Wellllll wellllll wellllll and a Backyard Emergency

Wellllll welllll wellllll, look who’s finally decided to blog again…..

Yes, that’s right. HERE I AMMMMMM!!!! Wowieeee wowwww (let me be like every other whiney baby from the northeast and say) that winter suhhcckkkedddd. It’s a fabulous 60 something degrees today and I couldn’t help but think:

When will I be sitting on my deck sipping on ____________ ? 
a) Pinot Grigio
b) Margarita
c) Sangria
d) All of the above 

The answer is d.

But then I remembered our backyard is basically a war zone (ok not that bad), but it’s not an oasis. I feel like we always have big plans but then winter comes and we spend all our monies on going out, getaways, etc. because we can’t flippin’ stand it around here. But then comes summer and we complain about our gross yard situation. Also, as you may remember from my incessant complaining, I am an unpaid intern and that doesn’t really align with a backyard redo. This year, however, I will not ignore the backyard situation and will be doing something about it. These plans include repairing the deck, ripping down the railings, uprooting horrifying hedges, and dolling it up. I decided to start my quest for a quaint DIY backyard at the best place in the universe: Pinterest. Here’s what I’ve got going on…..

1) Oversized Planters: Since we’ll be tearing down the railings I’d like something give a little height to our low deck, and I think planters would be just the solution. I like the idea of simple black (which I’m sure they have something similar to in the almighty Target) OR I could raise some hell with another black and white striped DIY, on a larger scale.

1   //   2

2) String Lights: I like to sit outside with some frands, sip on some spirits, and be able to see each other’s faces. For some reason our outdoor area has no lights!!! It’s craziness, I mean come on an adult couple sold us this house, they should’ve been responsible enough to supply some light fixtures outside for the clueless 20-somethings that bought it from them. Unfortunately they were incredibly selfish and did not. Spending money on electrical is boring and I don’t wanna, so I have been campaigning for these for years.

source

We do not live amongst villas so I was thinking of putting some poles in those ginormous planters kinda like this, but with more lights: 
When I first suggested this, ohhh, THREE YEARS AGO, hub laughhhhhed and laughhhed until he saw how kickass it looked in our friends’ AMAZING backyard (in California)

See em up there! Cuties right!?!?!

3) Oversized Pavers: Ok, I have been yearning for a fire pit for quite some time (exhibit A) but we can’t put one on the deck and on the grass looks meh unless it’s one of those fancy stone ones. So I’ve suggested 6987 times that we put tiny stones or pavers down and THIS just looks diiivineeee

source

When that’s all done I’ll be trying this recipe and instagramming the HELL out of it all.

I’ll keep you posted and maybe even be daring enough and post some before and afters. If anyone has any pointers I’d looooove hear hear some. I will however, try to keep up with blogging because uhhhh…. this was kinda sorta fun 🙂

xoxo Stephanie

“Like” Surrounded by Pretty on Facebook

Follow surrounded_by_pretty on Instagram

Follow @SBPrettyBlog on Twitter

Follow Surrounded by Pretty on Bloglovin’