Patriotic Decor

The 4th of July is pretty much my favorite holiday that isn't Christmas.  I love it.  The parades.  The fireworks.  Water games in the miserable heat.  You name it.  I especially love the patriotism.  It makes me not want to give up my citizenship to open a business in The Bahamas with a 0% tax rate (okay, I also like to vote and I kind of dig being an American).  And what's more patriotic than flag decor?  

I got this idea from someone on Pinterest.  All you need is beans.  I got white, red, and black beans from the bulk section of our grocery store and put in the amount of beans for each color that I thought would be good for the vase, which happened to be 1.5 cups of red and white per stripe and I filled the rest with black.  If you do a bigger vase, you will want more beans per stripe.  I started with more beans per stripe and had to start over (not fun if you have to separate the beans).  

I put it on my mantle along with George, the Declaration of Independence, a vase holding a bunch of American flags and a white candle holder.