I got a new car! Actually I decided to trade Carmella {the sportage} in for a better car.

The commute to work for me is 1 hour each way so basically I’m driving 2 hours every day and not saving money in gas especially when the sportage only has 25 mpg. So it was time to trade in for a new car. I knew I wanted to stay with Kia since I’ve never had problems with Kia before.

First I did research online finding out which dealership had the best reviews in Phoenix. We called and made an appointment with a salesman for Sunday. Sunday was probably the best day to go since it was on Superbowl day and I’m sure shopping for a new car was the last thing on people’s minds that day.

We looked at the Forte & Soul since both of them had really good highway MPG. I immediately disliked the Forte because it seemed small to me. I can’t go from a SUV to a Forte. I liked how Soul was similar to a SUV so we test drove a bright red Soul. I knew I wanted it and Tyler really liked it too.

We went back inside to start the negotiating process. It took a while since we wouldn’t budge for what they were asking for. It came down to the point when the sales director had to come out to talk to us. He said he had to call the owner to see if he would be okay with sticking to our budget. I don’t know if this is something they do often when they call the owner. He came out with a big smile on his face and said he was able to get us what we wanted!

I’m so glad buying a car the second time was painless as the first time was. The best thing was that buying a black Soul was cheaper than the red one which was perfect since we wanted the black one!

I’m in love with it! I was so excited to drive it for an hour to work on Monday. It was pathetic because I couldn’t sleep on Sunday night. It brought back memories of all those first days of school where I couldn’t sleep the night before because I was so excited to see my friends again and wear all my new school clothes.

Anyways, isn’t it so cute!? I know I’ve named all my cars in the past but I’m going to just name it The Soul for now until I come up with a name.

On Saturday all of the girls met up at the dry bar to get our hair done. No cuts, no colors, just blowouts with wash included all for $35! They even ask you if you want margarita or champagne which was also included in the $35. Nice deal, huh?

I love how it looks like a bar!

Even across the street there is minibar.ber.shop for guys where their deal is “get buzzed. $20 haircuts & $2 beers” haha, I love it. Rahul got his hair done there while the ladies were getting our hair done.

Anyways, we headed to Lindsay’s house to get ready and took some pictures before we left. I think we were the only ones that arrived in a SUV with 2 guys cramped up in the very back. It was so funny to let them out when we pulled up to the resort with valet parking.

It was a black-tie event so we all had fun dressing up and going together. The food was amazing especially their dessert. Tyler became obsessed with the fruit and asked our server where they got their fruit from. Amazing how everyone went out of their way to find out for Tyler, jeez. It turns out all the head chefs already left so Tyler was bummed to not get an answer.

This is how much fun we had!
We were probably the youngest people there with our own table since people had to buy tables to go to the honor ball.

Chantelle has another challenge for February! Who’s doing it?!

Follow me @luxechandelier. If you’re doing it and I’m not following you yet, please let me know since I’d love to follow you!

Anyways, someone recently complained about how Instagram is turning into one of those “stupid monthly picture thingy” and how people are posting what they eat almost every single day.

I think it’s ridiculous! No one is forcing her to follow me or everyone else. Last time I checked, everyone is free to post their own pictures that they want to share with their followers. If someone doesn’t like it then they can be mature about it and quietly unfollow them instead of making a big deal out of it. Simple as that.

Anyways, January’s challenge was so much fun so I’m looking forward to doing this again!

Last week was a busy week for me. I wish my body didn’t require sleep so I could get a lot more done with everything!

The highlight of the week was that I went to a Zumba class on Tuesday night. A friend of mine went with me and we had so much fun! I went again on Thursday and definitely will be going 2 times a week now. I’m not a dancer and not an expert but what makes it great is that I know I’m not the only one in the room that doesn’t get some of the moves. But I’m determined to get there and be shakin’ my booty the right way!

My mom went to Zumba with me on Thursday and she told me afterwards that she didn’t do Zumba, Zumba did her. Whatever! She would rather exercise in front of the TV at home in private anyways. I have some more girlfriends who are interested in going to class and even my sister too so it’ll be fun!

I know Missa Lee is going to comment and say, “I told you!!” because she’s been trying to get me to try Zumba for months. Pffft.

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It’s been a while since I updated about Cheerio. Isn’t he so cute!? I can’t get enough of him, seriously. I love it when he greets me at the door when I get home from work. Sometimes he’s not at the door when I come in but he’s always running down the hall to the door with his ears flapping up and down.

We keep spoiling him with new toys & treats. We’re learning what treats he does and does not like. So far we have found some good “healthy” treats that he likes. I usually give him a treat before I leave for work to distract him from giving me the sad face when I leave.

When we’re not home he has access to half of the house. We don’t trust him with the front of the house where the foosball table & living room is. When he was being potty trained, he would poop on the carpet. Now he has not gone potty in the house for a while anyways. We always leave all the bedroom doors closed when we’re gone too. Also the laundry room is blocked with a gate because of the cat litter box.

I’m glad Tyler is usually able to come home for lunch so he can play with Cheerio and let him out to go potty. We make sure we give him lots of love when we’re home to make up for it.

However…he’s not exactly innocent as he seems to be. He chews on the edge of the carpet in the family room. Ugh! There are a few bald spots from him doing that. It’s driving me crazy! I wish we had a lot of money to just rip out all of the carpet and tile to put in hardwood floors. This is the first thing I’d do if I won the lottery.

BUT again…how can I be mad at this adorable poochie?! His ears are so soft that I want to nibble on them!

So last week I was talking to Missa Lee about it at work. She immediately looked on craigslist and the first post she found was a woman who was selling a farm table that she made. It was perfectly priced and just the table we wanted! She and her husband made a similar table to the one from Restoration Hardware for $2,245.

I immediately emailed her and learned that she and her husband were building tables to raise money for their adoption in Congo. I really loved the table and it was a nice touch to it knowing where our money was going towards. We made plans to pick it up with my dad’s car. Really…my dad is amazing for helping us with getting the table. Thanks, dad!

We didn’t waste time once we got it into the house. The table was already sanded so all we had to do was stain it. But I kind of didn’t want to stain it. Tyler on the other hand wanted to. He convinced me to stain it…. more specifically the color, dark walnut.

I was nervous since I didn’t want it to be too dark. You know how it is…the longer you leave the stain on without wiping it, the darker the wood will get. We decided to start staining the bottom of the table so we had some room for error. I didn’t wait too long before wiping it off and it turns out it was too light and I didn’t like it. So we left the stain on for about 20 minutes or so.

Don’t let this picture convince you that Tyler did all of the staining. I did pretty much 85% of the work. I know his little game of being slow and watching football at the same time on TV. He knows I’m fast and focused so I ended up doing most of it.

Yikes! Look at how dark it looks with the stain on for a long time.

Wiping off the stain was Tyler’s job. :) The next morning we put fast-drying polyurethane (semi gloss) on the table. We did about 3 coats and that was it!

Now look at this beauty! Notice something else too?

The new rectangle hanging capiz that I got for Christmas!

Here’s what it looks like with the light off.

I just looove it! After my dad and Tyler got the pendant up, we realized that it was too high so they’re going to fix it later this week and add more rods that came with the package so it’ll be lower.

Seriously this is the best multi-purpose table! For eating, holding cards while playing card games, beer pong and ping pong! Want to come over now?

This is what it looked like before. That table has been moved to the formal dining room for a little hang out spot next to the foosball table.

And this is what it looks like now! The table was $265 and we only spent $35 on supplies (stain, brushes & tarp cover). Total cost of the project: $300!!

So now I’m feeling a lot better. We recently did a new house project over the weekend and I can’t wait to share it with you tomorrow!