Saturday, December 15, 2012
Did you decorate your house for the holidays this year? Enter our "Deck the House" contest and you could win $100,000 for your local school district and $500 to pay your electric bills!
We’re launching our annual Deck the House Contest to find the most over-the-top holiday decorations in America—the best “decked” house in the country—the one home so spectacularly decorated that everyone in town jokes your holiday decorations could rival Rockefeller Center’s. If this sounds like your Avon or Avon Lake house, upload a photo or video of your home to our contest page from Nov. 26 to Dec. 16. Only residents of Patch towns are eligible to enter. We’ll select 24 regional finalists, and from them, pick one grand prize winner. Patch will pay up to $500 of the utility bill for each finalist, while our national winner will have $100,000 donated to his or her local school district. Our contest is right around the corner, so now’s the…
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Take our poll.
Trick or treat hasn’t even passed yet in Avon and Avon Lake, but Christmas and Hanukkah are just around the corner. Are you one of those people who stocks up on gifts for your friends and family all year? Or are you more like me—the person scrambling to find those perfect presents a weekend or two before the holidays? How soon is too soon to start that holiday shopping? It used to be that Black Friday—the Friday after Thanksgiving—was the day the holiday deals got started, but the festivities seem to be moving up each year. Amazon.com is already offering deals as a countdown to the Black Friday sales—and they’re planning a week of deals, rather than just a day. In Westlake, Crocker Park Mall’s holiday tree lighting will be on Nov. 17. And…
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Mary Brownfield loves making the holiday bright
Mary Brownfield began her love of a pretty tablesetting young. When she was in high school, she went to the old May Department Store and signed up for the Tabletop Plan, buying crystal and silver one piece at a time. She packed it away in her hope chest. "I had everything but the husband!" she joked. Today, that crystal and silver come out when she creates her lovely tablesettings in her Avon home. For Christmas, she's using an elegant nature look, with china featuring pine boughs and springs of holly and poinsettia napkin rings. She recently gave her placesettings a test run when she decorated one of the tables at a ladies' Christmas tea party at Providence Church. "I don't follow rules of placesetting charts," Brownfield said. She mixes …
Carol Murphy
2:11 pm on Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Great way to offset the cost of your electric bill. Even better for your local school district. Have seen many decorated homes that could claim the prizes! more ›