Dinner with Friends — Pot Luck and Pop-up Mini — Clothing Swap!

Dinner with Friends. What a treat!

My spe­cial day of the month is the “First Friday.”
At 6pm my female friends are invit­ed to join me for dinner.

It is a pot luck. I make the main dish and every­one else brings sides, sal­ads, desserts or drink. Any­thing they want. Each month is also a pot-luck of guests and the com­bi­na­tion of old and new friends always sparks a new dynamic.

We sit down to din­ner at one real­ly long table. We eat and talk, talk, talk. It is won­der­ful! Every­one has a dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence and is in a dif­fer­ent place in life. But all have some won­der­ful insight.

Our con­ver­sa­tion gives us a per­spec­tive; that we are not the only one who has faced a chal­lenge, or con­quered a goal. Lis­ten­ing to oth­ers gives us new ideas and a bet­ter under­stand­ing of one anoth­er. It allows us to be more for­giv­ing of our short­com­ings and more appre­cia­tive of our successes.

I had asked every­one to bring clothes that they no longer wear and that some­one else may like, and they did. After din­ner we all played with the clothes that every­one brought.  Many of us went home with clothes that were fresh new addi­tions to our wardrobes.

Don­na got a new blue blaz­er, Deb­o­ra an autumn sweater  “just made for her,”  and Lucille took a unique­ly col­or­ful top that match­es her per­son­al­i­ty “pizazz.” (Sor­ry about the pic­ture Don­na, I caught you mid-smile. But the clothes are great!).

I per­son­al­ly col­lect­ed two red-vio­let long sleeve tops in just my size that were cast-aways. I love match­ing clothes with new own­ers and my guests all enjoyed see­ing who was the “right­ful” own­er of the cloth­ing treasures.

My phi­los­o­phy is sim­ple and straight­for­ward: If it is not doing any good in your clos­et it is time to ship it to some­one else’s clos­et. Next time you will make bet­ter choic­es, but until you do, let go of what does not work and get it into some­one else’s clos­et. It makes room for what should be in yours, – and just think,  some­one might have a trea­sure for you.

Until then, get help choos­ing your col­ors and clean­ing your clos­et. You don’t have to go it alone ~  I’m always there to help!

~Mary Lou