Before our housewarming party, we decided we wanted to have outdoor globe string lights–a la Parenthood.  I had visions of our family sitting al fresco, just like this scene from Parenthood:

I found this blog tutorial, and Philip said it looked like a fun way to add some ambience to our deck.  The blog tutorial was very helpful and made the project a breeze!

Picture from BrightJuly

I bought these globe string lights at Target.

Photo from Target.com

Philip headed to the hardware store to get the rest of the gear.   

Ladies, what’s cuter than a guy who can take on the hardware store with two tikes?

I’ll let you read the blog tutorial from BrightJuly for their step-by-step instructions.  A few pointers we learned along the way:

• Have the hardware store slice the PVC pipe at a 45 degree angle so that it’s easier to place them in the ground
• Use a long drill bit to make the holes in the ground straighter
• Test each string of lights before hanging them
• Make sure two people are hanging the lights.  The globe bulbs are fragile!
• Make sure your outlet can handle wattage of your lights.  We ended up using 4 of the Target globe lights to circle the deck, and we split them on two different outlets so that we didn’t overload the circuit.  

The lights aren’t as cute with flash photography.  Here we are, enjoying the deck while the kids catch lightning bugs (do you call them lightning bugs or fireflies?) with Papa and Maddy

Philip snapped this pic of the deck while I cleaned up after our housewarming party