Before and After: Decisions, Decisions...

Earlier today, Mr. Magpie left for a business meeting out of town, and I didn't think I had anything to share with you since I have to load photos from his computer.

Bummer.

Or so I thought at first...



Much to my delight, I found an old post that I had written and failed to launch. The content might seem a wee bit unseasonal, but I like to march to the tune of my own drummer. Besides that, I'm desperate. Really, REALLY desperate.

You don't mind, do you?

I didn't think so. ;-)




To that end, we have a guest room in our Victorian cottage that has blue and white check pillows on the beds, a color combo I particularly love...



With touches of pink and green found in the Martha Stewart quilts at the foot of a pair of antique English pine twin beds purchased at Eight Flags Antique Market in Fernandina Beach years ago...



Blue and green are also found on some bird houses and tartan prints in the spool shelves that hang on one wall, but the predominant accent color in this white bedroom is blue which, I feel, is as it should be in a retreat near the water...



While I am happy with the colors in here, I became convinced that I wanted to do something different both for the Fourth of July and for Christmas, but the pink was limiting me, at least for the Fourth (please excuse the bed's squishy pillows as some visting wiggle worms were having fun in here)...



As I looked at the beds, I realized that the pillows would work with holiday red as would the white spreads...



But it was a different story at the foot of the beds...



I hated to do anything so permanent as removing the pink altogether because the adjoining bedroom also has pink in its palette...



As does the nearby sitting room which is liberal with its pops of pink...



On the sofa...



In the art...



On the coffee table/ottomon...



And on the chair seats...



Add to those facts the notion that two special young ladies LOVE pink and would be most upset if these pink quilts went the way of the dinosaur, and you get the picture...



So the solution had to be temporary, and the first thing I did was remove the quilts...



I then turned them inside out so that the white side was facing up and put them back on the beds...



Then I added a white porcelain basket of flags to the center of the shabby table bewteen the beds...



And moved two blue and white check lamps from the other bedroom, lamps I purchased twenty years ago (yes, before some of you were even BORN!) from the once-upon-a-time Laura Ashely shop in NE Florida. They afford more punch than our standard white lamps do in here...



Next, I removed two American flags from their poles and gently pressed them onto the pillows.

I would have stitched them on were we expecting company to stay overnight, or in my craftiest dreams, I might have even made two flag pillows to celebrate the holiday.

The key phrase being "in my craftiest dreams". Ahem...



Then, I placed a red and white polka dot tray on each bed, trays I found on clearance. To this tray I added a lobster plate, a glass in a woven sleeve, a napkin with a blue check napkin ring, a woven sea grass placemat with a blue stripe or two, and a white pitcher filled with a flag bouquet...



Please ignore the fact that the fork is in the wrong place in this next shot. It was the only spot available unless I put it on the plate itself where I actually should have placed it. While you're at it, please ignore my staging/etiquette OCD. ;-)



The trays actually come on stands that make it nice if you want to use them to serve your guests breakfast in bed or a midnight snack in their room.

Yes, I know, I know. It is absolutely true there are white spreads in here, and that is exactly why God invented bleach! ;-)



Another thing I played with was this red lantern. I like to keep lanterns in the house (both oil lanterns and candle lanterns) in case of inclement weather and because I enjoy using them. After all, they do kind of fit since this cottage retreat was built circa 1894. Does that mean I should also use flags with less stars??? Say it ain't so!



So there you have it, an easy-peasy presto-change-o with things I had on hand.

I shopped the house and came up with a different decorating scheme for holiday entertaining that can easily go back to the way it was in five minutes. To me, who still has her junior high letter sweater, that's the best kind of change!



I think for Christmas, I might just decorate with cute pillows in Christmas colors and snowmen. Yes, snowmen CAN live happily in Florida. These do, and never once have they given me the slightest indication that they might melt! Stay tuned. I might post Christmas in July. ;-)



Now, I'd like to thank you for visiting me here today, and I look forward to visiting you in return. I am joining my friend Sally for Blue Monday at her blog HERE. Hope you'll join us there as well! :-)



Warmly,


Mrs. Magpie :-)