Window Display

This is what I did today. I created a window display. Downtown is hosting a Tablescape contest and I was asked to do a window for the MHA Homes Tour coming up on Dec. 2. Although it's hard to see in this photo, there is a table there, with two place settings on it. There are snowmen on the plates - hence the snow man theme.

Greg loaned me a couple of his snowmen, including one you can't see in this photo that is hanging. Also, the far one is an old window display one who has made a full circle now - once again gracing a window display. And the 7-up Snowman close to the sign is his, too. The others are ones I already had.

Hopefully I will get some better pix that show everything in the window, but the windows are very dirty and I'm waiting for them to clean them before trying to get some photos.

They had the blue panels and the window/shutter thing lying around in the store so I just used them for a backdrop, hanging a snowflake in the "window."

I added a few more smaller snowmen and some other finishing touches after I took the photo, but this is the basic look. Hopefully Greg will get some good pix of it all finished that I can share.

I've done a few window displays before, and the windows are always bigger than you think they are when you're planning what to do. In this case I just had to do half the window. The Art Association will do the other half. This took half a day to put together, but it's great publicity for us, and it is good for us to be involved in downtown events. My office is downtown, which I love, and I like being part of what's going on. I don't have the time to participate fully in everything the downtown group does, but I'm tickled to be able to do things like this.

I've been working hard on the MHA Christmas homes tour. It's set for Dec. 2 and it's going to be really nice. There are four homes and then I'm having refreshments at my house. Details are at www.mhatour.com. This is the third Mental Health Association tour we've done and they're always good. This is the first time I've opened my home for refreshments, but it will be fun. I've been thinking about what to cook and experimenting with a few things.

I made caramel for the first time last night or the night before - I've lost track, now. It tastes great, but I made a little boo boo.

Do you see those darker flecks here and there? Yeah... those aren't supposed to be there. I didn't get the pan to pour it into out of the cabinet and ready before I started cooking. Ooops. While I was doing that, and therefore not stirring the caramel, it "burned" a bit. It's not really burned, but it caramelized in a clump instead of being very smooth - and the way you avoid that is constant stirring. Oh well - live and learn. But, it tastes very good - you can't even taste those bits. But, I think I'd like to perfect it a bit more before sharing it with people.