patio days and patio nights

this was a great weekend. i didn't get as much done IN the house as i wanted to, but man--outside, the weather was fabulous, and the hippie actually took the whole weekend off, so we managed to fit quite a lot in! (a first in MANY weekends!) friday night we went to our fave restaurant in raleigh, frazier's--excellent as always. saturday we took a trip to the farmer's market with emily and shane, where we got flowers, honey, fresh peas, tomatoes, and the best strawberries i have had in years. SO GOOD! then we went to lunch and a target run, then came home to chill and do some house-y things for a bit. the hippie even got in some ceegar time on the porch. our upstairs neighbor, alison, came for dinner, which was salmon, asparagus and red peppers, jasmine rice, and fresh strawberries with balsamic vinegar, black pepper, and sweetened mascarpone cheese--mmmmm. oh, and some wine. :)

mayfair lights

the hippie and i spent some serious time on sunday working on cleaning up the patio outside our basement door to make it a cute and usable space rather than a scary one filled with the detritus of renters past. we threw some stuff out, swept it all up, did some creative garden hose routing to get that thing out of the way, trimmed back the jungle-like bushes that had been blocking access to the space, and made a few purchases and additions to spruce things up a bit. at lunch today we bought these bell lights you see here from restoration hardware, and i am DYING to get home and hang them up!

yesterday, we went and bought this fabulous grill, for which we have been saving change since last summer. we have been talking about grills forever, and i told the hippie yesterday--it's all you, baby. i am such a girl--i know NOTHING about grills, so i figured he better pick it out. this one certainly looks great to me--i can't wait to fire it up. maybe dinner tonight? we need jenn and harry to really christen it properly, but maybe we need a couple of trial runs first.

we also picked up a big clay pot and a hibiscus bush, along with a number of smaller plants. i am going to flesh these out some this coming weekend with some creeping herbs planted around the bottom of the hibiscus and maybe some more flowers as well. i need to go back to the farmer's market for a plant run--their plants are better and cheaper than the mess we saw at lowe's yesterday. did i mention that i LOVE the farmer's market? cause, man, i love it.

last night, when we were tired out from that working, we had a beer on the patio at the little bistro set we inherited from my grandmother's house, surveying the new domain as it were. for dinner, we walked up to the mellow mushroom for some pizza and beer and good outdoor seating. then we ended with a movie on the couch while we had ice cream and strawberries. i even got in a little knitting, although i am still way behind!

all in all, a damned fine weekend, if you ask me...