It is a miracle! Before doing this bit of Patriotic decorating, I hadn’t decorated one thing since January when I had put all of the Christmas decorations away and transitioned to my more generic every-day decor.  I *always* decorate *something* around Easter/Spring time, but, I didn’t do it this year because of our Hawaiian cruise <~~ Getting ready for that kept me crazy busy for quite a while.  Well, our next cruise isn’t until October–Yes, we’re booked on another cruise!! (Woohoo!!) Canada and New England on the Regal Princess…OMGoodness, I’m excited.  ANYway, I digress, back to the subject at hand.  I decided to add a bit of Americana into my decor for the rest of the Spring and let it take me through the Summer months straight through to Labor Day.  I didn’t do an extreme amount of ‘creating’ in that I didn’t redo centerpieces, nor did I create a new wreath.  Instead, I just added a touch of the Patriotic here and there pillaged from my past creations and my storage bins.  Admittedly, I did purchase just a few new items…

Here we go:

I had found this bunting on sale at Plow and Hearth after July 4th last summer, it was still in the bag when I opened up my “Patriotic” Bin.  I decided that I’d hang it right under the mantel…I used those spiffy diffy Command Strips to easily accomplish that job…

And that set the tone…Here are the other touches I added around this back portion of our home (family room, kitchen eating area, kitchen).  I won’t put anything in the front rooms of the house, they are just fine as is.

I added a couple of tea dyed flags on either side of the hearth, as well as a patriotic plaque along with some wooden and metal picks stuck into the crock. I also added a couple of little wooden bird houses up on the mantel,  All of the other decor on the mantel and hearth blended in nicely and that was by design–Burgundies, Blues, Greens, & Khakis are my chosen colors for this portion of the house all year round.

Next, I moved over to that little basket that I’ve been decorating and redecorating since Christmas…Here are the other two ways in which I’ve done up this basket in the past:

And here is how I did recreated it with a couple of Patriotic accents:

I moved on over to the credenza next…I truly only added a couple of pillow’y’ Patriotic hearts and a wooden birdhouse to the existing centerpiece…And then I plopped that “Welcome” plaque in front of the centerpiece…Whew…tough work there huh?  Again though, my everyday decor lends itself beautifully to just inserting different ‘seasonal’ items to bring in a new and fresh ‘feel’.  Go me…LOL. 😉

Now moving on to the corner decor on the other side of the credenza–I found those pretty pillows, wooden plaque, and that throw in our local “Home Goods” store.  As I began to create this ladder decor, I did remove the other pillows and generic accent pieces that I had there on the basket, but I didn’t touch the stuff on the ladder–I simply tied the throw onto a rung, arranged the pillows to my liking, and added my little bears back into the mix.  I love how this turned out in the end–I will admit, that I messed with this for quite a little while before I got it to where I was satisfied.

As for the rest of the the spaces, I honestly just added a pop of the Patriotic here and there…

First, I changed out the table runners on the end tables in the family room and on the island in the kitchen, not that they are all that Patriotic, but they blend in nicely:

To the island, I added a red candle and put a red and white pip berry candle ring that I had made out of part of a pip berry garland simply by cutting a portion of length off and tying it together with floral wire.  I had made several of them last year to go around my mason jars & gerber daisies centerpieces that I used as part of our Family Reunion Decor And Craft Projects:

Next I moved to the kitchen table & hutch:

I switched out the tablecloth and added a couple of wooden stars to either side of the lantern centerpiece.  Here is a link to my A Lantern Centerpiece for All Seasons post if you’d like to make one of these for yourself, it is easy peezy to do, I promise! 🙂

I added a couple of Patriotic stars, a plaque, and just a few other touches to the hutch and the crate corner decor (to the left of the hutch):

And that did it for the inside, I didn’t want to recreate the wheel, but, I was ready for a bit of a change, and I love, love, love Patriotic touches…Now, moving outside for just a few more touches…

I had made this burlap wreath last year, so I hung it on the front door…

And I added just a few things to my Little Red Wagon:

I found that wooden American Flag last year at Hobby Lobby, and I saw yesterday (5/13/16) that they still have it again this year:

And that completed the front porch transformation:

After that, the only other things that I switched out were:

The deco-mesh wreath for the lamp post, I made this last Spring:

And I switched out my decorative flags and gazing ball:

And then I stood back to see if I had enough of a pop of the red color & Patriotic for my liking…And I was satisfied…

I accomplished all of these little things in just one day…The only thing I haven’t changed out yet is the mailbox decor, it will eventually look similar to this though.

Here is a link showing you all of the different looks that my mailbox takes on…Seasonal Mailbox Decor…

 

I feel much better now that I’ve done a little bit of tweaking to my inside and outside decor.  As I said above, this ‘look’ will take me through the summer months. NOW, if it will *just stop raining*! I thinks we’ve had 16 straight days of rain…I’m ready for some sunshine!! 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care!

~Arlynn ❤