Saturday Snapshots: July 16, 2016

{Quote image source}

{Pin curls, fab outfit, adorable kitty cat, and a mile-wide smile? Yep, this delightful mid-century gal officially wins at summer.}



{"Lois Duncan Steinmetz playing the accordion aboard the shanty boat Lazy Bones, c. 1947", because Lois was just awesome like that.}




{One look is all it takes to know that this 1940s pair - and their beautiful dog - were a blast to hang out with. Plus, don’t his shades look they could have just walked off the spring/summer 2016 runway? Proof positive that designers today take styling cues from the past right, left and center.}




{Group fun in the sun while at the beach in 1937 - love the lady at the back's classic folding parasol. It reminds me a lot of the gorgeous Disney themed hand painted ones that my dear friend Janey, from Atomic Redhead, has been creating and sharing on her blog this year.}




{No convertible? No problem! Just make like these two cool c. 1940s gals, in their matching shirts/play suits, and put the trunk (boot) of your car to good use! :)}




How much do you love this beautiful 1950's woman's fabulous ombre striped strapless swimsuit?}




{Teenagers being teenagers and having a blast at their local Tallahassee drive-in burger joint back in August of 1957 (you just know the milkshakes there would have been to die for!).}




{In a perfect world every single day of the summer would be as fun, carefree and sunny as the one depicted in this fabulous American beach snap, which was taken during July, 1952.}




It's never to early in life to ensure that your warm weather style game is squarely on point, as the young misters Larry and Louie Poggenburg kindly demonstrated for us during the spring of 1965.}




{Okay, it's official, seeing these two lovely c. 1950s synchronized swimmers has got me yearning to hop into the nearest body of water pronto!}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, 

please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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Soooo, it's been a really long time since the last edition of Saturday Snapshots occurred here. Like, a really, really long time. I went digging around through my achieves and it would appear that the last such post was in May 2015, some fourteen months ago.

Wow, I'd been thinking it was last fall, but such appears not to be the case. There's no set schedule or timeframe for these posts of course, but as I - and I know, many of you as well - really adore them, I do like to get one up periodically. Today, in the middle of July, seems like a great time for new edition of Saturday Snapshots, don’t you think?

I read the quote that kicks off today's post for the first time ever a few weeks ago and it instantly resonated with me. Though I am generally a million miles away from lazy, I don't per se think that work related activity (or lack thereof) is the sort of laziness that the man who penned it, American author and philosopher Sam Keen, had in mind when he wrote those words. No, I highly suspect that he was referring to one's pace of life and how much, from sun up to sun down, we're able to get done in a day during the peak of summertime.

I'm a major workaholic and I will burn the midnight oil like no one's business, but during these glorious dog days of summer, even I tend to scale back a little. How on earth can one not? These few brief weeks of truly hot weather will vanish with the first tumbling leaves of September and with them, any hope (short of a vacation to a far-flung destination where the sun shines all year 'round) of feeling truly warm from the sun until next spring arrives.

Summer, to my mind, shouldn't be about merely staying busy nor doing next to nothing at all, no, it should be a happy marriage of two. If ever the expression "play hard, work hard" was at home in a chapter of the year, summer is it.
 
I may still bust my hump during for most of the week, but while the temps are near (or at!) triple digits and the sunshine seems to stretch on from here to eternity, you can bet that I'll be sinking my toes into the sand, talking peaceful strolls in the early morning hours, and lapping up froyo like its going out of style, while I still can.
 

As we sit now, there's just over two full months of summer left. Fall weather often begins before that point though, so I think that's all the more reason to go along with Sam's take on things and revel in the fact that this season not only allows, but frankly encourages us, to slow down, stop and smell the roses, and practise the time honoured art of slow living for a brief while amidst our usually frenzied, fast paced modern lives.

Here's to the rest of summer and all the relaxation it has the potential to afford us!

Now, where did I put that beach umbrella? All this talk of taking things easy has me champing at the bit to spend the weekend under the open the sun. Care to join me? :)

Flickr Favourites: June 14, 2015

{1959 illustration by Paul C Burns ~ Totally Mystified}      
 


{Polka Dot Milkshakes ~ Jamie Anne}  


{Who's watching the movie? ~ Salty Cotton}  


{1950s smiling couple riding tandem bicycle built for two ~ Arnold Kabini}  


{1952 Dunlop ad ~ Totally Mystified}  


{Love Beach ~ Patrick Hayes}


{Montgomery Ward Summer 1959 catalog ~ Capricorn One Vintage}  


{Pink Dining ~ Salty Cotton}

  {For Young America at Play ~ Salty Cotton}  


{Kookie Vol 2 EP by Edd Byrnes ~ Totally Mystified}



{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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Like many vintage lovers, I count 1978's classic musical movie Grease amongst my favourite films of all-time, as well as one that had a powerful influence on my passion for the past as a youngster (another biggie was A League of Their Own, as I chatted about here way back in 2009). I can't help but think of this movie whenever the hottest season the year looms into sight again and often find myself singing or humming Summer Nights as it does.

While I'm not searching for a warm weather romance (I'm already blessed with to have found my boy, by which I mean, man, who is definitely "cute as can be!"), I do love the spirit of this hit song and how it makes me think not only to the season at hand, but to the countless times I watched Grease on VHS as a child. I knew it verbatim at one point and can still mouth most of the lines when I watch it these days.

Though one obviously looks at Grease with different eyes as an adult than they do as a poodle skirt wearing six year old who loved to dance and was nothing short of infatuated with the era (some things never change! :D), I still have a serious soft spot in my heart for this musical and make a point of catching it at least once a summer.

The images in this month's edition of Flickr Favourites are not specifically from, or relating to, Grease, but they all call to mind the same kind of feel good, toe tapping, happy-go-lucky take on the mid-twentieth century that this classic movie does. They're warm, fun, summery, and perpetually appealing, much like Sandy and Danny's ability to each break into the same song simultaneously while chilling with their respective group of friends.

I think that for just about all of us, whether we're big musical film fans in general or not, there is something about Grease that speaks to our souls as vintage lovers and that makes us yearn to spend at least a little time at Rydell High. For it there that a very idealized version of the fifties exists, no one says a word about the fact that the "teenagers" look like they're in their 30s, puppy love can turn into something so much more, and the sun is always shining right up until those Suuuuummmeeerrrrr Niiiiigggggtttttttssss roll around and anything suddenly seems possible so long as you want - and sing about - it enough! :)

20 things I (really!) want to do this spring and summer!

The birds are chirping up their orchestral tunes, the daffodils are out in full force, and I have officially worn open toed shoes for the first time this year! We're a month into spring already and suddenly, exquisitely, majestically, and so very beautifully, there is an almost hyper-abundance of things to do and see and savour again for the first time in many, many months.

If our plans aren't already set in motion beforehand, as the weekend draws nears, Tony or I will usually ask the other person what we might want to do on Saturday and Sunday. The answers can range from yard saling to fishing, thifting to the farmer's market, just depending on which one of is doing the replying. Fortunately we're both great at splitting our free time amongst each other's passions, while also sharing in many of the same ones (say for example, attending auctions or sitting on the beach in our camping chairs and watching the onion skin hued sun be swallowed up for the evening by the sagebrush covered Okanagan hillside) and that ensures that our weekend are usually a blast.

This time around when Tony posed the question to me on Friday, my mind didn't just stop at the coming two days, instead it shot off into a rapid fire Hollywood movie worthy montage of many of the fabulous things that I want to do, not just right here and now, but throughout the coming weeks and months that will fill the sublimely warm seasons of spring and summer.

This flip book of activities that these two can house is as good as endless, especially if you happen to live near water or other highly inviting landscape features. It can have a thousand pages, or just a few that you revisit time and time again, taking to heart like the lyrics of your favourite summer songs. The following are twenty that are topping my list this year and that I sincerely hope are able to come to fruition!

20 awesome things I really

want to do this spring and summer 

1. Test drive all of the great vintage, repro and vintage appropriate warm weather clothing I picked up over the course of the fall and winter and feature oodles of it here in future outfit posts.

2. Watch the stars shine like a hundred billion sparkling fireflies from atop Apex Mountain on a hypnotically warm night.

3. Get so lost in the enchantingly loveliness of the season that I forget not only what time it is, but what day of the week it is, too!

4. Barbeque a lot. I mean risk wearing out the grill levels of barbequing.

5. Watch the twinkling, gorgeous Canada Day fireworks that are shot off over Okanagan Lake down at the beach.

6. Try to spend at least a few minutes, but ideally an hour or more, outside every single day.

7. Think of my Halloween costume well in advance October and then start making and/or buying the necessary elements.

8. Go fishing with my honey. He fishes, I lounge on the dock and converse with him, and delight in each and ever dragonfly that lands for the quickest of pulses, on my bare, suntanned skin.

9. Get said suntan without burning to a crisp first. Easier said than done when you scorch faster than a piece of toast, even after being slathered with industrial grade SPF!

10. Fly a kite! I was probably 12 or 13 the last time I did so.

11. Have a bonfire, complete with marshmallows (and thus naturally, s'mores) at the beach (own town allows you do so in some areas).

12. Visit the traveling carnival (midway/fair) when it's in town (it's almost a running joke how often, despite madly wanting to do so, I end up missing it, usually due to my health).

13. Go on at least one road trip, even if it's just a weekend long getaway. My immense sense of wanderlust is usually strongest during these sublimely lovely months of the year, thanks in no small part, I'm sure to the fact it was when my parent took us on holidays around the province when I was a youngster.

14. Picnic like it's going out of style!

15. Buy some coloured chalk and let my inner five year sidewalk artist run free.

16. Come the early days of August, watch the Peach Festival Parade on Main Street (I haven't been in over half my lifetime!).

17. Put the frozen yogurt maker we bought at the end of last summer though its paces!

18. Take a houseboat cruise ride on Okanagan Lake for the first time (how I've gone 30 years without doing so before is beyond me!).

19. Attend our town's toe-tappingly fun annual square dance festival.

20. Camp!!! (After all, it is an in-tents experience! :D)

{To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective source.}

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I know that there's a very real chance I won't get to everything on my list, modest sized though it may be, this spring and summer, but even just having these desires down on virtual paper makes the possibility of them turning into something tangible seem all the more likely.

Chances are, for every one that does happen, ten marvelous unplanned or very last minute activities, invitations, feasts, and trips (even if that word is simply used to describe a five minute drive somewhere) will occur and come the last days of summer, when summer gets ready to hand the torch over to autumn, I'll look back on these months and smile ear-to-ear.

Spring and summer never disappoint (see 2012's post 25 reasons to love summer for some of my personal favourite reasons why that rings true for me). Even when the going gets tough in my daily life, something about sunlight until nearly 10 pm, the ability to walk barefoot in warm-as-oatmeal sand, the wearing of sundresses and strappy sandals, the consuming of light, fresh fair for nearly every meal, and the treasure trove of memories that this time of the year houses all ensure that it's worth jumping out of bed in a happy-go-lucky mood, no matter what you might have planned - or not – for the day.

So tell me, my dears, what's calling your name this spring and summer? Will you be mapping your every move, taking it nice and easy, or - as I tend to do - balancing the two to create a generous stretch of months so lovely they make every last icicle, snow bank, and extra woolen layer of winter worth it a thousand times over.

Here's to the prospect of all that this half of the year holds in store for each of us - may it be a spring and summer to delight in and cherish the memory of forever!

Flickr Favourites: August 17, 2014

{1950s orange juice advertisement ~ Christian Montone}


{Summer School Spanish Language Program Festivities, 1951 ~ Duke Yearlook}


{Farm fresh ~ Magalie L'Abbé}


{Rose 'Love' raised in USA ~ naruo0720}


{57 Ways of Summer Eating with Heinz ~ alsis35}


{Beach Blanket Bingo 1930s ~ Vintage car nut}


{Vegetables ~ katinthecupboard}


{Beach Bum ~ Ross Harvey}


{Montgomery Ward summer 1959 catalog ~ Capricorn One}


{Sarasota Sun-Debs training at Lido Beach, Florida ~ State Library and Archives of Florida}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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It's human nature to find ourselves constantly looking forward. Even the most die hard of nostalgists amongst us are prone to setting their sites on tomorrow far too often sometimes. I count myself amongst the guilty there at times, but this week isn't one of them. No, as we savour these last few weeks of summer, the worst of the dog days behind us now, though the temperatures still feel warm enough to bake a cake on the sidewalk, I am incredibly content to live right here in this glorious moment, the sizzling August breeze that blows off of Okanagan Lake some days tickling my skin through the open bedroom window.

Soon enough, it will be my favourite season, autumn, but as much as I madly adore it, I have no desire to turn my thoughts in that direction yet. I'm too busy buying succulent peaches and late season cherries, walking barefoot on the dry summer grass as the heat baked straight into the earth rushes up to caress my soles, and flat out delighting in the fact that I only need to wear one layer to be more than warm enough when I go outside.

I'm star gazing, yard saling, watching Annie jump merrily through the sprinkler, feasting on barbequed foods like there's no tomorrow, sitting in the sand at the many local beaches and holding my darling husband's hand as we gaze at the almost hypnotic little waves lapping eagerly at the shore, enjoying sunlight well into the early evening still, and reminding myself to soak up every last precious moment of summer while it's still here. That famous Canadian winter sets in swiftly and rarely shows mercy, and when it does, though I love that season in many of its own ways, I know that I will pine for these days immeasurably.

They, like fall however, are not now, and I am very grateful for that. No, now, is alluring, resplendent, and scented with wisteria, honeysuckle and generously sized roses. It calls for ice cream cones, boat rides, long walks as the wind rustles and plays with the still green leaves, and as many memories created in the great outdoors as humanly possible.

All of these things are reflected in today's Flickr Favourites images, which serve as a powerful visual reminder to let tomorrow be tomorrow. You and I and all of us need to just enjoy, appreciate and savour today. Glorious, sun drenched mid-August gem that it is. And on that note, I'm off to take my beach towels out of the dryer, pack a picnic lunch in advance, and spend another magnificent day out enjoying the Okanagan at its very best and most beautiful while summer is still here.

Flickr Favourites: June 20, 2014

{Young woman modeling a two-piece swim suit in Tampa, Florida ~ State Library and Archives of Florida}


{King of the castle ~ Kirstyxo}


{Boardwalk Camera early 1930s ~ PLCjr}


{1953 Le Petit Echo de la Mode cover ~ april-mo}


{Bathing Beauties 2 ~ I'm so vintage}


{Starfish at the beach ~ Laura Jarman}


{Swimming 1940s ~ dianecordell}


{1949 Kodak Color Film Ad ~ Classic Film}


{Eleanor Tierney at Starlight Park ca. 1921 ~ syscosteve}


{Nora Carrol and Lois Duncan Steinmetz: Sarasota, Florida ~ State Library and Archives of Florida}

{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on its title to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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There was a certain unmistakable magic to the first swim of the summer when we were growing up. Brave, with the sort of hearty gusto and disposition that only the earliest days of youth affords most, we'd sometimes plunge into the water in May (there may have even been one time we dared to do so in April), icicles all but forming on our eyebrows as we did. The air might have had almost-summer warmth to it, but the water temperature was still far more inline with the bone chilly days of winter.

Nevertheless, we'd put our brave faces, egging each other on to see who would dip their whole body underneath first, our small hands growing progressively more blue with each passing minute. Inevitably, at least when we were still young enough to require an adult to be present when we went to the beach, someone's mom or dad, if not my own, would always stand safely back from the shoreline and shout out, "Okay, kids, that's about enough, you don't want to get catch your death of a cold from that freezing water!", and we'd pretend to leave the lake's cool embrace far more begrudgingly than we really were (in addition to knowing full well, at least by a certain age, that you don't actually catch a cold simply from being cold).

We knew it we might as well have been using icebergs as air mattresses and that it would be a few more weeks still until one could safely venture into the water without needing a narwhal's body composition to stay warm while doing as much. And so we'd wait, as the days on the calendar ticked by, not only on the school year (which always let out us for us at the very end of June), but also on Penticton's two lakes (Okanagan and Skaha) to reach the kind of temperature where we could frolic and splash around until we were wrinkled like raisins, happily exhausted, and ready to retire to our waiting sun-kissed beach towels before getting a second wind and racing headlong into the gentle surf once more.

If the spring had been a particularly warm and favourable one, that usually started being able to happen right around this time of the year. Sometimes it might take a little longer, say closer to Canada Day, but by mid-June, you could almost always find at least a handful of robust souls in swimwear inching their way into the lake, that telltale look of surprise over the water's true temperature registering on their face from a mile away. It is the memory of those first swims of the year as a child that spurred on the visual inspiration for today's Flickr Favourites post and which has been on my mind frequently as of late.

Though, for many years now because of my health, I've not been able to much in the way of swimming, I still eagerly anticipate this time of the year, when I'll do a little wading or floating on my back in the water, before setting up camp on the beach and enjoying watching today's generation of children barrel across the sand and leap into the gentle waves. The sound of motorboats humming in the distance, jet skis bobbing noisily closer to shore, and the squeals of excitement coming from young and young at heart alike as they splash merrily in the waves.

In a few more week's time, when the dog days of summer are biting at our heels once more, both lakes will take on a near-bathwater warm quality that's hard to match anywhere else in this country (which is a large part of the reason that Penticton and the Okanagan as a whole has always been such an immensely popular Canadian summer tourist destination). A quality which, I swear, is all the more true if you're game for going for a night swim. This was something else that I sincerely adored doing as a youngster, when I'd paddle out a hundred feet or so from the beach and lay on my back, the rhythmic waves almost hypnotizing me into a zen-like state of serenity as stared up at the twinkling neon lights from all the motels and restaurants on the other side of the street.

These are the kinds of memories that endear summer to our heart and make us nothing short of gleeful to see it return once more, whether we'll be doing much actual swimming this year or not, and which will always help make the return of the warmest season every bit as fun and exciting as those ice cold plunges into the lake that we enjoyed so very much as children.