Al Fresco Dining: Taking it Outside

Guest post by Lily Ellis of Birch + Bird


{Today we welcome a guest blogger (and local) to the blog, Lily from Birch + Bird! Lily and her blog partner Rachel host a spring market here in the lower mainland called Scout Handmade and Vintage Market which runs May 25th-26th, 2012 at The Parallel Marketplace in Abbotsford BC. (a suburb of Vancouver); they also run a small Etsy shop! I invited Lily to guest post for us this spring/summer bringing us some outdoor living inspiration!  Here's her first post all about Al Fresco Dining.  Join me in welcoming her!}

Hello! I'm Lily from Birch + Bird and I'm so happy to be a guest here at Poppytalk today! Like many of us living on the West Coast, I've been craving sunshine and warmth in a big way! We (by we, I mean my husband!) have been sanding and staining our deck during sunny patches over the last few weekends and it's almost time to pull out the patio furniture. Problem is, our chair cushions are looking pretty rough after several summers spent being dripped on by popsicles and muddy paw prints!


After pricing out new cushions for all 6 patio chairs, I'm thinking I may as well start looking for new (or new-to-me) all-weather chairs that don't require padding. Our metal parsons-style table is still in good shape and would pair nicely with just about any of these chairs. Or maybe I'll mix and match a couple of different styles together...


{Found} Photo by Jose Villa.


Outdoor living spaces are the perfect excuse to add a bold pop of colour that you might not use in your indoor decor. Can't decide on just one colour? Why not use the whole rainbow!



I don't know about you, but I can't wait for warm nights and impromptu Al Fresco meals with friends! There's nothing like the smell of fresh mown grass, the sound of kids playing (happy ones!) and a cool drink in hand to signal summer's arrival. I'd best get to work Spring cleaning now so we can sit back and enjoy it all in a couple of months!

Lily co-writes with Rachel over at Birch + Bird
Together they organize local handmade + vintage markets and run a small Etsy shop. 
Scout Vintage Market will take place May 25th-26th, 2012 in Abbotsford, BC.
You can follow Birch + Bird on Facebook and Twitter.

Jan Halvarson

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am so happy the warm season is finally upon us. I live in California and it's already in the 80s here. It went from cold to hot really fast, so it's taking some getting used to.

These images though make me want a super colorful patio chair and table set. I like the idea of mixing colors and patterns for the chairs around a white or wood table.