Part 1: my weekend to re-charge

Mike is up north this weekend, and I'm excited to have the whole weekend to myself to re-charge and get some things done. I've been overwhelmed lately with everything on my plate, and all I wanted to do this weekend was stuff for myself, as selfish as that sounds.
My morning began with a Bon Ton Tile class that we've had scheduled for months. Kassy, Angie and I bought the Living Social Deal last October and we had to get it used before it expired at the end of the month. I chose to make a stepping stone and Kassy and Angie made a mirror. It was a three-hour class that we finished in about 2.5 hours.
I wish I would have come a bit more prepared because I ended up just making up a design that I kinda don't like. I also wish that I would have know that we're only given white and charcoal gray tiles and that if we want color, we have to buy them for $5 each. That was really disappointing to me. I thought that for the price of the class ALL of the materials were included.
Located in Golden Valley, in what seemed like an industrial park, Bon Ton Tile offers classes and custom tile applications. It's a neat place and I could really do some damage if I had a large wallet with me! Pics or our projects are below.

Backyard projects

I DO NOT recommend waiting two years to stain a new cedar fence-- do it right away! We finally bought stain and a sprayer to stain the fence, all $580 of stain, I will add.  That was a painful transaction! :(

I thought I'd just clean the thing off first cause it must be a little dirty, right?! WRONG-- it was A LOT dirty! Oh my gosh! I sprayed it with the pressure washer and it made a little difference, then we used some deck cleaner and sprayed that on and then used the pressure washer. The difference was night and day- it is amazing how different the fence looks even right now. It looks brand new! Boy, it it ever a pain in the butt to do the cleaning, though. We wanted to do a good job, so we sprayed the cleaner on, let it sit, and still scrubbed a little with a brush before spraying it with the pressure washer, but the result is well worth it. It's not stained yet because it rained off and on all weekend so we didn't dare try staining it. That's a project for a night this week, hopefully!