Homemade ornaments

[alpinerabbit]

What.... is a white elephant office party?

[Flybye]

What.... is a white elephant office party?

A white elephant party is a party where you bring useless gifts for others and bring home a useless gift for yourself. I have done them at an office party and at church parties.

We generally play a game with the gifts - all of them are put in the center of the room. When it is your turn to pick a gift, you may take someone else's gift or one from the center of the room. The person who picks first gets the last opportunity to steal a gift. Gifts may only be stolen twice. At the end, we all take turn unwrapping our gifts.

It is a blast. On year a got a branch with an old shot gun shell glued to it - it was a "cartridge in a bare tree" - a play on the song "Five Golden Rings" - a partridge in a pear tree.

We have given horrendous stuff - a green crocheted womens dress, a do it yourself bubble bath kit (a jar of beans) and other fun and crazy stuff. It is just an excuse to get together, eat good food, and laugh.

White elephant gifts don't have to be gag gifts, either, just stuff you don't want.

Make sense?

[sgtiger]

One year I had my annual around the holidays and the office crew had decorated speculums into reindeer. They were actually very cute.

[Lifesgreat]

I liked the ghost the best.

Re: the gun-one summer evening a few years ago, our family and our neighbors made similarly shaped marshmallow blow guns out of pvc pipe. We decorated them with stickers for personalization. Some made "pistols", others made very long barreled "rifles".

I then got quart size zipper freezer bags and put twine on them so they could be slung over the shoulder and filled each bag with miniature marshmallows.

After our "guns" were assembled, the ammo loaded and we had practiced exhaling rather than inhaling through the blow guns (inhaling a marshmallow is NOT good), we walked through our neighborhood "shooting" people (lots of people were outside), interspersed with intergroup battles.

Days later, one could still see the remains of our activity in the road, a "Hansel and Gretel" path of marshmallows.

It was REALLY fun!

[wannaduacentury]

Have you seen the one where they make slippers out of maxi pads with wings? The story goes about a girl who can't afford gifts for her friends at christmas and she makes these for them.

http://familycrafts.about.com/librar...adslippers.htm

Jenn

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I used to live in NYC and read ARTnews magazine and other artsy publications to keep on top of the contemporary art gallery scene. Of course there was much competition to produce exciting new work that might get you noticed during the art boom back then.
I remember about 20 years ago I read a feature article on a woman artist in NYC who had a show in a respected gallery. Her show consisted of her own saved used feminine pads, each one titled and preciously framed in a plexiglass box and hung on the wall. The names were inspired by the various interesting patterns of menstrual blood, sort of like the old ink blot tests. There were pads named things like "leaping rabbit", "sacrifice", or "lost in red canyon" etc. They looked like museum artifacts.
At first I was so grossed out. But after thinking about her "painting" her cotton canvases with her own female body, and giving value to something from our bodies that was usually shunned, hidden, and discarded, it began to make sense and I could appreciate it on a different level.
I know, weird story....but certainly this thread made me remember it. I wonder what that artist is doing now? Wish I could remember her name.
Nowadays there are lots of women artists using menstrual blood as a painting medium, etc,...but as I recall this woman was one of the first long ago, and it was quite shocking to the public back then.

The online Museum of Menstruation (MUM) is always fascinating place to wander about:
http://www.mum.org/index.html

[Mr. Bloom]

I know, weird story....

Yep...I nominate Lisa for "Understatement of the Year"

[Flybye]

I am thinking that bodily functions aren't art, no matter how nice the frame. What's next, soiled diapers?
Not sold, not at all.
Ick!

[Aggie_Ama]

I must say Lisa is one of the only people I *know* who could make such an exhibit sound profound, beautiful and worthy. I am still pretty much grossed out though.

[bmccasland]

I am thinking that bodily functions aren't art, no matter how nice the frame. What's next, soiled diapers?
Not sold, not at all.
Ick!

Not art but when I lived on an Indian Reservation in Arizona, a certain tribal member colleague of mine referred to soild diapers and "burritos". Haven't been able to face one on a restaurant menu since.

[Mr. Bloom]

I must say Lisa is one of the only people I *know* who could make such an exhibit sound profound, beautiful and worthy. I am still pretty much grossed out though.

Ditto!

[Tuckervill]

By the way, a single length of PVC pipe about 12" long and in the right diameter works great for a marshmallow shooter.

Karen

I liked the ghost the best.

Re: the gun-one summer evening a few years ago, our family and our neighbors made similarly shaped marshmallow blow guns out of pvc pipe. We decorated them with stickers for personalization. Some made "pistols", others made very long barreled "rifles".

I then got quart size zipper freezer bags and put twine on them so they could be slung over the shoulder and filled each bag with miniature marshmallows.

After our "guns" were assembled, the ammo loaded and we had practiced exhaling rather than inhaling through the blow guns (inhaling a marshmallow is NOT good), we walked through our neighborhood "shooting" people (lots of people were outside), interspersed with intergroup battles.

Days later, one could still see the remains of our activity in the road, a "Hansel and Gretel" path of marshmallows.

It was REALLY fun!

[Aggie_Ama]

My husband and I have a group of mostly guy friends from college we still get together with once a year for a christmas party. The annual gift exchange is sometimes vulgar, always hilarious. We have decided to make the tampon shooter as our gift.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I must say Lisa is one of the only people I *know* who could make such an exhibit sound profound, beautiful and worthy. I am still pretty much grossed out though.

I'll take that as a compliment, thanks!
I too was rather grossed out by the feminine pad exhibition- yet I was also intrigued by it's idea and message and overall I don't mind getting a bit grossed out if it results in my being able to consider things in new ways that challenge my entrenched perceptions.

Like good literature, music, film, and poetry, visual art comes in many forms- it can be beautiful, thought provoking, disturbing, uplifting, spiritual, angry, funny, serene, shocking, heartwarming, grief-stricken, or combinations of those and other things. Distilled to its simplest equation, it makes us feel and makes us think, one way or another.

[salsabike]

My husband and I have a group of mostly guy friends from college we still get together with once a year for a christmas party. The annual gift exchange is sometimes vulgar, always hilarious. We have decided to make the tampon shooter as our gift.

Ah, see? This thread has served a good purpose. Maybe you can get the recipient to test it and you can post a picture of it firing...