I love being outdoors.  I love being in our yard.  But I haven't figured out the best way to use the space well.  (I'm sure Pottery Barn could give me a lot of solutions for under $60,000.)  Because I don't have the patio set up well, we tend not to eat outdoors, which I love to do in the summer.

Saturday our neighbors had a garage sale, and we added a few things to it, which meant I was outside a bit with them.  Then I invited them over to dinner.  Being outside inspired my husband to cut the grass (and weed-whack)... which led him to dead-head the roses, and move the grill off our little patio... at the end, we had reclaimed the patio from all the stuff living on it.  So I threw a table cloth over the kids' picnic table and over the bigger table, and voila!  We had a perfect space for dinner.  We set our chairs in the grass and spent two hours out there talking while the kids played.  Lovely.

Such simple steps: a broom, a table cloth, some dinner... and we had another entire room.  And all this time I've let my visions Coastal Living's elaborately catered dinners-- or rather, my inability to imitate them-- keep me from enjoying our space.  Silly me.

P.S.  I made some great local pizza tonight, with homemade crust, local tomato sauce (from The Blue Parrot), Boulder Sausage, onions from the farm, and oregano and spinach from our garden!

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