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The prospect of hosting a fancy dinner party at my house filled my heart with panic, and my redecorating engine with jet fuel. I had been wanting to update my dining room. Suddenly, I had an incentive and a deadline.

"You start seeing everything they don't even notice," said my neighbor, trying to calm my nerves.

"I'm more worried they'll see everything I don't notice," I said.

Aren't we all a little house blind?

The dinner party wasn't my idea. A few months ago, my friend, who is also a friend of the arts, hatched the plan to auction off a dinner for eight, including DC and me, at my house, for an Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra fundraiser.

"You know how your column is 'At Home With Marni?'" was how she framed it. "Well, this would let people actually be at home with Marni. Get it?"

Oh, I got it. If I'd known when I started writing a home design column what all I'd be getting myself into, I would have become a pet therapist. People assume I live up to my words! Before I agreed -- and because no one should pay to eat my cooking -- I called a chef I knew to see if he'd help. Chef Angelo Bersani generously agreed to donate his time to prepare and serve dinner if I paid for the groceries. Done! Chef and I became a package deal on the auction block.

With the food taken care of (Phew!), my focus turned to the dining room, which sits immediately to the right of my home's front entry. You can't miss it. The room has only two walls. The non-wall sides open onto the entry and living room.

Now, because I live in the real world, redecorating for me does not mean tossing all my furniture and starting over. It means working with what I have and making small refinements to get, ideally, big results. The trick, however, is knowing what those small moves are, which is when paralysis sets in.

My next call was to Los Angeles interior designer and long-time friend and colleague Christopher Grubb. "HALP!" I cried! "I have all these illustrious dinner guests coming who think my home is something out of Architectural Digest and they are about to be bitterly disappointed."

Grubb knows I'm prone to hyperbole. He also knows I can follow directions. He agreed to work with me on an hourly basis. He'd call the shots if I did the legwork, which involved shopping for materials, gathering samples, and coordinating workers. This would save him time and me money. Again, Done!

With a chef and a designer on board, I could feel my lungs fully expanding and my blood pressure dropping.

Since Grubb is on the West Coast, and I'm in Florida, we worked virtually. I sent him photos of the dining room and told him my goal was to move away from traditional furnishings to make the room more transitional, a direction he supported. We discussed some ideas, then he gave me my to-do list.

Over the next eight weeks, we exchanged dozens of texts, photos, a few sobbing emojis and made the following small refinements, which yielded big results and just might do the same for a room or two in your home:

Added lampshades. Although I had replaced the dining room's dated light fixture a few years ago, I had not "finished" the fixture off with chandelier shades, which Grubb advised. I test drove three shade styles, ordering one of each and returning the rejects, before settling on a black tapered shade. Because black shades direct light down, not out, they can make lighting more dramatic.

Filled in the art niche. Art niches in walls are common yet often difficult to work with as they limit the size of art you can hang in them. The niche in my dining room's accent wall was 5 feet square and 3 inches deep. Until recently, a large tapestry hung over the niche and covered it. But, as part of my attempt to make the space more contemporary, I sold the tapestry and now had this, uhh, hole in the wall. "Art niches just make you ask why?" said Grubb, who recommended having a drywaller fill it in.

Put up wallpaper. To make the open room feel cozier and more intimate, and to distinguish it from the entryway, Grubb suggested covering the now smooth back wall and ceiling with sea-blue grasscloth, which added character and texture to the room.

Replaced mirrors. Although Grubb liked the idea of two mirrors flanking the art on the main wall, he suggested replacing the existing round ones with larger, vertical mirrors to make the room appear taller. Since we were moving toward a more transitional less traditional look, we kept the frames simple.

Added ambiance. With the new furnishings in place, all I needed to do was add the finishing touches -- a fresh centerpiece of pale roses, patterned table linens, crystal and silver, candles and, of course, illustrious guests -- to make the room come together like a symphony.

Marni Jameson is the author of seven books, including "Rightsize Today to Create Your Best Life Tomorrow." You may reach her at marni@marnijameson.com

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OPINION | AT HOME: Dinner party prompts dining room refresh | Arkansas Democrat Gazette - Arkansas Online

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Hours before Arizona state legislators voted to repeal an 1864 abortion ban last month, a group of mostly Latina Democrats huddled at a nearby Mexican restaurant for a strategy session on galvanizing Latina voters over abortion rights.

I am 23 why do I have less rights than my abuelita in Mexico? Melissa Herrera, a Democratic campaign staffer, asked the cluster of women at the restaurant, referring to her grandmother.

The question crystallized what Democrats hope will be a decisive electoral factor in their favor this year, one that upends conventional political wisdom: A majority of Latino voters now support abortion rights, according to polls, a reversal from two decades ago. Polling trends, interviews with strategists and election results in Ohio and Virginia, where abortion rights played a central role, suggest Democrats optimism regarding Latinas once considered too religious or too socially conservative to support abortion rights could bear out.

Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, stringent curbs have been taking effect in Republican-dominated states. In Arizona, for one, the May 2 repeal of the blanket ban from 1864 still leaves abortions governed by a two-year-old law prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exception for rape or incest.

As of April 2023, according to the Pew Research Center, 62 percent of Latinos believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Twenty years earlier, most Hispanics told Pew that they opposed abortion rights by a nearly two-to-one margin. (The most recent polling has been conducted online, instead of over the phone, but the surveys show an overall gradual shift in opinions.)

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Democrats, Sensing Shift on Abortion Rights Among Latinas, Push for More Gains - The New York Times

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After months of resisting efforts by Democratic allies to get him to take a harder line with Israel for its conduct in the war in Gaza, President Biden this week made what may be his most significant statement to date.

For the first time, he threatened to cut off the flow of certain types of weapons if Israel doesnt heed American warnings specifically, if it launches a planned invasion of Rafah that the Biden administration worries could lead to even more extensive civilian casualties.

Its a dicey decision, both politically and foreign policy-wise, from a man without many good options right now.

But in some ways, its been a long time coming. And at the very least it reflects the direction Bidens party has been headed in for months.

An outpouring of support for Israel after Hamass Oct. 7 massacre quickly gave way to liberal skepticism about how Israel had prosecuted its military response. And over the past six months, weve seen the lefts shift away from Israel continue mostly unabated.

Perhaps the most often cited manifestation of that is in the relative sympathies toward Israelis and Palestinians. Democrats had for years drifted toward the Palestinians, with a Gallup poll in early 2023 showing Democrats sympathizing more with them for the first time in the 21st century.

Oct. 7 briefly changed that, but since then, polling from the Economist and YouGov has shown a steady and pretty consistent move toward the Palestinians. About 4 in 10 Americans say their sympathies are about equal between the sides, but those saying they sympathize more with the Israelis has dropped from 34 percent in mid-October to 15 percent today.

About twice as many Democrats chose the Israelis as chose the Palestinians in October; today, Democrats who pick a side choose the Palestinians by double digits.

Weve seen an even bigger shift when it comes to the root of Bidens announcement this week: the idea that Israel is going too far.

In late October, more Democrats (39 percent) said Israels military response was either about right or not harsh enough than said it was too harsh (33 percent).

But Democrats have again shifted steadily away from Israel. Today, a majority of Democrats (54 percent) say its response has been too harsh 30 points more than those who say its been about right or not harsh enough.

Just because people regard Israels actions as too harsh, of course, doesnt mean they necessarily desire a hard line or cutting off aid. But there, too, weve seen Democrats gradually adopt a more skeptical position.

While in early November, Democrats favored maintaining the same levels of Israel aid or increasing it by around a 2-to-1 margin, polls over the past month show a plurality of Democrats now want it decreased.

That number crept as high as 48 percent in an early April poll nearly half of Democrats wanting less money for Israel.

ABC News-Ipsos polling last week showed a similar shift. It asked whether the United States was doing too much to support Israel. The biggest shift away from Israel since January? Among those who described themselves as somewhat liberal. They went from 35 percent saying we were doing too much for Israel in January to 48 percent now.

(Its valid to ask whether people truly know what genocide entails, and Americans tend to apply that label pretty broadly. But it would at least seem to reflect significant unease about how far Israel has gone.)

Given all of that, you begin to see how even a historically pro-Israel Democrat like Biden might come around to a more forceful posture. Hes not actually threatening to reduce the total level of aid; just cutting off offensive weapons that could be used in an incursion into Rafah.

That turn may be in line with a growing segment of his party, but Biden still risks losing the support of key Democratic-leaning constituencies or the broader electorate.

Even these polls, after all, show that scaled-back support of Israel is a minority position with the broader public.

The ABC-Ipsos poll showed 38 percent overall said we were doing too much to support Israel. And the most recent Economist polling shows only about one-third overall say Israels response has been too harsh (34 percent) and that we should decrease aid (34 percent).

The question now is whether Bidens warning will have the desired effect and help tamp down the growing consternation on the American left or whether it will just lead to even more choices among fraught options.

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Biden's Israel red line, and the Democratic Party's shift away from Israel - The Washington Post

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Ex-GOP Gov. Hogan is popular with some Maryland Democrats, but not enough to put him in the Senate - Bowling Green Daily News

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This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIMEs politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox.

The signage surrounding Vice President Kamala Harris in Jacksonville, Fla. last week was not exactly subtle: Reproductive Freedom and Trust Women framed the lone woman ever to be within a heartbeat of the presidency, as she laid the blame for Floridas ban on abortion after six weeks at the foot of former President Donald Trump on the very day it took effect. As a matter of political stagecraft, it was about as perfect as one could have scripted.

Donald Trump is the architect, Harris said on May 1, decrying the 4 million women who woke up that morning with fewer reproductive rights. He brags about it.

As a political matter, Harris is not wrong. Trump nominated three of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who made the end of Roe v. Wade possible, which in turn allowed Florida lawmakers to outlaw abortions in the state after six weeks. And five of the seven justices on the Florida court that allowed the new law to go into effect were named by Governor Ron DeSantis, who rose to power with Trumps blessing.

To Bidens campaign, the list of battleground states is longer than the measly seven that have thus far drawn the most attention. Steamy Florida, where Republicans hold every statewide office, has the potential to be a sexy eighth option. Hence: Harris visit last week, Bidens a week before, and a handful of new campaign hires to mind the state day to day.

Floridas overreach on reproductive rights may indeed put it in play this cycle, but the Sunshine State remains Trumps to lose. Much more likely is that we may now have an unexpectedly competitive race between GOP Sen. Rick Scott and his Democratic challenger, former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

Its a race that most strategists had relegated to the second tier until very recently. Along with the motivating power of Floridas six-week ban and a November ballot measure that will give voters the chance to undo it, Democratic Senator Joe Manchins decision to forgo a re-election bid in West Virginia has freed up valuable resourcesnot just from the Democratic Partys official Senate campaign arm but also the abortion rights groups who, to this point, have been undefeated when the question of access is put directly to voters.

While the White House race dominates in Florida in terms of sizzle, the Senate race may have greater consequences for the next few years. Biden might not need Florida if he can hold steady or even make his push into North Carolina. Even so, Democrats need to pick up at least one Republican-held seat if they have any chance of maintaining control of the Senate. Frankly, West Virginia is gone for a generation given Manchins retirement. That leaves the party with only two pick-up optionsFlorida and Texas, and the latter is at the moment only marginally less of a pipe dream. And that all assumes that Democrats can even hold their seats in places like Montana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

In other words, Democrats need every break they can get, which is why Mucarsel-Powell is the quiet rockstar that the party is trying to promote without flagging her as a target for the right.

What I think is happening is they are realizing the shift on the ground and the shift in Florida, Mucarsel-Powell tells TIME during a visit to our Washington Bureau.

To be clear, Scott remains the frontrunner. The few non-partisan polls in the state show him with a double-digit advantage. And while not exactly adored by his constituents, he has managed to eke out win after win over more than a decade. Hes never won any of his general-election races by more than two percentage points. (Usually less, and once via recount.) This is the first time he will be on the ballot when hes not the top of the ticket; that crown this year belongs to Trump, and theres no telling how the ex-President will dictate or derail news coverage over the next six months.

And Scotts time in Washington has been anything but smooth. In early 2022, he released a campaign strategy memo that drew the open scorn of some members and the ire of Senate Leadership, specifically its call to sunset popular social programs like Social Security and Medicare. (He has since retreated.) He tried and failed to unseat Senate Leader Mitch McConnell after the 2022 elections that he quarterbacked as head of the GOP Senates campaign arm.

Read more: The Least Popular Man in Washington

In a warning shot against Mucarsel-Powell, Scott has been spending about $700,000 a week on ads to promote his re-election, including one emphasizing his opposition to socialismtypically a winning message in immigrant-heavy Florida but one that even some Republicans worry may have lost clout when run against Mucarsel-Powell, whose family fled socialist Ecuador when she was a child. Mucarsel-Powell returned the salvo with a Spanish-language ad that says its freedom that Rick Scott wants to take away.

Scott may be the wet blanket of a candidate that his critics cast him as, but he knows the terrain and is a disciplined technocrat who will out-hustle his rivals. When I went to Florida in 2018 expecting to write him off, I couldnt help but to admire his workmanship as I watched him grind it out in boring roundtables and steamy town halls at shift changes. Looking to learn Spanish, he hired native-speaking personal aides to practice with him between eventsa pander at first glance but it gave him sufficient proficiency to show he was trying to understand his constituents.

Of course, his vast personal wealth provides him a huge leg up over his rivals. In his first campaign for governor, he spent $70 million of his own money to get to Tallahassee. His second campaign cost him almost $13 million. And his Senate race six years ago cost him more than $50 million.

Mucarsel-Powell has technically outraised Scott, drawing more than $7 million so far. While Scott has reported $7.7 million on his campaign filings, about $7 million is a loan from his checking account, and he has a personal fortune estimated at a quarter-billion dollars waiting at the ready.

Yet Mucarsel-Powell is poised to see a significant boost, now that courts have cleared the way for Floridians to be asked to preserve abortion rights this fall. Outside groups are readying a ton of cash to get the ballot measure to victory. Polling shows Florida in the same headspace of supporting abortion rights as Ohio and Kansas, both red states that surprised pundits when they backed abortion rights ballot issues.

But heres the hiccup: Democrats and allies will need 60% of voters to pass the ballot measure, a bar advocates cleared in California and Vermont but one that would have been fatal in Ohio, where voters backed a constitutional right to abortion with 57% support. And the wording on Floridas ballot measure is tricky and may be harder for voters to parse.

But Mucarsel-Powell only needs 50% plus one vote to win the seat, a target the ballot measure may help her reach, even if it falls short of its higher threshold.

Scotts team has been across the spectrum when it comes to abortion access in Florida. While he has said he would have preferred a 15-week ban, he nonetheless has backed the six-week one, and said he would have signed it if he had still been governor. (Florida Republicans are quick to note that, unlike total bans in other Southern states, Florida does allow abortions after six weeks for cases involving rape, incest, fetal abnormalities, or when the life of a pregnant person is at risk.)

Everyone knows that Senator Rick Scott supports the right to life. Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell does not, says Chris Hartline, a senior adviser to the Scott campaign. Floridians agree that there should be some reasonable limits placed on abortion. Senator Scott has been very clear where he stands: No national bans, with the consensus at 15 weeks with limitations for rape, incest, and life of the mother. Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell takes an extreme view opposing any common-sense limits on abortion."

Despite the murmurs of optimism on the Democratic side, Scott backers argue Democrats are overplaying their hand. Their strongest evidence: Floridas voter rolls no longer reflect a swing state, with registered Republicans sporting a 900,000-vote advantage, compared to a 100,000-vote deficit four years ago.

What Florida Democrats call newfound confidence, anyone with a brain calls delusion," Hartline tells TIME. "Republicans will win up and down the ballot in Florida because weve put the time and effort into registering voters and focusing on the issues that matter most to Florida families.

As recent elections have shown in spades, support for abortion rights is bipartisan. Of the roughly 1.3 million signatures submitted in the first round of filings for the ballot measure, roughly 150,000 of those Hancocks were registered Republicans.

I've been saying this for a long time because I've lived in Florida for so long: Florida is a very independent state. It's a purple state. It's a third, a third, a third, Mucarsel-Powell tells TIME.

Which is why Democrats are quietly cheering Murcasel-Powell on without too many heralds. Florida is enormously expensive, and the climb is very, very steepno matter what the polling says about 62% support for abortion in some or all cases.

Still, the fact that Florida is even in the conversation as an up-for-grabs state in 2024 is stunning. Its a sign of how much Republican overreach on abortion rights has made the landscape so much more fraught for their candidates. Democrats might have a fighting chance in Florida, even with a one-term former House member. Theyre just engaging relatively late, and with a decided cash disadvantage, given that the Republican incumbent is the richest man in the Senate.

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Why Democrats Are Suddenly Excited About Florida - TIME

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