Spring Drying In My Backyard

Backyard Clothesline in SpringWhile I was making sun tea in the front yard yesterday, I was drying in the back yard.  Drying my laundry, that is.  The days without rain are so hit and miss around here.  So when it looks like it’s going to be dry for awhile I wash up a load and get ‘er drying!  The longer spring days make for good drying, even if it’s a bit on the cool side.  A slight breeze really helps too.

What I really like about spring drying is that my lilac tree is blooming.  My double clothesline goes from a hook on the house, around a lilac branch, and back to the house.  While I am hanging the laundry, there is the added delight of the beautifully pungent lilac blooms filling the air around the clothesline.  My rhododendrons are blooming too, all reds and purples.  The floral aromas mixed together are so intoxicating and poignant.  I wish I could bottle it!  At least I wish that my laundry would pick up the scent but, alas, doesn’t seem to.

I shall have to be content with enjoying the lovely scents while I am hanging the laundry.  It does make a satisfying task even more enjoyable.  🙂

 

“Long live your laundry!” Billy Mays

~Marilyn

Making Sun Tea

I am taking advantage of this relatively sunny Seattle day by not only drying my laundry in the backyard, but making sun tea in the front yard.  I have never made it before, but it is out there merrily brewing away in the sun.  I’ve had the gallon glass container for years, but I’ve always brewed my tea the old fashioned way, a la teapot.  Sun tea seems kind of hippie-ish, but I am somewhat of a hippie of sorts I guess.  Anyway, it’s easy and you can put Mother Nature to work by soaking up those solar rays.  When we get sun here in the Pacific Northwest, that is!

All you need is:  6 tea bags of your choice, water, and a one gallon glass container.

Sun Tea Recipe1.)  Place teabags in the one gallon glass container.  2.)  Fill container with water, and cover.  3.)  Place the container in the direct sun, and let steep for 4 to 8 hours.  4.) Remove tea bags, and store unused portion in the refrigerator.

If you want some light sweetening, you can dissolve 1/3rd cup honey in it while it is still warm.

I was lugging these huge containers of iced tea home from the grocery store, and it was getting rather ridiculous!  This way I can brew it easily at home at very little cost.  I am using Trader Joe’s Specialty Lemon Iced Tea Blend, because I like a touch of lemon to my tea.  It’s going to be a deliciously refreshing summer around here!

 

~Marilyn

Those Cute Fluffy Angora 60s Mini Dresses!

Fluffy Angora Sweater Dress 1969There was a period in the late 60s/early 70s when fluffy angora mini dresses were all the rage.  Pretty in pastel colors, they are just so adorable with their soft fuzziness and mod mini styling.  Pearls, long necklaces and earrings were the perfect accessories.  This trio of pink and blue angora dresses is from the September 1969 issue of Seventeen magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fluffy Angora Sweater Dress 1970

 

Here is another trio of fluffy beauties from the August 1970 issue.  These pretty angora dresses are ribbed and have a mock turtleneck.  I love their fuzzy cloche-type hats with added flower.  A white angora shoulder bag and a cute white kitten make for great accessories!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angora Sweater Dress 1970The same trio is now in furry ribbed dresses with brimmed hats.  A black kitten is now in the mix, along with a fluffy black angora shoulder bag.  Cute kittens and fluffy angora – can’t go wrong with that!

~Marilyn

 

Pretty in Pink Angora Cover Girl – Seventeen 1968

Pink Angora Sweater-Seventeen 1968I love angora sweaters!  Fluffy angora sweater popularity in fashion seems to come and go (Ed Wood-types nonwithstanding).  But there are certain eras where it seems like everyone is wearing it.  The ’80s were really into angora, with those bold, bright outrageously furry 80% angora sweaters from Korea.  The ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s were also good decades for wearing angora.  There seems to be a resurgence of the fluffy furries in fashion currently.

This cover from the November 1968 issue of Seventeen magazine features a really pretty model (Tina Shartz) wearing a really pretty pink angora sweater.  It has the most amazing hooded cowl neckline!  The cover description says that boys (especially the boy next door) will melt in a moment when you wear one of winter’s great irresistibles — a pink-cloud pullover that’s angelically hooded and devilishly pretty!  It’s long, supple and soft as a sigh in angora and lambswool.

The boy next door is on the cover too!

~Marilyn

Jean Shrimpton 60s Hairdos and Yardley Slicker Dolly Bus

Jean Shrimpton-Yardley Lip Slickers 1968From the November 1968 Seventeen magazine issue, here is the mod Jean Shrimpton advertising the Yardley Slicker Dolly Bus – eight dreamy Slicker Lip Polishes in a really cute double-decker London bus.  This is awesome!  In frosted, shimmery shades that were so cool, the lip polishes were meant to be worn over your lipstick, or alone for a little wet lick.

Jean Shrimpton 60s Hairdos-Yardley Londonderry“The Shrimp” continues with Yardley’s Make Me a Model lessons.  Here she shows you one Super Set Trick for 3 model hairdos with Londonderry Hair Setting Foam.  The Basic Set is to wash with Londonderry Shampoo, and condition with Londonderry Hair Conditioner.  Then Comb Londonderry Hair Setting Foam through hair and wind downward on big rollers from center down both sides and back.

Does anyone set their hair on rollers anymore?  But, I digress…

For style 1 – Fluff up crown hair and secure.  Cascade side hair behind ears.  For style 2 – Section hair.  Tease, wind around finger, secure with flower or ribbon pins.   Hold tightly and shine with Londonderry Shiner.  For style 3 – For loose pigtails: Part hair down the middle of entire head, and tie two bunches with daisies or roses.

I think these styles are pretty cool for a romantic 60s hippie boho vibe.  Again, I think these hairstyles are a bit more complicated than they depict, but in the 60s most everyone actually did structured hairdos so it seemed plausible.

~Marilyn

Twiggy Eyes 1968

Twiggy - Yardley of London 1968Twiggy Eye Makeup-Yardley 1968Yardley of London had most of us American girls in thrall in the late ’60s.  Of course we all wanted to look like Twiggy or Jean Shrimpton, you know, mod British models who just happened to be impossibly gorgeous.  Not the reality of pimples and gawkiness that most of us faced (OK, maybe it was just me -HA).

Yardley of London tried to be cheerfully helpful in offering “Make Me a Model” lessons in Seventeen magazine.  This ad from the October, 1968 issue shows how Twiggy does her groovy eye makeup, “in three easy steps“.  Simply 1) Apply Twiggy Lashes – false eyelashes made of human hair.  2)  Apply Twiggy Stix – draw smudgy rainbow lines in the crease of your eye.  3)  Apply Twiggy Eye Paint – alternate painting dark and white lines above upper lashes, then painting on little Twiggies between your lower lashes.

That’s actually a ton of makeup, and probably not the easiest to do.  I’m sure the only one who actually looked good in Twiggy Eyes was Twiggy herself!  We could all dream though…

~Marilyn