6/17/2011

Out in the backyard

Hello strangers! Things have been busy around here lately. We've been tinkering around the house, working on little details and trying to get things cleaned up and decluttered. Part of this little operation included sprucing up the backyard a bit.

I knew I wanted more color out there and more lighting so I devised a little plan, and I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money.

Let me first say that I had THE best idea for a lighting solution in the history of the universe. I was so proud of what I had thought of, so we headed down to Home Depot to start picking up our supplies. We got some skinny wooden posts (2"x2", I think), some terra cotta pots, and those little bistro lights from Target.

My fabulous idea was to anchor the posts in the pots with pea gravel, then screw a small hook into the top of the post and hang my lights in perfect swoops across the patio...
This is where my idea went south. I had the posts in the pots and pots filled with the gravel. Everything seemed pretty secure. I placed my pots where I wanted them on the patio. We started to open the light packages and get ready to string the lights up. I get one in on one post and go to string the other end on the other post....and POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!

...the weight of the strand of lights was too much for the top-heavy pots. The pots tipped over. My lights broke. Cue sad trumpet sound.

So then, my brilliant hubs, Mr. Goat, suggests that we string the lights in the trees! We get to work on this by drilling small holes into 2 trees and in the boards on the two corners of the house and screwing the little hooks into the trees and boards. We string the lights (carefully!!) and secure them with cable ties. A quick 2nd trip to Target and Home Depot and a few trips up and down the ladder later, the lights were hung!

Ta-da!
All in all, my lighting solution (well, plan b) worked out really well. Since we no longer needed the pots for stringing the lights, we put tiki torches (that we already had!) in the pots. This means MORE light!

Now to infuse some more color back there. Green grass + green house = A LOT OF GREEN. I need some pink! Some red! Something! Other! Than! Green! So I found some pillows and some flowers...

Here is the lounge area on the right side of the patio with the new pillows...nice eh?

Care to lounge?


And of course, the hammock. This is actually a new hammock net because some hood-rat in our neighborhood decided to creep in our yard and steal our old one.
Oh well, this one is new and clean! And it needed a pillow, too...


To add more color, I decided to use every piece of real estate I could. I put some flowers and other plants in the top of my pots! These are Petunias, the tall grass is Mondo Grass, and the other plant is Sweet Potato Vine. I have no idea if it actually grows sweet potatoes. I think it turned out rather nice!


I love my lights!

I don't think the billy goat minds them one bit, either...

I think we created a really nice little outdoor space. We had our friends over for a Memorial Day cookout they all seemed to enjoy the fruits of our labor. It was really nice being able to SEE...the only light we used to have out there were 2 motion lights on our house and our neighbors house. Talk about being blinded by the light...and then 2 feet away you couldn't see your hand in front of your face! This was a definite upgrade. I would say the whole project cost us about $150--I'm not that great at keeping receipts and that was two weeks ago so I've totally forgotten everything other than the fact that we fixed up the patio.

Bye for now, and I hope to not have another whole month before my next post. Stay cool!