apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

With the warm weather upon us, it's prime time to get our patio in shape for entertaining. We've recently been looking into ways to add light underneath our patio umbrella. We love the look of fairy lights, but don't have an outlet close enough and the thought of a long extension cord wasn't appealing. We also love the look of hanging lanterns and came across this fun idea in the Summer 2008 issue O at Home. They suggested putting up wooden birdcages and inserting battery powered candles. (We've used battery powered tealights indoors, but for some reason never thought to put them outside! duh!) Do you guys have any other mood lighting ideas for outdoor entertaining?