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?

Ascension day @CasaR

The day started early, as any other weekday, at around 6.30 (yes, that’s AM). When do kids start sleeping in???

After consuming breakfast I started the task I’ve been planning the last week. Redoing my office/crafts corner…(just realized I forgot to take a before picture…oh well, just imagine clutter…) I started moving furniture around and came to the conclusion that I need a new desk. My old desk just isn’t using the space it takes up very efficiently. So hopefully within a few days I will have time for another IKEA trip.

I’m lucky to have great neighbors, after lunch and a few text messages (and BabyL taking a nap) we went to Ekeberg Hysdyrpark. There SweetieS got to pet/feed all kinds of farm animals – cows, horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, they even have peacocks! And if fur coats isn’t you thing they have a play area with seesaws, trampolines and slides – and big open areas to just run off any extra energy the kids might have bottled inside…

Now that the girls have gone to bed I got time for another project of mine. A few weeks ago I ordered myself a pair of cheapy-cheap sneakers. Nothing special about them other than comfortable and light weight. SweetieS has a pair of Kangaroo sneakers I’ve kinda been envious over. SweetieS seems so carefree when wearing them. So when I came over a recommendation on my Facebook group for Ebay recommended buys (it’s a Norwegian group, and its called “Ebay for jenter/kvinner”), I thought I would give it a try. A pair of comfortable everyday sneakers for under 150NOK is worth a try. They are available here. I’m normally a Norwegian/European size 36, buy I bought a size 37 as recommended by both the Ebay seller and on the Facebook group.

Yesterday my pair of sneakers came in the mail…smelling like new plastic I left them in the hallway over night to “air out”. Inspired by another Facebook group (thank you to Trine Aas and Mona Hagelund over @”Ebay Hobby”), I had to add some bling to my shoes.

The sneakers arrived looking like this…(doesn’t come in a shoe box, but not squashed in any way)

not my picture, I just “borrowed” online as I forgot to take a picture after I unpacked them

I pulled off the little triangle on the logo as it just looked misplaced – using my fingers, just pull hard when you have a good hold and it comes off nice and clean. Too used to seeing another logo perhaps? So now my pair of shoes looked more like this…

don’t mind the mess, I’m getting ready to glue on some bling

Half an hour later and a neck somewhat stiffer, I had my pair of bling’d sneakers. Just need the glue to set over night…

not sure the picture does the bling justice…

In case you are wondering about what I used…
I used this bling (2mm flatback rhinestones), from Ebay – used approx 50 pieces per shoe
This glue (E6000), from Ebay. You only need a small amount of this glue, so I recommend buying the small tubes rather than one big tube. My experience is that glue caps tend to glue shut after a while, so less wasted if/when that happens)
As the rhinestones a quite small and difficult to apply by hand, I used this tool to apply the rhinestones. Bought on sale @Panduro Hobby ages ago…

Now off to start the evenings next project – one gets so much done when one is up at the early hours! Next project: Start knitting a pair for pants for SweetieS…

- what have you been up to this sunny day off work?

Oh so shiny

The latest craze on the scrapbooking front seems to be gold foiling everything. After I saw a video posted by Jennifer Mcguire (here) I‘ve been looking at more and more shine stuff. As I have too much scrapbooking stuff already I haven’t allowed myself a trip to any hobby stores of any kind.

I haven’t made a big effort at finding the foils Jennifer used as scrapbooking stuff tends to by quite expensive here in Norway. The other day I came over nail foils in different colors. Available here on Ebay. These come in rolls of 4 cm wide and different lengths. As I only paid 1USD for a meter, I thought I would give it a try. I already have a laminator and a laser printer…so I thought I would try foiling using the method Jennifer describes here.

And I’m first try….

I printed a nice quote and foiled the heart. I found the original picture on Pintrest, and is available here. I've made a note that this technique works best with black and white pictures where there is no grey zones. So the text in the heart aren’t as crisp as the rest of the heart. All in all a fun first attempt.

I think this will be going into my newly setup planner (think that will be a future post). Just need to do some measuring to see if it need any cutting before punching holes…

Think I will be expanding my “stuff” with a few rolls of these foils.

- have you jumped on the foiling craze?

A trip to the library

A while back my good friend Lexipo told me about the option of lending knitting books at the library. So with this new information at hand I did a little research and found that the Deichman library has a ton! of books on knitting.
There has been a few books I’ve been drooling over, and these where available at the library!
When my friend Cl8 told me she was pregnant with a girl I knew a few patterns I wanted to knit for her little girl. BabyL has more than enough clothes, both inherited from her sister and gifts from family and friends. So I felt knitting clothes for her first months just would disappear in the mountain of clothes. But will be knitting more for her as she grows bigger.
Well my latest two knitting projects are gifts for Cl8 baby girl.
Note: this post was written and put up for a scheduled publish – so Cl8 didn’t see her gifts before she got them, so sorry if the past/present-timing is a little off  
My two gifts are both knitted bodies. One is from the knitting book Myk Start: strikk til babyen (author: May B. Langhelle) and is called Fuglemammas omslagsbody. I love these wrap bodies – and have a ton of these. Great for small babies – when you feel the baby is so small and fragile a warp around body makes dressing those small little bodies so much easier.

a book available at my local library (picture borrowed from Gyldendal)

en fuglemamma

This body is knitted with a yarn I found on Ebay (shocker!) It is a bamboo and cotton blend and SOOO soft. At times the yarn was so soft I had a hard time holding the yarn while knitting. It just melted in my hands…The yarn is in the color 941 – with white as the main color with pink dashes of color. Here is a listing for the same yarn. I used about 2 skeins for this body. I used both heart shaped wood buttons and snap buttons for this body.
The second body is from the newest collection by Drops for babies. Found in the catalog Drops Baby 25. The body is called First impression. The pattern is free at the Garnstudio/Drops website, link to the body here. I made a few personal touches to this body. I used snap buttons instead of the pearl of mother pearls in the pattern. I love the bodies by Lilleba. Especially how their bodies are made to fit two sizes, due to an extra row of buttons. So I thought I would try this on this body. I dropped the knitted edge – mostly because I didn’t like the edge..Lastly I knitted with very broad stripes instead of the thin stripes the pattern suggests.

first impression by Drops (picture borrowed from Drops)

first impression

This body is knitted in Viking Babyull yarn, in the colors 307 – light brown – and 302 – offwhite. Didn’t keep count, but think I used about 1 skein of each color. On this body I also used snap buttons, in baby pink. Bought from this Ebayer.
- have you knitted these bodies?
- do you visit and borrow books at your local library?

Like a Kardashian

Ebay has made sure that SweetieS hair is always stylish. With plenty of hair clips in all the colors of the rainbow I’ve seen the need for better storage. Plastic bags hasn’t been working very well – as SweetieS gets her hands on them and starts unpacking.

Since Ebay had been the source of her many hair accessories I thought Ebay could be the source of organization. When I saw these I thought it be a good start. Fits neatly on the glass shelf in front of the mirror in the bathroom. Nice and handy. Maybe you’ve seen similar around. I remember these being very popular when Kim Kardashian showcased her makeup storage.

though these drawers don’t hold all her hair clips and hair bands – it is a start…

- how do you store your hair accessories?

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?

Still alive…

I know I haven’t been posting much lately. With a new baby in the house I don’t get as much rest as I want..so not much time to write posts.

This week, and the next few weeks BabyS is taking some time of from kindergarten. So have my hands full…luckily DaddyO is taking a few weeks of from work too.

Not much happening happening at CasaR other than sleeping, feeding, burping and diaper changes the last few weeks. In between we’ve had family and friends visiting…and MommyS has had time to do some Ebay surfing. Not much we need, but after joining the Facebook group “<3 Ebay Barn&baby <3” I’ve found lots of items that I found interesting. (a group for Norwegians posting their Ebay buys)

My latest Ebay buy where these mini straws. Perfect for small drink containers like Danoninos drinking yoghurt. Just before BabyS started her summer holiday from kindergarten we were told that BabyS wouldn’t be served milk in the month of July with her meals. So the straws were perfect to send with her lunchbox and a Danonino drink.

+

=

no spill drinking when out and about

- do you Ebay for your children?

Pimp my Expedit, part two

A few days ago I posted about pimping up BabyS’ Expedit shelving unit. Coming across the post today, I realized I had forgotten a “small” detail…about the knobs I used for the Expedit door inserts. The knobs that come with the doors are small and simple.

picture of the Expedit knobs, “borrowed” from IKEA

As I felt these were a little boring and too small for children fingers, I went online looking for options. I wound up buying from this Ebayer…crystal-like knobs

 
“crystal knobs”, picture borrowed from ebay

And the result was a more girly Expedit…super cute!

- did you just use the parts that came with your Expedit purchase? or have you done some pimping?

Finally done!

Well I did finish it last week…
But it’s finally done! The knitting project I started over a year ago…a jacket for BabyS. Based on this (Babydrops 20-11) knitting pattern from Drops/Garnstudio. I used a wool yarn called Fabel Spray Print in color 711 – a pinkish-brown color. Drum roll please…

What took forever, was getting the buttons on. It took forever to receive the ones I ordered on Ebay…and when they finally did arrive (only took two reorders before I ordered from another seller)…It took me forever attaching them to the coat. But now I am finally done and the jacket still fits BabyS.
The buttons are a cute heart shaped wooden one, bought from this Ebayer.

a close-up of the buttons

- Have you any unfinished projects laying around?
Update:
Drops is having a Sockalicious offer again, and the Fabel yarn is one of the discounted yarns. 25% off! Offer is valid until Febuary 28^th 2014 in all Drops stores/webstores.

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?

Signed and sealed

Last night I finally put the finishing touches on this years Christmas cards.

signed, sealed and ready for delivery

Don’t want to reveal any details  around the design as the recipients haven’t received their cards yet. Look forward to a future post with pictures And to the friends and family that receive a card, all I can just say is…this years card is super cute!

See the cool sender address stamp on the back of the envelopes? Those are personalized stamps ordered from this Ebay store. Love that they offer pre-inked, cling or clear rubber, handle mounted (or not)…you can get A LOT of designs and they can all be personalized to your liking. And for those of you out there in need of special characters (like the Norwegian ÆØÅ) – they offer that too!

Some examples of the stamps Loongchai74 offers – and I have…

InLinkz.com

 

Well off to put the cards in the mail…
Do you create your own Christmas cards? wanna share with me?
Are you finished with this years cards?

Branded by me

A while back I ordered woven clothing labels to put on my knitted projects. Partly because it would be really cool to have a way to brand everything I’ve made. Partly because marking front and back on my knitted projects was sought after.

Well I received my order from Hong Kong just before the weekend. Ordering the same woven labels from Norway in the design I wanted was just too costly.

I ordered my labels from a seller on Ebay. I’m super happy with the quality and the color rendering. So I can definitely recommend this “store”.

Now off to brand all my latest projects…

More nursery stuff

When I ordered the butterfly decals for the babys nursery I also ordered another one. One with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.

Tonight I finally I had time to put it up…not too bad if I say so myself

 

My sister-in-law gave us their old baby cot for the nursery. She had mentioned that her son had left some teething marks on the rails, but if we wanted it, it was ours.

I tried a little dab of paint to make the marks less visible, but soon realized that it was a loosing battle. Thanks to a tip from my friend I gave it a more creative angle…

before

after

I just stamped some strips of paper with stamps from “In the Garden” 12 x 12 stamp set from Fancy Pants. The Distress ink I used is “Seedless Preserves”  from the the Ranger seasonal fall set. The strips are than fastened to the cot using Noga teething rail for cots from IKEA. I was planning on doing this to all the sides, but I only have rails for one side.

Typically my luck, this rail is not available in any of the IKEA stores in the Oslo area. Now where am I gonna get two more Noga rails???

If you happen to live by any IKEA store that has this rail in stock, please contact me Thanx

Vinyl takes center stage

A few weeks back I ordered some vinyl decals to decorate the nursery from a seller on eBay. I finally had some time on my hands to apply it on a wall in the nursery. I’m happy with how the wall looks now compared to how naked the picture of Tigger looked without.

This decal is ordered from a seller on Ebay that is located in Korea, feel free to check out the Ebay store.