Coastal Designs for the Pensacola House!

Pensacola will be playing host to a beautiful wedding next year. Miss Judy has graciously offered to have wedding guests stay at her 1950's cape style home across from the bayou. However, she must have been giving this some thought and decided that now would be the perfect time to update and redesign some areas of her lovely home in order to get it "wedding guest ready!" As we were talking about this idea the other day, she asked if I had any words of wisdom since she needed some style secrets of being budget-friendly, yet creative. "Well, we know that your favorite color is yellow, so let's use some inspiration pieces, such as pineapples, lemons and spring flowers of daffodils and tulips!"

A Maine House Mosaic

And so the ideas began to flow....from the living room, to the small guest bath, the open kitchen pantry and her front entry way. We are going to choose Mother's favorite color of blue as her accent color which will be the painted backs of her bookshelves and should make this contrasting color really pop! A coat of fresh paint can be instant gratification when decorating. While we are at it, we are including her master bedroom in our redesign and shopping for new soft yellow bed linens and blue toile pillows. "Don't you think this will look smashing with Grandmother's 1920's style dressing table?"  We can simply purchase some blue toile material and recover her sitting bench and voila....the Pensacola house is going to be our bargain beauty!  Miss Judy has a New Orleans style courtyard patio which is going to be the staged for our afternoon welcoming reception. We are serving Grandmother's famous Heavenly Hash along with her Pineapple Bavarian Cream! I would say Miss Judy will be quite thrilled with the happy colors makeover and it all should reflect her quirky, but cheerful, "traditional-meets-coastal cottage designs!"

Grandmother's Heavenly Hash

1 large can pineapple tidbits

16 marshmallows, cut into eighths

1/4 cup maraschino cherries

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

12 cup slivered, toasted almonds

Drain pineapple, reserving syrup. Combine pineapple, marshmallows, cherries and 1/4 cup pineapple syrup. Let stand for one hour. Fold in whipped cream and spoon into glass dessert dishes. Sprinkle with nuts and chill!

Pineapple Bavarian Cream

1 T. gelatin

1/4 cup cold water

1 small can chunk pineapple

Boiling Water

1/2 cup sugar

Dash Salt

2 T. Lemon Juice

1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped

Soak gelatin in cold water. Drain syrup from pineapple. Measure and add enough boiling water to make 1 1/2 cups. Heat this to boiling point and pour over gelatin. Add sugar, salt and lemon juice and stir until dissolved. Cool until mixture begins to stiffen. Then add whipped cream and pineapple chunks and mix thoroughly. Pour into molds and allow to congeal! Light, creamy and decadant!