Vacationing

For the past few weeks, we've had a parade of visitors out - two of my daughters for a week each, and our best friends from Indiana for a week.  We got to visit and revisit a lot of Southern California fun spots - Disneyland, Hollywood --

my daughter cracking up at how serious the Storm Trooper was

And we discovered some new, interesting hidden spots.  Like the cemetery where Marilyn Monroe is interred - it's truly hidden away.

We were there the day after Ray Bradbury's funeral - fresh grass.  We visited the Getty -

With their beautiful site and gardens, and a stunning view of LA.

And we enjoyed having our visitors, playing games, eating and generally catching up.  It was great!  We have a week off, then our last group of the summer comes on Saturday for another week and a half.  More Disneyland and beach!  It'll be fun --

Because we've had so many visitors, we need more beds (especially for the group coming this week).  In the studio, I had a small red loveseat that I liked, but it didn't really help out much.  So I sold it on Craigslist and looked for a replacement that had a fold out bed.  I found a great leather loveseat with a twin sleeper on Craigslist, but the leather was in terrible shape - sun faded and looking kind of sad.  But since it was in faded condition, I got a great deal on it (and it had never been slept on, the mattress was still in the original plastic).  I got some leather conditioner and polish and got to work:

You can see how dry the original (left) side is compared to the restored side

I did the right side only so I could show my husband how different it looks!

The leather was still soft, just really faded and dry looking. 

When I got it all done, it looked great.  I used a nice brown leather polish and a leather restoring product to keep it supple.  Lots of muscle to work all that into the surface, but the results were worth it.  I need to make some fun red pillows, I do miss the red in the room!  But it's soft and comfortable and looks fabulous now!  And as a bonus, it would match up with the living room furniture in case I ever want to do a shift in furniture -- my little red loveseat didn't go with anything!