For the first time since Stephen and I started dating, we stayed home to celebrate the 4th of July this year. Since we were home, we wanted to show a little patriotism around Heardmont but didn’t want to spend a lot of money on decorations that probably wouldn’t see the light of day for several years to come.
Everything was low-key, and I’m happy to say we didn’t spend a cent getting our home ready for the 4th. Ready to see what projects we tackled?
First up, I used this fabric flower tutorial (except I cut circles instead of flower shapes for the petals) to craft a few flowers from felt and a thick red and white fabric I had on hand. I made 3 red, white, and blue blooms and bobby pinned them to a headband as a festive accessory to wear Saturday night.
Since I wasn’t planning on wearing a headband the next night, I pulled the flowers back off the headband added them to the wreath on our front door. A few flowers from old blue jeans filled in the gaps and made for a cute, free update!
Since the flowers are backed with bobby pins, they’ll be easy to remove and rework for future accessories or wreaths.
With the leftover red and white fabric, I got to work making a red, white and blue banner. This project took very little time for making such a big impact. It was as easy as cutting triangles out of a couple different fabrics…
Hot-gluing the triangles to some rope from our garage…
And hanging it up! The banner got a trial run on our dining room window before we brought it outside.
Our outdoor set-up included some tiki torches, the banner, our Craigslist patio set, a citronella candle, and a tablecloth cut from an old curtain (ironed and hemmed).
After Stephen gave the grill a complete cleaning, we were ready for some outdoor cooking! You can’t have the 4th without grilling, right?
Another couple looks at our patio furniture… I love that set and still can’t believe we got such a deal on it!
Of course Stephen and I matched our decor. 🙂
In addition to decorations, this weekend included way more food than we could eat. Brats and burgers, coleslaw, pasta salad, mac & cheese, grilled veggies, brownies, cookies, and a raspberry crumble.
I made this raspberry dessert for the first time this weekend, and it’s safe to say I’ll definitely be making it again. It was so easy to make and turned out great, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you.
Just don’t forget to add 1/3 cup melted butter at the end of the first column of instructions, like I did! Thankfully I caught my mistake before baking the crumble, but it would have been much easier if I’d just read the instructions right the first time!
With a couple cookouts, several house projects, and lots of good times under our belt, it’s a good thing this is only a four day work week! How did you spend your weekend?
