some more christmas decoration

Today I put some more christmas decoration in our entry. I had seen wonderful ideas in my favorite magazine that made me want to put something on our banister. And here it is:

 

Two christmas baubles (I like the one that looks as if I had dipped it in sugar), a little pink and red ribbon (the pink one says "Merry Christmas" on it), some fir-sprigs and three straw ornaments. I am glad I did it, the entry really looks a little festive now.

On the stairs there is our angel which you can see better in this post
I got the white lantern at Ikea a while ago. As we haven't found "the" piece of furniture that goes there in this little niche, we stacked two wine crates there until we find something that we want to put there.

Furthermore, I put a little decoration on the door. I sewed this a few years ago, three stars and a gingerbread man that I put on a string. We did not even live in this house then, but look how wonderfully it fits on that door!

well-organized kitchen

Well, I wish our kitchen were so well-organized, but it isn't (yet). Anyway, one mini-project can sometimes improve the situation a lot: Our spice jars used to be bunged into one part of the drawer which you can see in that picture... (I forgot to take a before-picture AGAIN.) When we cooked, we had to  rummage in that drawer for the right jar. Also, the different kitchen papers were in a small shelf on top of the fridge, where it was also difficult to find the one that you were looking for.

The solution: a spice rack that uses the space inside one of the hanging cabinets... we tried to affix it to the inside of the cabinet door with double-faced adhesive tape, but it was not strong enough - we underestimated the weight of the spice jars! After a few days it came off, and we decided to screw it on the inside of the door. Even though we used very short screws so we did not break through the door, it has maintained perfectly. 

Now the spices are on the inside of the cabinet door, within easy reach and close to other dry food, like rice, flour, sugar... I keep those in my Tupperware (c) Spacemakers which are stackable and make perfect use of the space that is there. I will also try and get matching spice jars.

It's a pity you can't see the  supercute polka dot drawer paper I put in here.

Then I used the drawer space - after putting nice berry-colored polka dot drawer paper in it - and put the different papers in it: baking paper, plastic wrap, ziploc bags, aluminum foil ... It is very nice that we don't have to dig for it in the other cupboard anymore. Yes, that is my little kitchen project.

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas

We love the time before christmas, and of course our daughter enjoys the time and loves to open her little box every morning... this year I found this beautiful DIY advent calendar instructions complete with patterns (free printable download) at Raumdinge. Thank you, Valentina!!!

It took me about three hours to cut, fold and glue the boxes, but they were worth it and look really good. Valentina suggested to hang them, but as my husband and I built this ladder shelf last year for the advent calendar, I placed all the houses on that shelf, and I think it looks great.

Around the shelf I put a green christmas garland with lights, some ornaments, cookie cutters and red ribbon.