born on the 4th of july

July is my favorite month... why?  Not because I was born on the 4th of July, but close!  Because the weather is usually pretty nice here in July... growing up it was the only month with "no school", always... there's a holiday... I can decorate for said holiday... AND it's my birthday month, which means I take a whole week off of work!

And speaking of decorating, well it was time to bring on the red, white and blue.  I have a couple of spots around my house that usually get changed up for holidays or seasons... my centerpiece on my dining room table, my little shelves that you see when you come in the back door and a couple of other spots around my kitchen... sometimes I change them in entirety and sometimes just add a little something.

This cute little bunting banner would be so easy to make but I picked mine up at a local consignment shop.  It's just various shapes cut out of cute fabric and then stitched up one side.  Hanging on my chalkboard, it doesn't even require anything but tucking it around the corners.  Lightweight it even flutters a bit in the breeze from the open back door.

One of my shelves holds a little collection of small game tokens, in the appropriate colors AND in a vintage piece of milk glass, of course.

A cute little bit of history, political history that is.  This envelope holds one of these little "republican elephants"... probably meant for celebrating in an election year.  This little guy was found on a shelf in my son's home that he purchased about 1 1/2 years ago... I guess this was missed when the prior owner's moved out.

I picked up this little "air mail" tablet at a local antique store both for the graphic on the front and the fun air mail weight paper inside!  When I was little I thought the lightweight paper was soooo cool!  The flag and rosette are actually cupcake toppers, much cuter in my kitchen than wasted on a cupcake.

One of my favorite items... I have this "holiday series" children book for the 4th, Halloween and Thanksgiving... I'm always on the lookout for others since there IS a Christmas and Easter one as well.

No holiday in my house would be complete without some appropriate colored paper straws...

My dining room table was fun to create, too.  I recently found this little Uncle Sam hat pepper shaker at the thrift store.  The top was missing and for $.49 it was a meant to come home with me.  I filled it with more cupcake toppers... these are little pinwheels that I've had around for a few years.

My spool of vintage crepe paper, that I'm hoarding, and a super cute fair or prize little ribbon I purchased off Etsy recently.

Fun PAPER poker chips, once again in red, white and blue... from the thrift store, of course.

An Uncle Sam honeycombed paper hat.  Found a few years ago for just a few dollars at a local antique store... I think I paid just $3.00 for this.

A star filled swanky swig...

And my favorite swanky swig of all time, I think this design looks like fireworks, don't you?

All of this, combined with a couple of metal cake molds, star shaped of course, a bandanna napkin and vintage tablecloth, make up my dining room table.

And I couldn't ignore these 3 vintage flags that my mom passed on to me... the kind with real wood and flags with stitching!  I filled some of my vintage pop bottles with these on the top of my refrigerator.

And the outside can't be ignored... a few inexpensive flags here and there in flower pots.

And some bunting type banners under my window boxes... we had a 4th of July party the first year we lived at Red Gate Farm.  I think these came from the fabric or craft store.  Hung with simple cup hooks that I don't have to remove... the cup hooks that is, I do remove the bunting!

It all makes for a great view from my glider on this bright, sunny summer evening..

Complete with a star shaped pillow and ice tea...

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