Author: Louis Dell'Olio

……………..THE DETAILS…….What you decorate your table with is just as important as the food you serve!….Your table is an expression of YOU!……Some people like it minimal…..I’m in the other camp! Being a designer I can’t help myself!….I like things to look at and to discuss….it can help the conversation moving…..The objects I use to decorate my table is a combination of new and OLD….Things Jac and I collected over the years…..Jac’s there at every dinner party.

………………..After I set my dining table I concentrate on the rest of the room…..”The Gathering Room”……I like to carry the THEME of the dining table through out the rest of the room…..Under the large Egret painting….on the Chinese scroll table…are Grape Vine PUMPKINS….I have deep amber small vases that hold wine color flowers….To light the table are two large orange PILLAR candles and small orange glass pumpkins that also light up….Behind them are some of my DANDELION lights with their scattered tiny lights on their delicate flowers…….Across from the Scroll table is my Chinese Alter table that is placed behind one of the couches…..There’s a large very fine grape vine pumpkin that lights up with tiny scattered lights….two glass orange pumpkins, and my glass tray candle holders with orange candles and sun flowers sitting on the tray finish the decorations….There are also more dandelion lights behind it all…….On the coffee table….I have a large organic shaped GOLD VASE filled with fall foliage….There are four gold cylinder vases with wine flowers surrounding the center vase, and a smaller ceramic orange pumpkin that lights up and sits to the side making room for my hors d’oeuvres…..There are also four larger dandelion lights, and there are various scattered candles also on the table….I also have a large glass vase [not pictured] with new dried HYDRANGEAS from my garden on one end table, and on the other end table a crackled gold vase with fall foliage….On my book shelves are tiny white pumpkins and orange pillar candles that all light up and create a warm ambience to the room…….The stage is set….let the festivities begin!

………………………I saws this ad from……COZYCITY……for these hand knit chunky “JACQUARD” sweaters. I own nothing like them and thought they would be fun for the up coming winter…..The photos with the gentlemen are what I ordered….Fun…no?……..Well a Chinese man came down my driveway and dropped the package at my front door. When I opened it to my horrific surprise were two VERY CHEAP, POLYESTER FLAT KNIT SWEAT SHIRTS…….The designs were BADLY PRINTED….not chunky hand knits as advertised!…….This company is a total SCAM and a total RIP OFF……..DO NOT, I repeat….DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY…….no matter how appealing the photos of the men in the sweaters may look, and there are many styles to choose from…..what you order is NOT what you will get. If you try to return them you have to pay to ship to CHINA!!!!! and it cost a lot more than what these horrible garments did……Order NOTHING from this company!….YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

………………..I would like to wish all of my friends of the Jewish faith a very…..Happy Rosh Hashanah!………Happy New Year!!

…………………Here in the state of Connecticut, each year we have to pay a tax for each individual car we own…..The cost of the tax depends on the age and model of the car!……I owned THREE cars……One was Jac’s Lexus SUV, which was over 10 years old……..I had a GMC Yukon Denali truck which I used for work and was now just too big, and I also have a two door 2002 convertible, which is now considered an ANTIQUE…….I had gotten the truck when I was going back and forth to QVC to hold lots of garment bags in the trunk….Now that I no longer make that trip, and the truck was just so big, I hardly drove it….and I didn’t need three cars!….so I traded in the truck and Jac’s car, and bought myself a new Lexus….of course in WHITE……Jac and I had a joke…..we would say….”We have one white house, three white cars, three black dogs, and two dumb clucks!”……well….things have changed a lot…..I still have one white house, but now two white cars. I will never get rid of my little convertible!….which I only use in the summer to tool about…….The three black dogs and my sweet “dumb cluck” are now waiting for me in a better place.