Fresh Home Table and Thailand Send-Off Party!

Becky was visiting on her way from Boston to Thailand this week and we cleaned up the backyard for a going away shindig for her and to celebrate the new backyard! Sarah B also came to visit, but more on that later. I got a cute outdoor tablecloth from Target on sale that matches the benches to the table. Love it. Also love the table and benches that are made from the plans in the summer edition of Fresh Home magazine.
Becky and I posed for some photos before the party as we relaxed for the afternoon with lemonade and design magazines (along with an Economist that neither of us read!). Oh I love these gorgeous warm fall afternoons here!

Pretty Patio and Pergola PLUS Picnic Table

Brentan is finishing up the pergola on the patio right now as I sit here and blog! He started a few days ago, sawing and drilling, and now we have a beautiful, California, redwood pergola, that seems ubiquitous in our neighborhood. After deciding to put one in, I started noticing them everywhere, even at the gas station down the street. It is going to provide some much needed shade in our backyard! It is still not quite finished, as I said before, but you can see the results.

In process:
And mostly finished!
We're looking for some cute, durable, cheap lights to hang around the pergola (since Brentan hard wired it for electricity, of course), so if you have any suggestions, please tell me!

You might also notice these cute built in planters that Brentan made all by himself:

I love them, and the colorful poppies and snapdragons he picked out for them! (I also love him, because he made me a pergola, AND a picnic table)

A picnic table for the patio is still in the works, mostly because I haven't had time to finish painting/staining it, and it was RAINING here for the last few days. From all that I've heard, rain in September in San Francisco is unheard of. But here is the table and benches in progress, they will eventually be a blue-aqua color on the base ("Wipeout"), and natural color stained redwood on top. More to come...
Also! We put up these cute mid-century house numbers to go with our mid-century house:
Also! You might want to know what we decided on the carpet! We dumped Home Depot, and went with the large carpet store. We managed to talk the sales guy down to only $300 above Home Depot, and we will get much better installation, continuing service, and product. I'm really happy about it. Installation in about 2 weeks!