Young House Love

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A Few Mail-Friendly Christmas Gifts

It’s time for: Secret Santa: Revealed. That makes me laugh because I imagine some man with a deep serious voice introducing a show with that name after Dateline or something. Anyway, since a bunch of you have asked for the Secret Santa dirt (and I couldn’t wait to spill who I had and to learn who had me!) here it is:

I had… (drumroll? anyone? can I at least some table slapping or something?)… House Of Smiths! It was so much fun to pack up two little surprise care packages for her. The first one included two decorative frames from Michael’s that I personalized with some paint in the name of some Christmas cheer (they were both originally dark brown).

Secret Santa Frames Close1

I thought the red and the green combo was cheerful and fun for a Christmas gift, so the round one got a few thin coats of the glossy red spray paint that I also used to paint my paper maché reindeer and the rectangular one had such a cool wood grain (it kind of looked zebra-ish to me) that I painted it glossy white and dragged a dry brush with some lime green paint over it to catch just the raised part of the grain, while the sides remain white (then I sealed it with some spray poly). When I was at Michael’s I also grabbed a little ceramic container that I doodled on with a few permanent sharpie markers and filled with toffee. Mmmm. I heard it was devoured pretty quickly over there too! So glad.

Frames After1

It was amazing to me how many commenters guessed that I had House Of Smiths right away (how’d you guys know!). My second little holiday care package was more of a clue, I think. I went with a paint theme. Haha. See… that’s a clue. I couldn’t resist these sweet tiny paint can containers in the food aisle of Michael’s so I decided to fill them to the brim with red and green M&Ms and write a little holiday message on a paint stick.

Secret Santa Paint After

I even used paint chips from my weird leftover paint chip bin (yes I have one of those) to cut out little homemade “tree” tags for the top of each can. And in went another little dish of goodies (this time I went with the famed cookies from Ukrops – they’re the best!). Any yes, my scissors do say “no John cuts!” in Sharpie. He kept using my good scissors to do things like cut sticky tape. Now he’s banned.

Secret Santa Paint Chips

Secret Santa Paint Close

So that’s what I gave my sweet bloggy buddy, Shelley. Is it weird that I had so much fun putting these little things together? Oh Christmas, I miss ya already.

As for who had me, it was Tanya at Save The Date For Cupcakes! I was completely surprised by the way (not just saying that – I honestly had no idea). I actually had a hunch it was someone else but the postmark on the package shot that down – and being that it just said NY it was vague enough to confuse me enough to keep the mystery going until the big ok-who-had-who email where we all spilled the beans.

Secret Santa1

I already shared my first surprise here (a gorgeous little silver box with three glittery personalized ornaments):

Ornaments

And my second surprise was just as sweet! A box of vintage Vanity Fair postcards with another pretty glittery ornament for the tree (feathery wings)! It’s so much fun to flip through my new postcard collection – and I actually think I have a great project that I can do with them so I can’t wait to see where that leads! You know I’ll keep you posted.

Secret Santa Vanity Fair

A big thanks to Mrs. Limestone for organizing this whole shebang and all the other Secret Santa cohorts like:

So much fun! Did any of you do any Secret Santa business this year? Did you know who had you the whole time or were you surprised? And how the heck did so many of you know that I had Shelley the second she revealed my frames? I thought it was so obscure and random that no one would know it was me! Haha.

Psst- Check out John’s weird little lighting obsession (and imagine what he’d look like in a Snuggie) here.

Update: You can check out all of our favorite holiday decor finds here – many of which are under $15! 

Comments

  1. Kim says

    My John does the same thing to my good scissors. I interrogate him every time I see him pick them up to use them.

    Reply

  2. Heidi P. says

    I was thinking just last night that I wanted to ask you about the secret santa exchange. And then here it is! The very next morning! What a mind reader. I guessed ALL of them…wrong. Ha! That’s why I had to study my way through college – I knew if I guessed, I was GOING to get it wrong. Every time.

    p.s. Is there some reason why EVERY TIME I spray paint something, it’s glossy in some areas and matte in others? I try soooo hard to do it evenly and at the right distance away. And any clue why it always takes me like 10 coats to get good coverage instead of just 3?

    Reply

  3. maria says

    I should totally “do a Sherry” and write a message on my hair brush! My husband seriously uses my hairbrush all the time even though he has one of his own…it makes me so mad!

    Reply

  4. Sarah C says

    Hey,
    I was just reading some archives, and I wondering if you guys would consider doing a post about your mortgage on this new house, like you did on refi-ing on the last one. I found it very helpful and interesting!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, I’ll have to go back and read that post. Haha. We don’t remember it! It might not be the most interesting post since we haven’t refi’d this house and did the same thing with this one as the last (put as much down as possible with a 15 year mortgage. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  5. Kate M says

    Like others said, the Ho Ho Ho pic in your hallway definitely gave it away. But also the little ceramic dish…totally reminded me of when you doodled on some mugs. Happy (belated) holidays!

    Reply

  6. Georgia says

    Cute secret Santas. I have collected post cards since i was a kid. I always wanted to cover a whole wall in them – you know, stick them to wall and cover it floor to ceiling. Can’t wait to see what you do with yours. Oh, and MY scissors all have DO NOT USE!!!! all over them…with 4 teens in my house, not only were they my good ones for cutting PAPER/ CARD/ WIRES ETC!!!! but they were also stealing them. The cheek!

    Reply

  8. Wendy G says

    Loved what you picked for your Secret Santa! Very sweet! My office does a Toys for Tots gift exchange. We all draw a name of a coworker and then buy a toy that reminds us of that person. During the gift reveal, the buyer has to explain why they picked a specific gift. We always have a great time with it and then all of the toys are donated to Toys for Tots!

    Reply

  16. Stacey says

    Do you guys have a favorite Etsy shops blog? I would love to hear of your favorites. Totally unrelated, sorry.

    Thank you for all the great ideas, I was in a financial woes design slump until I stumbled upon your inspiring blog!

    Reply

  17. gingham girl says

    I can’t wait to see what you do with the Postcards! I have a “sister” set–but mine are famous books. I’ve been trying desperately to think of some way to display them.

    Reply

  18. Donna says

    Hey, John and Sherry,

    I was just commenting on Katie Bower’s trip to see the Christmas lights at Stone Mountain, and it made me wonder if you all had gone to see the lights at Lewis Ginter. The giant Christmas tree in the conservatory is covered with nature-themed ornaments which look hand made. There whole conservatory is decorated around the theme of a children’s book featuring woodland creatures, and there is a train are decorated with, among other things, hand made “fairy houses”. My girlfriend and I went last week and this week we’re going to collect stuff from my woods and make our own fairy houses. It’s still open through Monday the 9th!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes! We’ve been – and it was awesome! We actually have a post over on Young House Life that we’ve been meaning to share about it! How is it Jan 8th already? Maybe tomorrow we’ll click publish!

      xo,
      s

  19. Kelly McK says

    Hey John and Sherry!

    I just happened across your post from Jan 5 of 2011 (yes, I do start some major creeping once I’ve read all your newest posts! ;) ). It seems that you managed to keep your busy-during-the-holidays streak going for the FIFTH year with the kitchen remodel…. Props to you guys- that takes some skill (and a little bit of insanity!)

    Seems to me this may be evolving into a tradition? :)

    Reply

  21. LesLeigh Evans says

    We did Secret Sisters in my dorm the entire semester and it was so much fun! The girl I had collects rubber duckies so I gifted her with one every few weeks and gave her her favorite candy on Halloween. I was completely surprised by who had me. I didn’t suspect a thing!

    Reply

  22. Kinsey says

    My husband is also banned from using my good scissors. I labeled them “FABRICS ONLY” on all sides to deter him from cutting with them, and he regularly calls me out for using them to cut the tags off of things because “that’s not a fabric.” Typical man stuff.

    Reply

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