Welcome to this month’s Design Challenge, everyone! Anything Goes is the name of this fun summertime challenge and our host Cindy from County Road 407 has give us carte blanche as long as whatever we dream up has patriotic style…
Our inspiration piece is this wonderful antique postcard Cindy found online. Its patriotic message is unmistakeable and totally inspired me. I love that this month’s challenge has Anything Goes as part of its title!
.
.
If you are new here to French Ethereal and just coming over from Lynne at My Family Thyme for the first time, welcome! Wasn’t her summer floral door basket just perfect for celebrating? I love all the ideas we all come away with from these challenges!
Lady Liberty’s patriotic dress and jaunty hat on this month’s Design Challenge postcard inspired me to dress-up my indoor “Girls.” Today I have two different looks to share with y’all!
This past winter I picked up a new maiden…
This is my New Girl, and back when I asked my readers if anyone had any ideas for a name for her, “Mademoiselle” was the only name suggested. So, I guess she is “Maddie,” for short.
I am pretty sure she is a Marie-Antoinette bust look-a-like, at least I think she is. So I often think of her as “Marie.” She arrived just at Christmas this past winter (2025), and she was an early Christmas/birthday present for me. 😉
A little background for you, especially if you are new here:
I lived in California for 42 years, and 30+ of those years were in Southern California with my husband, who is a former U.S. Marine (often called Mr. Ethereal here on the blog), and our two now-grown children. We both come from military families, so patriotism runs strong and deep here in the Chapman household.
At the end of Sept. 2014, while our daughter and son were in college, Mr. Ethereal lost his job and he was subsequently out of work for over two years. We sold our Big House in 2015, and then lived in two different RVs over a four year period, first in California and later here in Texas.
During that time, I brought my large outdoor statue and a cement angel to our campsites, and then with us from California to Texas.
I really needed a “bit of home” in our new long-term RV living situation. We eventually got back on our feet and then purchased our Texas Home in 2019. 🙂
Today’s inspiration
I found our little maiden (shown above) at a thrift shop here in Denton, Texas, and she quickly became a favorite. One of the first posts I ever decorated her for was this Christmas/Valentine’s post linked here, above.
I had been dressing up my Outdoor Girls making flower crowns for the Outdoor Maiden and a large cement Angel, but this was a first time really dressing up our new Indoor Girl.
Our patriotic postcard had all the feels and I wanted to give the Indoor Girls a similar soft look for America’s Independence Day in this first styling.
In the late afternoons this time of year, we get the most glorious sunlight shining in our living room windows so that’s what made me think I should create a patriotic tablescape featuring “The Girls.”
With all of the patriotic decor available online and in hobby stores right now, it was easy to pick out a couple of RWB angel wings, a hairband with flowers and woven stars to sprinkle around my statuesque friends!!
Frida Kahlo look
The soft blues and reds in our inspiration piece are picked up in these angel wings, which I love. When I saw the flower headband on Maddie-Marie, I knew she was channeling Frida Khalo…
Interesting note: Did you know that Ms. Kahlo painted all of those paintings of herself when she was laid up in bed? She was a young 24 year old and had been riding on a bus with her future husband when there was a terrible accident. Her back was broken in several places because of “a steel handrail piercing her through the hip” during the wreck. She spent months and months in bed healing, so she painted many paintings, including a few of those self-portraits. True story!
Of course, not everyone has a statue or statues to decorate, but this look is perfect for our grandkids, daughters, or sons (boys love dress-up, too!). My kids loved dressing up and were often cowboys/cowgirls in their western boots, and Disney princesses or a dinosaur. These wings and floral crowns are easy to wear and easy to put away after the fun! 😉
Creating Look #2
For our second look, I kept the flower crown and I focused on Lady Liberty’s red scarf and what I could do to “copy” that idea. Having been a Boy Scout Leader for 13-14 years for our son and daughter as they were growing up (in Boy Scouts ~ our son Peter, and in Venture Crew ~ both Amy and Peter), adding a cute bandana with an eagle neckerchief slide gives that Scouter look. The pearls are just an extra bonus! 😉
This eagle slide is also a nod to our nation’s bird, the bald eagle ~ a beautiful, majestic symbol of strength.
On this second day of shooting, the weather was dark and gloomy outside and the photographs turned out much darker. I love how this second look turned out!
Both girls have flower crowns now and matching bandanas. For our smaller maiden, I used a stretchy fleur de lis bracelet wrapped around her neckerchief to keep the ends together.
I think this look really showcases the scarf idea smartly!
The other items on our French style library-tea table include a couple of flags placed into a creamy, tall vase.
I have also added faux hydrangeas and peonies in soft blues, white and pink. Adding a RWB sparkler found in my stash of summer decor completes this look…
Thank you for stopping by today! If you enjoy this post, please check out a few more and consider subscribing to my blog. 🙂 Let me know in the comments which was your favorite patriotic fashion look for “The Girls” today from this design challenge ~ Look #1 with fairy wings and crowns, or our Look #2 with bandana scarves.
Thanks again to our brilliant host, Cindy from County Road 407, who has the best non-RWB way to celebrate our American summer holidays while still showing patriotic pride! She is next up from my blog on today’s Anything Goes Patriotic Design Challenge tour.
And of course everyone’s links are listed just below for you… 🙂
.
.
Enjoy the tour,
