Vanilla and Thyme: Simplicity

“Life is not complex. We are complex.
Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.”
~ Oscar Wilde

July 31, 2011

I like to use french roast if I'm making this for a special occasion, you'll want a blend that's a bit on the strong side. (If you have leftover morning coffee, pour it into a glass container for yourself and put it in the fridge for the afternoon.) Pour cold coffee over ice, add cream, a pinch of sugar if you must, and a little squeeze of chocolate syrup. Give it a stir, find a favorite lawn chair, and put your feet up!

April 24, 2011

Top of my high priority "to-do" list this year, is organize a huge, plastic tub of pictures that have been sitting in my closet for literally years. These prints are so treasured and important to me, it's disappointing that I haven't put them in albums sooner.

When I take the time to sit down and really pour through them, I find myself a bit teary-eyed, but mostly smiling and laughing. While for some this experience may be therapeutic, many of us may recall trying times and hardships. But even through life's difficulties, there were moments when time stood still and everyone linked arms, smiling for the camera. A flash of time that would be printed, black and white, on 3x3 paper with scalloped edges. Moments of how we genuinely felt towards one another, with love and affection.

It's funny how just looking at the background of these photographs can bring back so many memories. Like it was yesterday, I recall my grandmother's rose garden by the fence, the moss covered rock under the willow tree, having a peek through the boxwood into the neighbor's yard, and the old metal lawn chairs we sat in enjoying many a Sunday barbeque.

Pull out your boxes of treasures on a rainy Saturday, and travel back to a simpler time....

I love the look of old photos, and each one is developed differently...

My grandmother (Marion) and me, Summer 1960
(No Pampers in this house, note the
diapers and rubber pants hanging
on the clothesline)

Four Generations: Grandmother (Marion),

Mother (Diane), me, Great Grandmother (Mabel)

Summer 1962

My Mother (Diane), Grandfather (Doug),

Uncles ~ Danny, Dallas

(not sure of year)

"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose."

~From the television show The Wonder Years

April 7, 2011

In each of our tattered family albums, there are always a few worn-out brown and white photos of kids sitting on ponies. My mother explained to me that "back in the day" a photographer would walk down the street with his camera and prop, and people would have their children photographed in the front yard.

This is a picture of my mom planted upon one infamous pony, most likely the summer of 1939.