Missing Mouse Goes Bottle Tree Shopping

Has anyone seen my computer mouse? I was planning on posting again today, but I can't seem to find the mouse. ;)

Bottle Tree Shopping:
Not to beat the bottle tree "horse" to death, but I do want to share a resource I found recently in case you have a bottle tree and are looking for hard-to-find colors and unusual shaped bottles.

Turns out Hobby Lobby carries bottles of all sizes and in every color under the rainbow. Last week I just happened to stop by and they were all 50% off! Yay, love that! That even beats one of their 40% off coupons. I am finding it almost impossible to find bottles in a sunny yellow color, but they had them. I bought one large bottle and two small ones. The small ones turned out to be too small, but the big yellow one looked great and it was only $4 after the sale.

This bottle tree is sort of my inspiration tree (pic) and one of the things I really like about it are the different sizes and shapes of the bottles.

I went back yesterday to exchange the two small yellow bottles for another large one, perhaps in purple or another impossible-to-find color, but they wouldn't do it since the sale had ended. Rats! Most stores will let you exchange if you purchased during the sale period, but not HL. They told me they have a 50% off "glass sale" pretty frequently. Just passing this along in case you have a bottle tree and need some large bottles in unusual shapes. They really had some pretty ones, even bigger and more unusual than the one I bought. I don't plan on buying too many...really the tree only needs 3-5 of the really large bottles to add some interest.

You can read more about the history of bottle trees HERE.

Tablescape Thursday:
I'm soo excited about Tablescape Thursday. The party will go up by 9:00 PM Wednesday evening. I don't know what it is about the 4th of July, but I always have the most fun tablescaping for this holiday. Maybe it's the bright, festive colors that go along with the holiday.

Here's a little preview of one of the 4th of July table settings I've been working on. :)

That's all I can share of the tablescape for now. I'll see you tomorrow...if I can find that mouse. ;)

Pssst: I'm posting twice a day now on some days. Scroll on down for a fun 4th of July craft idea from earlier today.