Jun 30, 2012

4th of July Table



The first time I ever saw or heard of a tablescape was a couple years ago at Between Naps on the Porch. My favorite post of all time might be when Susan showed where she stores all her dishes. It was amazing

I don't entertain much, and I don't have space to store lots of dish sets even if I could afford them. But in the back of my mind, ever since seeing those gorgeous tablescapes at Between Naps on the Porch, I thought about how cool it would be to have a blog and yes, maybe even one day try my hand at a tablescape.

Well, here goes! 

































That was soooo fun!!

We always have a family 4th of July celebration on our deck followed by a neighborhood block party. 

All the dishes are ones I already had. I made the centerpiece from a painted coffee can and the free printable label found at Little Miss Maggie's. I made the vintage tag napkin rings from my own artwork which you can download here. The flowers with flags and the place mats are from the dollar store, and the napkins are tea towels from the dollar store as well (gotta love that dollar store!) 

Thanks for checking out my first tablescape!

(Note: Sometimes I think I'm my own best entertainment. 
I didn't realize for a whole day that there is no silverware 
on my 4th of July table! Must be having ribs! 
Oops...  )
  

I'm linking-up today at these fun parties.

Vintage 4th of July Art and Tags



For 4th of July this year I used vintage art to make tags for patriotic napkin rings.  




I printed the vintage art out on my printer, cut it out, and then glued it onto stiff mat board. I left the tags under some heavy books to dry overnight. The next day, I glittered the edges with either gold, silver, red, or blue glitter. 

  
I cut some strips of leftover red, white, and blue fabric from my bunting with pinking shears and hot glued the center of the strips to the back of the tags. Then I just tied the fabric strips around some accordion-folded cloth napkins.





To download this vintage art:
To get the best quality download, click the photo you want and when the art opens in a new window, right click it and save it to your computer. I used my HP printer and ink with no bleeding, but you should test your own printer's ink for colorfastness or use toner based prints for your projects. 









If you make a project with this vintage art, I'd love to see what you create. If you have time, please drop back with a comment and a link to your project. 

Thanks for stopping by today, and 

Happy Crafting!

You may also like
4th of July Table
My 4th of July Backyard
Easy 4th of July Pillows

Please join me at these great blog parties.

 


My 4th of July Back Yard



What a day! I meant to decorate my deck and backyard for the 4th of July this morning and have this post done by noon. 

Hah!

That was before my husband snuck off to work before helping me hang bunting. And that was before I had to take Tucker to the emergency pet doctor for an eye injury that
luckily didn't turn out serious.

Oh well, life happens. And here I am.
 
(I apologize in advance for a gazillion photos. I was really having fun!)

My husband built the deck off the family room about twenty years ago (He also built the family room! Thanks, Hon.) 


There's a wall of windows that looks onto it. 

My back yard is a tiny inner-city sized back yard with an old fashioned alley behind it and a ninety foot tall Black Locust Tree smack in the middle. It's impossible to photograph all of the yard at once because of the gargantuan tree trunk, so I am only able to show lots of little snippets. We love the tree's shade here in the hot Idaho high desert, but the tree is a challenge to landscape beneath as it battles our poor flowers and bushes for light, water, and nutrients. I'm in-awe of other blogger's lush yards full of huge colorful blooms. Sometimes I think I should be growing sage brush!


Diane at The Checkered Apple got me fired-up to decorate for Independence Day when she hosted her Patriotic Link Party. Next to Christmas and Halloween, it's now probably my newest favorite holiday for decorating. 





I was able to buy some inexpensive decorations at the dollar store and Taipan Trading Company. Of course, my favorites are still the homemade ones and only lack of time stopped me from making more than I did. There's always next year! The decorations I made are the bunting, the pillows, and the tags and centerpiece for the table.

This is the garden shed (yup, my husband built it.)






This is the back of the yard. It's a work in progress until the new Karl Forrester grass and flowers fill in. 



And this is the other corner of the yard with the new hostas I divided and spread around this spring. 


You might remember my hookah pipe birdhouse bath

This ceramic pie plate full of marbles, aka birdbath, was inspired by the gorgeous terracotta one Kelly at Eclectically Vintage made and that was repinned on my Pinterest 185 times! (I'm not showing hers here because mine is a sad, sad imitation of greatness, but you should definitely go check it out.)


Remember my sign of summer? It's still hangin' around.

This is one of the few yard decorations I've ever purchased from a store (Taipan Trading). It adds interest to a very boring wall and eventually will be joined by a recycled pallet wood table below.


Hydrangeas are my favorite flowers, but I kill them faster than a shootout at the OK Corral. This is my hydrangea. 
 

Our twenty year-old window box broke this year, and the flowers are a bit slow to accept this new one. 






I borrowed these pillows from the front porch. 
























My 4th of July bunting is made from Jo-Ann's fabric doubled for stiffness with iron-on fusible webbing, cut out with pinking shears, then zigzag stitched onto bias tape. 



Tomorrow, I'll be sharing my 4th of July Front Porch! 

Tucker was so patient while I took photos today, so I thought I should give him a shout-out. 


Good Boy, Tucker! 

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you're having
a great weekend! 

Favorite 4th of July DIY projects

Easy 4th of July Pillows

I'm partying with these cool blogs! Come join the fun! 


The Checkered Apple
Someday Crafts
Nifty Thrifty Things
DIY Showoff 
Between Naps on the Porch