close up of blue and white bowl with fruit salad and strawberry with flag

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Hello friends! It’s time for June’s Pinterest Challenge and we are a bunch of patriotic people around here so we couldn’t go another day without sharing American Flag ideas. This one was a struggle this time around. Most days writing a post is as easy as pie but lately I feel most days if my brains were ink, I couldn’t dot an i. Ha, that rhymes. Anyway, today we will eat dessert first at a casual festive July 4th tablescape and then take a nap.

Eat Dessert First at a Casual Festive July 4th Tablescape

If you’ve hopped over from WM Design House, hello and thanks for stopping by. I pretty much love everything Wendy does and her wagon wheel wreath is no exception. She must have magic fingers.

If you aren’t familiar with a Pinterest Challenge, it happens the fourth Tuesday of each month and the group of us take one inspiration photo and recreate it to fit our own style. That means you get so many wonderful ideas from a single photo. This month there’s 14 ideas so let’s get started.

Liz Marie Blog

Even though our inspiration photo is from Liz Marie, it’s technically an “anything goes” flag challenge this month. Liz and her family are living the farmhouse dream up in Michigan and where that girl finds the furniture pieces to fill her home is mind blowing. I love the way she decorates (insert panting heart) too. It’s intentional and I think she’s a Middlist like me. Which btw, if you missed that post, click here to see what category you fit into.

I had grand plans of sharing our porchette this month but it’s been so hot (Wednesday it’s supposed to feel like 125 degrees) that I haven’t done a thing except add flags to the hanging door basket and stab a few in the grass around the driveway. Just doing that caused the need for another shower. Bleh.

Mini flags/toothpicks from Hobby Lobby

But then I was setting the table to serve a yummy fruit salad. When I stepped back I noticed it also had 3 glass jars with flags similar to the inspo photo. I was saved!

The eat dessert first portion of this post is a super easy recipe I’ll share at the bottom. I see a version of this salad all over Pinterest but mine is slightly different which I think makes it tastier.

One of my favorite Goodwill finds – red and white transferware

The table started with a set of red and white transferware chargers found at Goodwill for $4 dollars each. Yep, I said chargers. Each one has a different pattern. Honestly, I couldn’t believe no one had snatched them up. They aren’t vintage but I was on cloud 9 for days. That was back in early spring and I’ve been thinking about using them ever since. That’s how you know your money was well spent.

Do you like mixing dish patterns? I love it. That goes for napkins and table runners too. The adorable blue glass jars and blue and white bowls are from HomeGoods. They will come in handy for tons of summer holidays.

The modern “look alike” milk glass jars/ candle holders were an obvious choice since they sit on the table everyday. Switch out the white candle for red and voila, you have more patriotism. 😉 If you’d like to see the DIY for those jars, click here.

Well that’s the look of our Eat Dessert First at a Casual Festive July 4th Tablescape. I loved how it turned out. It’s perfectly patriotic and festive. Now here’s the recipe for the easy, light and fluffy fruit salad.

Cool Summer Fluffy Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

3.4 oz. Cheesecake flavored instant pudding (vanilla flavor will also work)

8 oz. of softened cream cheese

3/4 cup of milk

8 oz. Cool Whip

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1 cup of fresh sliced strawberries

1 cup of fresh whole raspberries

1 cup of fresh whole blueberries

Half of an Angel Food cake cubed – optional

10 oz. of mini marshmallows – optional

Directions: Mix the first 3 ingredients together well. You don’t want it to feel gritty. Then add in the cool whip and mix just until blended. Gently fold in the fruit pieces. I also add the cubed angel food cake or marshmallows at this point. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour. It will last in the fridge for about 3 days. Sometimes I leave out the mini marshmallows because my family doesn’t care for them. And sometimes I serve this as a dessert by plopping some on a piece of angel food cake instead of adding the cubes inside. Whether it’s a side dish or a dessert, it’s light, fluffy and fantastic!