Making Scrap Wood into Gift Ideas

I have a love affair with architectural accents. I always see more than it's original purpose. A piece of trim that was once used as an accent piece is now made into a picture frame to hold a picture of someone special or made into a Christmas Tree or Flag. I use each piece and nothing goes to waste. When I cut something, I will save the leftover piece. It goes into a box. It may be a triangle, a square or a rectangle…..sometimes it's a really awkward shape. I started making ornaments out of left over wood 4 years ago. I pulled out my stamps and added a "Merry Christmas" or "To: From:". They adorn a tree in my house and I still love to make them. This year, I was asked to come up with a craft for our local daytime show, Daytime Alabama. Wendy Garner is a friend and the host of the show. She and I have talked a little about my craftiness and she asks me to come up with something every once in awhile to do a segment. I did a couple of segments in the spring with The Smoking Glue Guns!

We set up in Papa's Barn since he has a great workspace and it's one of my favorite spots to work! Laura came over to be my "assistant". She did a great job stamping away while we talked about all the ways you can use these small pieces. By the way, Anthropologie is selling a little bundle of wood pieces for $14.00 right now. You can get those…..or just run outside and see what you can find! (wink)

Throw one on a wine bottle for the perfect hostess gift!

Thread the ornaments with jute to hang on the tree. 

These can be place holders, coasters, or just name plates for everyone that's coming to the party!

 I picked these up at the hunting camp the weekend before. They were left overs from the wood chopping and we made them into personalized coasters!

I love this one! Personalizing each person's stocking would be a fun project for the family to make one night! Have each person make their own or decorate it for someone else! 

You can see the segment here. We had a blast, as usual! Thanks for coming by, Wendy!

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An Ornament Party or Something Like That

I have been hosting a Dirty Santa Party for the last 15 years. It is definitely the highlight of my holiday season, and if I'm honest, one of my favorite nights of the entire year!! I invite over friends and everyone brings a gift for a Dirty Santa Swap. If you've never played this game, the rules vary and I get to decide the rules at my party!

First of all, there is food! We had Friday Pasta catered from Taziki's and so many of my friends brought appetizers, desserts and wine! We had a full table and it was all DELISH!

 I'm so blessed with so many friends that enjoy coming to this party. Some we see all year and others not as much, but we get to celebrate each other and the holiday season on this night.

 A party isn't complete without photos, right? Well, I have a professional photographer that is one of my dear friends and she offered to take photos as a gift to me! Isn't that the best gift ever? Her Dirty Santa gift was a photography session with Santa for next year. Believe me when I tell you, this was the BEST gift of the night! Here's the pic from my session with Santa this year!

She set up a spot for everyone to have pictures made with friends in front of the tree. We took lots and Lori gave us tips on how to take a better picture. Chin up and out and lean over!!

 Can you tell these two are my sisters? 

Emma got to come this year! We may have to start a new tradition and make it a Mother/Daughter event!

 Oh look! Lori came out from behind the camera! 

The night isn't complete without a group photo! It's hard to find a spot for everyone at Hansel and Gretel. This place is brimming with furniture and holiday decor! You can click over here to see the Holiday Tour!

 I love seeing all of the candids of people laughing and hanging out. 

 We started the Dirty Santa Swap. This is wear everyone's true colors come out. If you want to play, you bring a wrapped gift. Back in the beginning, this party was considered an ornament swap. Up until this year, that's what I called it. I got a hard time after last year when some people brought ornaments and some brought GIANT letters that spelled J O Y. The gifts didn't feel equal to some and some left pouting, some with gifts and some without? The way we play is you count the gifts and if you brought one, you pull a number out of the hat to determine when you get to choose a gift. Number 1 opens the first gift, number 2 can steal it or open a new gift and so on. To keep the game from going on and on and a gift being stolen over and over, it can only be stolen twice. That means 3 people can touch it and it's dead. No one else can steal it. Unless, you are number 1, then you can take ANY gift whether it's dead or not! This makes the end of the night very entertaining!

 Sometimes, there are gag gifts. Sometimes, people play tricks on each other. A few years ago, Suzanne got a hold of Daphney's senior portrait…..She blew it up to an 8x10 and framed it. It was the best gift that year! Several got to take a magnet of Daphney from 1989 home with them! It was hilarious!!

This year, Daphney paid her back. She found a picture that Suzanne sent us while on a field trip with one of her boys. She was on the bus, the windows were down and she was having a blast. (not) Little did she know, Molly would play around with it and add a sombrero and mustache, make sure Daphney had it and a mug was ordered on Walmart.com. Suzanne, the intuitive person that she is, picked the small package wrapped in red polkadot. She had no idea what was going on. EVERYONE else had been filled in throughout the night. When she grabbed that package, cameras came out and the surprise commenced!

She was COMPLETELY blown away! She was speechless. Do you know her? That does NOT happen! I wouldn't give anything for the way Lori captured this moment.

 It was the perfect ending to an amazing party! Thank you to all of my friends who came to the party. I wouldn't trade any of you and your friendships! xoxo

The good sport and her mug that is on every counter every morning this holiday season. Here's to you Suzi! muah!

Recap of Gift Market at the Atlanta Mart 2013

I just spent 5 days in Atlanta shopping. Wow, who wouldn't love to say that? I love going to market with my sisters. They have the cutest shop in Trussville,  Alabama, called The Spotted Zebra. Isn't that the cutest name? It's gifts and a little home decor. They have such a great client base in Trussville and their customers love them! I love hanging out with them at the Mart because I get to see their dynamic and how they work together. They both have different strengths and the shop would not be able to run without both of them. I always add in my 2 cents just to ruffle some feathers!

There are 3 buildings at the Mart. Building 1 is full of showrooms that are open almost year round. You will find furniture, rugs and seasonal in that building. During a big market, they have 2 floors dedicated to temporaries. Temps are the booths that only come for market and are gone as soon as it's over. This is where you find all the new, cool stuff! Building 2 is full of gift companies. I mean everything you can imagine is in this building. You will find furniture, flags, pottery, frames, jewelry, lamps, every thing under the sun! Building 3 is known as the apparel building. When they have apparel mart, I envision all the showrooms open with clothing pouring out of each! During Gift Market, they have several floors dedicated to temporaries. I have a few favorites! I got to see a couple of great friends that had booths on floor 2. Vallie and Leah were both there. Their booths were packed when we went by. That always makes me happy to see someone be successful at what they love to do. I also always hit up Art by Amy. She is one of the people that inspired me to start making Lucy Lockets. She has a booth full of chain and charms and all kinds of crazy things to add to a necklace. One of the coolest things is you can pick out the charms you like and she will make you a necklace on the spot! Thinking that might be a good idea for me. Anyone want to host a party???

We had a great time. We saw lots of friends and lots of really cool things that will be in the store this year. If you get a chance, go by the store and tell them hello. You can also follow their Facebook page to keep up with all the new stuff that comes in!

I took a few pictures of my favorites. I may try and do a "trends of 2013" post, if I can muster up the list! There were definitely somethings that stood out.

 I shared this on Instagram {trend alert}

I love a yarn stocking. We "stocked up" on these!

Guess who will have a Giant light-up E in her room?

You might see a chalkboard wall at the store the next time you stop in!

 This girl had great jewelry at great prices. It was Fabu!

I shared this on Instagram, too. I need this at the beach!!

This showroom knocks my socks off every time! This fish is gorgeous!!

This patent white couch. O, yeah, just O! {trend alert}

Demdaco blew us away with their vintage signing. Some really cute pieces for Christmas!

 How could I not share this one! Who wants one of these for their tree. Or just to hang on their desk! 

Christmas with the Smoking Glue Gun Girls

My new craft group, The Smoking Glue Guns, was planning their holiday party. Um, they wanted hubbies to come? NO! All that's going to happen is the girls in one room and the boys in the other. The husbands will complain about having to go and then we won't even talk to them. NO BOYS ALLOWED! Well, that was my opinion and then it was decided {ahem, by Ashlee} that the party would be at Hansel and Gretel! Christmas at Hansel and Gretel, what would be better? Well, I'm used to having parties at my house. Um, the other house. The one that could hold lots of people and no one would trip over cords....sorry, Christy! I was ready, though. Hosting a party at Hansel and Gretel was one of the reasons I love this house. It has so much character and needs to have people see it and swoon over it....like me!

It had been raining ALL DAY LONG! I was getting messages asking if we could just wear pj's. I'm so glad Ashlee is the "leader" of this group. She put her foot down...no pj's! Glitter, sequins, sparkle, it's a Christmas party!! I'm glad she did. I love to get dressed up and I didn't have to go outside! yay!

Everyone brought food and a wrapped gift of their Favorite Thing and we would play Dirty Santa! This has become my favorite kind of party. We always just do Christmas gift for Dirty Santa. But, My Favorite Thing? Yes, that's a good one!! We drank some Jingle Jangle Juice. Too bad there isn't a photo of that...it was so pretty and delicious!

Krista getting an earful! {laughing at myself, now. I'm so serious!}

Doesn't the food look amazing? {it was}

Champagne as a hostess gift? {yes, thank you, Ashlee!}

I have had so much fun getting to know these girls! Dirty Santa was pretty dirty! I was excited to get a BirchBox. I have been wanting to try it and I won a 3month subscription! Thanks, Lori!

As usual, Lori Gordon took the photos! She even teaches others how to take photos like these! Wanna learn? Check out Click Workshops!