Flickr Favourites: June 27, 2013

{Rowntree's Fruit Gums advertisement ~ totallymystified}

{Bliss ~ riekhavoc}

{Cadillac 1953 Vintage Automobile Car Advertisement ~ Christian Montone}

{Chivers Jellies advertisement ~ totallymystified}

{Yellow ribbon ~ Katarina 2353}

{Florida Bathing Beauties Postcard ~ StevenM_61}

{Yellow Balloons ~ frank3.0}

{1950s riot of flowers print dress ~ Small Earth Vintage}

{Yellow Rose ~ spr0cket}

{French's Canary & Parakeet Food Ad, 1954 ~ alsis35}

{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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Late June, ahhh, how I absolutely adore this time of the year. In my mind, I'm whipped back to the atmosphere that permeated this part of the month as a youngster, when school was just on the cusp of wrapping up, the local lakes were starting to become warm enough to swim in again, and "birthday season" (a sixteen day stretch between June 24th and July 10th when both mine and my little brother's birthday's fall) was in high gear.

These days are bathed in sunshine so gorgeous it deserves to be called opulent, the start of sauna warm nights full of diamond laced skies, lemonade by the gallon full, Motown music (my parents always played it during the summer when I was child and I've carried on the tradition ever since), gauzy sundresses, and the kind of languid early summer afternoons you wish with all your might could last until the very last moment of time.

More often than not, it is the tail end of June and the start of July that stand as my favourite days of summer, and I suspect this year will be just the same. Each moment of this season has its own special brand of sizzling magic, but there's just something about the brand new days of summer that make me love it with an unending passion.

I'm eager for summer - the start, middle and end one and all - and the sun drenched memories that I know lay ahead. Picnics aplenty, fantastically juicy peaches, golden sands so warm they rival burning coals, Canada Day fireworks, and as many yard sales as I can possibly get to.

This is a season of abundance and pleasure, which holds timeless favourites and oodles of new discoveries in its folds, and that promises to delight, entertain and instill joy in one's soul from the very first to the very last moment.

Stay in shape vintage style with the Jell-O Girl

✯ Day 101 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Long before Jane Fonda, Suzanne Somers or Chuck Norris had workout videos on the market (or long before, for that matter, video tapes even existed!), Jell-O brand gelatine's utterly adorable little bobbed haired, rosy checked girl was telling the viewing public how to stay in shape.

First introduced in 1902, the real life Jell-O lass was called Elizabeth King, and she appeared in numerous ads for the company during the early days of the 20th century. As time went on and Elizabeth grew up, she was more often portrayed as an illustrated character who very much resembled many children of the day, and instantly won a place in the hearts of dessert loving folks everywhere.

 

Of all the ads I've seen featuring the Jell-O Girl, I think that this delightful guide to doing simple, healthful stretches is perhaps my favourite. I love the juxtaposition of pairing a sugary dessert with working out and trying to stay fit.

The two make for unlikely bedfellows, yet somehow they jive here - setting as well as a properly prepared mould full of quivering, sweet gelatine. It's as though the Jell-O Girl is saying that if you follow her advise and do these 12 easy stretching exercises, you'll be able to keep from putting on any extra jiggle care of the very product she's representing.

In this timelessly lovely vintage Jell-O ad from the 1920s (which comes via Edible Creations on Flickr), the focus in in fact in no way on gelatine itself, but instead on Jell-O Girl and her apparent desire to help eaters of her brand's scrumptious treats stay fit and trim.

It's charming ad that can't help but make you smile, and perhaps rather effectively, still manages to put the word "Jell-O" in your mind and, as I no doubt imagine the company's execs intended all along, on your shopping list - after all, you've got these wonderful Jell-O Girl exercises to help counterbalance those pesky dessert calories.