new year's eve.

I spent New Year's Eve dressing up in 1920s dresses and coats and jewelry and trying to pick out what I wanted to wear, my room was a mess of silk chiffon and velvet and beads, which is obviously the best kind of mess to have. I decided early in the day that I would spend the evening drinking out of fancy striped paper straws and lighting sparklers, listening to records and having a Buster Keaton marathon, so I wanted to sort of channel one of my favorites, Sybil Seely, but instead I ended up wearing something more Anita Page/Broadway Melody which was perfect because what better time to wear sequins and tap shoes than New Year's Eve? At midnight we lit sparklers and fireworks, but just the small kind that sort of make a fountain and crackle and then die out, which was lovely. 

This week will be frigid, so naturally I'm excited and trying to think of fun cold weather activities to do since this will probably be short lived. Maybe I'll take myself ice skating.

memorial day.

Memorial day this year consisted of cookouts and sparklers and cream soda and patchwork quilts and everything else good Summer holidays are supposed to include. 'Patriotic' holidays always make me really nostalgic, every fourth of july week of my childhood was spent in Ocean City, Md, a beach town made up of amusement parks, rows of hotels, a striped umbrella-covered beach, and a boardwalk filled with taffy shoppes, ferris wheels and carousels. Think of Atlantic city circa 1920s or the fictional town of Amity and that's Ocean City.

My entire family- aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents- would pack up their cars and make the three hour drive, where we all rented our own beach houses in the same little neighborhood. The week was spent riding carnival rides and playing arcade games on the boardwalk, eating cotton candy, watching fireworks over the bay, laying on blankets in the grass, swimming in the ocean, and eating strawberries until our little fingers were stained red. All the perfect things that make up childhood Summers.  I'll have to dig up some photos of those Summers, because that place really was magical! I heard it's kind of taken a bad turn over recent years, which makes me sad because I want that place to always be how I remember it. (or like this:)