A Couple of Upgrades for Our Home

As mentioned in yesterday's post, after a week of intense work, I indulged in a little bit of recreational retail therapy yesterday whilst out doing the weekly grocery shop.  Now I know that this is a dangerous habit to get into, but most of the items I bought were Christmas presents, along with a couple of natural make up/toiletry items for me and the following two items for our home.

Both items are upgrades in that the first, this lovely plastic tray with a coastal houses scene on it, replaced a much larger tray that I had previously donated.  We don't use a tray that often, but it is handy to have one and the previous one was so large that it didn't fit in any of the cupboards. As I'm trying to keep counter clutter to a minimum, it wasn't working for me, so I sent it to the Give and Take. This one however is smaller, lighter and easier to carry with the handles and can be tucked into one of the cupboards.

It also goes quite nicely with the only artwork in the kitchen, this lino cut print of  coastal houses and at £3.99 was also good value.

The second purchase (or purchases) was a set of three glass storage jars that I bought to replace the previous IKEA jars that I'd been using for a while to hold dog food, treats and biscuits.  I really liked the simplicity of these, with their silicone stopper type lids. They weren't cheap at £16 for the three, but I think they make the dog food corner of the worktop look a lot better and allow very easy access to the contents.

The IKEA jars will now be returned to their original home in my sewing room to store various sewing notions.

Here's the before

and now the after.

It has been nice to have a little spare cash to make small but satisfying changes to the house.  As we may be redecorating the kitchen soon, I think these items will enhance the finished look eventually.