Happy 4th of July

OK so I am a bit early...that alone should surprise anyone who knows me! We had our ex-pat independence day cookout yesterday. It was typical UK weather. Fine in the morning during set-up and showers when the guests arrive. We were lucky it cleared up later in the afternoon so the tents had time to dry out before we had to take them down.

A typical mail story...the decorations never arrived! The woman in charge of the committee ordered them over a month ago! The tracking system showed they got at far as the military postal system. Oh well! Needless to say there are no 4th of July decorations in the UK stores so we had to improvise. We had some flag banners left from last year. I pulled out all my patriotic fabric from the stash and over the weekend made 12 table centerpieces (30-inch by 30-inch little quilts which hid the fact we couldn't find round table clothes and had crossed over one blue and one white.) We bought red plants and wrapped them in more patriotic fabrics and used mason jars for some red, white and blue flower arrangements. In the end it look very American Country...I liked it better than all the plastic stuff they used last year!

We don't have any big plans for the holiday weekend. I'm trying to rest up a bit. If I am really ambitious I may try to make my first Victoria sponge cake. Our village is having a "Flood Reunion" which marks last years flood then lack of water episode. As part of the festivities they are having a cake baking contest (which of course my DH signed me up for) but you have to make a Victoria sponge. I had to look it up on the internet! I may have to make a few trial runs over the next few weeks...