I commented on "trash to treasure"forum. You will love these!! Once again Cherry did a great job of "saving something to reuse!! Jan

Forgive me, please. Although it's quite understandable to tell a mother with young children at home to ''leave the guilt behind'', I still believe people need to make some kind of effort, especially when they have enough energy to accept an invitation where others obviously make an effort to include them. SADLY, that's exactly the attitude that permeates our society. nancyjeanmc, obviously the time to invite people over is when you want to spend time with them...and Wanting To is much different than actually doing it. You know, I never have trouble getting people to come to my house, since I look after their needs the entire time they're here. What is evident to me is when they don't want to look after mine. Leaving their guilt behind isn't even an issue, since there's no intention to reciprocate. Ever. Making Excuses is too EASY. Instead of letting yourself completely off the hook for reciprocating an invitation, I think a better way to look at it is to dial down your expectations of what you're willing to spend effort doing. Making the ''event'' one where everyone contributes a dish, keeps the work down to cleaning your house. If you don't want to clean your house, schedule something at a local park. It's really not hard to pick up some cupcakes at the bakery, or bring a thermos of coffee to go with it. The point is, someone has to progress the idea forward, pick a date, time and act like they want to get together. The amount of effort is up to you. People will always remember any kind of energy you spend on them, as well as when you don't. INTENTION means a lot. If you have children, it teaches them to be thoughtful of others, by making some time in their day to focus on someone else, yet receiving much in return. I say leave the guilt behind about making home-made food if you don't cook, hand-crafted favors if you don't craft, a clean house if you don't clean...but make some kind of effort, please! Just because I cook and clean, doesn't mean you have to do things like me. But please...if you owe someone an invitation...Do Something! Isn't it better to be remembered fondly for something you planned, instead of being remembered only as someone who only knows how to receive?

This was the first time that I've actually kept any of the RH catalogs. Some of them I ditched right away w/o even flipping through them. I kept the Small Spaces catalog because it isn't so dark and I kept the Tableware catalog because of the colors. I may buy some of the table linens. I really liked the Grand Brassiere Entertaining Collection and the Vintage Hotel Silver Collection. I will say that I liked having separate catalogs for Tableware and 'Objects of Curiousity' (Peterman's voice was in my head as I read " These genuine millstone artifacts spent their years grinding corn...." pretentious). Sometimes I just want to see what's available and not have to scan a whole page trying to figure out what accessories are for sale, which ones aren't and then try to find the price somewhere. Never fails I always want what's not for sale Lol!

So many really wonderful ideas, some too elaborate for me to consider. What I did end up doing was bringing a big box, one of the HG Christmasy ones, and filling it with a massive corral of crayons, paper, tons of those wax sticks someone recommended, a whole bunch of xmas finger puppets, and a 6 pack of spillproof bubbles. The kids adored it, and adults colored too. Some even did wiki sculptures. It was really nice to have something to "do" during the brunch. And one of the moms was delighted to take it home, box and all. GW scores, again.