There’s Nothing Like Family Visiting to Spur the Finishing of Projects!

Our vacation starts today! My brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew arrive today for a 2 day visit; Madison has a softball tournament starting Saturday afternoon in the Long Beach area so they’ve come out a couple days earlier to hang out with us! Hanging out means making pizza and paella in the backyard! Our overgrown Jasmine had to get pruned way back, and while trying to tame it hubby realized that the string of big lights we’d strung across there years ago was completely rotted and fell apart. My posts look close bare now, but I hope the Jasmine will grow back quickly and we’ll keep it in check this time!

Hubby really wanted NOT hang more strings of lights that would get dirty, sag and break, so we spent some time cruising the outdoor lighting aisles of Home Depot and Lowes and ended up purchasing some low voltage lights that meant to either be placed on spikes to shine on bushes or trees or screwed to decks and patios. We put bright ones on the ledger board that holds up the rafters of the pergola (along with a pair of outdoor speakers, ooh lah lah!), as well as the beam closest to the table.

And then we put dimmer ones on the posts holding up the other end of the pergola.

And voila!

It is amazingly bright! Probably a bit too bright for true “mood lighting”, but we’ll be able to see what we’re doing when we’re making pizza, and you’ll notice that the sink area is especially well lit…I’ll be able to not only rinse out there at night time, but I could actually dye out there then too! Ooh the possibilities!

I’m ready to have a good visit with my brother and the rest, and then we’re headed off for a week in the Tetons, so hubby can get some fly fishing in, and I can try to relax, and of course we’ll be able to see Liam play at the Grand Tetons Music Festival with the NYO-USA as well! Exciting!

I won’t be blogging much (or at all) while we’re gone, but I’m going to set up a fun giveaway before I take off, so be sure to check back next week for that!