FOCAL POINT STYLING: How was your July 4th?

Although we're not exactly where we'd like to be to have spent the fourth - or any holiday - I made the best of where we're at. In the morning, I swept and watered down the front of our home and Jeff hosed down the backyard before I added a few extra flags to our plant containers to display some Americana spirit outside. Inside, I pulled together our red, white and blue plates, napkins and drinking cups to go with our food filled fourth. We kicked off with breakfast of pancakes with strawberries and whip-cream on blue plates. Lunch was snacking on some fried chicken and chips while we watched The Nathans Hot Dog Eating Contest, opening ceremony for The Yankees playing the Twins, and the John Adams series on HBO (let me rephrase that: I watched while Jeff was napping! lol). Later in the afternoon, grill master Jeff grilled us some juicy burgers and franks, which we had along with the potato salad I made the night before... When darkness came, we headed over to a local park we had gone to last year to watch a fireworks display, and came home to cool down with some chilled watermelon slices. It was definitely a food filled day (and weekend!) to say the least - I think we're both still full today!

Pulled together all our red, white and blue...

Had a patriotic breakfast of red, white on blue...

Snacked on foods throughout the day, we don't usually eat at least not all in one day!! lol

I pulled together a simple Patriotic Centerpiece in the kitchen - easy to switch back for summer (just removed flags and switched cobalt glass for turquoise!) The Federal style - Bicentennial cylinder I thrifted a few years back has become a tradition to have out now each July 4th!

For the centerpiece:

The flags - I had.

The cylinder was thrifted in FL (I think in 2010)

The starfish and shells are also Florida travel treasures.

The blue glasses are from Goodwill AZ (2012) along with the recently thrifted basket-tray (2014)

The sandy burlap runner I picked up at HomeGoods - and makes a great neutral summer back-drop for the centerpiece...

Our flags were flyin' (and napping!) inside and out!

And although our fireworks display in Chandler wasn't as nearly as powerful of a patriotic display as seen in Brooklyn from the Macy's Fireworks in NYC - we did get out for a bit and actually felt a foreign substance while we watched - Drops of Jupiter called RAIN! (It hasn't rained here in AZ in over 115 days! It didn't last long (like the fireworks) but it was nice to feel again... however brief.