Benches Are Now Stained

My pretty little unfinished benches are now stained!  It took me all day (again) to stain these babies, but now they're a gorgeous red mahogany:

The sunlight has cast a strange light on them, but they're really kinda pretty.  Not bad for my first venture into woodworking!  Here's a shot of the table and one bench:

The guy at the hardware store suggested this product as a clear protective coat (he said it was better than anything out there because it's specially designed for outdoor furniture):

I'll be working on the top coat tomorrow, then they'll all need to dry for 24 hours before we can use them.  I'm SO excited to get this set into my backyard!  We still need to build some sort of a deck (that'll have to wait until next year), but the set will still look nice on the grass.

I'll post all the details, including a link to the plans, tomorrow or Friday with a breakdown of what this set cost me.  I'll also show you some comparison outdoor sets so you can see just how much money I saved by building it myself!