The Great Outdoors (and our secret ingredient for the best Guacamole ever!)

Mike and I have been working hard to get our outdoor patio in order and we are done! YEAH!

So here's a view of the whole patio...we found our furniture set on Craigslist about a year ago (new), the rug from the thrift store and the fire-pit table from amazon. The Thai umbrella with the fringe is from a friend and a few of the pillows are from Target.

However after sitting out for a year the cushions became trashed! Sun and smog did a number on them.

I searched the internet and the fabric district high and low for affordable, outdoor, washable and colorful fabric to re-cover them with. Nothing! Until this spring when I happened to be buying coffee at World Market. They had all their awesome summer items out on the floor and I spied these amazing ethnic patterned oil-cloth tablecloths. Just so happened that 2 tablecloths and $85 later I had enough to re-cover my cushions in the exact colors I was hoping for. (a good friend did the sewing for me!).

We also found the outdoor umbrella at World Market - and Mike embellished it with a thrift store chandelier I had bought for the patio (but hadn't figured out what to do with it yet). He figured out it fit perfectly on the center pole of the umbrella. Isn't it pretty?

A few more photos of our backyard...a neighbor gave us the awesome Thai wood chair. I found an old Victorian wrought iron lamp stand at the thrift store and we hung a Moroccan style lantern from it.

Home Depot had the best Limey green spray paint that complimented our orange house - so I couldn't resist spray painting this old wrought iron patio chair...

And last but not least - the recipe for the yummy guacamole we enjoyed last night while sitting outside on our new and improved patio!!

2 avocados smashed
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 tsp cumin
1 tomato finely chopped
3 cloves of minced garlic
Splash lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste
and the secret ingredient is 1 tsp of green olive juice (I swear it's amazing!)