Carnaval: Before the Craziness Begins

Rides are set up

Marquesitas with flag colored garbage can

Before the craziness begins, before the maddening crowds and the deafening music, before the smells of marquesitas and spilled beer, the Cozumel Palacio area is pretty quiet this morning. It is almost like the night before Christmas, as we all await what is to become.

Ever present Sol Beer tent

I walked around for thirty minutes with the sun shining bright and a nice cool breeze to take a few shots. Rides are set up. Bumper boats are ready. The air is festive. 

Bumper boats not cars

Some other fun rides are waiting, including the Tea Pot ride. May the craziness begin! 

Tea Pot ride

Gymboree Graduation

Isabella at her Gymboree Graduation

At eleven months, Isabella experienced her first graduation, going from Level 2 to Level 3 at Gymboree. It was also Valentine's Day Week, so the children all wore red. Here she is above with the special Graduation hat, that is actually a fabric cake.

Singing and clapping during Graduation with Jose

We sang and clapped our way through the hour with our favorite teacher, Jose. There were two children who graduated, Isabella and a friend named Manuel. Of course a lot of the hour included playing with balls, toddling around and practicing walking with help. She really has come a long way in the few months we have been going to Gymboree.

Isabella accepting her cake

In the end we went back to doing what Isabella loves best, going down the slides.

on the slide

A House Reborn

New dining room

We have the pleasure of working on a house that was built about 30 years ago, and it is now being reborn with some architectural features from a local architect, a new pool and The Magic of Design is working on all new furnishings. The dining room originally had a 126" long glass table that  the client and I liked, so we updated the design by taking away the clipped corners and changing the finish of the table base. 

Dining room before

This is a photo of how the old dining room looked. We updated it as well by changing the dining chairs.

Here are a few shots of some of the bedrooms, before and after. Obviously this is a work in progress as none of the new bedding is on the beds. We also are installing new roller shades with cassettes today. Love it!

Bedroom 1 before

Bedroom 1 after

Closeup of the Culverden night table

Bedroom 5 before

Note that we are doing all new bedroom furniture including new beds, night tables and 10" memory foam Melbourne Shore mattresses from Ashley. More photos to follow as the work progresses!

Bedroom 5 after