Finally done and beautiful globes

I’ve been working on these pillow cases for ages. Well the knitting part was done in a couple of weeks, but adding the zipper took forever. Over the course of the last few weeks I have added the zippers. And now I’m finally done! Just four more pillow cases to go…but before I can start with them I have a few Christmas gifts that I need to finish first.

Knitted in Lana Grossa Classic Tweed, color 002 – a speckled brown/beige color. Lovely.
December is here and time for some Winter magic. These days I’ve been busy with another project. Making ice globes for Lysnisseprosjektet/Making a magical December. I found a tutorial thanks to Pintrest. So I’ve been experimenting with balloons and various amounts of water. It’s not cold enough outside to make these globes, so I’ve made them one at a time in my freezer.

my two globes yesterday…

I have placed mine on a bed of pine needle branches on top of a storage case I have on our front patio. Today I added another one…but forgot to take a picture. Instructions on making these can be found here. Thank you Anne! The tutorial is in Norwegian, but the video shows the steps so well no need for sound.
- How do you create your Winter magic?

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?

Better late than never

I've finally taken the time to take pictures and write a few words about my knitted sleeve for BabyLs strollerbag. The one I wrote I was gonna make here and here
Sorry for the late post. This knitted sleeve has been finished for months and used frequently now that the days have become cold, wet and windy. How I envy BabyL when she's sleeping nicely snuggled up in the stroller with me pushing her up the "mountain" we call home. Don't get me wrong...love our little outings no matter the weather (atleast most of the time). It just looks so warm and cozy in the stroller...compared to the outside...

There is no pattern for this sleeve. Just out of my head after a lot of inspiration on Pintrest and Google. Contact me/leave a comment if you want my notes on how I made this sleeve…I feel I can’t call it a stroller bag as this is made to fit outside an old stroller bag I had.
It’s knitted using Drops Alaska in brown (color code 23) I bought during the last Drops yarn sale. Alaska is a 100% wool yarn, but feels nice and soft.  Did you know that Drops is having a sale lasting until December 31^st 2014? On all their alpaca yarn, more info here.
As Christmas is right around the corner I’m off. Have planned a few knitted Christmas gifts and if I’m to finish them in time I need to put in as much knitting time as I can….
- have you knitted anything for your stroller?

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?

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.

A knitted dress

I finished this dress for BabyL a while back, but haven’t had time to do much blogging lately. But today I finally have some me time and I’m not tired/exhausted/procrastinating…not a bad day today…

No further ado…here is the dress!

The dress is inspired by this pattern by Vikinggarn (in catalog 1305)

(picture borrowed from Viking Garn)

As my sweet mother-in-law is knitting a patterned dress for BabyL, I thought I would make a simple one- this being my first knitted dress and my first knitted garment with a zipper. The dress is knitted in some leftover yarn (Ullteppegarn by Gjestedal) I had from a baby blanket for SweetieS (read about that blanket here).

The dress didn’t turn out as I had planned though. I had put in a zipper that was a few centimeters too short, thus improvising with a flap at the top of the dress. I also wanted this to be a unique dress for BabyL like SweetieS had – a “Team 2012” overall- so I added some 2014 details, 2014 elbow patches.  The hearts I made following this  pattern by Creating Laura and sewed on the numbers.

With one knitting project finished I’m off to start another one….this time a Christmas gift for a little sweetie. Hopefully I will finish in time.

- have you knitted any dresses and put your personal little twist to it?
- have you started planning your Christmas gifts?

For a baby boy

I’ve been trying to be consistent when it comes to gifts for my soon-to-be parents-friends. I think I’ve managed so far…

Well today I meet up with my friend that has just had her third baby. As the first of my friends having a third child I had to go into the think tank and find something fun and creative. I turned to my newly found love, Pintrest for inspiration. It had to be something that I could make/buy while BabyL is sleeping or I can bring her along. I found this cool diaper motorcycle! I just had to give it a try….

Drum roll please…

On top of the motorcycle is Elly the bashful elephant by Jellycat. (the recipient of this motorcycle asked for Elly for her newborn) These stuffed toys are super soft and cuddy. SweetieS loves her bashful lion, while BabyL has a bunny for when she is in need of a cuddly buddy.

Instead of using a baby bottle for the headlights, I used a package of nipples for when her baby starts drinking “velling” (a type of watery porridge – very popular in Sweden) that I know her boys love.

Hope she likes this gift…

- what do you give to your friends when they become parents?

Wishlist Christmas 2014

Done some thinking…here are some of the things we need/want for CasaR this Christmas

Thank you family and friends for fulfilling our wants and needs  

Update September 22nd: Added a few things I want for the girls
Update October 28th: A few more things for the girls
Update November 19th: More stuff for the girls
Update November 30^th: Gifts all around

For us all

	Rosendahl Grand Cru pasta plates Note: not the Grand Cru Soft series – that’s another Rosendahl serie
	External portable hard drive – size 3TB Like this one by Seagate
	Christmas curtains, going for simple and elegant. Like these from Hansen & Dysvik 3 of these “Perla Gardin Rød – size 140x160cm”

DaddyO
Hair cutter, wireless
Jeans, size: length-32”, width-34”
Cotton T-shirts, size L
Deo sticks – Hugo
Boxers, size L
Socks, plain black (“dressokker”), size 42-45

MommyS
Twilight Forever DVD boxset
Pierre Robert Wool Collection Wool Top and Wool Long Sleeve, size S/M
IKEA Senior cast iron casserole, 5l size
Kari Traa Rose Wool set: Long Sleeve and  Pant, size S/M (colors Rose, Wildberry or Cinder)
Sharpie Ultra Fine Permanent markers, the 24-color pack.

SweetieS

	Chicco Animal cottage
	Lego basic deluxe set
	Two piece pajamas
	CD with Norwegian children songs
	Karsten & Petra DVD - TV-series: Season 1 & 2 and the movies: “Karsten og Petra blir bestevenner” ”Karsten og Petra på vinterferie”
	Pierre Robert Young Collection Wool size: 98-104 - wool long sleeve - wool longs

BabyL

	Bath towels with hood
	Toddler size backpack
	Toddlerfriendly drinking bottles, like these @iherb
	“Rocking sheep” this cutie is available @CoopObs Note: please no longhaired sheep
	Jellycat, Bashful Bunny in grey Size 31cm

Early bird?

(a little screenie from a fun phone game/app – cutie)

The other day my brother-in-law asked me what our Christmas gift wishes were. He thought he would be an early bird this year, and get his Christmas shopping over with already. Only problem…I have no idea what we need/want yet.

So time to start thinking….

- have you started your Christmas shopping

I love these

crib bumpers by Smallstuff! The traditional crib bumpers that you get in Noreay is no match for SweetieS weight. Before she moved to a bigger bed she would stand along the sides of the bumper and push together the bumper, leaving a pile of “stuff” along the crib sides. I came across Smallstuff crib lines about two years ago, at a storage sale. So I bought this nifty crib bumper for just 250kr! which is cheap for this type of bumper I now know – because I wanted to get one for BabyL, as the one for SweetieS has moved with her to her big bed. The cheapest one I found was at www.lekmer.no or www.cdon.no (portals to lekmer). And with a few gift certificates I had @cdon and lekmers Summersale, I only paid for S&H (shipping and handling).

Here is SweetieS bumper on a IKEA Hemnes Daybed. I don’t think this one is available anymore. But it is lavender colored with white stars on one side, and the reverse on the other side – the side that is pictured below.

And here is BabyLs bumper on her “inherited” IKEA Gulliver crib. It is almost the same design as SweetieS, just that the stars are multicolored.

What I love about these bumpers is that there is no need to tie them onto the crib. The bumper is 4cm thick and can stand on its own as it is filled with foam and not fabric. They are 30cm high and 360cm long, thus fitting perfect along three of three side in SweetieS bigger bed. Can’t recommend these enough. Just love them!

- What is your crib lined with?
- Did you know that Smallstuff also have other wonderful products?

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?