I've been taking lots of photos of everything ready to blog about them, but keep forgetting! So I've decided to empty my folder and do one massive post with all the photos to catch you up. Brace yourselves....it's gonna be a long one!

So, my first few pics are of the brass handles from the church front doors that I took home to clean and amazed myself with in the process!

Admittedly it did take a few hours to get from photo 0 (not included- somehow I forgot) where they were both black to photo 1 where it's a nice before and after to photo 2.

And what did I use to get these handles looking shinier than a bald man's head on a shiny sunny day? Lemon & sugar. Mix, coat handles, leave an hour, scrub with a pan scourer, rinse really, really, really well and finish with a quick swipe of brass polish....job done!

What I see laying in bed next to me every night :) (I know he looks like a large headed alien from mars attacks, but he's my large headed alien and I love him very much!)

Next up is an example of how lovely my friend Benny is who does all my labels, banners, buttons etc. He's the man that makes things look good in my life. I send him very skilful interesting sketches of what I have in mind and he makes it happen. Here's one such sketch.....!
I know you can all recognise that it's a blue background with white polka dots, with a grey linen backed shape in the middle with a blue ribbon perched on the side. As it happens we didn't go with this design....but it's typical of what he has to deal with. Well done Ben!

We did Moses crossing the red sea at Kidz Club a while back...this is the craft I came up with. *Please note I had about 20 minutes to think this up, make it and then make the supplies for the kids to make them. Theirs looked better, much better!*



It's like magic how all those people appear...anyway, moving on.

I've made some stuff....:

And...I cut up a pair of trousers that no longer fitted me....this is all that's left...unwearable I'd say!
Excuse the black spots on the floor. It's chewing gum that's left from previous tenants. I have some tips from Ask Anna to try though so I'll update on that when I get a chance to get my hands on some peanut butter.....

I revisited my pantry which I first organised in the 21 day challenge...it was a mess.....eek!


Admittedly I only retidied the top...it's already a mess again now....but don't fear, I have plans...many plans. Mwahahahaha! *steeples fingers*. In fact, the rate I'm going I might just have to completely re do the 21 day challenge!

We had our leaking bathroom roof fixed (just gotta re paint the mouldy ceiling inside now)
We also had our falling down garden wall fixed.
I helpfully forgot to take an after pic and it's raining now. I'll have to do a specific garden post I think.

We have spent time with my sister and brother in law helping them with their house. They've had a full re-wire which of course then meant a replaster in a lot of places so they thought they might as well undecorate and redecorate too and get it all out of the way. I've told them that if they redecorate now before a full 10 years is up they can find another helper!

On the plus side, Dusband and I have gained a lot of useful experience in DIY we hadn't done before so I guess helping is cheaper than lessons!
Yes, I know we're apparently steaming a section of wall that had already been stripped....we had to get a picture before we started though of us doing something in case we forgot!
Do you like our DIY clothes? We're super hot innit!

Talking of super hot, I did some hot gun stuff on their skirting boards and windowsill. The leather glove on one hand is not a Michael Jackson-esque fashion statement, it's a necessary I discovered when I scraped in front of the hot air.....oops! Oh well, lesson learnt!

We also went back a couple of weeks later and helped them paint this room but I forgot to take any pics....just imagine it. Milkstone on 3 walls (a sort of whitey colour according to my Bro in Law) and Kings red on their back wall. Funny though they didn't choose the colour for the name but their surname is King. Hee hee haw haw. Ok, so the fumes got to me a bit that weekend!

We found, cooked and ate some carrot people. 

I made a 'sketch' of some price labels I wanted Ben to make for me...here's the idea.
Sorry it's a bit bright! Here's the actual labels he made for me.
Fairly similar.....ok, much, much better!

I discovered my sister and brother in law were hiding the most gorgeous kitchen tiles in the world. I've requested that when they have their kitchen re done next year we try to remove them all in one piece so they can be used again. Lush!
Even though I've held back on the garden, I just have to share with you about our first lot of potatoes. Dusband had been for a run and when he comes home he runs himself a bath which he lets me have first then he gets in when I'm finished. (Isn't that true love!). Anyway, so then we get into our jammies. One day after said routine Dusband decided that he didn't want the new potatoes we had in the fridge, he wanted the potatoes which were ready to be dug up in the garden. It was raining as usual. Rain coats over jammies we went and dug up the potatoes. Fortunately they were in planting bags, we didn't have to scrabble on the ground for them, we still got muddy though! I made Dusband hold the potatoes so you could share our joy that was so worth getting muddy pj's for!

P.s. did you spot that lush mirror behind Dusband leaning against the wall? £2.50..bargain, just need to get some spray paint to deal with that awful brassy colour!

Anyway, we scrubbed the potatoes, cooked them with some broccoli in the pressure cooker and from soil to plate in 30 minutes, we ate like people who had grown their own taters!
It's green bits of broccoli you can see on them, not dirt! They were the creamiest potatoes I've ever tasted! Unbelieveable...who knew potatoes could differ so much in taste?!

And finally.....at our youth group yesterday we played the game where you tie a balloon to your ankle and you have to go and pop other people's balloons. Whoever has a balloon left is the winner. We had large balloons this time and there were only a few players so they decided to go for 4-5 each. Before we started, Sam did her helicopter impression.

And Dusband did a practise run across the room.

Then I made him stand tidy for a 'nice picture for facebook' Bless his willingness!
As a spectator, I loved it, I couldn't stop laughing!

Anyway, that's it, I've run out of pictures!
Tarraa,
love Mrs H xx