Our Bistro Style Patio

I love decorating--it's kind of my thing. But decorating our patio has been pretty hard since we've never had one until we moved into this apartment complex. It has literally taken me eight months and a move to get it decorated. I really wanted our patio to be an extension of our house. I wanted it to be a place where we could enjoy time outside, have supper, and just relax.

We did have a few challenges in decorating. Number one, there are no electrical outlets or lights outside. Number two, we live in Las Vegas where it is hot as heck. Number three, we have two dogs that go potty outside so any outdoor rugs or things on the ground were out of the question.  And, number four, I have the blackest of all thumbs! I try really hard to garden, but everything I touch dies. (Though I will say number two probably has a lot to do with that.)

My granddad gave us this flag to hang up. He has had it for years but recently purchased a smaller one for his apartment. I've never had an American Flag at my house before.

It is kind of cool, honestly. I feel very patriotic. I'm going to have to look up all the rules for owning an American Flag so that I don't accidentally mess up! I'm sure there are more than no touching the ground, bring inside at night, and don't burn it, obviously.

It reminds me of those beautiful beach-y houses on the East Coast...like in Maine or Connecticut. You know, the great big mansions with the white picket fence and the cobblestone driveway.

My granddad gave us this wrought iron table for Josh's birthday. He got it at Sam's Club. I really like it because it is quite large. Granddad actually uses his set like this for his kitchen table and there is plenty of room for the three of us. There is a hole in the center for an umbrella, but since we have an apartment above us we don't need one.

We purchased these cushions today at Target. They were only $7 each!! I was so excited. I have been waiting for Target to put their summer stuff on sale since they first brought it out back in like March! Why is patio furniture so expensive?? Anyways, I really love this table. I can't wait to have supper here or drink my coffee in the morning.

I wanted a little plant to put on the table. Like I said, I love to garden, but I seem to kill everything. For years I wanted a lemon tree. Josh finally bought me one, and it was dead in few months. Then I wanted an herb garden, also dead. The only thing I have ever had any success with was Elephant Bush, which is a type of succulent.

I found this little one on a clearance rack at Lowes for $6. The other half of it is aloe vera, which seems easy to take care of. The directions on the bottom say to water every seven to ten days. I think I can handle that. We named it Hope...as in "I hope I don't kill this one." I liked that it came in its own pot and was all ready to go.

I found this sconce at Goodwill yesterday for $5! Can you believe that?? It is probably one of my greatest thrift store finds of all time. I wanted to put it on the door of the storage closet, but it is very heavy...it is also wrought iron.

The candles I actually got at Dollar Tree. They are the vanilla candles from Glade. I wanted to have real candles outside because the battery operated ones just don't give the same effect. But, as I mentioned above, it is hot, hot, hot here in Vegas, so glass candle holders were a must. I hope these don't melt too much, especially now that the weather should be cooling down. I did however purchase some battery operated tea lights just in case.

Lastly, we hung bistro lights from the ceiling. Holy Cow was this a pain in the butt. It literally took all day to hang these lights. First, we tried using self adhesive hooks but they kept falling down. Then we tried push pins but there was nothing for the lights to really grip on to. Then we realized one strand wasn't long enough to make it all the way to the other side of the patio so we had to go back to Target for another box. Then the a section of the lights stopped working so we had to fix that. After hours of hanging and rehanging these lights, we used the hooks from attempt number one and screwed them into the wall. Oh yea, it started pouring rain in the middle of all this! One second it was sunny and nice outside and then I looked up and the clouds were just rolling in like crazy.

We ran an extension cord from the inside outlet, through the patio door, and up the wall to the ceiling. We used the same little hooks to hold the cord in place as it went up the wall. We will probably end up unplugging the lights from the extension chord when they aren't in use so that we can bring the cord inside.

I wanted the lights to look like a little sidewalk cafe, so I hung them from one side of the ceiling to the other, back and forth. Then, I wrapped the extras around the pole in the front of the patio. I really, really love them. The pictures don't do it justice. In person, it is just beautiful and actually provides a ton of light at night. Love, love, love it. Josh is really excited about it because it means that we have to have colored lights this year for Christmas.

So there it is. That is our little patio. I am so unbelievably happy with how this turned out!! The finished product rarely ends up how I pictured it in my head, so I am super excited that this one did. I really have been putting this off for months because I just didn't know where to begin, so I am happy to be done.

Two of our neighbors knocked on the door tonight to tell us how pretty it looked. That really made me feel good.

In other news, the sunset tonight was glorious! It stopped raining for just a second while the sun light up the sky in a bright yellow. It was so pretty...and then as quickly as it stopped, the rain started again.

Also, here is a picture of my cat because he is a cutie pie.