Book reports

Last week I attended a meeting with SweetieS school teacher. In the meeting we were discussing SweetieS progress in the different school subjects.

In the past year she has made good progress when it comes to reading and writing. But sometimes I feel SweetieS gets bored and doesn’t want to whether read or write. When the teacher showed me a few pages of stories they have been writing in class I got the idea of book reports. Using a creative way to combine reading and writing would hopefully keep SweetieS motivated.

Inspiration

This is a stamp I bought of Aliexpress, from this listing. But the stamped image will be to small for SweetieS to use as her hand writing still needs practice..and shrinkage if it is to fit inside this print.

As the concept of books reports have yet to be introduced in class yet, I made an example for SweetieS to reference. Writing a few lines in her own words about the story line in the book will make SweetieS both reflect over what she just read and describe the story line in her own words. Hopefully this will keep things interesting.

Been a while since I wrote a book report 

As for the rating of the books. We are going for a star system. We haven’t decided if we are going to just  color in the stamped stars or if we a using stickers. For now we will use the stamped stars as placeholders. The star stamp is an old Stephanie Bernhard stamp I've had for years (pre Stamps of life) so I don't remember the set it came in, but here you can use any small stamp you feel like. I ordered these star stickers of Aliexpress if SweetieS opts for stickers.

Me being big planner fan, of course I have made planners for my girls. For now these pages are inserted into SweetieS «training planner». It also holds pages for her to practice her writing. I just printed some pages I found on Pintrest. Like these.

-how do you keep your kids inspired when it comes to reading and writing?

-what pages does your kids have in their planner?

Couch storage

With a new couch came the wish (need?) for more storage. In our previous couch I always had a «project» or two taking up a seat. To DaddyO slight frustration, it always looked abit messy. When a few springs gave in, we opted for a new couch. After looking around and trying a few couches, we landed on the Vallentuna series by IKEA. This is a modular couch that you can put together as you please. We went for the storage in every seat version. Now my projects can be put away when I’m not working on them. You can use IKEAs planner to try out the different setups to find your favorite and get a shopping list of all the parts you will need. Our setup has the code 4FQNNJ in IKEAs planner wizard (which you can find here). The girls still make a mess when sitting on the couch, so we went for the faux leather cover for easier cleaning.

assembled, but not finished cleaning up

I happen to come over a few pins on Pintrest on couch storage and fell in love with the option to have charger cables tucked away in a shelf behind the couch. I did some more digging and started planning my own version. My shelf ended up being a little more complex that the version I started with. A hinged shelf with storage beneath. So I would have less clutter on the living room table. Win, win!

hinged

I bought wood planks the width I wanted for the shelf and some square planks to fasten the shelf on. When I was happy with my setup, all visible surfaces got three coats of wood stain from IKEA. Within the shelf I place a power cord for the mobile phone chargers. No more cables stretched across the couch.

blending in

-how do you keep clutter away from the couch area?

Inspired by Britney

Spears....really? Well kinda, I was inspired by the colors on the packaging of Britneys perfume «Midnight fantasy».

loving the color scheme

With November just around the corner, I thought I might as well start planning my next layout in my planner. Yes this is yet another planner post (not gossip related as the title might have suggested, sorry!)

The first week of November will be quite hectic for CasaR, so might as well take advantage of the free time I had this weekend.

With the color scheme planned, I kinda had a sense of the layout I wanted to aim for...stars and galaxy of some sort. 

playing with the colors

Finally got to try out the markers I ordered on Aliexpress a while back. This one to be exact. I opted for the 100pack. Not sure I need this many colors, ever...I used the markers on an acrylic block (I wound up using a longer block than the one in the picture), sprayed some water on it and pulled it across the pages in a diagonal line. When the paper had dried, I went over with a Wink of Stella clear marker to give is some  sparkle.

Tried to catch the glitter sparkle on the left side

Then I went over with a number stencil and wrote up the days of the week with the purple marker I had used for the «galaxy» stripe.

The result

Quite happy with the end result. Now to fill out alm the plans for the coming week.

-have you been inspired by any celebrity?

-what theme do you have for November in your planner?

Rituals

When I visited my friend Daffym a while back I totally fell in love with the scent of the Rituals of Dao series. Rituals is a brand of signature fragrances for body and home. So I had to look into this brand. When looking at the website I found that Rituals have several series. But the website does not give justice to the different scents that are in the different series available. Not until it will be possible to smell thru you screen.

So when CasaR went to Kiel this fall holiday, I had to make a trip to the Rituals store in the Sophienhof shopping center. Don’t get me wrong, there are stores here in Oslo. I just haven’t prioritized to spend time visiting one. The store is set up with a very zen feeling which in turn promotes peace and traquility. DaddyO even commented that he was surprised that in a store with so many fragrances he didn’t feel bombarded with the different smells. Though with kids along I felt a bit like an elephant in a china shop as many of the containers in the store were made of glas or porcelain. I found several Ritual series I also liked and wanted to try. Needless to say I left quite a few $$$ in the store.

My favorites so far...

- Rituals of Dao

- Rituals of Sakura (you were spot on Daffym)

- Rituals of Karma

- Rituals of the Happy buddha (not sure about this one yet, but the girls loved it)

I opted for the room perfume option to get the fragrance in house. Unfortunately not all the Rituals series I liked, come in the home perfume variety. So I thought I would give the hair and body mist variety a try. Unfortunatly there’s a big difference in size and pricepoint between the two varieties...

Home fragrance in 500ml vs Hair & body mist in 50ml

The plan is to use these perfumes with the humidifier we have at home. We have several at home, but this is the one I have tried with the Rituals fragrance today. I bought this one on Aliexpress here.

I have the one with the dark wood look

This specific humidifier has a 550ml tank. That’s several hours of operation without needing to replenish the water. And with a few sprits of the home perfume, my home was filled with the Rituals of Dao in no time. My friend Daffym has gotten the perfume genie by Rituals. Being an Asian geek this should be right up my alley. A gadget that makes everything smell nice and can be controlled wirelessly using a smart phone (only for Android OS, so won’t work for iphones). Since CasaR is in Norway and we have a fireplace we use frequently, we need a humidifier to add some moisture to the air. The winters in Norway are dry enough...

A screenie fra the Rituals website

In the time to come I will try the different fragrances I picked up...maybe it’s time to figure out the different buttons on the remote control for the humidifier?

I’ve only been using the on/off button =D

- have you entered the world of Rituals?

- do you have a home fragrance?

Trolls

Only SweetieL had her birthday celebration at home this year. (SweetieS had an outdoors birthday with the reste of the May-girls in her class)

the movie ticket invites

This years theme was the movie Trolls. We opted to not go for the glitter as the clean up would a nightmare. The nightmare I did get where more kids coming than the ones that had replied they were coming. So I was stressing out over not having enough tableware and goodie bags to go around. But luckily SweetieL didn’t pick up on that and she was a happy little birthday girl at the end of the day.
Since I was stressing around most of the time, I didn’t have time to snap any pictures. Just one of the happy little troll called SweetieL

one happy SweetieL

Oh, the head bands were made for all the kids based on an idea I got of Pintrest. Thanx to colorsthemom.com for the instructions.

- have any cool birthday themes to share?

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?

Gifting money

Those who know me in person, know I don’t like gifting money in a plain envelope. I feel it’s too impersonal and lacks creativity. So when SweetieS started school this last fall and all the parents agreed that we would give money when it came to birthdays, I went on Pintrest to get some ideas.

So far I have “toilet rolled” a few and made “piggy banks”.

- how do you gift money?

First signs of Spring

and what a better way what with a glass of refreshing Sangria?
When I visited Portugal many years ago I was introduced to Sangria, a refreshing drink based on red wine. During the trip I found variations with white wine, rose and champagne! We quickly realized that the sangria based with rose wine was our favorite.
I had yet to try to make it myself though. So when I got the chance this past weekend, I gave it a try…
According to my Portuguese friend, the Portuguese version is usually made with Portuguese liqueurs, most commonly “Licor beirão” (flavors of seeds and herbs) and “Liqueur de Laffon” (orange flavors). And Sumol (Portuguese sparkling water) to top it of. These liquids are not available here in Norway, So I opted for liquids with similar qualities. I ended up with “St.Hallvard” for the herbal liqueur and “Cointreau” for the orange liqueur . To replace Sumol I just used a cheap lemon/lime soda.
To give it the Sangria look and feel, I added some sliced fruits. Here is the ingrediencies I used:
- an apple
- a lemon
- a lime
- an orange
- a bottle of red wine ( I just used a bottle of Italian red wine I had laying around)
- 4cl St.Hallvard liqueur
- 4cl Cointreu liqueur
- 1,5l lemon/lime soda
(add a tablespoon or two og brown sugar if you want the cocktail even sweeter)
I was recommended to mix the fruits and alcohols together and let sit for at least a few hours. Add the soda just before serving.

Chilling….

a kind of a bullet journal

or should I call it dot journaling? It’s been a while since I last blogged about my planner. Mostly because I have forgotten….spent too much my researching my newfound love for bullet journals. New for 2019 is the use of dot journaling or bullet journaling as many call it (though as far as I have understood the term is overly used)
For now, I have the same weekly spread throughout the month, but I am thinking about changing it more frequently. And new with my dot journal, is the use of monthly covers. I like that the monthly cover sets the theme for the month.

my January and February cover and layout before the pen

I’m not true to the Ryder Carroll bullet journaling style as I don’t use the all the bullets and the yearly, monthly, weekly and daily drill down. I just jot down what I need to remember, when I need to remember it. Very plain and simple. My planner is still a place for my memories as I still don’t feel I have time to sit down and scrapbook, so I will be going for a weekly layout that allows me to put in a picture or two along with some extra notes.

The result is still two pages weeklies….but now I can change out the layout from month to month, or even from week to week. Since I still use a ring planner, I can move/add/remove pages as I feel like. I use dotted pages I downloaded from wellella. Thank you! You made my transition into dot journaling much easier. This way I get the planner pages I need/want and just the amount of creativity I want.

-do you bullet journal?
-what is your “style”?