Perfect outdoor dinner parties

We were fortunate recently to purchase some great teak outdoor furniture at 70% off (the store obviously didn't share in our good fortune...). The good news is that our back yard is starting to feel "lived in". In fact, most of our dinners have been outside in the past two weeks...such a treat now that the weather is slightly cooler.

Yes Mom, that's the umbrella from the wedding...finally out of the box!

On a side note, when we contacted the store's recommended upholsterer, their quote was almost double what we paid for all the furniture. And after indicating that the price was out of our range (obviously...), they discounted their quote by 20% immediately. What? Why do businesses do that? Needless to say, we're still looking for a good upholsterer.

We had our first outdoor dinner party this week and it was brilliant. Although, after seeing these beauties by Pieter Stockmans, my head swirled about whether it could be that much more brilliant. His outdoor table lights are pure perfection.


It's so nice that we're finally at this point...starting to use the different spaces how we had imagined them. No, we're not "done" yet, but considerably closer. :)