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?

Hand bands and order

SweetieS has begun to have a growing amount of head bands. With my need for order…I set out to find a solution. Pintrest to the rescue! Inspired by this pin on Pintrest and a little help from IKEA, SweetieS now has a storage solution I’m happy with.

The solution is from the IKEA Bygel series. I used the rod, some S-hooks and two cups. Totally up to less than 50NOK!

Not off to find all the head bands located around the house.

- do you have any smart storage solutions to share?
- how do you store your head bands?

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?