As the sweet old song goes …… Summertime and the living is easy rings true this time of year. Spring showers and smells of fresh flowering blooms start to fade into the smell of suntan lotion and fresh watermelon. The faint background noise of splashing, fireworks, laughter, and red, white, and blue serve as a backdrop for the next couple of months. This is the time when kids are playing, we are traveling, seeing new things, and entertaining with friends and family over the grill or poolside.
Summer is also a great time to use any extra time to start again and reset per say. Start focusing on you and your health. It may be warm outside but there are so many activities available to keep your body active that you might be enjoying it anyway in this season. In the Miss Lou area, we have so many beautiful areas to enjoy like the trails and bluffs on the riverfront, the many parks, swimming, kayaking, canoeing and sports like golf and tennis that there is no lack of things to do to keep you physically active and having fun at the same time.
We tend to entertain a bit more as well in the summer as well. I believe you can pin it down to the more laid-back vibe, itineraries are less jam packed with school and sporting activities, or just the general condition of these few months but whatever the cause, it tends to make us want to entertain a little more. The grill covers start coming off and getting fired up, and we are ready to have friends and family over the enjoy the outdoors and each other. The level of casualness is also a big reason that people feel more compelled to entertain this time of year. Perhaps the bar is lowered a bit on formality and grand expectations of dinner party perfection and cooked down per say to the basics and just focuses on having a good time. The basics of hamburgers, steaks, and brats are the natural go-to but if we choose to indeed use this time to focus on ourselves and health, we can also incorporate that into what we prepare. Consider grilling chicken breasts or turkey, flank steaks marinated to perfection, fresh fruit salads paired with a bounty of farmers market produce grilled with delicious herbs and extra virgin olive oil.
The laid-back breezy attitude of the season also lends itself to a low maintenance spread. Simple crisp pastel-colored linens with centerpieces of citrus and floral components make the perfect understated focal pieces. This is the time to use your china, using mix or match floral or bright patterns. Take out your depression stemware and glasses which can also be used to create a fun nostalgic atmosphere that brightens up the palette. Use fun whimsical paper napkins if you want to or think about bright colored linen napkins or starched crisp white ones. Consider using pieces of vibrant fresh flowers in shades of fuchsia pinks, purples, yellows, and chartreuse to liven up your tablescape. uncut fresh fruit such as pineapples, lemons, limes, cherries, and various others can fill up blank space down the center of your main table and help create a fun tropical atmosphere. Think about incorporating different themes for your summer parties like a luah, beach bash, sun and surfing, island getaway or a fun fiesta. Sometime choosing a theme lets the décor and menu items come more naturally to the host making it easier to execute. Offer some signature drinks as well that compliment your theme of choice that are light and refreshing and colorful.
As Spring is known for Spring cleaning, summer and the changing of the season is also the perfect time to refresh your interior and exterior spaces. You can simply change out the pillows to something incorporating something more colorful and vibrant to substitute the more subdued colors of fall and winter. You can also bring in that summer feel with outdoor rugs in your outdoor living spaces to create a more inside comes out motif. Spruce up your planters with more climate appropriate plantings like petunias, lantanas, pentas, and zinnias. They will bring a pop of color and a punch of life to porches and pool areas.
In conclusion, summer is your time to take it easy, enjoy the warm weather, take time to care for yourself and spend time with loved ones. So, use that to your advantage, entertain more casually, grill and prepare fresh easy meals with from farm to table ingredients, from the farmers market. Change out your décor and furnishings to convey a more casual kicked back livable motif that people can lounge in and enjoy without the fear of formality getting in the way of things.
