What a gorgeous weekend in Portland! Since homeownership our lives have been full of new things like HGTV, improvement projects, yard work, AND my most favorite activity in our new house – dinner parties! We found ourselves domesticated very quickly this summer and lazy afternoons on our sunny back deck are what I’ve been craving. I spent today lounging in the sun and reading Sunset magazines – perfection. I’ve always loved Sunset, but it’s even more fun now that we own our first home. The tips, tricks and ideas I’m reading are inspiration for our home and yard. We need all the help we can get because our yard is in serious need of an over-haul!
Last week I stepped through a rotten board on our deck, we don’t have a picnic table and there is very little that is cute or even close to an inviting outdoor living space. The yard is pretty much a disaster area! I’ve been watching craigslist for wooden outdoor furniture and dreaming of a big dining table. The August 2011 Sunset has an awesome 
article about turning a shipping pallet into an outdoor table. I’m inspired and now on the hunt for a yard sale table that I can use for legs! I need to figure out our table situation sooner rather than later.
This week we hosted two dinner parties. One on Wednesday (inspired by the Reboot your work week article from a few issues back – one of the tips – midweek dinner parties!) and one on Friday night. Our weather finally turned to reliably sunny this week and when I realized we were hosting dinners on days that would reach the 80s I started to panic a bit. The main living space in our new home gets southern exposure and tends to heat up beyond comfortable dinner temperature on warm afternoons. I’ve been dreaming of lovely summer parties with slow meals eaten al fresco ever since I read Katie Tamony’s description of the dinner parties they hosted under the stars on their patio last summer. It was the perfect week to host such a party, but all I could think about was my lack of table and chairs and the horrible disarray of the yard.
I went back and read her editor’s note – Summer glow - from the June issue and I got inspired. I borrowed a 6 ft table from work and bought a slew of hanging lanterns, hurricanes and candles at Ross ($30 goes a long way for stuff like this at discount stores). I couldn’t afford to run out and buy new outdoor dining furniture and fresh landscaping, but for less than $50 bucks I transformed our ugly yard into a moody and romantic outdoor dining room. We have a FABULOUS and giant Chinese Maple out back and its branches provided the perfect canopy for my hanging lanterns. I covered the folding table with a cute blue table cloth (on sale at Macys) and we hauled our dining room chairs outside. Once the candles were lit and the wine was flowing the backyard was one thing: dreamy. Add two groups of fun friends and my husband’s out-of-the-this-world food and we had two perfect dinner parties! I have one word: blessed.
So – thank you Katie and Sunset magazine for all of the inspiration and thank you wonderful friends and family for breaking bread with us on a couple of idyllic pdx summer evenings. They will be the first of many dinners eaten outside at our new place. I can’t wait to share a meal with more of you as our yard continues to evolve. Here’s to easy living and eating under the stars – Cheers!
See more photos of our dinner parties in my Summer 2011 album on facebook.
