Dinner Party and Etiquette Question? Living Room West View

These "evolution" posts are fun.  I'm always fiddling my apartment decor but it wasn't until a photo organizing session last week that it became apparent how significant the change of all the combined little tweaks was.  So y'all are at the mercy of at least 2 more evolution posts: North/South views of living room.

My dinner party went well. I need to start taking photographs of the food.  Last night, in homage to the heat (I really did not want to use the oven), I went with a chilled finger food theme: 2 kinds of pinwheels (roast beef/provolone & ham/brie) on long skewers arranged as bouquets (I don't have many serving dishes- so I tried to get creative),  chicken salad (cranberries, pecans, celery, onion, mayo) bites (scooped on celery cuts), Greek salad (feta, kalamata, sundried tomatoes) on cucumber slices, Caprese skewers (ciliegine mozz, grape tomatoes, fresh basil & balsamic redux).

One of my friends brought an unchilled bottle of wine wine so I set it in the fridge and opened a bottle of sparkly and made bellinis.  After everyone had left, I noticed during my clean up that they had taken the bottle back when they left.  This has happened with this group before.  It struck me as weird before and last night it bothered me a little.

We're all poor college kids and even a $10 purchase can be a hit so I know that I shouldn't be sensitive to it but it strikes me as being really rude. 

What do you all think in blog land? What is the contemporary etiquette in this situation? Is it appropriate to take back a dinner offering if it's unused?

Onward to The West View:

 I wish that I had taken a pic before I put in the mantel (Craigslist: $45).  It was such a weird spot before. My neighbor who has the mirror of my apartment layout is using it as a closet space.

The white rug (now in the bedroom) is actually 2 ($9/each @ Kmart) that I sewed together.  The mirror under the mantel was a splurge ($40 @ Bedbathbeyond).

I went wild with the white paint: gathered twigs, rocks and the wooden box under the candles. The curtain behind the mantel was on clearance (Bedbathbeyond $12.99). It's actually a really pretty green in real life. I haven't been able to capture the true color yet (sea foam). I think the satin reflects the filtered light weirdly- it's shown as much yellower in the photograph. See here for the real color. I made the hanging lights from materials from HD (about $10/each).

 
 The green rug was in the Ikea as-is clearance ( I think it was a display piece, $24). The pillows on the couch ($12/each), the hanging lamp to the left ($9), and the sheepskin ($9) were bought on the same trip. 


All in all, my goals in this room were to add strong color without painting the walls (powers-that-be forbid it).  It's amazing the difference that adding the green rug made. I'm really happy with the result.  :D

EDIT: I've since lowered the paintings & added shelves.... More New Photos