Christmas in July

July 1, 2023 / 0 Comments

HELLO, July

Hello, July! We’re ready for all the fun you bring this month, starting with our “Fourth of July” celebrations and watching “JAWS” in the dark. We’re ready for our “Christmas in July” party to follow not long after the 4th, where Christmas gets a summer makeover.

We’re ready for the school year to come to a close and with that, the chance to visit with family that we have not seen in many, many moons. We’re ready for those lazy hazy days of summer that you will bring. Eating cherries while reading books, dipping our toes in the cool ocean water and feasting on homemade ice cream for dinner on hot summer nights.

We’re ready for pimento cheese sandwiches and salty potato chip dinners on the beach and marshmallows roasted to within an inch of their life before being smooshed between chocolate coated cookies for dessert.

We’re ready to keep grooving to the 70’s and 80’s music that has so far been the soundtrack of our summer. We’re ready for the few adventures we have planned before you come to a close. Welcome, July! We’re ready for all that you bring.

{4th of July Bar | Paige Spearin}

July 1, 2022 / 0 Comments

HELLO, July

Well, HELLO, July! This month you bring with you the end of the school year and boy are we ready for that! We’re ready for our Fourth of July celebrations and watching JAWS in the dark after dinner. We’re ready for our Christmas in July party with a summer twist and watching old Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music and just generally feasting on Christmas happiness.

We’re ready for the luxury of more warm days and chances to go swimming. We’re ready to eat our weight in all the gorgeous fruit that is in-season at the moment. We’re ready to make pies out of the fresh blueberries and cherries we’ve been greedily gobbling up, topped with a big scoop of homemade ice cream.

We’re ready for lazy summer weekends in which we get to read on the beach and pack a picnic for lunch of ham sandwiches with heirloom tomatoes, salty potato chips and a thermos of iced tea. We’re ready for cheeseburgers and fresh corn on the cob from the greengrocers, smothered in butter and each bite has juices running down our chins.

We’re ready to continue to dance to the 60’s and 70’s soundtrack of our summer that has us in quite the groove lately. We’re ready to watch evening fall as the breeze blows the curtains in the open window and we just get to sit and be. Welcome, July, we’re ready for all that you bring.

{Image: “Maggie in snorkeling gear”, October 1958, Montego bay, Jamaica. From the third of three small “ektachrome transparencies” boxes, this set labeled “personal fair great / our wedding” by Nick DeWolf | Found via Messy Nessy | Pinned HERE}

July 1, 2021 / 0 Comments

HELLO, July

Hello, July! We’re ready for you to bring warmer weather our way and keep the rain at bay for just a little bit. We’re ready for early morning coffee on the beach when the world is quiet and we can go swimming and have the water all to ourselves. We’re ready for homemade ice cream after dinner and dancing around the kitchen to the ‘60s music groove we’re in at the moment.

We’re ready for school to come to a close for the year and the chance to stay up late watching old movies on the projector and eating popcorn and making ice cream floats. We’re ready for our annual Christmas in July party and this year it might last more than a day, it might be an entire weekend of Christmas music playing and Christmas movie watching and Christmas feasting and just general Christmas happiness.

We’re ready to devour more books while sitting on the beach and then lazily strolling up to the house to make cheeseburgers that have thick slices of heirloom tomatoes sitting on top of the melting cheese and fresh corn on the cob smothered in butter.

We’re ready for all that you bring and we hope it is filled with love and laughter and light.

{Slim Aarons / Getty Images: Mrs. Charles Rogers sits on a submerged bar stool in the Villa Vera Spa & Racquet Club pool, Acapulco, Mexico, January 1961 // Pinned HERE}

July 10, 2020 / 0 Comments

How Glad I Am

You don’t know how glad I am that today is Friday. This has been an up and down kind of week. But, we’ve made it to the end. There is bread rising on the counter, butter softening to make spritz cookies and tomorrow we’re having a “Christmas in July” party.

We’re getting the ball rolling tonight with a little bowl of Christmas fettuccine and watching “The Holiday”.

Here’s to the weekend!

{Image: Nancy Wilson, How Glad I Am, Album Cover, 1964}

July 23, 2012 / 0 Comments

Christmas in July Movie Night

Well, we did have another movie night over the weekend! I got to pick and there wasn’t any way I was letting July slip by without a Christmas in July party! I used the excuse that it starts out in the Summer months and moves through the seasons, so it was a movie for any time of year! Mr. Michie just smiled at me.

So, Mr. Michie made some fresh popcorn, we cozied up under quilts, as it has turned quite cool here and put on, “Meet Me in St. Louis”.

It looks even better projected onto our little screen! It was fun night. We laughed, we cried, who doesn’t shed a tear when Judy Garland thinks it is her last dance in St. Louis and Grandpa whisks her behind the tree only to pass her over to John. I always get tearful when I watch that part!

It was a wonderful movie and a wonderful night! Tonight, we are going to make chili dogs, eat popcorn and watch, “The Goonies”, because GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!

July 21, 2011 / 0 Comments

I know, I have written about this before on my blog, but in the States, it is a big thing to have “Christmas in July” sales and events. This is not the case in England, where people look at you, as if you are half mad to even mention such a thing. As school is shortly coming to a close for us (tomorrow is our last day, Yipee!), I thought this would be a good time to use a bit of the Summer break to begin working on a few Christmas/winter-y projects.

One, being my crocheted granny blanket, which I have yet to have the chance to begin, with all the craziness of school going on around us. But, also to possibly start a few Christmas projects early. Here were a few things I came across and I might just try to make some of these, or at the very least be inspired by them, especially the sock monkey coffee cup wrap, he has personality!

Do you begin your Christmas making projects early, or are you a last minute kinda gal (or guy)? Enjoy!

Now is a good time to start collecting vintage cookie cutters at thrift stores and yard sales. These “frames” would be gorgeous to have up all year round!

These mice would make perfect teacher’s presents or classroom gifts. If you changed the colors they would even be cute for an Alice in Wonderland Themed Birthday Tea Party.

Want to make your own granny square blanket to stay cozy with when the weather turns frosty, go to Meet me at Mike’s for a granny square tutorial.

This sock monkey coffee cup wrap is too cute. Perfect for your coffee lovers, any time of year.

(All images copyright their respective blogs)

July 29, 2010 / 5 Comments

I Spy Christmas in July

We loved the “I Spy” series of books in our house when we were growing up. One of my absolute favourites is the “I Spy Christmas” book. This was a book that was pulled off the shelf, time and time again, to find the items listed in the rhyme, or to make up our own and search endlessly for them.

Walter Wick, created the series and here is a page from this beloved book:

On his website he states:

I Spy Christmas is the second book in the I Spy series and still one of my favorites. For this photograph, I found an old window that was just the right size to fit the page. Some of the dolls are my wife’s childhood toys. Others were borrowed from neighbors. I dressed the set like an old toy shop window. The snow and frost is of the type sold in Christmas shops.

His images are magical, a glimpse into childhood memories. He has created the perfect scenes, this shop window for example, is the Christmas window that you want to press your frosty nose and mittened hands to, staring at everything inside, with so many choices that you are not sure what you are going to put down on your list to ask Santa Claus for.

Here are the before and after images for the window scene that was described above:

At home there are always Christmas in July sales, parties, little get-to-gethers. I love Christmas, in fact I have been listening to Christmas music a lot lately on a fabulous online radio station I found and as crazy as it seems, listening to that music, made me sew up the rest of my bear and bunny order, even faster. The more I seemed to sing and hum to those jolly jingles, the more time just seemed to fly by along with my fingers….