Happy Birthday America!

Hey everyone!  We are having some seriously HOT weather here -- like 120 degrees, so I've decided it's a good time to take a bit of a bloggy break.  I think maybe my brain is melting, making it difficult to come up with some creative posts.  It always seems good for me to just step back for a bit, take a breath and recharge.    I've never re-posted a post before, but thought I'd give it a try and share last year's celebration with all of y'all.   I hope y'all have a wonderful, safe, happy and fun 4th of July!

This post is from July 4, 2012:

I hope everyone is having a wonderful, safe and very Happy 4th of July.  We had our daughter and family over for the first 4th of July celebration in our new home.  Our son and family are in San Diego, enjoying the beach and cooler weather, while he launches another True Food Kitchen restaurant.  They were missed but we know they are having fun, too.  I don't have a lot of decorations for this holiday, but put together a few things.

Let's start outside, shall we?

Not our typical blue sky, triple-digit day.  We had rain off and on & temps in the 90's!

A couple of things that can take our summer heat -- potato plants & portulaca.

 Okay, it's starting to rain again, so let's go inside.

This is one of my favorite places to decorate seasonally.  The shelf is on the wall just to the right of the entrance into my kitchen.  Sometimes I hang seasonal quilted wallhangings just under the shelf, but I don't have a summer wallhanging (yet...lol), so I found something I could print off the internet.

I thought this was so adorable!  Ya'll know I've gotten hooked on Roos, so this immediately caught my eye, plus I adore the colors.

I also thought it would be fun to add some mini-pennants.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm all about the

"Red, White & Blue," but decided to put my own spin on those colors.

I got this FREE subway art, along with some printables for decorating cupcakes (you will see these later in this post) here at Made in a Day.  This subway art was my inspiration for choosing the colors I wanted to use, & I'm so happy with it!

 Maybe you remember these cute dishtowels that I got for my birthday back in February.  Ya'll know how much I love my Roos and Hens, but these dishtowels were huge -- lots of the white flour sack fabric.  It made it kind of difficult to fold so that the star performers took center-stage, so I revamped them a little bit.......

I had been wanting to do something with red & white ticking & this was a perfect way to 

add this great fabric to my decor.

I simply trimmed away some of the flour sack & added side strips and the ruffle.  I just love 

how these little cuties turned out.  They add to my whole "Americana" theme!

My tablescape, at least until the food is ready!  I got the idea for my bouquet of scrapbook paper flowers at Live Laugh Rowe.  Then I decided to make some coordinating pinwheels

 for just a bit more fun!

I made this wreath awhile ago, but don't think I ever shared -- shame on me....lol!  I spray-painted an old grapevine wreath, & then added some little baskets that I've had, like forever.

I just added some odds & ends of faux flowers that I had in my stash.  Also added some pieces of ivy to fill in gaps.

This is how the top of my small white buffet looks right now.

I am serving Barbecue Pulled Pork which I seasoned & put in my crockpot about 5:30 this morning.  It was all ready to be shredded & the sauce added by 1:30.  It was delish!

I made chocolate cupcakes yesterday & had them all ready for my sweet granddaughters to decorate.

I gave them a quick lesson in using a decorating bag & turned them loose!

They did a great job!  Yes, they have pink in their hair -- it's a wash-out dye that is apparently the rage among tweens these days.  Oh, Riley is on the left & Taylor on the right.

The star of our meal, & everyone loved it!

Potato salad, hotdogs, corn-on-the-cob (oops, forgot to remove the foil before taking the pic), potato chips, & plenty of fresh tomatoes, peppers & carrots, & we certainly didn't forget the cupcakes!  Oh, that would be my glass of wine over on the left....lol!

Well, that's a wrap to a wonderful Independence Day.  Nothing is better than celebrating a special day with family.  It was a great day!  I hope it was the same for all of you!  Thanks so much for stopping and please come again soon.

CAS

I will be partying here:

Kim at Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

• Kristen at Kristen's Creations for Share Your Creations on Thursday
• Heather & Vanessa at At The Picket Fence for Inspiration Friday

Thanks so much for letting me share an older post.  I have some new things that I've been working on and will be sharing those after my brain and body have a bit of a rest.  Once again, "Happy 4th" everyone!