Stars, Stripes & Smiles 07.2020

Happy 6th of July, friends!  Hope your holiday weekend was full of stars, stripes & smiles.  We had a 3 day red, white and blue celebration.  Food, drink, desserts, grilling out and eating in, cooking in and eating outside, swimming, running, bike riding and then all of it again the next day.

Even though the hot dogs have been eaten, and the fireworks have all been launched, I wanted to share a little about our festivities.  Our decor, some crafts, and my stars, stripes & smiles outfits.

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Stars and Stripes Decor Inside

Come June 21, I’ve always put away my spring decor and set out all of my summer things.  But this year I did things a little differently.  With all of the turmoil in our lives and our country, it seemed more important to decorate with my red, white and blue stars and stripes for the first half of the season.  Sprinkled a little bit all over the den, living room and kitchen.

Two-Tier Tray

By clicking on the photos below, you can see my 2-tier tray and some of the other decorations.

 

I like to have a candy dish on the end table filled with holiday or seasonal Hershey’s kisses or M&Ms.  For the first part of summer, a ceramic camper fit the bill.  You can see it in one of the photos above.  My kids and grandbabies know that there are always chocolate kisses at my house.

Most seasons I hang a garland from my mantel but I didn’t have a patriotic one.  Just the summery one I made a couple of years ago, here.  Walmart had some simple gingham garlands for less than $10.00.  I bought a couple of them then added tassels of my own red, white and blue fabric to fill it in.

I used some dollar store decorations on the mantel.

This wooden bowl from Panama has a permanent place on our coffee table in the den.  I change out the filler for different seasons and holidays.  Used leftover fabric from the garland to make the rag balls.

Added some bowl filler from Dollar Tree.  Oh, and baseballs!  How could I forget about the baseballs??

Kitchen

Not sure why, but the kitchen, of all rooms, is the one that is always most festive.  We have tall cabinets with a space above them, between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling.  And that’s where I put most of my decorations.

The ladder below from A Sentimental Season on Etsy is new this year.  Proud of my veteran and proud to celebrate his years of service.

The vintage red fan is also new.  Would love to get another one…don’t tell PC…and paint it aqua to go with my cactus-themed summer decor.

Dining Room

I set the table even though the kids were sick over the 4th.  Discovered some patriotic paper plates in the cabinet over the refrigerator that were left over from a baseball party several years ago.  Decided to dust them off and use them for my stars and stripes table just for ‘show.’

Can’t remember now where I found these stars and stripes place mats.  What I do remember is they were cheap.  I mean affordable!!  And they can be wiped clean.  Used my dollar store silver chargers, then square red plastic plates, topped with square ‘flag’ plates.  The red plastic plates supported the cheaper paper plates but can be washed and reused.

I set bowl filler stars and pom-poms from the dollar store and some more of the rag balls I made in the center of the table on my burlap runner.

Stars and Stripes Decor Outside

…and baseballs!!  Have you heard the good news??  MLB will begin playing baseball on 07.23.2020. There may have been a little celebration at our house over that announcement. Now, if the 50 and Over Baseball League here in El Paso could begin playing…almost everything would be right in our world.  Almost.

My Wheelbarrow

I was so bummed back in June that I almost didn’t decorate at all.  When I took down my Easter/spring decorations, I didn’t replace them right away with my patriotic stuff.  My wheelbarrow looked so lonely, though.  I couldn’t leave it like that.

Our Front Porch

And decorating helped me feel better.   Continued the stars and stripes mixed with a baseball theme on the front porch.

I ordered a Cincinnati Reds wreath years ago for our front door.  The desert sun was so hard on it that it didn’t last more than a couple of years.  My sweet friend, Susan, gave it a fresh new look last year, reusing some of the pieces from the original.

My sister told me about this little red wagon at Hobby Lobby.  Filled it with Dollar Tree flowers and sparkle, and some of PC’s beaten up baseballs.

My patriotic Prince would like to put up a flag pole.  We talked about trying to do it over the long weekend but our winds are incredible and I was afraid we would need to dig several feet down.  Then firmly plant the pole in concrete to secure it.   Sounded like more of a project than we were up for.

So we replaced our old wooden flag pole that hung from the balcony with a shiny black metal one, complete with new flag.

We rode around the neighborhood on our bikes the morning of the 4th, counting flags.  Or lack of.  We counted 50 on our 4 mile ride in our subdivision.

Now let’s move onto the stars and stripes in my outfits for the weekend.

Stars and Stripes from the Closet

When Brennyn was here for Memorial Day, I bought all 3 grands some red, white and blue rompers.  I was able to see Lucia and Camila in theirs that weekend.  But I accidentally ordered Cady’s romper a size too large, so had to exchange it and have it sent to her house in Ft. Worth.  Here are my little ones in their Memorial Day outfits.

Their looks are from Target.

Gabba’s Stars and Stripes

I actually wore 3 days worth of stars and stripes over the holiday weekend.  On Friday, I paired a Tinsel blue and white striped shirt with my distressed Old Navy shorts.  I like the contrast between the structured men’s style shirt with the distressed denim.  Converse kicks.

For the 4th, I broke out my American flag print kimono, Loft Outlet distressed white denim shorts (similar, similar) and Loft Outlet red tee.  Old Navy flip flops. Charming Charlie earrings.  Oh, I miss that store.

Back again on Sunday in head-to-toe Old Navy.  Distressed denim shorts and a stars and stripes tee and flip flops.  Thank you, Old Navy.

Which look do you like best?

Your Turn

Whew, that’s a lotta photos.  They have me seeing stars and stripes!!  Did you wear red, white and blue or stars and stripes over the weekend?  How did you celebrate the 4th of July or maybe Canada Day?  Please let me know in a comment below.

Thank you for visiting.  Hope you will pop back in again for Style Imitating Art, Sentence a Day, 10 on the 10th (see the prompt here) and Where Bloggers Live.  It’s going to be a busy week ’round here.  Would be tickled to have you join me!

Hugs and kisses,