a diy outdoor theater

                

isn't it bittersweet when a friend leaves to go onto bigger and better things? 

my friend christie is going to ohio for grad school, in a really awesome program with a really sweet grad assistantship thing. we've been friends since 8th grade, and we went to middle school/high school/college together. you see my predicament here, right? i'm excited for you, girl, but did you have to pick the midwest? (because from philly, ohio feels like it's halfway across the country. but maybe i should go look at a map again....)

as our last hurrah before christie leaves, my friends and i tried to set up a home made canopy-tent thing for an outdoor theater....but 3 of us failed and then my heroic husband singlehandedly set the entire thing up. we laid down a tarp, a mattress topper, a ton of pillows and blankets, and we ran extension cords out to the tv we had hooked up. kinda ghetto, right? but we had fairy lights! which made all the difference. ours were battery operated (so easy to use outside) LED lights, which you can find here.

all you reallllly need are....

outdoor lights/christmas lights
tarp and poles for a canopy
ground tarp (to keep the blankets dry)
extension cords
tv
dvd player
fraaaaaans

we also made her a memory board of pictures, inside jokes, and encouraging letters labeled "when you discouraged," "when you feel discouraged".....

i'm gonna miss you, friend.