Yellow

Steve said he was tired of the blue and white display on the kitchen shelves and believe me I try to keep the head chef happy.

I love yellow 

and thought it would be a nice accent color in the kitchen.

 3 vintage English plates with a sweet floral pattern took center stage on the shelves.

With the plates stacked on top of each other, the pattern didn't show at all so I used a letter holder to balance the plates.

 Yellow trimmed cups hanging from the letter holder add a touch of whimsy. 

I raided the cupboards for any more yellow pieces,

kept a little bit of blue and white on the shelves

I love the cheerfulness of yellow

so I perked up the dining room

 with yellow flatware and roses.

And now, I'm off to the garden to find some yellow flowers for the living room.

Easy Changes

I am trying to avoid crafts that involve heavy use of my hands so this week's projects were just easy changes around the house.

The red cart in the entry got a new look in blues and yellows

to match the dishes in the cabinet.

The cabinet doors have been closed since November when I put the cabinet in the entry, but I wanted to see a little more color in the entry.

I posted the pic above on Instagram and had more than 50 comments suggesting that I keep the cabinet doors open,

But, this is what the cabinet looks like today.

You might notice from Steve's comment above that he had a definite opinion.

Steve pretty much lets me do what I want when it comes to decorating

 so when my "sweet love" makes a request, the least I can do is honor it!

After removing all traces of Valentine's Day from the entry, it was time to work on the guest room.

The room is a work in progress as I figure out just what supplies I have space for in the house and what needs to stay in the garage.

As you can see, the "desk" is just a narrow table, but it can hold a lot of supplies.

I hung an old window above the desk

with lyrics from the song, What A Wonderful World.

The window was part of the decorations for my son's wedding last summer and the lyrics are from the song we danced to during the mother/son dance.

My grandmother's school slate

and an old metal heart hang on the window for now, but I imagine things will change frequently.

I'm still working on filling this little cabinet

and this box (one of my father's tool boxes) with supplies.

The dresser will hold supplies and that bare space on the dresser is where I made all my Valentine projects - before I hurt my hand.

This box (another item from my son's wedding), made by Betsy of My Salvaged Treasures, holds ribbons.

And my grandmother's sewing box holds a variety of tools.

I am slowly filling this cabinet with things I will need for crafting

By the time my hand is fully healed,

this room should be ready for me to be creative.

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More dishes ?

I found these cute anchor dishes at Tuesday Morning and debated with myself about buying them - love won out over need.

I didn't argue with myself over these little square dessert plates because I will be using them at my Mad Tea Party.

But, it is difficult to justify the purchase of more plates when our limited cupboard space is taken up with rarely used dishes.

The winning argument of "silly self" over "practical self" was that the anchor dishes are perfect for a beach house and if I passed them up, I would never find them again.

Last week, I did a simple red, white & blue table setting and used the square blue plates for our dessert.

This week I stopped in at Paper Source (never a cheap move) and spotted this anchor stamp.

My thought was, "how cute would anchor napkins be with those anchor dishes!" so I brought the stamp home, made napkins and stamped a couple little bags.

From one Friday to the next, the table setting changed considerably even though the same dishes were used.

I frequently use dish towels for place mats and like the horizontal stripes on these towels.

Of course the wine bottle doesn't exactly go with the anchor dishes so red napkins were used to hide the graphics.

I usually have flowers as the centerpiece, but yesterday I went for a sea theme.

Starfish candle sticks came out of the cupboard, bits and pieces of my shell collection filled up some fish containers I just purchased for my upcoming tea party and the base was another dish towel with horizontal stripes and no graphic.

You might be asking, what about the anchor stamp and the napkins?

Well, the ink on the napkins was the wrong color and the bags just didn't work, but

I just found these cute sailboat dishes (which I couldn't pass up)

and some new pasta bowls so I know the anchor napkins will be used soon.

 I had a lot of fun playing house yesterday.

Once the table was set, I began moving things around the house.

Pitchers from the entry way ended up on the dining room shelf and

wire baskets from the dining room ended up on the entry way cabinet.

The dining room is definitely sporting a blue and white motif and

the entire house is looking ready for summer.

Yes, this little seaside cottage is definitely ready for a Mad Tea Party on Monday.

And, as I sit at the dining room table putting the finishing touches on this blog post, I am struck by the message on the dining room table -

"if you are lucky enough to live at the beach, you're lucky enough" - and yes, I am lucky enough.

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Boogieboard Cottage - Masterpiece Monday