4th of July Ideas and Recipes

First of all, I wish I lived in the house above! How fun would it be to live there? And to host a 4th of July party there?? With streamers and lights in the back yard!

Right now we are in a little apartment, looking for a place to build a house...all of our stuff in storage...so my 4th of July party is not going to look like the above! But here are a few fun, easy ideas that I can manage...

How cute are these flowers and flags in a can!?

I'm not gonna paint my fingernails like this...I wish I could...but I would promptly ruin it. Maybe I can get my daughter to do this with all the little girls that will be here, though!

Here is a cute presentation...your silverware, napkin and glass all together.

I'm going to make this patriotic taco salad!

I don't eat hotdogs, but I'm going to make some sub sandwiches for one of our meals and tie them up with string and scrapbook paper! What a cute idea!

And this sparkling punch in one of those great glass beverage dispensers! Going to Garden Ridge for a couple of different dispensers next week.

A great fruit dessert!

And cheesecake in a jar! Well, I might do instant pudding in some of those clear plastic disposable cups. And I think I will make some blue jello topped with cool whip, and red jello topped with cool whip, both in clear plastic cups. A tray full of red, white and blue desserts that are kid-friendly!

If you go to my Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/silvertrappings/4th-of-july/, you can see some more ideas for the 4th of July. And each picture links to its source, so you can get the how-to and the recipes! Have fun planning your 4th!

Shannon

The Town Square

We are living in a wonderful little town in Texas with a charming little town square. It kinda has a Mayberry feel. The whole weekend of the 4th of July there will be celebrations in and around the square -- art shows, craft and food vendors, vegetable growing contests, musicals, a dance, a rodeo, a parade, outdoor concerts, and fireworks. The square is gearing up for the weekend. Here are a few pictures for you...

We have family coming out for the weekend. Gonna party all weekend!

Shopping and eating, here we come!

This building below is for sale. It's on one corner of the square. Every time I pass it, I wish so much I could buy it. I would love to have a store in the front corner and live in the rest of the building! How fun would that be?? Oh, how I wish. It's a far-cry from the colonial farmhouse we want to build out on a few acres. But those two choices would be equally as fun to me. Not sure I could sway my hubby on the thought of living on the town square and being one of the town square merchants, though...

I'm collecting ideas and recipes for the weekend. I'll be back soon to show you some of the cute ideas I've found for the 4th. People are so creative!

Shannon

House Hunting

Well, we've made our move back home to Texas. (*insert loud cheers here*) So now begins the process of finding our new home. Our plan is to find a little bit of land and build our dream house. A white farmhouse with black shutters. I can see it in my head. But while we were driving around today, we spotted this Victorian. It was interesting enough that we scheduled a time to see inside.

The entry definitely can be wonderful. The tile on the floor and the burgundy carpet runner were all wrong. But they could go away... This house really needs to have all wood floors.

This gallery around the top of the stairs is kinda neat. Most rooms had a mixture of dark stained trim and white painted trim. One door would be dark, the next painted white. I liked it.

And I liked the front door.

This little girl, with her lighted tulips, is guarding the bottom of the stairs. Or maybe welcoming you? I couldn't figure out if I really liked her, or really didn't...

Several of the interior doorways had transom windows above them. All of the outside doors and windows had transom. I love transom windows. But, umm, not with bright, red, shiny grapes. And bluejays. But...I recently took a stained glass class, so I could make some stained glass windows that, uh, went a little better with the rest of the house.

And see the pocket door below the red grapes? There were several sets of pocket doors in the house. Like.

There is some Victorian trim in a few of the doorways. See the fireplace through that door? It is one of two mantels that are nailed to the wall, have a plastic sheet of faux brick..yes, a plastic sheet of brick...and, oddly, a pipe for running gas to these two fireplaces. Maybe they had plans to create real fireplaces with gas logs someday?? Only one of the maaaany very odd things that this house offered.

More bright, red, shiny grapes...

But see the double french doors? Several pairs of these around the house...yes. Like.

A back stairway. Like. New carpet, and maybe paint the wood white to lighten this area.

This is one of the two (yes...two) places that a chandelier is hanging from a mirrored tray ceiling. But...you could just sheetrock over the mirrors, right? The second one is in the master bedroom. Ahem.

I really liked some of the chandeliers. There were several. Just about every room had one.

The kitchen had great cabinets. Most of the uppers had glass doors. The, uh, shiny, faux green marble countertops. Well, those could come out. Fast. Very fast. Oh, and the country wallpaper border that was stapled to the wall halfway between the countertop and the upper cabinets - it could come off fast. And the lights in the kitchen could come down. Fast. And the table part of the island could come out. And the appliances. And the floor. Ok, so the kitchen needs a lot of work. But I liked the white cabinets.

The porch wrapped completely around three sides, and part of the fourth side of the house. The railings and columns need to be replaced. But it could look pretty. And most of the downstairs rooms had a door leading out onto the porch.

Both bathrooms upstairs had a clawfoot tub. Yes, this one is pink. But it could be painted black!

This one sits in a space with a lot of windows.

There are multiple problems with lights, definite siding issues, seeeeveraaal really odd things that I didn't show in this post because it is already a really long post and blogger was taking for.e.ver to upload pictures. But all of the really weird things could eventually be ripped out or covered up. Eventually.

These guys were lounging next door right by the fence. They'd be fun to have as neighbors.

So, we realized today that we might do a little bit of peeking around at some homes that need some TLC. Because what if there is some magnificent beauty around here? I'm just gonna keep this house rolling around in my mind for awhile. It has some definite possibilites. And some definite conversation starters.

Shannon