
With Mother Nature finally bringing some more snow to this Winter, in-door games/hobbies are welcome @CasaR. We played outside in the snow yesterday, but with the howling winds and freezing temperatures, it didn’t take long before we were cold and headed indoors.
SweetieS has beaded a few times in kindergarten, but this Christmas I got to see first-hand how SweetieS sat deeply concentrated for a period that seemed like an eternity and just beaded. So bringing along experience from my wonderful sister-in-law for organizing the beads I went shopping when stores opened today.
My sister-in-law has this case, but I wouldn’t find it in a store here in Oslo.What I really liked with this solution was that the individual boxes can be taken out of the case and has hinged lids. Luckily my trusty Biltema had an option for me here. The case can be opened and lay flat on any surface. A case has 18 individual boxes with hinged lids. The boxes are “locked” in the case for easy transportation. Just remember to lock the lids too…
Some pictures after I had filled them…

“closed”	“open”

Here is a close-up of the individual boxes…

hinged lid	clip lock	it even has a belt clip

The boxes are a handy size, measuring in at 90 x 63 x 68 mm.
Just as I had filled the boxes with the beads I had at hand, my OCD kicked in…I needed a way to label the boxes. So that when the content was gone, I knew what to color to refill. Pintrest to the rescue! I came over a few interesting pins, here is one I found particularly interesting... As the case is black I didn’t want the color swatch to be too girly, so I formed the swatches as flowers instead of hearts. They as stuck to the lids using gluedots.

The flowers are very simple to make..all you need are 7 beads. Instructions can be found here I you need it explained in details.
As we were out of wax paper I dug out my trusty craft sheet I got @Clas Ohlson (I think it’s called a silicon baking sheet) to d my ironing, and it worked just fine. You will however get a fine mesh-kinda pattern on the melted side, but I don’t mind….
Just a note, two of these cases fit perfectly into a cube in IKEAs Expedit (is no longer available, but Kallax is practically the same product) shelving unit. So I have enough boxes to cover all my coloring needs.
I had planned this to be a birthday gift for SweetieS..but that’s in May. I couldn’t wait that long to present SweetieS with her newest “toy”. So when SweetieS came home from kindergarten today she got to play with the beads while I made dinner…Even BabyL joined in on the fun. Though with the larger version, Hama Maxi. While SweetieS has been playing with the Midi size, these are 5mm in diameter. You can read more about the different sizes available here.

the girls beading…

Now off to find some more pegboards….three is not enough…

- have you tried beading?
- how do you store your Hama beads?

New project in the works

With my best friend Hoaneypoos announcement of a new family addition I have started planning my next knitting project.

 

Something for the new baby perhaps?

I was looking at past baby gifts and came over a dress I had knitted for baby Tilde earlier this year that I see now that I postponed posting about, and than consequently forgot...

 

Well better late than never...

ready for a playdate

This dress is knitted using a Drops pattern called Playmate, you can find it here. I used Drops Merion Extra Fine in the colors 01- natur and 25- rosa (I think it was…)

Off to do some more surfing on patterns…

- what are you knitting on these days?

With my hands full

The past weekend has been a hectic weekend @casaR. With DaddyO on a weekend trip with a few KGB members, I had my hands full with BabyL and SweetieS. Luckily my mother had time, so she came over and lent me a couple of hands. Mums are the greatest! Thank you!
With the girls gone to bed and DaddyO back home. I can put my feet up and enjoy the rest of the evening. This will be a quick post just jotting down a few thoughts… I want to relax the rest of the evening before it’s gone….so if you have any questions about any of my projects, feel free to leave comment and I'll try my best to answer.
My latest knitting projects have been finished (I’ve been literally knitting up a storm) and I can now post pictures…
A Skappelgenser for myself. So wonderfully soft and light. It’s knitted with Drops Alpaca and Drops Vivaldi.

ignore the loose threads, I took the picture before I had cut them…

I googled around to find the pattern, and made some adjustments. So my finished sweater is much more fitted than the original. Wasn’t my intention, so I plan on making another one in the future.
With yarn I had laying around (Drops Eskimo and Lang yarns Andina) I finally finished a pair of cozy socks, mittens for myself  and a head band for SweetieS. The head band went off with SweetieS before a managed to snap a picture..

Now off to start my next project, a Skappelgenser for SweetieS.
- what have you done this weekend?

My latest project

I’m still alive. Autumn has come and with the falling leaves, my energy levels have also dropped. So these days my evenings are spent slouching on the couch. I’ve started knitting on another cardigan with yarn I had laying around. It’s nice to do some ego-knitting too.

Inspired by G-anette and the jacket she posted here. I’ve started on one for myself. I have used a Drops pattern (same as I used for this cardigan, the Elinor Dashwood Cardigan – Drops 157-4) as a base pattern and adapted it to the look I’m aiming for. Hopefully I have enough yarn for this project…
This is a cardigan knitted top-down, so if I run out of yarn I will just have to finish off with a shorter cardigan than the pattern intended. These days I’m finishing of the second sleeve and getting ready to start the body…
I’m knitting it in a softest Alpakka Kashmir yarn by Sandnes Garn in a mauve (?) color (color code 4855). A yarn made of 84% alpaca and 16% cashmere blend. With 5,5mm knitting needles the yarn is flying of the skeins. I realize now that I have had the yarn laying around so long, it has been discontinued. Oh well, use what you have…
- what are you doing these Autumn days?

Mommy and me

Not long ago I posted about a jacket I had knitted for myself. Well SweetieS demanded requested  I make a similar jacket and the other day I finished it. Still waiting for buttons I ordered online. But SweetieS couldn't wait and have used it several days already.

Snapped a picture while SweetieS was sleeping, she's literally moved into it...

I used this Drops pattern for starters, mixed across the sizes to get the length. I used the same yarn I used for my jacket, Drops Alpaca in the color natur (color code: 0100), Marks & Kittens Fame Trend sequins yarn in white (color code: 683) and I used knitting needles in the sizes 4mm and 5mm. For this jacket I used about 2 skeins Alpaca and 1 skein of the sequins yarn.