It’s that time of the year again

May is a hectic month for CasaR. There is alot to do at work and on the home front.

May is the birth month of both SweetieS and SweetieL. So hectic planning and organizing to get ready for celebrating the girls.

This year we opted to celebrate with all their kindergarten friends. This will problably be the first and last time they have their birthday party together. It’s the last year of kindergarten for SweetieS and the first year for SweetieL with the “big kids”. And since their two kindegarten groups play so well together, I thought we would give it a go. I did however restrict to only invite the girls. We ended up inviting 22 girls (versus 36 boys and girls). Where am I gonna fit 24 girls if they all come???

The theme is PJ masks and pictures from the day will come. Hopefully I will have time to snap some pictures. Invites have been sent out, now to get all the little things in order. I haven’t involved the girls in the preparations for the party because I want it to be a surprise for them and their guests. Hopefully I haven’t bitten of more than I can chew.

The family asked for their wishlist, so here it is…based on their recurring “can-I-have-that?-requests” while watching TV. Yes, they still watch TV in these tablet/streaming days.

Practical wishes from us, the parents;

Both girls love wearing dresses, so casual Summer dresses for everyday use would be nice.

SweetieS needs some thights to go with those dresses (so she doesn’t flash her undies to everyone)

As for wishes from the girls;

SweetieS:

Hatchimals (is that how it is spelled?)

Drawing and writing supplies

“sydvest” (after loosing her purple one in kindergarten, she’s been longing for a new one)

Lego classics

Jumping rope

SweetieL:(wants everything her big sister has..):

Hatchimals

Drawing and writing supplies

DVD: Trolls

Activity books, preferably with lots of stickers

Lego classics, like this (these storage boxes are great!)

Here’s hoping we get thru the party weekend in a few weeks.

New year, new possibilities

A belated Happy new year dear readers. Hope the new year has been good to you so far…

The past weeks I have been playing a stay-at-home-mom. Kuddos to all you stay-at-home-moms! You are doing a wonderful unappreciated job! Having that said, it’s good to be back to work.

I had a few extra days off work, to complete my latest projects….reorganizing our home. I’ve had time to think over the past few weeks, and concluded that a clean organized home equals a happy home. I started writing a list (me and my lists) over what I wanted changed. And the wishlist wasn’t very short….I started with moving the girls toys from the living room to the attic/play room. Over the holidays we got tired of constantly tripping/cleaning/stepping on toys all over the living room. The girls still have the Expedit in the living room, just with way less stuff. I’ve keep things like beads and coloring stuff. But clearing storage space and making a play area in the attic was the biggest task. The attic has, until recently, been a guest and office room. So it took some time to just repurpose the space.

After an inspiring read on a storage solutions post by Estella (love that she is from Singapore and into much the same things as myself….) and this post to be exact, I was inspire to redo the girls clothing dressers also. This way the girls can quickly get an overview over what they have in the drawers and get the clothes out much more efficiently. As an added bonus, the clothes take up much less space!

before…	after…

I great tip I got from blog reading was the “random cubby”. My OCD prefers that everything has it’s place when being put away. So the random cubby is for the quick clean ups. For when you are in a hurry and don’t have time to find the corresponding parts/place for everything. Just need to find a cute and handy cubby….guess I should plan for a trip to IKEA soon. The list of handy stuff to get is getting longer and longer as I progress in my reorganizing.

After this first wave of reorganizing I have decided to take a break. Let the dust settle and see how well my chosen solution works in real life…

-how to you organize your kids toys?
-have you come over some supersmart organization tips?

The case of the travelling suitcase

This past Summer I went on a short trip to New York with my mummy. I was thinking this could be the start of a yearly mother-daughter tradition. I’ve always envied my friends that had such a tradition with their mothers. Better late than never to start such a nice tradition.

Our trip started as any other trip…at the airport. It was very anti climatic to board a Norwegian plan without wifi…as Norwegian informs of on their website (here). After several trips to Singapore with Singapore airlines, I’ve been accustomed to pretty nice inflight entertainment. So in my eyes, Norwegians offer was pretty poorly executed.

Due to heavy showers in New York our flight landed later than scheduelled. And to top it off, my suitcase hadn’t made our transfere flight. Due to the dreaded SSSS. I didn’t realise at the time, but my suitcase had been check in under my mothers name, and she had been tagget with SSSS. For those of you who have never heard of the SSSS-tag. It is a extra security check for travellers to the United Stated.

Long story short….my suitcase spendt an extra month travelling after I had finished my four day trip to New York. This weekend I FINALLY got my suitcase back. Only to open my locked suitcase to find that several things were gone! If only my suitcase could talk and give me the whole story….

Now to go thru the loops and formalities of making a claim…

- How was your experience with delayed baggage?

Summer is finally here

With last weeks several centimeters of snowfall I thought for sure that Summer was far, far away. But this week the Sun finally decided to make an appearance. With temperatures well above 20 degrees Celsius Summer has started early. Norways Constitution Day is next week, so perfect timing.

With Constitution Day around the corner, so is SweetieS and BabyLs birthday. So on with the party planner hat and start cracking out ideas. This year SweetieS will be hosting her first birthday celebration with kids from her kindergarten. On the last tally I counted 13 kids. Oh my what have I agreed to??

Yesterday SweetieS put in her theme request, what other than another Frozen theme. If you don’t know the Disney Pixar movie Frozen, it’s time to crawl out from the rock you have been hiding under the past few years. Here are a few videos to start you of…

Wonder if the fictional city of Arendell has any relation to the Norwegian city of Arendal?

Lately…

I haven’t been my usuall productive self. My head has been full of thoughts regarding my upcoming Singapore trip. With two toddlers and all of my extended family, there are lots of thing to remember and an equal amount of questions. Four weeks in wonderful Singapore…

This past weekend I started packing for the girls…I’m very happy with our decision to rent an apartment that has an in-house washer-dryer machine. This way I don’t have to pack four weeks worth of clothes. I look forward to spending four weeks @8 on Claymore…

- a few sets of summer clothes, from top to bottom
- swimming clothes (well UV suits)
- toiletries
- diapers for BabyL (lesson from my last Singapore trip – diapers are very expensive compared to the prices in Norway)
- shoes for hot weather (there is still about half a meter of snow outside our house)
problably a whole lot more..but still have a few more days to mull it over.

Travelling with two toddlers, it was time to buy a suitcase for the girls. We have been very happy with our old, trusty Samsonite hard case suitcases. So we looked into getting a similar one for the girls. A visit to a local store that sells Samsonite, we landed on a Samsonite S’cure. SweetieS chose the color, a very girly dark blue (not what I had expected when we gave her the options). So far SweetieS enjoyed pushing the empty suitcase from the store to the parking lot, not sure she will enjoy it quite as much when it is fully loaded. I’ll try to post our experience with this model when we get back.

In between preparing for our trip, we have had time to enjoy all the snow

hard at work building a snow castle in our back yard

Our previous attempt at building a snow man got buried in all the snow that has fallen lately…so we also had to make a new one…

No new knitting projects lately..but I have finished the knitted gift for a baby that’s right around the corner. Not to reveal too much…

a little teaser

I’ll post a picture of the finished project when it has been delivered to its intended recipient.

- how do you prepare for an overseas trip?
- how are you enjoying the Winter?

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?

Stacked

Winter is coming and the temperature is slowly dropping on the thermometer. A few weeks ago I mentioned to my Facebook friends how I had cleaned our fire place, getting it ready for another season in service. Well this past weekend I organized our log storage better.

The before and after pictures speaks for themselves…looks way more organized. Going from a on-the-fly solution (made of what we had available, a pallet and some planks) to metal racks. After BabyL started pulling out logs from the sides, I realized we had to find a more childproof solution.

before	after

The ones we used here are available from Jula, called “Anslut vedoppbevaring”. We bought two so that we could store logs between the racks too.

picture borrowed from the Jula site – side view of one rack

- how do you store your logs?

July 22nd

It’s been four(!) years since I sat at a resturant in Albufeira, Portugal and got the news…bombing in Oslo, shooting of youngsters at Utøya. I remember how the minutes ticked by while checking with family if they were safe. Some of my closest friends where together with me in Portugal, gathered for my bestfriends’ wedding the following day.

It’s been four years and for many a time filled with sorrow. 77 lives where lost that day and countless lives affected. So taking a minute to reflect…

- where were you when you got the news?

A whole new world

Sorry for being so MIA here lately. A whole new world has opened up to me the last few weeks. A few weeks ago I passed my pratical exam to get my drivers license. It has worked just fine for my thirty-somewhat year not having a drivers license, but with kids needing to dropped off/picked up on a daily basis it just seemed logical to have one.

So the past few months I have been “working” hard, driving ALOT and cramming for the theoretical exam. If you are looking into getting yourself a drivers license in Norway, you can read more about it on Vegvesenet website, and Category B (“Klasse B”) which you need to drive cars up to 3,5 tons -  here. Note that it is quite expensive with all the mandatory courses and lessons. I spend about 30 thousand(!) NOK getting my license.

Well I passed  and these days I’m out and about “cruising” in Oslo. Not so much cruising as the Summer weather here is very changing - bright and sunny one moment, raining cats and dogs the new. Yesterday it actually hailed!

If you see me around in my skyblue Citröen C3, give me a wave

picture “borrowed” from Google/www.mobile.de

- Do you have a drivers license or are you happy doing public transport?

A beautiful mind and some to does…

My maternity leave is over and I’ve been back full-time the past week. Funny how much technical stuff I remember, it’s just buried deep…I just need to give the brain a chance to catch up.

It’s been wonderful to have some grown-up interaction that doesn’t involve babies. But I do miss my days with BabyL. With me starting working again I keep making to do lists for DaddyO…these’s always something that need doing and remembering.

First up…
- apply for a spot in SweetieS kindergarten for BabyL (starting this fall)
- research driving lesson options (I work during the day…when will I have time for my driving lessons?)
- wean BabyL off breastfeeding (I’m not rushing this, all this happens on BabyL schedule)

-What are things you have to do as you round up your maternity leave?

Recapping the last few weeks

The first weeks of 2015 have been hectic on my part. With three rounds of stomach flu for my two girls I have had my hands full.
The girls have finally gone to bed - sans stomach bugs. I’m sitting in “my” corner of the couch listening to the hail hitting our windows and enjoying a moment of peace. While writing up this post I’m in the back of my mind planning my next knitting project.
Yesterday I finished this pillow. No pattern, just a lot of calculation on my part and some help from Drops in this pattern here. The inspiration for this pillow came from the Oro lammeull pillow available @Princess stores in Norway. I just felt 299NOK for a pillow case was too expensive, why not make my own.

 
my take on the Oro pillow, front and back

I knitted my pillow in Royal Tweed yarn by Lana Grossa. I used less than 5 skeins on 5mm needles for a  40x45cm pillow. This is a medium grey mix (color code 48). Love the softness and play of color. I got the yarn super cheap at a storage sale Tjorven arranged over a year ago. The yarn has just been sitting in my storage waiting for a fun project like this.
Tjorven is actually arranging another storage sale in about two weeks time. I plan on going! I have been really good the past year and used a lot of the yarn I have hoarded since starting this hobby. So this storage sale is great for stocking up on yarns I normally find a little too expensive for my taste. Here is more info if you have the time (January 25th 2015) and the money….Ticket sales are closed (for guaranteed spot in the queue - are already sold out), but you can still get some great yarn deals just by attending.
The past weeks I have intensified my efforts to getting my drivers license. Being a mother of two soon-to-be-kindergarteners I need to be able to drive to and from kindergarten for pick-ups. Two years ago I contacted Bil og Buss Trafikkskole and started my drivers license training. But time has just run from me…now I’m hoping to work hard and get my license within the year. Hopefully over the Summer, depending on how much time I will have to do some driving. Have to make a mental note to save money for driving lessons though. A 45min lesson costs 590NOK! I’m lucking and DaddyO is willing to give me driving lessons, so don’t have to get my general driving training from the driving school, saving me tons of money. But getting a drivers license in Norway is an expensive thing.

Another new thing I stared this year, the art of letter writing. As a side effect of my efforts to getting more organized using binders, I got myself a pen pal. I’ve actually had fun creating pages for my binder to keep track of my pen paling. a pen pal record - to keep track of addresses and personal information

a happy mail log - to keep track of my sent and received snail mail.

Not sure if/how I should put this online for downloading, but drop me a mail if you would like a copy of these.
So now I have more binders than I care to admit, but I feel more organized. It started so simple…with calendar binders to journal/log for my two girls. (more about those in this post) and the number of binder have increased rapidly.
Enough ranting for now…going to catch an episode of The 100 - my newest series to watch. Have a great Thursday evening.
- How has your year started?
- Any goals for the new year?

I <3 planners

Hi, my name is Sheila and I’m an planner addict. First step to recovery is admitting I have a problem right? My last post about updating my two girls “life calendars” has lead my into the colorful world of planners out there. When I started looking for inspiration on how I wanted my calendar layout to look like I never expected to find such a creative and fun way to use planners/organizer/Filofaxes. The expression ‘planner porn’ is very descriptive.

A “life calendar” fits my need for writing down “history” and being creative at the same time. Since starting to update my two “life calendars” from this…

the word “stale” comes to mind…

I have found a whole world of ideas of stuff I want to put in my “life calendars”. Lots of fun DIY projects and ways to add color. I have since my previous post ordered a bunch of diary stickers and washi tape. I look forward to getting them and adding more color to my “life calendars”.

I should be concentrating on getting my Christmas shopping done…but I’m having too much fun playing around with these “life calendars” of mine…

so much more fun and colorful

Got the idea for a name divider on Pintrest, here. Made mine in Microsoft Project. Print, cut and laminated. Voila! a cool, colorful and unique divider.

The blue folder you see in the background is a DIY folder, to hold my growing amount of stickers.I got the idea to make one here (also from Pintrest). Mine is made of a blue plastic folder as that was what I had at hand when I wanted to make this. An added bonus, it’s VERY sturdy. As I made mine to open from both sides (like in the linked DIY video) it’s good to know it won’t come apart anytime soon.

Time to call it a night….

- do you have a colorful way to pimp your “life calendar”/planner?
- I love Pintrest, do you? why?

Losing Buster

Last week SweetieS lost her beloved plush toy Buster. She had brought it to kindergarten in the morning and he was lost when we picked her up in the afternoon. The employees have search high and low the last week – still no trace.

If he was lost inside the kindergarten shouldn’t he have been found when we posted Missing flyers all around the different activity rooms?

My biggest worry is that she left it outside and during the weekend someone “found” him a new home. So tomorrow I’m posting up Missing flyers at the kindergartens exits. Here’s hoping…

- Is all hope of getting him back lost???
- have you ever lost something important? did you find it?

Now starts the job of finding a substitute…so far Jellycat Bashful Lion has not been good enough, neither has Toys’r’Us mascot Geoffrey…

Let me know if you have seen a similar toy sold anywhere

Update November 3^rd: Buster has found his way home! Call off the search party! After hiding out in a backpack under some pillows in one of the playrooms in SweetieS kindergarten, he got tired of not playing with SweetieS and turned up.

One day after the other

Haven’t forgotten about this blog, just had my hands full and haven’t prioritized blogging.

I just finished updating SweetieS and BabyLs calendar books. Ever since SweetieS was born I have written down stuff that has happened. Be it from her first steps, tasting new foods to who visited her with gifts. Stuff like that. While being pregnant with SweetieS I had just printed a bunch of calendar pages with space to write down notes. The pages worked fine but sometimes I felt they were too generic, boring and in need of some color. I tried adding color using different pens…but still not happy with the lack of personal touch.

full of colorful text…but boring

After seeing the life planners of Kristina Werner and Erin Condren I’ve been wanting to have one similar. I tried looking at a customized planner on the website, I just couldn’t find one just like I wanted. Being an IT person and knowing the inner workings of Microsoft Word - I figured it couldn’t be that hard to make my own, so I sat down and started creating my own planner pages.

I looked for hours at others planners to see what I needed on my pages. There is a lot of inspiration to get from Pintrest. Here is Erin Condrens Life Planner Wall of fame.

I created both girls pages as two page calendar spreads with a lot of space for taking notes. Both have the similar layout as I found it works for me. I made the calendar with undated monthly spreads and found out I needed to add the name of the month and year. For easy look up of current month I laminated a small yearly calendar as an oversized book marker. As both my girls are born in May, both their books start with the month of May – I just printed May to May instead of January to January.

A5 binders with SweetieS and BabyLs calendar book

I’ve been using Pilot Frixion pens because of the erasability and colors. But after reading about the pens fading over time I think I have to go over my pages with an permanent pen. I’m hoping to save these books for my girls when they are all grown up.

Another thing I’ve discovered for my binders are small post-its. Super cute and available in a gazillion designs. Adds a pop of color and easily highlights things/events. I bought mine on Ebay (duh) from this seller: Ginger Jujusmile

In between the calendar pages of SweetieS binder I’ve saved the information that SweetieS kindergarten emails us. This way it’s all stored in one place.

An afterthought, I wish I had made this calendar book while I was pregnant. That way I could have written down all the happenings during my pregnancy. But for my girls those notes are written in their Svangerskapsboken – I posted about that one here.

- do you write down the happenings of your children?
- what does your life planner look like?

If you would like a copy (pdfs) of the calendar pages I’ll be happy to share them.
- Made them to fit A4 or A5 binders.
- The week starts with Mondays
- The months are undated
- It’s in Norwegian. (If you want it in another language. Please send me the name of the months and weekdays)
Just drop me an email.