Some Alone Time

 Carleton and I took two fun trips...just the two of us!  One to Vegas and the other on a cruise.  We love being with our children but we also love any time we can just hang out together.  In Vegas we...

 ...went on a beautiful bike ride.

 ...stayed in a fancy hotel.

...visited the Pawn shop from show.

 

 There was a darling antique store close.  Too bad it was 50x what I wanted to spend.



 ...thanks to the Avalos's we went to the Wicked Spoon.  It was like a gourmet buffet.  Amazing!!  I look like I'm carrying another 10 pound baby...only this one is made of ice cream...well, it would be a long list.

Two weeks later we went on a three day cruise to Ensanada.  For our day off the boat we went zip lining, visited a blow hole, and did a little shopping Mexico style.

 We went on several bridges that were swinging around.  We had to unhook and rehook ourselves in the middle.  I thought that maybe it wasn't the greatest idea since the bus had stopped at a liquor store on the way there and some of the people had already put away a few.  Lucky we and our bus mates made it.

 


I've started a side business of refinishing furniture.  Here are some pics of some pieces that mom helped me with while she was visiting.

 Before.  This piece is probably the pretties I've seen.  It was a crazy amount of work but very rewarding when we finished it.  My friend, Brandi, put this in her daughters room.



 After.

 

Before.  My friend, Jocelyn is putting this under her tv in the living room.  I loved the gel stain and plan on using it on all my cupboards and banister in my house.

 After.  It's a dark brown but looks black in this pic.


People ask how I restore furniture with little kids.  Apollo and Annie love to do it too.  I buy wooden projects from the dollar store or the thrift store and have the kids sand and work on them.  I've bought three jewelry boxes for Annie to "refinish"...they come out an interesting rainbow of colors.  Apollo took my frames apart in this picture.  I got them from the dollar store, sanded them, and put some cute printouts for my bedroom.

This is an old mirror I refinished for Sunny.  She has a hundred year old home all done in different shades of gray.  This mirror will add some a fun pop of color.  After this pic, I rubbed black stain on it.  I'll post a pic later of the finished product.

 Here are my next projects.
 


I plan on refinishing this and painting it yellow.

 Here's my garage sale partner.