Peonies

I love peonies...

...and so did my great-grandfather!

My daughter's new room

After 25 years it was time to sand and reseal

 the wooden floor in my daughter's room and

 then paint the walls. We brought all her stuff

 to the room downstairs for the time being. 

But having done that we were surprised by 

how much easier bedtime became, just because

 they were not sleeping on the same floor anymore.

 It was the best idea ever! 

So we decided that she is going to stay

 downstairs and the room upstairs will be a

 second guest room. 

^ These are the best. 

We have them in almost

 every room in the house.

^ The old glass front cabinet holds a lot of her

 books and drawing/painting stuff.

^ Little dress we bought in South Africa.

^ Wearing the dress :)

^ Mannequin head painted by Magda Rust from

 Nostalgic Corner.

^ Dance shoes.

^ Books, books and books.

^ The Underland Chronicles, 

her favourite series of all time.

^ A basket from Africa, given to her by her

 godmother for her First Communion.

^ Art made of used tea bags bought in Cape Town.

^ Wooden crates upcycled with chalk paint 

and enamel numbers.

^ Old French hooks.

^ Old pillowcases.

Have a nice Sunday!

Bird boxes

We hope some great or blue tits will use our bird

 boxes to make their nests this year.

That would make me so happy!

The book that made her start reading

My daughter loved to listen to stories (Audible),

 but didn't like to read real paper books (except manga).

 Part of the problem is that kids in Luxembourg

 start reading in German, which is close to

 Luxembourgish, but still a foreign language. 

And listening is so much easier than reading

 (because they are used to watching German

 TV most of the time). 

And then she brought home the book they

 started reading together in school: 

Black Blade part one by Jennifer Estep. 

She LOVED it and asked me to buy part two

 and three because she wanted to know

 how the series ended. 

From that day on she hasn't stopped reading ...

... which made me a very happy mother.

Birthday Yankee Candles

My two new birthday Yankee Candles: 

Blueberry Scone and Beach Plum.

Can't wait to burn them!

Me and my candles - Yankee Candle Scenterpiece

My daughter loves my candles, 

but I don't allow her to burn them in her bedroom,

 it's just too dangerous (although she's already 14).

So I gave her a YC Scenterpiece for Christmas

 (Black Friday deal 30% off) and she totally loves it.

And then I kind of fell in love with it too

 and had to buy one for myself :).

I love the way it looks, that it's so easy

 to use and that it has a timer.

Every now and then I google 

my great-grandfather's name, just to see

 if I can find any new information

 (or even better: paintings).

Last week I found a short newspaper

 article, actually just a few lines.

It's in (old) Dutch and it announces

 the 50th wedding anniversary of my

 great-great-grandparents and the name of

 the café where the reception is taking place.

^ This was the happy couple 

(the painter's parents).

It is so fascinating! I mean, who scanned this

 article from more than 100 years ago

 and thought it was important enough to

put it on the internet?

The first tulips of the season

Finally...

My husband and I usually buy ourselves a

 Christmas gift to put under the tree. 

I bought two candles I really loved on Ebay

 on 8th December (in the UK).

And guess what? 

They didn't arrive on time 

(they came last Friday). 

Hah! 

I so love these labels (I think I just started a

 Yankee Candle bird's collection).

If only I knew the name of the birds (the first two).

The tree is up ...

... and we're almost ready for Christmas!