Backyard Oasis: Part 1

When moving into our new place last winter we DOUBLED the size of our back yard (hallelujah). So after seeing this DIY by Marianne over at Craft Project Ideas Eric and I started to plan out our own Backyard Oasis.  A space that I've always dreamed of having but never in a million years thought we'd get around to creating.

We took Marianne's DIY & made a couple changes- mainly make it bigger.  We wanted our Backyard Oasis to be for more than us.  To surround that fire pit with friends over for beers or s'more making on family holidays.

Here's the before pic (just look at that giant EMPTY space saying fill me with something fun)-

We started with this pile of stones from an Aunt's recently dissembled garden & power washed them to save money, which didn't take too long at all.

While I power washed (for the FIRST time EVER, don't worry friends- hubs gave me multiple demonstrations & warnings on the dangers) Eric dug down a bit for the center of the hole and hammered the back of each stone to force them into that nice round shape.

Three more levels, 4 hours & a LOT of glasses of lemonade later we had this-

The best part came a couple days after that when we stained these two Adirondack chairs & spent our first night outside with the pups roasting hot dogs & toasting Backyard Oasis: Part 1 with a couple beers.

Loughs in Love

I'm Kristina Lough, wife to Eric, fur-mother to these two sweet Basset mixes and one adorable Bobtail (not pictured, but I'll share one later). Lover of arts & crafts, cooking, all things fun & date night especially.

Eric and I met in high school, dated for 3 months and then ran back into each other at a pool hall 6 years later where I promptly beat him in several games.  We've now been together for nearly 9 years (isn't it amazing how time flies??) & married for 5 this past July.

I have a small business, Painted by the Shore (PS), where I wear many hats (as any business owner knows) and love almost every minute of it (small business owners will understand that 'almost' too).

Our home in Branford CT, is located in the midst of tons of family and friends.  We love the New England lifestyle and atmosphere all the way from the Connecticut Shoreline up to Cape Cod which is a favorite vacation spot.

This blog is going to be filled with my loves & I cant wait to share our DIYs, recipes, garden glimpses & other fun things along the way.

Happy Sunday, friends!
- KL