🧨 Happy Fourth of July!! 🧨
{Carole Landis (1919 – 1948) posing by a US flag | circa 1944 | Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}
Hello, July! We’re ready for you to usher in the last month of the school year and bring us one step closer to being able to beat to our own rhythm for a little while with no set schedules.
We’re ready for our annual Fourth of July celebrations with hamburgers and my Nana’s macaroni salad and homemade hot fudge sundaes for dessert while we watch “JAWS” in the dark.
We’re ready for our Christmas in July celebrations and the festivities that surround that. A Christmas menu with a summer twist, Christmas movies, Christmas music and we are still deciding on the Christmas dessert menu for this year!
We’re already eating our weight in your summer fruit bounty, but we haven’t yet had the perfect tomato sandwich, so that is still to come. We’re ready to bake pies out of all the fruit we can’t manage to eat in time with heaps of vanilla ice cream on top.
We’re ready for our days to stretch out ahead of us where we simply read books and stack the record player and listen to music. We’re ready to continue dancing in the kitchen long after the sun has set and relish in our late night movie dates, while the curtains dance in the breeze from the open windows behind us.
Welcome, July! We’re ready for all that you bring!
{Keep Your Cool, Slim Aarons, 1978 | “Carmen Alvarez enjoying a game of backgammon with Frank ‘Brandy’ Brandstetter in a swimming pool at Acapulco.” | Pinned HERE}
Hello, June. We’re ready for warmer days and sunny strolls through the park. We’re ready for the adventures we have planned this month and the chance to squeeze in a few more.
We’re ready for our first BLT of the season as the heirloom tomatoes start to arrive at the greengrocers. Sandwiches piled high and a side of salty potato chips to go with it. We’re ready to blast Carly Simon while we work together in the kitchen with the windows open and the ocean breeze blowing in.
We’re ready for late weekend nights watching old movies on our vintage projection screen. We’re ready for lazy weekends that involve long walks and milkshakes. We’re ready for slices of homemade poundcake piled high with fresh picked strawberries and scoop of vanilla ice cream.
We’re ready for you to bring us into the final stretch of the school year. We’re ready for quiet nights with star filled skies, letting evening settle over the house and taking the time to drink everything in.
We’re ready for all that you bring us this month. Welcome, June!
{1960s Summer Fashion | Pinned HERE}
I adore old movies. I loved nothing more than staying home from school, sick on the couch and watching old movies on TV. One of my all time favourites is a Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda classic called, “Yours, Mine & Ours”. It’s a coming together of two families and how they learn to become one. Near the end of the film, in trying to get a heavily pregnant and in labor Lucille Ball to the car, her daughter wants some relationship advice and Henry Fonda steps in and makes one of the grandest speeches:
It’s giving life that counts. Until you’re ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud. All the crazy haircuts in the world won’t keep it turning. Life isn’t a love-in – it’s the dishes, and the orthodontist, and the shoe repairman, and… ground round instead of roast beef. And I’ll tell you something else: It isn’t going to a bed with a man that proves you’re in love with him; it’s getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful everyday world with him that counts!
And that is L-O-V-E. It’s the day in and the day out, the mundane and the every day. But in all the days in and the days out, the choice to continue getting up with that other person, being with that other person is the element that makes all the difference. That’s the key ingredient, the choice you make to face each day with this person by your side, come what may.
We’ve weathered many storms and we’ve seen many rainbows in our 20 years of marriage. And I have no doubt that there will be more rainbows to share and storms to weather. That we have chosen to experience them together is what has made all the difference.
Here’s to the next 20 years. To the storms, to the rainbows and to adventures that we haven’t even dreamed of yet.
{Photograph: A newly-married couple waves as they drive off with streamers and a ‘Just Married’ sign on the back of their pink convertible | 1964 | by Lambert/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}
Hello, May! We’re ready for the long weekend that you start us off with and we are very much looking forward to it and the adventures we have planned. We’re ready for more meandering strolls through the fields alongside the sheep and the baby lambs. Looking out for bunnies and foxes and the swans who like to nestle in the fields.
We’re ready for our days to continue to lengthen and light to linger over the dinner table a little longer each night, one night slowly over taking the next in breadth.
We’re ready for the anniversary you bring us at the end of this month and how we do not take it for granted that we are lucky enough to continue to grow together. We’re ready for clearer nights where we stargaze and listen to the waves roll in.
We’re ready to watch the skies turn from midnight black to a deep purple velvet and slowly melt into a buttery pink as we drink our morning coffee with the rising of the sun. We’re ready for the bluebells to continue to bloom along hidden paths and we’re ready for the new season’s harvest that will slowly start arriving at the greengrocer’s.
We’re ready for all that you hold for us and more. Welcome, May!
{Bunnies at the Boat Pond, Paige Spearin | Pinned HERE}
Hello, April. You’ve arrived in a blustery whirl, on the heel’s of the Easter Bunny and we’re excited that you’re here.
We’re ready to kick off our Easter School Break with you and the many adventures we have planned. We’re ready to stay up late, watching old movies on our vintage projection screen and munching on goodies out of our Easter basket.
We’re ready for the light that will continue to grow and fill our days since we “sprung” forward over the weekend. We’re ready for a few more blue skies overhead and crisp, clear days over this spring break. We’re ready for lazy Saturday afternoons spent reading books and working on the crossword puzzle.
We’re ready for spring to continue “springing” and the chance for breakfast on the beach, where we sit, watch the waves roll in and out in their rhythm, drink hot coffee from our thermos and look up just in time to see a seal or two slowly swim by.
We’re ready for all that you bring April, may you be a month filled with JOY.
{Paulette Goddard | Photoplay Magazine | November 1942 | Pinned HERE}
🐥 Happy Easter!! 🐥
I hope you find all the eggs that the Easter Bunny has hidden and your baskets are filled to the brim with chocolate shaped bunnies and chicks and assorted goodies.
{A young girl with an Easter basket containing coloured eggs and fluffy chicks. | 1946 | Photo by Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}
As Clairee says, “Now, it’s almost time for the Easta’ Bunny! Run on down!”.
So, hurry up and get those eggs dyed and those baskets ready for his arrival. 🥕
{Easter Bunny Post Card by Hannes Petersen | Pinned HERE}
🍀 Happy St. Patrick’s Day! 🍀
May your day be fair and full of green. And may all the golden luck, rainbows and good wishes be with you today! 🌈
{Ann-Margret, Swedish-American actress, wearing turquoise blue woollen jumper in a studio portrait, against a blue background. | circa 1965 | Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}
Hello, March! We’re ready for you to continue awakening the earth as spring draws closer. Our world has already been dotted with saffron and purple hued crocuses, snowdrops and sunshine yellow daffodils. We’re ready for you to usher forth more bulbs. We’re ready to see an undulating wave of pink, purple, yellow, peach and blush tones swaying in the almost ever present coastal winds.
We’re ready to wear the green and hunt for shamrocks, rainbows with pots of gold at the end and leprechauns on St. Patrick’s Day. We’re ready to feast on my Nana’s Irish soda bread alongside our annual St. Patty’s Day dinner. We’re ready to continue in this season of Lent, as a time of reflection and using this time to do more for others. The Lenten season shall come to a close at the end of your month with Easter Sunday.
We’re ready for the Easter Bunny to hope along and pay us a visit, hopefully filling our baskets with a few chocolate surprises. We’re ready for more cool, clear days and less rain. We’re ready for lazy Saturday afternoons sat listening to a new record, only moving when we have to flip it over.
We’re ready to continue being, reading, writing, cooking, baking, dancing and finding the joy in the little things.
Welcome, March. We’re ready for all that you bring.
{Spring bloom jackets made entirely of artificial flowers worn over light silk dresses designed by Arnold Scaasi | Photograph by Leonard Steckler | 1961 | Pinned HERE}