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

    • Leslie Ann says

      i agree. definitely the writing in the frames. it was cute, and it had a cute saying in it (“chica”), and it had a heart. heart’s are SO younghouselove, haha.

  2. Morgan says

    I love that your scissors say “Good Scissors”. I had to go buy a new pair bc my husband kept fussing at me about using his kitchen scissors!

    Reply

    • Sharon says

      Ha, my sewing scissors are marked in Sharpie with SEW and my husband looked at them one day and asked why I had his brother’s scissors. His brother’s name is WES and he was looking at the scissors upside-down.

    • heather s. says

      You shouldn’t use your good fabric scissors to cut anything but fabric! You can really dull the blade so I have a pair of fabric scissors and another great pair for paper crafts and then of course the household pair.

    • heather says

      I looked over the other day while cooking dinner and my husband had my nice sewing scissors and he was cutting a meat package open. My fault, I left them on the counter. They have now been relegated to kitchen & other shiz scissors.

      Note – always put my scissors away – and mark them.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha- the funny thing is that was weeks later! We were instructed to send off our first gifts to arrive around the beginning of December. A few weeks later I thought “if I’m switching out 25 frames in the hall, who is going to notice that?” – but observant folks like you do!

      xo,
      s

    • Lindsay says

      But, I didn’t even see House of Smiths’ post until after you guys posted about your Secret Santa gift and linked over there. And that was after you’d revealed the frame wall changes. :)

  9. Penny says

    I’m probably the 100th person to say it by now, but it was the holiday tweak to your hallway frame gallery that gave ya away. You did a lovely job! And I like the sharpie doodles on the ceramic dishes. Maybe I’ll try that next year. Do you know if sharpie doodles can survive the dishwasher?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Hmm, I think it depends how shiny your ceramic is. I think some sort of rough ceramic (like a mug that feels matte) might hold it forever. But something too shiny might wipe off with hot hot water and lots of pressure, so maybe just hand wash the inside after use?

      xo,
      s

    • Penny says

      Thanks for the tip! Also, “sharpie doodle” now looks like the name of some breed of dog. Whoops!

  12. tara says

    I also guessed you were the one who sent the frames!! It was just so “sherry” :) I loved reading all the different posts about the gifts! You guys should do another one like “sneaky bunny” for easter or something!

    Reply

  15. Heather C says

    I knew it! I knew it! I totally guessed it was Save the date for cupcakes! :) So glad you had so much fun! I think I’m going to have to start something like this with my friends next year! I love the thought and craftyness of the gifts!

    Reply

  18. Rebecca @This Nest is Best says

    I actually have a deep rooted fear/hatred of Secret Santas from a bad experience in HS (how funny is that???), but this one looked like so much fun! And your postcards are gorgeous – I cant wait to see what you do with them!

    Reply

  19. Gina says

    Ukrops….yum!! We lived in Richmond for several years while my husband did his residency there at MCV and their bakery was visited quite often!!
    Your gifts were great. Love that lime green frame especially!

    Reply

  20. Becca says

    I do secret santa through one of the dog forums I’m on! I had no clue who had me until the moderator was updating everyone who hadn’t received their packages – she told me mine was coming a loooong way. Turns out, it was from Australia! I live in Syracuse NY :)

    The girl I ended up getting was a perfect match – not only were we the same age, one of each of our dogs shared a birthday, AND she was a HUGE Syracuse University basketball fan! Made sure to send along some SU goodies complete with doggy bandannas :) Oh and she lives in Florida and I also used to live in Florida!

    It’s funny, every time I do SS I end up having some crazy connection to my recipient.

    Reply

  22. Jyl says

    This comment is completely unrelated to this post, I’m sorry.

    Perhaps you’ve seen that “Post the video of the #1 song during the week you were born” trend on Facebook. Well, my video was by Men At Work. And I realized something. John Petersik you look like a more attractive version (I say in a happily married way, Sorry Sherry!) of young Colin Hay! Check out Men At Work’s “Who Can it Be Now” video (Skip to 1:05 to see what I mean)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQi4CAzmrA

    Do you see it!?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      OH MY GOSH TOTALLY!!! I called over to John to watch it with me and seeing his face come towards me while this was playing was like watching him and his older twin. Now I know what he’ll look like in a decade or so. Cute! I’m down. He totally even makes the same dorky faces. Thankfully he doesn’t wear striped socks with no pants like that though…

      xo,
      s

  25. Ethne says

    We do SSanta at work and it’s our fave. I didn’t know who had me, but the person I had guessed me right away. I figured she would, and knew the presents I gave her would give my identity away, but I still wanted to give her those gifts. FUN!

    Reply

  27. Nora says

    My mom has kitchen scissors I’m not allowed to touch anymore. She didn’t write on them, but I feel like there’s a sign above them that says. “No, Nora, no. Hands off.”

    Reply

  28. Sara says

    I must have missed the first post about what you were giving to your Secret Santa, but I just wanted to say, I never, ever, ever, thought about spray painting a Michael’s frame. I need to open my mind a bit, because they have awesome frames, but they are mostly all BROWN! Great idea!

    Reply

  30. Jen says

    What a fun idea to do a Blog World Secret Santa! Looks like you guys had a great time doing it, too.

    A quick suggestion on sticky scissors, btw. There’s a product you can get at Walmart and Dollar Stores called Goo Gone (I bet you could get it other places, too. Those are just where I know I’ve seen it before). It works like magic on sticky things! Just scrub the scissors until the sticky is all gone then soap them down and you’ll save your favorite pairs!

    Happy New Year!

    Reply

  32. Jess @ Little House. Big Heart. says

    Haha! I love that you label you scissors! The hubs keeps using my good kitchen shears to cut things like duct tape and old card board. I need to write “FOOD ONLY” on them!

    I love the idea of a blog secret Santa! Maybe some of us “little guys” need to do the same thing next year! :)

    Reply

  33. Cherie says

    I love that your husband is banned from your scissors. Mine is, too! I’ve had to hide them because he’ll use them to cut peel and stick tiles and other gross, sticky things. It makes me crazy! Glad to see I’m not alone. :)

    Reply

  34. Amy D says

    I love how creative you are! I would not have thought to grab half that stuff and make it into such a cute gift!

    My office does secret santa. This year I did a movie night at home, with a copy of Princess Bride, a popcorn box from Target, a cute penguin mug, and some hot chocolate, popcorn, and candy. Last year I gave mine homemade hot chocolate and homemade marshmallows with a pretty mug.

    Reply

  36. Jess says

    Love everything you made! But my husband’s (very Richmond) grandmother is probably rolling over in her grave at you calling those rainbow cookies.. those are butterstar cookies! Though they are both tasty so wins all around. :)

    Reply

  38. Allyn says

    I love your Secret Santa gifts (given and received)!
    As for the whole Dateline revealed thing… may I just say that I saw soome people take pics with some EXTREMELY creepy looking Santas this year. Wouldn’t be surprised to see one of them revealed at all.

    Reply

  40. amanda says

    My best friend, Simon, brother, sister, our mom, the three girls we grew up with, Shayna, Hunter, and Raven, and their mom all did a secret Santa this year. It was a good success. Raven had me and gave me a bag of chapstick. It was sort of an inside joke because one time I had a dyslexia moment with my speech. I meant to say, “my lips are making me ugly.” It came out as, “my lips; I’m ugly.” Since that moment everyone has quotes me about my chapped lips. Curse you MA winters!

    Reply

  41. Lauren says

    We love secret santa at our house so much! We’ve participated in a pet forums secret santa for 4 years in a row and it’s great! I love shopping for animals I don’t have. One year I had to figure out how to send live bugs to some iguanas, and last year I had rabbits and parrots!

    This year we also go in to a fashion/nail polish swap with our online group and it was great to get nail polish from Belgium and Australia!

    Reply

  42. Bernadette @ B3HD says

    Those postcards are to die for!

    If you have the space for another (different) take on a gallery wall, I think you should frame them all up somewhere. Although I liked the picture/knick knack ledge from your first home office too.

    I did the frame up gig in my most recent blog post. I had a collection of really neat Native Americana postcards that I just COULD. NOT. stand to not look at. Every time I have to visit the powder room (smile).

    Happy holidays!

    Reply

  43. heather says

    If I received any form of bright green/grellow gift and you were on the potential list, I’d have you pegged in a second haha <3

    I'm apparently not observant enough to note the switch that everyone else noticed to give it away though.

    Reply

  45. Shelley Smith says

    Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU for your sweet gifts!!! They were so fun to get in the mail, and the second I posted about them, everyone guessed you! haha! That’s what you get for having awesome ‘defined’ style eh!?
    Thanks again! Now to just hook-up in REAL life…someday…! :)

    Reply

  46. mp says

    The butterstar cookies are a Richmond tradition — does the bakery still give them out to tiny customers? My daughter made sure we always detoured by the bakery so she could score her cookie!

    Reply

  47. Shelby P. says

    I love that John pays so much attention to photo details. Speaking of lighting-What lighting plans do you have for the new and improved kitchen? Will you keep the fan? I just remember on Trading Spaces how they took all the ceiling fans out. How does anyone expect me to sleep without a ceiling fan?

    Reply

  50. Sarah B says

    I get excited about giving gifts too! I got the best compliment this year when a recipient told me “You always give the best gifts!”

    Reply

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