In pouches

With BabyS becoming a bigger eater I’ve started ordering larger amounts of food online (from iHerb.com)

A little note about iHerb: In January all customers are VIP customers, thus enjoying even more discounted prices. So if your considering ordering from them HURRY UP. Offer lasts to midnight January 2013 – yes, that’s  two more days if you live in Norway.

Ordering from iHerb for the first time? Have a coupon. Good for your first order.

use coupon code WGB528 for a few dollars off on your first order

Last time I posted about BabyS eating from pouches it was all about pouches by Ella’s Kitchen. When browsing the iHerb site I found that they also stock other brands of baby food pouches. As they were a little cheaper I thought I would give them a try. They come in other blends, so nice to have other options.

Last week a few boxes came from iHerb with a whole lot of pouches. BabyS seems to like food that comes in pouches with no concern when it comes to brand. So MommyS will be ordering more.

With several different pouches in the house BabyS has a lot to choose from.

Haven’t tried food pouches?
Can definitely recommend having a few at hand. They are great to have in the diaper bag in case baby gets hungry and your out and about. When your baby learns to suck from the pouch there is just about no spillage! They come with a screw on cap, so if your baby doesn’t eat all in one go, just put the cap back on and back in the bag it goes. And the pouches take up no space at all!

- how does feeding from food pouches work for you?
- does your baby have any favorites?

Some relaxing knitting

In a previous post (Some cover “fire”) I wrote about knitting covers for some ugly boxes I had around the fireplace. Well it was so easy I decided to make a few more…since I have more than one of these ugly firelighter boxes laying around.

I felt like making some that weren’t so seasonal, like the last one…Christmas/winter. I went searching for a little inspiration online, but couldn’t find any that “hit the spot”. So back to the drawing board.

What would look good as a box cover and could be on display year round?
A brainstorming session left me with…some patterns more popular than others these days
- the ever so popular Marius pattern
- chevrons
- butterflies
- hearts
- stars

Without any patterns to follow, I did as I’ve done before made my own….almost. I went searching online for some patterns for the patterns I felt like knitting. No use inventing the wheel again…when most likely someone has already made the patterns and posted them online somewhere. And my oh my… I found both stars and a butterfly I really liked!

For the butterfly, go here
For the stars I used, go here

I used the knitting pattern by Majas hobbykrok as a starting point for my own pattern and adapted it to the patterns I wanted to incorporate. I used some yarn I had laying around from past projects. Contact me if you want a copy of the patterns I used for the boxes below. I’m happy to share…just haven’t posted them here as they are not “professional” patterns.

and the result…

Now if only I could knit a little looser. My butterfly turned out a little wonky because I knitted it too tight. Well well at least I finished them…Now all the firelighter boxes in CasaR has a cover. Sitting here and wondering if I should make a few more…makes great homemade gifts … and never hurts to have a few knitted in other colors/patterns in case I feel like redecorating.

The cover with the stars has a very “home and cottage” feel…very fitting next to our fire wood rack. Love the combination of the light brown and off-white yarn. As for the butterfly cover…made a simple border for fleur de lis at both the top and bottom so the butterfly wouldn’t look so lonely. Like how they both turned out.

New knitting method you say?
While searching for the stars knitting pattern I came across “reversible knitting”. This scarf by Crafty Crafty looks great! Having no idea where to even start I looked for a video tutorial. I came across this one. Doesn’t look too hard Maybe my next project? (need to do some more research before trying out this knitting method)

- How have you spent your Saturday?

…well off to relax some more

Another buzz

Today I picket up my newest Buzzador package. Yay!

Product this time: Fruit smoothies from Nestlé
This time I’m buzzing about Nestlé Min Frukt (a fruit smoothie) that comes in practical food pouches. As always the great people at Buzzador make sure we have enough to test ourselves and lots to give away! I received ten! pouches of the two types, the red pouch: apple/banana/strawberry and the green pouch: apple/pear.

We already know that she loves food that come in pouches. Unfortunately BabyS is sick these days so her appetite is more or less lacking. Not the best time to test out new tastes. So holding off a few days with these pouches. But we are looking forward to trying these.

- Have you tried Nestlé Min Frukt?
Feel free to comment you opinions on these pouches below.

What is a Buzzador you ask?
If you haven’t head about Buzzador, it’s about time! The concept of Buzzador is “curious people that test products and services. The Buzzadors spread their honest opinions to friends and acquaintances”

Being a Buzzador has given me the opportunity to test products I didn’t know existed or would ever try if I just saw it in the store. This way I get to test the product, give feedback to the producer and give honest recommendations to friends and family. And all this for free! What’s better than that?

- Want to know more about Buzzador? Here’s a link to their website.
- What to give being a Buzzador a try?  Here’s a link to the sign-up page.

Hero Arts giveaway

This week I’m joining in on the Hero Art blog hop. It’s CHA time and that means new releases! Yay!

“Love the smell of new stamps” hehe Maybe I will be lucky and win some of the new releases on the blog hop…one can hope.

Well Kathy Racoosin is doing a giveaway in the name of Hero Art. Hop on over to her blog for a chance to win some of this goodness…

How beautiful…

Some cover “fire”

Inspired by Majas hobbykrok post on knitting a cover for firelighter boxes I gave it a try this weekend.

 

 

The firelighter box originally screams at you…and I have a box with a design that is less colorful than the ones out there… My box measurs 37 cm in diameter and 23,5 cm high.

 

 

I’m not 100% happy with the result. Mostly because I knit the pattern too tight, causing the snowflakes to be a bit stretched. But happy with my efficiency…only took me one weekend!

 looks great next to our fireplace

After making one is such a short time I will make more of these. need to be able to change it when I feel like it. The box is stored next to our fireplace year round, so should have some designs that can be used with the different seasons…not just snowflakes.

a close up

Very happy with my color choice, the deep purple with the off white…very advent. With purple being my favorite color, how can I not love it I did make some changes to the original pattern…other than the colors…I “removed” a row of snowflakes in the pattern. I felt it was too much with two rows.

- do you have firelighter boxes that need covering?
- what designs would you like to see on your cover?

Christmas card 2012

A while back I promised a post on last years Christmas card. Here it is!

I love being creative when putting together my Christmas cards, but there isn’t enough creative juice to make 25 unique cards. So every year I play around and end up with a card design I like, which then gets “mass produced”.

For this years card base I chose a cream colored cardstock. With the largest die in Quickutz nested ornament die cut set I cut out the ornament for the front. To give the ornament a Christmas feel I embossed a pearlescent green embossing powder (unknown brand) after stamping with the Hero Arts Flourish Background Stamp (CG119) and Versamark ink. With Fiskars 1” hole punch I made a hole for the picture of BabyS (I’m trying to keep pictures of BabyS in this blog to a minimum…but the card just wouldn’t look the same with a blurred out picture). The ornament was then attached to the card with a little ribbon and a glue dot. Under the tree I had stamped (with a discontinued Inque Boutique stamp - Stephanie Barnard Mini Christmas -Model # 50437) a little Christmas greeting…The star on the top of the tree got a little bling to make it “sparkle”…cute!

Inside the card DaddyO had written our 2012 review and another stamped Christmas greeting together with a handwritten sentiment. The corner was adorned with a Magnolia swirly ornament stamp.

Hopefully friends and family have received their cards by now…

- Do you create your own Christmas cards?
- How many different designs do you make?
Do share your creations with a link in the comments.

Stay tuned I’ll be back before you know it…

A little knitting

With the flu and a sinus infection finally loosening the grip on me I have some catching up to do…

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years celebration. And with days starting to go back to ‘normal’ … I try to enjoy the last full month of my maternity leave. In February I slowly return back to work. Ahhh how time flies. BabyS is already 7 months old!

Thanks to help from DaddyO we got last years Christmas shopping done almost two weeks before Christmas eve, leaving me with lots of time to do some knitting.

The projects I finished were mostly for BabyS, one can never have too many blankets or socks

a snap of the finished knits…

Here are the patterns I used:

Bring it on baby blanket by Pickles	Tube socks by Drops design	Twister beanie by G-Anette

All the projects are knitted in baby merino wool (the grey socks and the pink/purple/grey blanket) and alpaca blends (the brown socks, the purple/white blanket and my beanie). All should be warm and cozy on these (still) cold winter days.

Just a note, I didn’t follow the beanie pattern to the letter…when I followed the pattern it was more of a kids size beanie when using the alpaca blend I had. So I increased the number for masks to start with from 80 to 120. But thanks G-Anette for the great pattern.

The socks don’t have heals knitted into them, so they are one size fit all babies. Just knit them as long as you feel like, I made mine about 25cm long.

- Have you done some knitting lately?
- Who do you knit projects for?
Do share you projects by leaving me a link…all comments are also appreciated.

Be back before you know it with another post…

Happy new year!

Time sure flies…another year has begun.

Sorry for my absence lately, someone left casaR a Christmas gift consisting of the Flu! And I was struck the worst. I’m still recovering…starting with some energy to sit a little in front of the computer. Just dropping by to wish everybody a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wasn’t much of a celebration @casaR this year…with BabyS needing her sleep and DaddyO and me sick…So this year I reminisce about the new year we celebrated in Singapore two years ago…

 
the sky @MarinaBay, SG…ahhh New Year in the tropics

- How did you welcome the new year?