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A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham

Patriotic~Red, White, Bleu

Friday, May 24, 2013

Hurrah for the 
Red, White, & Bleu 
all summer long...

May 26 ~~~ Memorial Day
June 14 ~~~ Flag Day
July 4 ~~~ Independence Day
July 14 ~~~ Bastille Day
of course, a little French has to be included
September 2 ~~~ Labor Day

A celebration table that will 
set the joie de vivre for any of our patriotic holidays...
Just seeing red, white, and blue cheers me!
Hurrah for the red, white, and blue, 
may it wave as our banner forever...

Holidays bring families together 
to enjoy good food, to enjoy laughter, and 
to enjoy swapping stories.

To show how important families are to us, 
we set tables with special dishes and decor.

The table runner is two kitchen towels from France.
I mixed the unexpected red dominoes with
traditional themes of stars and stripes for a fun table 
and as a reminder of fun games to come later this day. 

Lots of memories of good times/jokes recanted to 
young, old, new to the family, those who
just want to hear it again...
"Mr. J took a bite of Mrs. J's ice cream, 
when she asked for a bite of his in return, 
he said, 'close your eyes, open wide,' 
and gave her a BIG spoonful...
of MAYONNAISE."

Most of us do not have 
sets and sets of dishes to create 
a multi-layered place setting.
The red, white, and blue striped layer is 
a french fries paper holder from World Market. 

Flags and flowers...
The American and French flags are in an 
antique blue bottle.

White flowers, red berries, and blue stars...

Place cards are homemade using white card stock 
trimmed with deckle-edge scissors and
decorated with US Postage stamps.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~Justice~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~Equality~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~Freedom~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~Liberty~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Words that describe ideals we hold dear...

The fleur de lis is a nod to 
the French who celebrate 
the French National Day of independence, 
known as Bastille Day, 
on July 14.

Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
The national motto of France...

Stories of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, babies... 
AND
Stories of time spent serving 
in the military, defending our freedom.
Three nephews, brothers in the same family, 
who were career military...
The oldest in the Air Force, the middle one in the Navy, and 
the youngest in the Army...
Each with different stories...
Tours in Iraq...
Working in the Pentagon on Sept. 10, 2001, 
but not on Sept. 11, 2001... 
Repairing ships...

Moods lighten and thoughts turn to 
dominoes "42" which is one of the favorite games in this family. 

After the dishes are washed and put away, 
the centerpiece remains and so does the 
patriotic basket on the coat closet door 
seen from the table.


A faded American flag design basket holds
American and Texas flags, 
plus flag tissue paper,
bluebonnet printed ribbon, 
and a flag decorated legal envelope.

The patriotic basket will hang 
all summer 
from the closet door hook 
as a celebration 
of all our 
red, white, and blue holidays.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Renaissance Lapis china by Fitz and Floyd
Jamestown Red glasses by Fostoria
Stainless flatware by Towle
White Madeline plates by Pier I
Blue chargers by Kirklands
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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