The Land of the Free, The Home of the Brave....

It goes without saying that this week's tablescape would be patriotic. I come from a very patriotic family and I got the gene. I probably own as much patriotic decor as some people do Christmas decor.

 With that in mind, I wanted my tablescape to reflect what Memorial Day is about and not so much the fun and festivities of July 4th.

 

 These are little metal WWI Barclay soldiers.  They were originally toys. I consider them treasures. You can buy them on Ebay, which I linked. They are affordable. 

 So while the dishes are as cute as can be, it is the centerpiece I love this week. I thought of it at the last second and threw it together.  Had I thought of it sooner, I would have had more pictures to add to it. 

 I used a wire picture holder, put it in the middle of the bowl, and surrounded it with small flags. The pictures are of the men in our families that served in the different wars, and the women they left behind.

 My Granddad Flanagan.

 My Grandfather Ferguson and men from his Company.

 My M 

My Grandmother Ferguson.

She gathered up everything my Grandfather

sent her while he was overseas and

had this very (dramatic!) picture made!

(I love it!!)

My father-in-law on the right 

and his best friend on the left.

They are with their wives.

They were all four high school

best friends.

They are about 21 or 22 in the picture.

I filled the rest of the picture holders with postcards

my Grandfather Ferguson had sent while he was away.

I have written about other ways to decorate with these postcards here.

My Grandfather Ferguson's discharge papers.

All the pictures of him, his beloved Annie,

the discharge papers and vaccination papers

were found in the trunk I talked about here.

If you look closely at the above picture,

you can see where the mice had been 

chewing on the paper.

I realize I am very lucky to have these things.

I need to add pictures of my Dad who was in the Army

and every.single.one. of my uncles and Tim's uncles

who also served.

If you do not have pictures of

your own to use, 

there are plenty of places to 

find pictures.

Any vintage pictures would work.

OR 

for that matter

current pictures of our servicemen and women.

 As for the dishes...

the secondary part of my tablescape,

they were quick and easy to put together.

I used the red plates from a set of 

red dishes

my husband surprised me with 

one year.

The cloth 'napkins' are really

tea towels from 

the Dollar Tree.

The star plates are also from the Dollar Tree.

They are big enough that they could actually

be used as chargers with a smaller plate 

in the middle.

The placemats...yep, you guessed it...Dollar Tree.

They are cheap light enough that they curled

at the edges some. It actually was

kind of cute and looked like it was 

meant to be.

The blue bowls were a four-pack from Wal-Mart or Target

a few years ago.

They are great for summer.

The silverware is a mixture of red and blue

that I use all the time.

The place card 'holder' 

is actually a chip-clip.

I also bought them at the Dollar Tree.

They come in packs of three.

I bought them because I liked them.

Then when I was unloading my other finds

to set my table, it just hit me to use them 

as placecard holders.

My son Luke, my best critic inspirer

admonished me for the plain 

placecards.

He pointed out that I could have 

copied other 

military pics

for placecards.

Or used some type of flag paper

for placecards.

There 'ya go. You all can have better 

placecards 

than me, thanks to Luke.

The package of stars came from Pier 1.

Gasp! I actually bought something that 

wasn't from Dollar Tree!

To make my centerpiece I

used the outside bowl.

I placed a bucket inside the bowl

so I would not have so much space

to deal with.

I then put the wire picture holder

inside the bucket.

I stuffed paper towels around the edges

to give the flags better grip.

It is pictured below:

I put the 'beads' on top of the 

papertowels, just so no one

would see them.

I hope everyone has a wonderful

Memorial Day weekend.

Please remember our service men and women

in your thoughts and prayers.

Take a moment to thank any

serviceman or woman you see.

I have linked to Susan at BNOTP.

Go by and see the unbelievable

tablescapes

bloggers share each week.
I also linked with the Style Sisters. 
Check out all the great centerpieces they share.

The first tablescape I ever did for BNOTP

was also patriotic and can be found here.