Life is just a bowl of cherries

life is (just) a bowl of cherries

proverb Life is wonderful or very pleasant. I got a promotion and got engaged in the span of a week! Life is just a bowl of cherries these days!
See also: bowl, cherry, life, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Life is just a bowl of cherries.

Prov. Everything is going well.; Life is carefree. (Often used ironically, as in the second example.) The real estate salesman tried to convince us that life in the suburbs is just a bowl of cherries. Jill: Hi, Jane. How are you? Jane: Oh, my alarm clock didn't go off this morning, and then my car wouldn't start, and I missed the bus and got to work late, and I just found out my rent's going up fifty dollars a month. Life is just a bowl of cherries.
See also: bowl, cherry, just, life, of
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

life is just a bowl of cherries

Everything is just great. This slangy phrase, often used ironically, gained currency as the title of a song by Ray Henderson (lyrics by Lew Brown) performed by Ethel Merman in the Scandals of 1931. Today it is nearly always used ironically, as in the title of humorist Erma Bombeck’s book: If Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1978). See also the pits. “Since life is short, we need to make it broad; Since life is brief, we need to make it bright . . .” —Ella Wheeler Wilcox
See also: bowl, cherry, just, life, of
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • bowl of cherries, life is just a
  • life is (just) a bowl of cherries
  • life is a bowl of cherries
  • Life is short and time is swift
  • life is short(, and time is swift)
  • such is life
  • Such is life!
  • cannot for the life of me/him/her/us/them
  • can't for the life of me
  • life
References in periodicals archive
LIFE is just a bowl of cherries for MasterChef winner Natalie Coleman.
Urbania keeps us on our toes with prismatic photography to match its elliptical narrative as well as casting choices that are intentionally disorienting (all of the actors playing Charlie's objects of desire are cut from the same male-model cloth), It's a depressing ride, When it's over you should feel as if your own life is just a bowl of cherries.