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?

Planner and knitting

I know I’ve been MIA a while. With SweetieS starting school last fall and SweetieL being a handful I just haven’t had the energy to sit down and post. And I see that this blog is suffering the consequences.
But here is a post from me, still alive and kicking.
Eventhough the Summer has been knit free, I still have a few post coming on knitting….one of the things I have incorporated in my planner is an analog log of my knitting. So hopefully when I sit down to blog about a project it hasn’t all gone to LaLaLand. In this spread I make notes of what yarn, pattern and needles I have used. Also with a note of whom it was knitted for. After I got the Polaroid zip I even started adding a picture of the finished project.

before the pen	filled in

over to the next project of the day. Cleaning up after our fireplace was changed earlier this month….
- what have you been doing this Summer?

A “quick” DYI

This DYI project was quick to assemble but not so fast when it comes to the accquering of the supplies.
With kids in house we buy raisins on a regular basis. One day when I had an empty box at hand I though these might work…for a bottle rack for all the drinking bottles the girls have.
So we went from this…

a small chaos of drinking bottles

to this…

using these…

They are simply glued together using a hot glue gun. Still need a few more raisin boxes. Happy with this solution.
-have you done any DYI projects lately?

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?

Planner archiving

This week I suddenly got the urge to look at storage options for my used planner pages. After my post about using my planner to document more memories (post here) I realized that now I really can’t throw away my old pages. With the planner community so big, I started “reasearching” how others do it.

I wanted a solution that;
- wasn’t too bulky, as I will be using planners years to come
- doesn’t take up too much space
- easy to look up/flip thru
- wouldn’t break the bank

I ordered a 6 ring folder of Ali a while back that I have used to keep my past planner pages if my planner was getting full (this one…). It has been very practical as it had 6 rings just like my planner(s). I thought about buying more of this folder to organize my “planner past”. But I soon realized that it would be too bulky. I only use week on two pages and monthly pages to the folder would be too big for a year of pages, and (I think) too small for two years. This solution might work for some…just not me. So back to the drawing board.

Yesterday I think I landed om a solution that fullfills my “wishlist”. And it is as simple as it is cheap, as I already had all the supplies I needed.

You need;
- transparency sheets
- exacto knif (or similar)
- elastic string
- some imagination

I designed a simple cover and printed on transparency sheets using my trusty laser printer. I lined up a page of my planner and marked of the holes. Using my exacto knife I cut slits where the holes are and feed the string thru.

And there you go, a flipable archive.

- how do you store/archive your planner past?

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?

Not too early to organize

This week I put together a planner for SweetieS. Well not so much a planner as a binder set up like a planner. Just without the calender and planning part. I bought a cute planner from Aliexpress. This one to be exact. Very cute and perfect for SweetieS.

No point in having sections that require SweetieS reading and/or writing, as she don’t do either yet.

So I set it up with fire sections:
- ABC123: for all the flash cards I make/find, in Norwegian
- 中文 (zhong wen): flash cards in Chinese, preferably in Cantonese
- “free hand”; blank pages for whatever SweetieS feel putting on the pages
- coloring: coloring pages (there are tons available thru Pintrest)
- stickers: laminated colored paper for all thos stickers

I googled a bunch of Minions pictures and stuck these on dividers that I laminated before punching.

I’m pretty happy with the result…and SweetieS loved it!

	one a happy SweetieS
closed planner	lots of those yellow little guys	flashcards

And to add some bling I bough a bunch of crystal keychains for SweetieS to add to the rings. Today SweetieS is in a mood for cats…

I removed the keyring and use the hook in the planner rings

After two days of coloring I see I need to print more coloring pages…

- do your kids have a”planner”?
- what do you think of my attempt at a planner for SweetieS?

Medallions

SweetieS has gone on hicks with her grand-parents several times. And for kids who finish the hicks, medallions are rewarded. Needless too say, SweetieS has a few…eventhough she is “only” 3 years old…

Long have I had a project in mind….and now I finally sat down and composed this post.

Earlier this year I picked up this frame at a local flea market (in Oslo these are typically hosted at elementary schools)…If you are interested in attending a flea market – and contributing to the local youth activites, you can find an updated list here

With a few coats of paint and some fabric I had laying around, SweetieS now has a place to put her medallions. This DIY project was inspired by this post on Pintrest.

I know, they aren’t hung perfectly straight..

- how do you organize your medalions?

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?

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?

A box from IKEA

The other day I was at IKEA and came over this box….

a cardboard box

to put my used light bulbs…

What is nice about this is that if you return the box with used light bulbs, IKEA will donate 10NOK to WWF.

The box is free. So why not pick one up they next time you are at IKEA?
Read more about IKEAs environmental programs here.

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?

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.

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?

Lunchbox makeover

July month is a month out of the ordinary in the kindergarten BabyS attends. In cooperation with a few surrounding kindergartens, they are open all Summer. For us this means I have to remember to pack an extra lunchbox for BabyS.

With the need for an extra lunchbox every day I needed a few more boxes, as BabyS only has a few. Well I couldn’t find any I liked when roaming the stores, so I decided I would find simple food containers and pimp the.

I started with these containers from Biltema. I bought the sizes 570ml and 830ml. The difference being the height I could use the lids on both sizes.

very plain boxes…

I used a few stamps I had laying around (a clear stamps set from Michaels – Recollections #171837, and a Inkadinkado stamp set called “Welcome baby” #60–30108) and some jet black Staz-on ink. To color the animals I used fine point Sharpies (any permanent marker should do the trick), I used these. I love how the lids turned out!

the result…

This was fun and I plan on doing this to more lids when BabyL needs lunchboxes…or when I can get my hands on a few more boxes from Biltema. And if BabyS gets tired of the motives I’ve used on these lids, I can always use some ink cleaner to remove the stamped images and give the box a new makeover.

- have you given boxes a new look?

Finally some order

Today I finally got a hold of the baskets I wanted for BabyS’ changing table. We have had a IKEA Gulliver changing table for BabyS since she came into our lives. In the beginning there wasn’t much stuff in the shelves. But after almost a year all necessities are covered (I think). Along with more stuff in the shelves beneath came more clutter. So happy to finally get the baskets I wanted from Jysk – they have been out of stock for months! – I totally forgot to take a before picture….I just started organizing…

now we finally have some order

The baskets measure 32 x 44 x 22 cm and are called Shire. I was actually lucky enough to get the baskets while they were on sale, so I got them for about half off what I had initially expected. Yay!

With the baskets being out of stock for so long, it has taken a long time to get all our stuff in order. Better late than never I guess…

- how have you organized your changing table?
- what do you have easily accessible by your changing table?

Chic?

Shabby? or Shappy Chic? Today I finally put the finishing touches on a little project I’ve been playing around with for a while now.

A decoupage box for storing our parking permits. The parking lot for guests in our co-op is very strict on all cars needing a parking permit. No permit = a hefty fine!

It started out as a box of baby cereal…from Nestlé

Some free hand cutting until I was happy with the shape…

I tore apart an old book – into different shapes, inked the edges with Ranger Distress Ink in the color “Tea Dye” before I decoupaged it onto the box with Mod Podge.  Added a book label on the front as a finishing touch.

And voila!

Here with a few permits inside…

It was fun playing around with decoupage. Only done it one time before, and that project I gave away…

Only downside is that you have to work with the Mod Podge in a well ventilated room, or as I did – took breaks often. So you might need some patients…

- have you done any decoupaging?
- do you live in a co-op with strict/“crazy” parking rules?