Better late than never is probably one of my favorite idioms, and today I am sharing our casual, intimate Fourth of July dinner party! We celebrated with Ryan, Erin, and Sullivan and had the best time. I love the Fourth of July, especially when it involves over-the-top patriotic decorations, which is something I think I get from childhood Julys spent at Kentucky Lake. The more flags the merrier, and Michael’s had me covered.
The florals are pretty obvious. I grabbed some red, white, and blue flowers from the grocery store and stuck the flags and some sparkly flair (also from Michael’s) in. When I got back to the apartment, Will had a Boston butt in the oven and was watching The Patriot. It was a pretty gloomy day outside, but that just made it a more cozy day off work inside to do nothing but spend a leisurely day getting ready for company.
The flag table runner is a wedding gift from Pottery Barn, and you know this was her moment, so that was an obvious backdrop for our tablescape. I was also looking for an excuse to use some gold accents when I noticed the gold hardware on the tips of the flags, so you know it took me about 30 seconds to get out my gold chargers (also from Pottery Barn) and grab our metallic Kate Spade rose bowl off the coffee table.
I found this sweet and festive fabric garland for our dresser/TV stand, and left the coffee table pretty much how it always is but added another festive floral arrangement. This is how it looks when it’s not being photographed, remote controls and all (at least they’re in a Beatriz Ball tray, am I right?).
Next, it was time to get a little crafty.
I had recently had some delicious sangria at a work happy hour that gave me the idea to mix up a red, white and blue version for this occasion. You can’t have the Fourth of July without something that involves strawberries and blueberries in my book, so I started there and then used a cookie cutter to cut stars out of granny smith apples.
The recipe was basically whatever I wanted to put in it, but I believe it was a cup of light rum, a cup of brandy, a cup of simple syrup, some triple sec, a bottle of Orangina (it’s not orange soda because it’s French and fancy), and a big bottle of red wine. I stirred it up and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours.
Finally, I attempted The College Prepster’s Memorial Day pretzel sticks. They involved melting candies, sprinkles, and a lot of stickiness. 
My red “stripes” looked more like The Patriot’s grisly war scenes that were playing on our TV while I made them, so I decided they were an avant-garde tribute to the Minutemen and the way their sacrifice became our symbol of freedom. (That’s what a liberal arts education will do to you.) I think that I should have thinned the candies out with shortening and melted it more. But they were fun!
Here’s what all my creations looked like together!
We had the best night playing with Sully and catching up about their big news. Will made pulled pork with homemade Carolina-style sauce, potato salad, and corn on the cob (‘Murica!). 
Aren’t these two just too adorable?
The plan was to watch the fireworks from our rooftop, but the rain and the fog made them look a little more like actual bombs bursting in air, so we went back down to watch the fake fireworks on PBS and comfort a very nervous Pippa. There’s always next year for fireworks.
P.S. Here’s our sweet cell phone selfie. Sometimes the grainiest photos are the ones that mean the most. 
