Wednesday, August 26, 2009

What A Sham!

In the next week, many of us will be guests or hosts. Here's a subject from our archives you may want to sleep on, or maybe not.

We love beautiful linens. We like lots of fluffy pillows and and pretty duvet covers. Many posts ago, Yvonne wrote about weekend guests and their bed stripping habits. Some have them, some don't (ask your hosts if they want you to strip the bed). It seems like there's another issue - guests sleeping on the shams.

A couple of months ago, a guest who was over-served at dinner went straight to bed without taking off her makeup. When Yvonne went to check on her the next morning, the woman was sound asleep with her head resting on the white sham. It used to be white. Apparently she had tossed and turned and the sham was now wearing her makeup. Some of the duvet cover was also smudged. None of this was pretty.

But all is not lost. There are people who know better when it comes to shams. This past weekend, Yvonne had the guests from heaven. A couple visited her home. The woman came downstairs the next morning to prepare chicken and waffles for breakfast. She apologized to Yvonne for sleeping on the sham. "We were so tired, we fell asleep immediately and didn't remove the shams. I'm so sorry." Turns out the shams were fine, she'd taken off her makeup. "My grandmother taught me better," she explained.

Her husband pointed out that sometimes they'll turn down the beds for their guests and set the shams aside. Yvonne and I think that's a good idea because not everyone knows the difference between a pillow sham and a pillow case. But we don't think it's right to say, "By the way, when you go to bed, please don't sleep on the shams, you know the ones with the ruffle trim." Nothing bad is going to happen in the world if a sham gets soiled. It's just one of those mildly annoying things.

What Yvonne's guest did was very nice, she was truthful. She 'fessed up. And on top of that she made a great breakfast. No sham there.




2 comments:

tintin said...

Being illiterate when it comes to ticking and bed linen, I am grateful for this post. But chicken and waffles for breakfast? I need an explanation.

Fiona said...

Being even ignorant about shams, I was was grateful for the link you provided. If you one "http//" it will even work.