Paper Sun Catchers

A couple of months ago I made myself a sun catcher. It's already starting to fade, but it's still really pretty.

I liked it enough to purchase a whole book on how to make them.  Its not very big, with maybe 8 or 9 different designs, but you can make many variations just by playing with the colours.

So when I decided to leave my current role for a new job, they seemed a really pretty but quite simple thing to make for everyone as good bye gifts. 

Every single one is different although some are similar, coming from the same design but using different coloured papers. 
 

On the desk

On the window

Spread out on my desk most people couldn't work out what they were, their pretty secrets hidden, but held up to the light everyone seemed impressed.

I really enjoyed making them, its quite a repetitive process so you can let your mind wander a bit, but the end results are so impressive. It's hard in these photos to show quite how much they glow.

I've still got lots of kite paper left so I'll be making more of these sun catchers.  Might even make some white ones for Christmas, if there is time.  They really do brighten up a window.

A Brand New Bathroom

The old bathroom

When we moved in to our new house last year, I knew the bathroom would need some serious work to become a room I could love.  But the utility room and garage were far more pressing and so I had to live with a bathroom that made me cringe every time I used it.

It wasn't just the fact the toilet was squashed in a corner against the heated towel rail so you'd burn your knee every time you used it, or all the little nooks and crannies that made it difficult to clean but also the fact it had no real storage space so everything was on display the whole time.

So with Christmas all done and stuck inside due to the snow, we decided the bathroom was our next project and started drawing out some plans.

First thing to do - swap the window out to one with frosted glass and proper double glazing to give us privacy and keep us warm.  'im outdoors did this one damp cold day in February.

The new window

 A great start and we carried on, ripping out everything except the shower - something we couldn't live without, while the downstairs loo made it possible to take everything else out.

But while we thought it wouldn't take too long to complete it's actually taken about 6 months.  The main problem here was the fact we still had to use the space so couldn't really do much in the evenings before the space would need a tidy before being used again. 

A new shower

We made massive improvements over the long Easter weekend when we ripped out the shower cubicle and replaced it with a bath and wall shower.  Getting the tiles up took 2 days all by themselves, even with the 2 of us working on it, never mind fitting the bath and plumbing in the shower.

Finished!

While 'im outdoors has done most of the hard slog, I've tried to help out, making tea and cookies when needed and doing most of the painting along with sticking all those tiles.
It might have taken way longer than we'd hoped but its finished now and a huge improvement on what we started with!  It's now a joy to use, thanks Hubby.