Summer Gingham

It's already near the end of June and we're full-on official Summer now. Which means for some of us, workloads slacken a bit - or is that they just seem too based on our growing reluctance to do work or the slowing speed at which we get projects completed nowadays?

Co-workers and neighbors disappear for days at a time into overstuffed vehicles. Ice cream consumption becomes a mandatory daily occurrence. Cheeks freckle, shoulders darken, pants become shorter and shorter. Pop music seems to be more ... pop-y.

What does summer mean to me? In the immediate sense, it means cotton - days to be spent in gingham and shorts with a fruity pedicure hue on display. Cold beers in sweating glasses, weird tan lines, finding honing in on big expanses of water. An upcoming family road trip to see my grandmother. An impending business trip to London (sooooooo excited, guys). Taking my shoes off under my desk and wiggling my toes because they long to be free.

The onset of summer also reminds me of wee Lisa when she came to the States with her family. My first years on US soil were spent on a little quiet beach town in Jersey. Waaaaaaaay before the days of Jersey Shore and way before weekend party kids overran the place.

 

We briefly lived in an apartment right across the street from the beach, over an ice cream shop. I had a front row view of boardwalk hi jinks from the living room windows and the shop owners below were so nice, I got all the ice cream I could stuff in me for free. And I got to go to the beach whenever I wanted to.

I was real little then, pre-school years I think, so it's not like my memories are that clear, but it is more of a feeling - walking hand-in-hand with my dad into town to buy the latest Smurfs figurines, going to the carnival that set up by the pond, red balloons, egg hunts, sunsets on the beach, learning to chew gum from my big sis (it was a thing for me, OK), playing translator with my then-inadequate English abilities between my mom and our neighbors, prancing around in my rainbow-hued one-piece because at four, I apparently thought I was the shizzle.

What comes across your mind when you think of "summer?" Does the idea of long, lazy, too-warm days make you wax nolstagic over certain  hot-temp memories?

Top: LEC gingham poplin (worn here - sim, sim)
Skirt: J.Crew crinkle chiffon (worn here - sim, mini, midi)
Necklace: F21 twisted rhinestone (worn here - simpler, luxe)
Bracelets: Target pearl, J.Crew (sim, sim, sim, wider)
Shoes: Vince Camuto bello (worn here - sim)
Outfit inspired by Sally.