Generally speaking, with lots of new furniture in the house and not wanting to explain to every guest that we preferred shoes being kept off of our newly obtained rug, I had the idea last week that if we were going to throw a party, I really wanted it to be outside, weather permitting of course. While the weather did work out in our favor (Hallelujah!), there were some things that needed to be obtained in order to pull this event off. Namely, we needed 1) something to do outside and 2) somewhere to sit.
Being the frugalistas we aren't, I had the grand idea of doing a bon fire. I figured we could pick a spot in our non-grassed back yard, buy some wood and the stuff for s'mores, borrow some chairs and voila! We'd have a bon fire party ready made without costing a whole lot! Justin upped it a notch by suggesting we get some wood from his dad. Ok, that sounds good to me. :)
Then come Thursday night as Justin is watering the garden he realizes that our landlord has some plastic down to prevent weeds from taking over the back yard. Oops. Apparently putting a fire on top of plastic isn't the best of ideas. However, the invite was out, so we needed to find a new way of making our bon fire happen.
We went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond in search of a fire pit we could buy, but even with a 20% off coupon in hand, I was not exactly happy with the $100 fire pit they were selling. I am of the opinion that if you are going to buy something for $100 you had better like it and expect it to last a long, long, LONG time. So our next visit was to Home Depot. We went to 3 different ones before finding fire pits. I still wasn't happy with what I was seeing, but there was a fire pit bowl with a screen for sale. Knowing that the cost of bricks would be enough to break the bank, I was unwilling to settle for anything less, because I had no intention of ever going fire pit looking (or buying) ever again. Justin finally agreed with me and we decided to give the bowl a shot; he figured he could get his friend's help putting the fire pit together just prior to the party.
As fate would have it, upon arriving back at our house after hours of searching for the perfect fire pit, Justin suddenly realized that, not only did we have bricks, but we had enough bricks to make our fire pit work without spending any more money. Yay!!!
Not only did our fire pit go over quite well that night, but a friend that came into our house mentioned that our house reminded him a bit of Paris. I'm not sure I can ever explain how happy that made me, though having never been to Paris myself, I did not necessarily understand. Apparently the smell of smoke combined with the old wood doors, pastel blues, antique furniture, and tiny house make one feel as though they are visiting a foreign country? I suppose I am okay with that. :)
In other news, Paris In Color just went on sale at Anthropologie. While I cannot say whether or not the book is worth buying, I can say that I am especially intrigued with the author's etsy shop. All of a sudden, I have the strongest desire to have images of macarons or Paris city lights in my home.
Since I am still on lots of allergy medication, I am finding myself extremely tired. I would love to hear how your weekend was though, dear readers. What do you think of Nichole Robertson's exquisite work?
