Vintage Bathing Beauties Beach Tray

Summertime… and the livin’ is eeeeaaasssyyyahhh!! I remember my mother singing that song when I was a kid and rolling my eyes. One, because she was an adult letting loose (not permitted)  and two, because she was my mother. Both good reasons for a teenage girl to want to run and hide because she was embarrassing me…not that anyone else was watching, I mean I think she used to do her singing while she was cleaning the house, but that wasn’t the point!

Those lyrics are ringing true for me these days, as I’m trying to keep things light and easy, so’s I can enjoy the summer!

I mentioned that we had our annual dunes trip last week, which was fun as always, but I haven’t told you about one of the little traditions we try to pull off each year, which started way back in the 1960s.

 

We call it the “bathing beauties beach pose.”

I can’t say for sure how it started, but I’m guessing that my Uncle Ron (the photographer) had something to do with it, as he was always taking creatively posed photos.

Shown is this picture in my mom, my aunt, my oldest sister, and several of my cousins.

Here we are last year striking the post at the restaurant we always go to afterward we leave the dunes.

(To protect the innocent, I’ll spare the current-day beach photos.)

We were all dressed a bit warmer than usual because we had riptide weather that day (if you’ve never seen the dunes, you can read about our dunes trip, here).

 

So I had rather grungy tray. It’s the type that you can undo on the back and insert your own decoration.

 

I took it apart.

Gave it a good cleaning.

I gave the wooden part a few coats of chalk paint and then sanded it down to give it some age.

 

I chose some beachy / vintage looking scrapbook paper from my stash.

Decoupaged the paper onto the tray liner.

Added the vintage photo, some spongy letters with my ode to the photo.

And then put it all back together again!

 

Now, I’m calling it the: vintage bathing beauties beach tray.

 

I think what I love about this photo is the fact that even though all the ladies are posing, the photo itself is an un-posed shot.

Don’t you think that some of the best photos of people are the un-posed kind?

Hope your livin’ is easy today ~ Amy

 

Linking up at:

Funky Junk Interiors / Upcycled Trays