Happy birthday, sweetheart!

✯ Day 218 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

As with all days of the year, today has played host to a great many people's birthdays over the centuries. From famed British poet Tennyson (b. 1809) to pop culture artist Andy Warhol (b. 1928), Noble laureate Sir Alexander Fleming (b. 1881) to beloved actress Lucile Ball (b. 1911), quite a few well-known folks have made their debut into life on August 6th.

While I certainly love Lucy, enjoy Andy's vibrant art, lap up Tennyson's words, and am very thankful for the work Fleming contributed to the world of science and medicine, the person whose birthday falls today that matters most to me is that of my beloved husband, Tony.

As he turns a spritely 31 this sizzling hot August morn, today will be the seventh of his birthday I've gotten to celebrate with him, and I could not be more elated about that fact.

Tony and I are both "summer babies" (with my birthday falling in July), and we love the fact that there's less than a month separating our special days. The time between the two seems to hold a special sort of excitement and anticipation, fuelled on my birthday first and the lead up to his today.

There's a cake to be baked, meals to prep, gifts lay out, and myriad other birthday details to tend to, so today's post won't be a giant one.

Instead, as the searing golden sun cuts a path across the sleepy horizon, I'll cheerfully send all those - who like me - are fans not only of your loved ones' birthdays, but b-days in general, to cheek out not one, not two, but three different delightful Flickr groups devoted solely to vintage birthdays!

-Vintage Birthday Parties

-Birthday Cakes of the Past

-Happy Vintage Birthday to You

{This sweet little dark eyed tot from the 1940s, whom I discovered in the Happy Vintage Birthday to You Flickr group, reminds me in many ways of my husband in his baby pictures from the same age. Both were so cute and eager to dig into their birthday treats! Image via Zellaby on Flickr.}

I feel honoured and blessed to share in this special day with Tony. He's an wonderful, intelligent, caring, sweet, funny, loving man and I am truly grateful that I can to spend my life with him - and celebrate his today! (Wearing my very favourite vintage party dress, natch!)

Happiest birthday, my darling, here's to countless more August sixths together!

It's International Beer Day, cheers!

✯ Day 217 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

In the world of beverages, beer is not my favourite. However, that's not why I won't be drinking any today. Instead it's due to the fact that I'm not able to consume any alcohol at all due to medical reasons. Thus a sip of beer hasn't passed my lips in almost a decade.

Beer, however, has been (often in the form of ale) the drink of the people for centuries, beloved by everyone from college kids at spring break bashes to micro brew swigging connoisseurs, and when the sun is pelting down your neck during these dog days of summer, it can be precisely what one needs to beat the beat.

Beer's history is a rich one that's steeped in legend and fact, a bubbling mix of ideas that caught on and others that raise more eyebrows than they do blood alcohol levels. From the recent trend in flavoured beers (I've heard pumpkin beer is fantastic, but can't speak first hand) to the classic taste of hops, beer finds its way into nearly every country and the fridges of many, many households the world over.

Started four years ago in Santa Cruz, California, International Beer Day is centered around three points: to bring folks together to enjoy the refreshing flavour of a good beer, to honour those who brew and serve up beer, and to unite the world in a celebration of all the beers of each nation and culture.

It's obviously not a real holiday, and it's not a vintage related day, but what is old school is beer itself. For about as long as beverage companies have been placing ads in the public eye, beer has been in the lime (lime wedge? ) light.

During the mid-twentieth century beer was amongst the most common beverages seen in print ads, and few companies at the time did a better job of promoting their product than Rheingold Beer.

 

Famous throughout North America for their Miss Rheingold Girls (attractive young women who were chosen to be the face of the company in print ads for a year at a time), between 1940 and 1965, these lovely lasses helped peddle Rheingold's drinks to the nation.

Though Rheingold's popularity diminished as the century wore on and the Rheingold Girls disappeared from the public's eye, today the ads of this once highly popular beer company make for some of the most charming and attractive vintage alcoholic beverage advertisements of the day.

So while I won't be polishing off a cold, foamy pint today myself, I will be looking through some of my favourite Rheingold Beer ads (like the beautiful one  above from 1955, which comes by way of curly-whirly on Flickr) in celebration of the undeniable role that beer has long held in our culture.

Whether you're busting out the bottle opener or joining me in a less carbonated celebration of ale, cheers and happy International Beer Day, everyone!

25 wonderful vintage birthday photos

While we may not always relish getting older, it’s hard to deny that a birthday generally puts one in a happy mood. Some smiles are created from the memories we recall, others are born with the new festive activities that unfold on our special day.

Tomorrow is my twenty-fifth birthday and to help celebrate the day I turn a quarter of a century old, I’ve gathered up 25 vintage images that span the birthday spectrum from Hollywood stars to cake decorating ideas, tables of excited children to some real party animals!

Without any further ado, let the good times roll!

♥ ♥ ♥



{Cute as a button, child star Shirley Temple celebrates her ninth birthday with a giant cake.}



{A group of elephants get in the celebratory spirit in this shot from 1926.}



{Which one of these beautiful, girly birthday cakes would you pick? The cotton candy hued, heart shaped pair gets my vote.}



{Now that’s a cake fit for a president! John F. Kennedy circa 1962, to be specific.}



{The cake might be a bit lopsided, but this 1950s woman and her birthday gifts couldn’t look any prettier – despite what her husband’s face seems to be saying!}



{A group of youngsters pose for the camera amidst the festivities at a birthday party in 1956.}



{The Leave It To Beaver style childhood birthday party is portrayed in this pretty 1950s illustration.}



{A birthday card from 1942 depicting a group of Victorian woman sitting around a table calls to mind Gone With The Wind.}



{Relatives gathering round to celebrate a youngster’s birthday in this 1946 photo.}



{What vintage birthday celebration would be complete without a Jell-o cake?}



{Not only do dogs like to gather and pose around the table to play poker, they also love to throw a birthday party! :)}



{I love how happy the little birthday girl looks in this black and white photo.}



{Someone must have been popular in 1957, just look at the size of their crowd at their birthday party!}



{Everyone seems to be helping the birthday girl blow out the candles on her cake. (Don’t the streamers all over the place make you smile?)}



{Two charming children eagerly await a piece of the cake their playmate is blowing the candles out on.}



{A woman snaps a photo of the birthday cake arriving at the table in this lovely 1950s illustrated image.}



{A colourful 1950s birthday invitation – how could you not want to attend any party with such cute invites?}



{I’m struck by how crisp and sharp this 1950s colour photo still is more than half a century after it was snapped.}



{Birthdays were going to the birds in 1956 when this cute cockatoo turned fifty.}



{Orson Wells and Rita Hayworth celebrate the beautiful starlet’s birthday aboard Errol Flynn’s yatch.}



{How sweetly lovely is this birthday girl? Too sweet for words, she looks like a little model!}



{Two junior cowboys rustle up some fun with a boot shaped birthday cake.}



{These adorable children’s birthday cakes from the mid 1960s would help get anyone in a festive mood (or at least in the mood for sugar!).}



{The eternally lovely Marilyn Monroe on her thirtieth birthday.}



{1955 Woman’s Day magazine cover with a group of adorable kids partying it up in fifties style.}

{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.}

Aren't these photos, magazine pages and scans a delight to behold? You can practically feel the joy they held or were intended to convey. I love the soft pastel hues, homemade cakes, and the wonderfully pretty party dresses in particular. What jumps out at you as you gaze into these birthday celebrations of the past?

Celebrating Mother’s Day in vintage style

She is life, inspiration, beauty, towering strength, grace, wise, caring, responsible for so much of who you are. She is mom, mamma, mommy, ma, maman. Whether through blood or fate, she is yours to learn from, revere, dream, laugh and smile with, confide in, hug, and cherish.

{She is loved}

1. she is loved , 2. Paternal Grandmother (Voncille Harding) with baby Aunt Karen, 3. How to bath the baby, 4. Judy Garland and Joey Luft, 5. Vintage 1940's Mother's Day Card, 6. Welcome Baby, 7. mother's day, 8. Young Mother Holding a Baby, 9. Asheville Xmas 1952, 10. Tongue, 11. Doctor Dan, The Bandage Man; Illustrations by Corinne Malvern, 1950- Wounded Cowboy, 12. Mom, Linda, Sybil, Me, Don 1955, 13. Hush-a-bye Baby 1953 illustration by Eulalie{Click on a link to see a larger version of a particular image and/or for photographer information}

To every mom, grandmother and woman who tackles the role, may this day be as truly special as you are!

Happiest Mother’s Day wishes, ladies of the world!