Patriotic Tree #1, 2018

Welcome!!!

Today, I will be sharing the first in a Series of posts on my Summer Patriotic Decorations......

I have had my Patriotic decorations up since before Memorial Day but decided to share them closer to July 4th rather than for Memorial Day ......

Memorial Day is more of a Solemn Remembrance of those who made the Ultimate Sacrifice for our Freedom, where July 4th is a Celebration of our Great Country's Independence!!!!

This is the a corner in our Living Room where there is always a Tree set up and decorated.............

Notice I am not saying a "Christmas Tree"!!

A "Christmas Tree" in my view is decorated with Christmas decorations and ornaments.....

When you keep a Tree up year long and decorate for different Holidays like I do, it is no longer a "Christmas Tree"!!!!

For about 5 years now, I have decorated a Patriotic Tree for the Summer Holidays....

I originally started out with a much smaller Tree but when I bought this Tree on Clearance for $10.00 in Walmart one year after Christmas for my Sitting Room ( for Christmas), I thought it would be perfect to move down into the Living Room to decorate for the Patriotic Summer Holidays!!!!

I have amassed quite a bit of ornaments for this Tree by keeping an eye out after Christmas to buy Patriotic Ornaments on Clearance!!!

2 years ago, I was able to buy these in J.C. Penney's after Christmas!!

In 2015, I made these ornaments along with a few other Patriotic crafts.....

You can read about it HERE

Last year, I made a bunch of new Patriotic ornaments......

You can read that post HERE

I also watch out for silver, red and blue ornaments in the form of stars.......

A few years ago, I bought red, blue and silver tinsel garland in Dollar Tree and that set the color theme for the Tree to include silver.........

This Tree is only a 6 foot Tree and this year, I decided to elevate it on a wooden box that I had to make it look taller......

By doing this, it also gave me a little bit more room to decorate under the Tree.....

Let's take a closer look........

At the top of the Tree is a Patriotic centerpiece that reminds me of a fire cracker!!!

I bought it at a yard sale for 25 cents but it was originally bought at Dollar Tree......

Underneath it is a bow that I made from several different types of Patriotic ribbons bought at Michael's and Dollar Tree.......

I tucked small flags in at the top of the Tree.......

Streamers of different types of patriotic ribbon come down from the top of the Tree.....

The "God Bless America" ribbon was bought in Michael's......

Patriotic Bear ornaments were bought in Michael's a few years back....

A large Patriotic Heart stands out in the center of the Tree.....

You can see that I have also used plain red, blue and silver balls......

The large red Stars were Christmas ornaments bought on Clearance in Big Lot's....

The "Home of the Free because of the Brave" ornament was made out of a free coaster that we got in the mail from a Veteran's organization!!!

The large star with the flags on it is another ornament that I made....

The silver stars were bought after Christmas in Big Lot's ......10 in a package fro $1.00!!!

I even have an ornament with a red and blue butterfly on it!!!

So after this coming Christmas, look around and see what ornaments can be used to decorate a Tree for a different Holiday and not just Christmas!!!

For today, I will also be sharing how I decorated directly under the Tree......

I will be showing you the other Patriotic decorations around the Tree in my next post......

I used a white Tree Skirt that I already had......

I propped a tinsel star bought at Dollar Tree up against the base of the Tree.....

Sitting on top of the wooden box under the Tree skirt that I used to elevate the Tree, is a Patriotic cupcake dish bought several years ago at The Christmas Tree Shop which it is flanked by 2 Straffordshire Liberty Blue bowls.....

For America's Bicentennial, Liberty Blue dishes were offered in grocery stores and banks as a promotion........

These bowls have Betsy Ross and the new American Flag on them......

Each dish depicts various Historical scenes from the American Colonial Era and are not easy to find nowadays.....

I do have a few more pieces on display on our TV entertainment center but that will be for another post......

In front is a Patriotic soldier and an Uncle Sam figure, both bought at a church Flea Market....

I bought this plate at Salvation Army for 99 cents!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I decorated this Patriotic Tree......

There are several other Bloggers now posting Patriotic Trees so please check out their posts!!

Jenna @ The Painted Apron

Shirley @ Housepitality Designs

Jennifer Lutz

Stacey @ Poofing the Pillows

Mary @ Home Is Where The Boat Is

If anyone else decorates a Patriotic Tree and would like a link to their post about it, please let me know!!!!

This is the 1st of 3 Patriotic Trees that I will be sharing........

As I mentioned before, in my next post, I will be sharing the rest of my Patriotic decorations.......

In this corner of the Living Room.......

In my last post, I shared photos of the Tornado that hit the area in which I live on Wednesday night shortly after 10 pm.......

Click HERE if you missed that post!!

This photo shows the path the Tornado took through the Shopping Center directly to the side of my townhouse development........

The yellow X on the right of the photo shows the row of townhouses where I live as we are Directly behind Lowe's in the Arena Hub Shopping Plaza......

If the Tornado would have stayed on a straight route through the parking lot after taking out the back and side of Barnes and Nobles, it would have hit Lowe's and us but it turned right, by the grace of God, and hit Dick's Sporting Goods head on, and almost demolished it.

Amazingly, we sustained NO damage!!!!!!

I am quite shaken by all of this because when I was a child, my Father always said that the mountains protected us from Tornado's forming.....

Normally, we do NOT get Tornado's in this part of the country even though lately, NEPA has seen minor ones here and there over the last few years but nothing like what happened on Wednesday night!!!

The clean up, demolition and reconstruction has started and Joe was able to take some photos of all of it which I will also be sharing in my next post!!

On the 14th, Flag Day, I proudly displayed some of my American Flags in front of our house which I am so thankful is still standing and we are all okay!!

I want to Thank all my friends and family who called, emailed and messaged me on face book asking about our safety and if we had any damage!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!

I hope you will be back to visit again soon.......

ONE MORE THING.......

This is in regards to the issue with Blogger not sending the comments on posts by way of email to the owners of Blogs......

Since there have always been bloggers who commented in the past who I did not receive an email in regards to their comment, I have made it a practice of checking the comment section on Blogger or checking the comments under each individual post so I did not miss a comment.

I try to respond to ALL comments on my posts in some way......

Since those who commented took the time to do so and also took the time to visit my post, I believe that the right thing to do is to respond with a comment on their Blog post....

In other words, I believe that I am returning the favor of a visit and I have always believed that this is the proper thing to do instead of responding by a Thank You in an email......

I will continue to do this by looking at the comments on each post or in the comment section on blogger.....

If you do not have a blog or I can not find another way to respond, I will reply on the post that you commented on so PLEASE check back......

This is something that I have been doing for some time now and will continue to do even if blogger fixes this issue......

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......