Got no plans for July 4th? Decorate your table with quick vintage pieces for the fun of it. Bring out things that mean something to you and do a tablescape with them.
At home alone on this holiday? Here are a few ideas to enjoy the day:
- Light a scented candle that you love.
- Read a book you haven’t had time to read.
- Listen to music you like.
- Call a friend.
- Work on a puzzle.
- Bake some bread.
- Decorate your table with vintage pieces you’re fond of.
- Bring out the snacks, and invite someone over to enjoy them with you.
Happiness on a holiday is a choice. Spending time alone when it seems that everyone else is out having fun doesn’t have to be a terrible thing. Make the best of your day by looking around your home and finding things to do that you enjoy.
I like having fun with tablescapes. Kitchens have intrigued me since my early memory of eating sugar in a cup and making mud pies. To this day I like sweets and digging in the dirt (though not together). And on July 4th I enjoy making a festive dessert for family and friends. But not all Fourth of July holidays are spent going to festivities with fireworks, family, and friends. However, it’s no reason to not enjoy the day.
I learned a smart idea from my maternal grandmother that can be applied to spending a holiday alone. Cook a meal as though you’re planning for company. She would do that. She lived alone but many times would cook more than she needed in case someone dropped by. Often, that’s what happened. She had ten children, several of which lived nearby. MaMa liked having them visit and eat with her.
Decorate a Vintage Tablescape
Look around your house for vintage pieces you love and decorate a vintage tablescape. When plans didn’t work out one particular July 4th for me to go on a road trip with my husband who is a professional driver, I recalled how MaMa prepared a meal as though she was expecting someone for lunch or dinner. I got the idea of pulling out random vintage pieces that I love and decorating the table for the holiday. Here are a few quick vintage table decorations that I used:
FORKS – a vintage cloth holder for forks, one of my favorite kitchen treasures that I found at the famous Rose Bowl Flea Market that I read about in the Flea Market Style Magazine.
Vintage July 4th Tablescape
Forks – a Vintage Cloth Holder
My friend Rusty and I went on one Mother’s Day weekend to the Rose Bowl Flea Market. She’s got an eye for unusual antiques. Rusty and I both took a couple of photos and spent the rest of the time walking and shopping.
While Rusty was keeping a lookout for antiques, I had kitchens in mind and found the 1930-ish linen fork holder. It’s great for storing in the kitchen and picnics – and it’s red with a sprinkle of blue flowers (my favorite two colors!) and “FORKS” stitched in green.
I do love red kitchens. My first tiny apartment kitchen had red in it with strawberries. Years passed, and so did the red kitchen decor except for a utensil crock painted with strawberries by my aunt and a knife and strawberry peeler with red handles that my mother purchased in Switzerland on a missions trip with my dad one year. The two red-handled utensils have traveled with me around the U.S. in my RV kitchens and are still being used in my cottage kitchen. I consider them part of my kitchen comfort from my mother.
These two red utensils are also on the back cover of my Simple Summer Recipes cookbook:
Fill a Basket with Random Favorite Vintage Pieces
The cookbook is one of the items placed in the basket (another vintage item I’ve used inside and in the garden). Other items in the black basket include:
- 2 old Bibles from the ’70’s, a white one and a red one – My parents gave me the white one in 1973.
- a small cookbook, “Snake, Rattle & RO*TEL” – a first edition published by Crazy Sam Enterprises for the Knapp-Sherrill Company. Frances Knapp was a good friend of my dad’s and worked with him in the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner to the C.I.A., during World War II. Frances also is included in the book, Phantom Seven, a collection of World War II stories.
- 1 cup, Texas Born Texas Proud
- 3 plastic cups that say “HOME OF THE FREE 72 OZ STEAK…the BIG TEXAN…Only in Amarillo, Texas!, Route 66….)
- 3 white napkins
- 3 packages of TAZO Awake tea
- 3 coasters
I placed a big red and white bowl on the table and filled it with Ritz crackers. A simple snack with peanut butter and Andersen’s Boysenberry Jam and Smucker’s Natural Blackberry fruit spread. It’s a fun snack for kids, too.
It’s not the easiest thing to get past thoughts and emotions that we associate with holidays. When others are having fun with friends and we are at home thinking about how alone we feel, depression can take over if we don’t snap ourselves out of that kind of thinking. So how do you do that? Pretend. Like children, “play like” it’s for real that you’re having company come over for a meal.
Fill your home with pleasant-scented aromas of a candle and bread baking in the oven or in a bread machine. Then have a slice of bread and spread it with butter and jam.
Go enjoy the rest of your day!
I love that fork holder. I could use something like that for my picnic basket. I can imagine that the Rose Bowl flea market would be overwhelming. It must be huge.
It was overwhelming – and hot and windy! But it was fun.