Ornament Exchange

One Artsy Mama recently hosted an ornament exchange. I immediately signed up and on the application there was an area to specify certain colors or styles we would prefer. I choose every option: any color, and traditional, religious, glittery, vintage, colorful, and natural. I found out my exchange partner is from Sacramento, CA. and she also choose every option. This made my job a little harder to try to encompass all those themes. I also wanted to give her a taste of the Louisiana life. In my opinion the South is centered around two things: food and religion. So I decided to send two ornaments one which defined each of those cultural topics.

I decided to make the ornament which represents food. Of course I choose Tabasco as the center of that ornament. The small town I am from is only a few minutes away from Avery Island where Tabasco was invented and still being produced today and my mother works for the McIlhenny Co. that make the hot sauce. But I needed a background. An oyster shell was perfect touch of natural element the creation needed. Although it needed a little sparkle, so I glittered the back of the shell to smooth the imperfections. I drilled a hole and added a green ribbon so it could be easily hung on the tree.

For the other ornament, I choose a vintage religious ornament from my own collection. It is a pretty cross. This ornament was originally handed down to me by my godmother and was a set of two. My tree is getting crowded and so I have been trying to trim down my ornament collection by getting rid of any that I have a pair of. This ornament exchange was perfect for that extra ornament to get a new life!

I packed both of them up in a box with a note, sent them off and then patiently waited to see what I would receive in return. A few days later a box came in from California and I excidely opened it. It contained an ornament, some paper snow flakes, and a note.

The beautiful nativity scene ornament is so pretty! Actually I looked at my tree and realized I had many different religious ornaments, but no nativity scenes.

  So that ornament was the perfect addition to our tree!

I also found some hand cut snow flakes. They were cut out of various paper. The note explained that this was a tradition in their family to make these every year. How fun!

I excidely strung them together and hung them on my entryway wall. Everytime I look in that direction I smile because of the festive colors.

Thanks One Artsy Mama, this was such a fun holiday gift exchange! And thanks to my ornament exchange partner for the lovely Christmas decorations!