Backyard Plans

Hello blog world! It's me, Julia! I can't believe I haven't posted since last July. What have I been doing since then? Enjoying summer. And then enjoying fall. And now enjoying (that's questionable) winter.

Lately I've been getting inspired to move forward with backyard plans. My backyard is basically an empty rectangle. I don't even have a garage. Last summer's accomplishments included getting my electrical lines buried and the shed built but it ended up taking almost the entire summer to do both. They didn't really do much to improve my empty rectangle issue, aside from providing some storage for my bike (and I'm SO happy I don't have to lug it in and out of my basement anymore).

Yay shed!

This year I am getting a jump on more exciting backyard events. At Christmas I was very fortunate to get a bonus at work, so I used the unexpected money on buying myself a pergola! Two actually. They will sit next to each other and create enough space to set up a table & chairs area and add a chaise lounge as well. Since I have the whitest skin ever I will be making it into a shade space by adding a bamboo roof. Here's the plan:

I purchased two of these from Sears:

And am inspired to do this for shade:

image thanks to Pinterest
Cool right? But first I need a patio to put the pergolas on. Which is why I've already started setting up landscaping companies to come out and give an estimate to create a patio inspired by this:

image thanks to Pinterest
All of this is making me really anxious for it to get warm out. But it's only 5 degrees here in Michigan today. And my entire yard is blanked in a lot of snow. But I'm hoping that getting all my ducks in a row now will pay off. I want to be able to enjoy my upcoming outdoor space as long as possible this year, so I hope to get things moving as soon as the snow is gone!

In other news, I'm FINALLY working on making myself a logo. I've only been procrastinating for YEARS. I have no problem creating designs for other people but when it comes to myself I am so picky and overly inspired by too many things to pick a direction and stick with it. However, I think I am finally on to something. So expect to see a new look soon... oh who am I kidding? Expect to see a new look sometime in the future. Who knows when I'll get around to actually updating my online presence ;)