Summer songs, Farewell too soon...

Summer is hot days and swimming in the creek....Summer is hot sticky plastic seats your thighs stick to..... Summer is bugs in my soda pop....Summer time will be a love in there....and Summer is fruit flies in my face !

Words to live by....
Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac Gangsta whitewalls TV antennas in the back You may not have a car at all But remember brothers and sisters You can still stand tall Just be thankful for what you've got Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac Diamond in the back, sunroof top Diggin' the scene With a gangsta lean Gangsta whitewalls TV antennas in the back...



  For those who come to San Francisco Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair If you come to San Francisco Summertime will be a love-in there If you come to San Francisco Summertime will be a love-in there





Summertime, And the livin' is easy Fish are jumpin' And the cotton is high Your daddy's rich And your mamma's good lookin' So hush little baby Don't you cry One of these mornings You're going to rise up singing Then you'll spread your wings And you'll take to the sky

Glass jar + Water + Teabags + Sunshine = Sun tea

Sun Tea !
Backyard bar-b-ques, running in the sprinklers, strawberry shortcake, ice cream cones, sitting around a fire at the beach or down at the lake.........cooking outside and sitting in the shade eating watermelon.....are some of the delicious delights of summer.
I don't know about you, but a lot of things like oh, strawberries, watermelons, and shorts...I save for summer. I can buy anything I want anytime at the supermarket, but I find that waiting and saving the summer tastes and seasonal foods for summer makes them even better!
If everything is special...then nothing is !
Strawberries in winter....yup, they're in the supermarket, but they don't really taste like strawberries and we know it.
I do freeze and can in the summer so I can have a tiny taste of summer when I'm going crazy! But I don't buy summer in the winter.

Sun tea is too easy.
Find a big glass jug...I love my vintage Kerr 1/2 gallon Mason jar. Fill it with crisp clean fresh water. Drop in 4 - 6 tea bags...any kind.
Then, set it in the sun for about 2 - 4 hours....and then toss the teabags and drink the tea! Add ice, a bit of sugar or honey...
Summertime baby !

If you have some herbs in your garden, toss in a few leaves of mint or basil, or a few lavender flowers, along with your teabags, for some yummy flavors....this is a time to experiment and come up with something delicious. 

Aww ! done.

All tea leaves are the green leaves of Camellia Sinensis. Green tea leaves are dried in ovens, and the time can vary, and create different flavors. While whole tea leaves make the most delicious tea, we might know tea from teabags!

The flakes or powdered tea is tasty and fantastic for brewing with hot water, quickly.
 White tea, oolong tea and black tea, as well as jasmine tea (which is jasmine-infused tea leaves) are just a few varieties easily available. If you want to dive into the amazing world of tea...seek out a local tea shop....they are often as abundant as the ubiquitous coffee shops. Lots of tea information is out there ! you can learn so much ...and buy tea by mail if your town doesn't have a tea shop...with more than tea bags, that is.

Sunny Day with Corn and Stripe Tshirts

when it's bitterly cold and drowningly wet...I honestly find it near impossible to remember what a sunny day feels like.....I hardly remember what a fecund garden smells like....and I can't believe I can walk outside in a Tshirt and a pair of cut-off Levis and nothing else and be so fucking happy my head explodes.....to be sure I haven't gone crazy (completely) I offer proof from the summer of 2011. I swear it was not just a dream....

ok....and with a fresh martini with a garden-grown nasturtium, in a stripe Tshirt and cut-off Levis...

Summertime and the Living is Lazy....

Knee high by the 4th of July....I planted corn, gourds, sunflowers and a few other sweet things out front because I'm a country girl....

You can stand in the yard and watch it grow! It's increased about an Inch per day !
 .....now....it's shoulder high....the sunflowers are about ready to bloom....& I have a few tiny little gourds....and the corn is growing fast !

above, that picture is from 4th of July........below....it's the end of July.....

Gordon the gourd......

I planted these things along the front fence for cuteness....and I wanted to give the passers-by something interesting to look at....and I do see folks turning their heads and doing a double-take....Yes, that's corn...and sunflowers....

and I just can't wait for the gourds and the baby pumpkins to get bigger and start coloring up in September......
I hope that will put a big smile on everyone's face !

When not watching the corn grow as high as an elephants eye.....
I've been shopping for vintage, and making handmades for the second half of 2011.

For the fall and winter, and the holidays I'll have lots of new kinds of jewelry, note cards, post cards and a calender, all made from my photos.......& when I'm not at the beach......
.....I'm spending the next few days making a new workspace in the garage for picture-taking & painting, and a little seat room for relaxin' and chillin' in the dreary winter months....


Just outside the kitchen door are pretty flowers, basils, mints, lemon verbena, lavender and thyme,  and nasturtium leaves and flowers to eat....

Fuschias, dusty miller, Alaska nasturtiums, lobelia, alyssum, pansies, lilies, geraniums, calendula, Shasta daisies, cornflowers, salvia, weedy dock, basil, heliotrope, lavender, mint, thyme, a sedum Autumn Joy I've had for 9 years in this same pot, and a rosemary in a vintage coffee can are all planted in pots and in small flower beds.

I love how the creeping charlie cascades down and around the simple single fuschcia....

a view from the front to the back on the south side......

Because I'm a renter, and can't do anything real permanent........I did 99% of this years garden with annuals from seed, and a few vegetables from the farmer's market, good ol' Fred Meyer, and Ace Hardware....
Let's compare ! here's the same view last October....

Gingham + picnic + summer day = The Good Life

When it's Summer it's time for picnics....

summer fruit is at its sweetest and juiciest...

Pack up some sandwiches and watermelon...

Some fruit salad and cold ice tea...

Grab granny's old quilt and pick a spot in the park!

First... a basket to pack up...from yellowdogvintage on etsy..

then a cute picnic dress...in sunny yellow gingham...on etsy...

Take along the essentials in a 70s bright red vinyl clutch with straw flower appliques...on etsy.

 Need some ideas? check out this 1969  vintage picnic recipe book...Looks like there's some vegetarian fare...from REdesignkc on etsy...

Don't forget to pack a pitcher of ice tea or lemonade...from rainydaystoryvintage on etsy

Oooh! a comfy vintage chair...e-z lightweight aluminum fold-up model  with a gingham check pattern..from funretro on etsy...

 Take something fun to read! How about a set of summer classics..;-) on etsy...

Summer feet need cute and cool sandals...hey look ! more color-riffic gingham checks! on etsy.

You're gonna have tons of fun! Don't forget the sunscreen or sit in the cool shade....

Summer in the Library...

books in the library baby!

it was hot in the summer in Yountville...it rose to 90 early in the summer morning and if I didn't go swimming at the Veterans Home pool, I'd likely head down the street to the dark cool library at the Post Office building.

It was a cold shock to open the heavy door and walk in. Dark stacks of books, flat carpet and a small window......and all those words on paper.

This is where I discovered Robert Louis Stevenson, Jessamyn West and books about death. All of us kids read RLS and Miss West since they lived in the Napa Valley and were therefore, "our own". Whatever was on the "grown-ups" recommended shelf, was what I wanted to read.

I'd lay on the floor on my back, roll over on my tummy, or lean against a corner out of the way. Hours would pass. I traveled to worlds far away from my tiny farm town.

When I tired of that, or bored, or ready to check out and take a book to read,  it actually hurt a bit to step into the hot bright California sunshine after being entombed in the cave of the library. Then I'd find a shady oak to climb up and sit with the birds and bugs.

I just listed collections of trashy fun reads....these books were never in the library...these were the kind of books I found in my parents bedroom, though.

Classic trash like Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road, Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl....lots of sex! A bit of murder, some double crossing...perfect for reading in a hammock or late at night when it cools.....

Best movie with a Library theme.....

It's Party Girl of course! 

Books, food carts, love, parties, great clothes, vintage clothes, hard-hearted vintage clothes dealers, the Gays, and safe sex and sweet love!

The first sunny day in 40 days...

is baaaack...
Yes, the weatherman/woman has said that Saturday June 12 will be Suunnnnny!! and in the mid 70s !

After mowing the lawn..I'm gonna wear a sundress...or white leggings...with leather sandals...and paint my toenails lime green...or maybe a twirly black gauze sundress and wear silver sandals...and wear a straw hat....

Ok, here's essie nail polish (you Know I have this!)
but where is the lime green?



I made my own gray polish last winter...I could not find it anywhere, and gray now being one of my favorite colors....I thought I'd liven up the black/white...with dusky jewels I'm always found in
(besides the ubiquitous wasted denim)
Whether you call them Onesies...
Jumpsuits...
Rompers...
Sunsuits...
or All - In - Ones...
the top+shorts thing....is so cute and convenient .....for summer dressing...
just....pace yourself on the drinking ice tea thing...
Long Island or otherwise ;-)

listed on etsy right now!

floral...with a built in bra and stretchy elastic puckers on the back...

very 40s looking sandals...in cream leather..... with a worn and faded vintage denim jacket....the essence of summer....

Black mini jumpsuit has a faux sarong skirt on the front, an cute criss-cross back...very sharp....

Cute calico in fresh blue and white...a vintage 80s onesie with a flippy skort....

80s fave label...esprit.....in a linen cotton blend with pockets for collecting sand and seashells at the shore.....

As I Was Packing and Perusing...

I came across a jacket and dress set I made to wear to go see Nanci Griffith in the mid 80s.
yikes.
My kids, I am quite sure, can sing you, from memory, the lyrics to "Ford Econoline".

"She drove west from Salt Lake City, to the California coastline...
She hit the San Diego Freeway doing 60 miles an hour..
She had a husband on her bumper, she had 5 restless children,
She was singing sweet as a mocking bird in the Ford Econoline......"

I don't have the set here at the new house yet...but I will add a picture to this post in the next few days.......
Picture a simple sleeveless jumper dress with an empire waist, a gathered skirt just about calf length.....made of a lightweight cotton, with full blown pale pink roses and pastel old-fashioned flowers of blue and yellow and green leaves, in a summer garden floral print....(I know you remember the big flowers of the 80s!)

Then the jacket I made to match.....I was heavily into fringe (still am...). I used a lovely periwinkle blue lightweight denim for the jacket, a simple style, with a deep V western-style yoke edged in white rayon silky fringe...and I lined the jacket in the same pretty floral print.
It was so....angelic and yes, pretty. Back then I was flipping back and forth from a Laura Ashley romantic look to Cowgirl, to Morticia Addams...
Sometimes, I mixed them all together...





the reason I am listening again to Nanci Griffith, is ......she was a Fashion Sistah then, an inspiration.....and again, I feel like ...socks. all. the. time.
I wear socks a lot. I love socks. I have many many more socks than shoes, and I have a lot of shoes, and boots.....
I didn't listen to any Nanci for a while but after a 2 year hiatus, well, I kinda wore it out. I played her music so much that I felt I was in a rut. Well, Nanci is back in the rotation......and not just her music...

In the early 80s I first spotted her cassette (!) in a music store in the Country section (!) and this was the cover....

See the little socks? I wore little socks all the time with skirts and tennis shoes, and flats and sandals....With dresses!
I wore cowboy boots all the time with dresses too, having been influenced by Patsy Cline from my childhood.
I had to have this! I didn't know any other grown women outside of Utah cults, that dressed like that....(it was actually a Southern thing, and a European thing...)


So, I bought the cassette and it became one of my lifelong faves. So much so, that I hog-tied my ex-husband into spending real $$ on me and going to Seattle to see Nanci Griffith perform. I can't remember where now, but you had a choice of dinner first with the show, or just the show. I chose dinner and a show!
It was an amazing feat...my ex hated anything that didn't involve guns and John Wayne for entertainment.




All Nanci Griffith is wonderful!
And I'll be back to wearing socks with sandals all summer long...if the day isn't too hot...and I'll be...." singing as sweet as a mockingbird in my Ford pick Up Truck"....
;-)







She's a Texan and she almost always wears her LBJ button!


Here are 2 fairly recent pics of Nanci, and below, one with Janis Ian....another lady who was very important to me (still is!), but that's another post....