Picnics, Patriotism & Pretty Baskets: A Summer DIY

Happy Tuesday, y’all, and welcome to another flag-waving Pinterest Challenge hosted by our dear friend Cindy from County Road 407! Everyone I know is excited for summertime and all of the outdoor activities everyone loves to do when the weather is warm and the sun is shining. From cookouts to boating, fishing and hiking, and, of course, celebrating the 4th of July holiday with a picnic! A holiday picnic is the theme I chose for this 4th of July Basket Challenge. Let’s check out this Summertime Patriotic Picnic Basket…

If you are just coming over to French Ethereal for the first time from Niky at The House on Silverado, welcome! Isn’t Niky’s 4th of July Basket cool? Love the vintage look and the old Calumet tin… Yes!

I don’t have many tins. The two I do have look more medieval ~ not picnic-worthy, but I hope you’ll enjoy today’s picnic visit anyway. If you do, please consider subscribing to my blog and social media. Thank you! 🙂 💜 

Our inspiration

This fun campfire basket comes to us from Rachel over at The Antiqued Journey who loves vintage decor. I love how this patriotic basket is set as decoration going up the steps upstairs. In this basket, we have:

• Campfire Marshmallow vintage tin used as a vase
• Red, white and blue faux flowers
• Blue & white vintage tableware including teacups, a sugar scoop and ironstone
• a book to add height to the vignette

Party in a basket {and around it}

Red, white & Blue is the name of the game for summertime decorating when it comes to celebrating our country’s Independence Day. I tend to go for the softer side of these colors and that’s partly how my basket is decorated.

That makes this an easy DIY to put together for me!

In the 1990’s and through the teens of the 2000’s, I went to lunchtime tea with friends in The Victorian Tea Society in Southern California. I zeroed-in immediately on Rachel’s transferware teacups…

After putting those Johnson Bros. pinkish-red teacups into my basket, I looked for other china pieces with soft blues. In went two dessert plates with soft blue butterflies on them (tucked under the mismatched blue teacup and saucer).

Our inspiration piece also had a little blue and white sugar scoop: That scoop reminded me of the little cow and clogs I brought home from my exchange student trip to Germany. The family I stayed with took a summer trip to the beach along the Nord See (North Sea) in Alkmaar, Holland. We also toured Amsterdam beforehand. Great trip!

I also brought in a milk jug-style canning jar as a vase faux hydrangeas in whites and lavender-ey blues. To that, I tucked-in an American flag plus a British flag ~ as a nod to my family’s heritage and also as a visual nod that although America won its independence from England; we remain friends.

The basket needed something else

This is when the picnic basket idea came to mind! This basket is but when we were first married, my sister-in-law Linnea gave us a large picnic basket with real china pieces in them. This original basket was my personal inspiration. 🙂

Bring out your vintage pieces

Bringing in a vintage ivory creamer as a silverware holder, two English Liberty Blue – Independence Hall dinner plates, and a fun patriotic dish towel to tie my picnic basket together.

When my husband and I first married, my sister-in-law Linnea and brother Gene gave us a large picnic basket with real Italian china and glassware. It eventually fell apart, but it was well-loved and used. This basket is reminiscent of that first picnic basket.

The W.H. Grindley Old Curiousity Shop teacup also came from my SIL.

A little history: Linnea trash-picked this chipped teacup when they were living at their military posting in Germany. People weren’t allowed to hold yard sales but you could put things with value out on trash day and everyone would pick up great pieces!

The final pieces added

The patriotic placemats I sewed a few years ago using blue jean pockets and old flags would be perfect on a picnic table. Back during the four years we were living in our two Rv’s, these would have been used for sure!

A Little House Cookbook used as a riser inside the basket was the final inspiration piece because of all of the meals author Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about in her Little House on the Prairie books. Definitely picnic-worthy!

I hope you have enjoyed this Summertime Patriotic Picnic basket! It’s easy to pull from vintage pieces you have in your collection to create vintage vignettes.

My wish is that this basket inspires you to create your own patriotic basket displays and to take a picnic this summer. Even if you have to wear bug spray like we do here in North Texas, lol! 😉

Up next is our friend MIchelle from Thistle Key Lane who is sharing her beach-inspired picnic basket. All of our other patriotic basket posts are linked below for you. Enjoy!

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Happy touring, my friends,