The holidays are over and more than likely you have tons of leftover wrapping paper! There are many ways to use and recycle this festive paper.

Here are a couple ideas we loved from Martha Stewart:

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Make New Year's Eve Party Streamers. (click for instructions)

Use decorative paper to spruce up basic brown clipboards.

Shred the paper and use it as packing material for your valuables. Use it to store your Christmas Meadowbrooke Gourds perhaps!

Please share your other ideas. We’d love to hear them!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family. New Year’s Eve will be here before we know it and we will be welcoming a new decade!

Enjoy these final days of 2010 with an end of the year Sale! Today, Wednesday and Thursday we will be offering 30% OFF all regular, in-stock Meadowbrooke Gourds gourds.

Click the image to start shopping!

The countdown has begun…only 5 days left until Christmas!!

For most of us, this week will be spent finishing up last minute purchases and wrapping up all of our gifts. Since there is so much to be done in these next couple days, here are some gift wrapping solutions from the Hobby Lobby that are beautiful yet so easy and simple!

For all the men that haven’t finished up your shopping yet, we are offering a Men’s Shopping Night tomorrow evening from 4-7 in our retail store. Everything in our store will be 35% off this night only. Enjoy free beer and hot dogs while you shop.

Look for more holiday posts all this week!

Two nights ago Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe held their holiday special and our Meadowbrooke Gourds episode was part of it!!

If you missed it, click here for a clip.

Photo from the clip

Roger our Washroom Manager (we featured him in a previous post!) with Mike Rowe

Right now, our Home for the Holidays Facebook Photo Contest is going on! We were so impressed with our customers’ holiday displays last year so we decided to offer the contest for a second year!

If you’re not yet a fan on our Facebook page, we invite you to “like” us. We hold regular contests and giveaways throughout the year. Our holiday contest offers the chance to win a $100 Meadowbrooke Gourds Gift Card!

Here are the rules and info for the contest:

There is a little bit under one week to enter so snap your photo and upload to our page!

Doesn't this just scream out for some ribbon or a Petite Splendor? White_Christmas_1.com

You can be sure to have a white Christmas this year no matter where you live if you just get a little creative with your decorations.  Have any old wreaths around?  Maybe the color has faded in spots or there are tiny cracks or stains.  Or pick a wreath up at a craft store.  You can get a really inexpensive one, one that might look pretty cheesy on its own.  And while you’re there, pick up some white florist’s paint.  You can use other spray paint, but florist paint interacts better with most surfaces – like plastic or especially natural wreaths.  Grab some white place settings, too.  You may do better at a party store for that.  But in either case, get solid colored plates and such.

Toss some Gourducopia ornaments on the plate. interior-design-do-it-yourself.com

Now, spray everything white.  That cheap plastic plate suddenly becomes elegant, and that old wreath looks fresh and clean.  Have any stray beads or little balls from other decorations?  Spray them white and arrange them around some pillar candles on one of your newly elegant plates (for decoration only of course), and you’ve got a beautiful, easy, inexpensive centerpiece.  You can see to the right how a pale accent color adds to the look.

Use one of our winter luminaries instead of pillar candles.

Or instead of candles, use one of our tall luminaries.  Or scatter some of our Petite Splendors among the white balls and ornaments for some color.  Or even better, use some of the ornaments that are the Products of the Month. Have fun and be creative.  It’s amazing how a coat of paint gives anything a new, fresh look.

For the wreath, maybe put a big bow at the top for color.  Or wrap it loosely in ribbon.  December’s Product of the Month can come in handy again: Hang some on the wreath.

This all-white snowman luminary available at our retail store would look gorgeous in a white Christmas display!

Our December Product of the Month. These are great for adding some color.

Oh, and by the way, while you’re shopping, pick up some of those tiny Christmas lights in red, maybe three or four other colors, too.  Hang onto them.  They’ll be  good for some upcoming posts.

Continuing on with our gourd drying process updates for those of you that want to dry your own gourds…

The gooseneck gourd is finally starting to show some signs of drying.  You can see, there are some patches of mold.  The skin has started to discolor, too, that yellow color is not a reflection of anything.  It does not yet feel any lighter.  The martin, as you can see, continues to dry and gather mold.  It is very light, but it does not rattle when shaken.  Neither one of them is very smelly yet, so they’ve both got a ways to go, and a whole long winter to do it in.  We’ll keep checking in with them.

Here they are, right off the farm.

Taken 12/3, almost exactly two months into the process.

Some moldy patches and some skin discoloration

from the Ladies Home Journal

There are so many things you can do to decorate and craft with gourds, and we’ll talk you through many of them on our blog.  But for now, a quick, easy crafting idea: Simply paint them solid colors!  Mini Gourds work particularly well and make a beautiful display when spray painted bright colors or metallic (like the ones pictured to the left). A recent issue of The Ladies’ Home Journal did a piece on the lovely simplicity of a painted gourd display.

We offer raw, cleaned gourds on our website in all shapes and sizes for you to paint yourself! (Our Petite Splendors from our Gourdicopia Collection also make a beautiful grouping if you’re not the do-it-yourself type. )

For your Christmas decorating and  table settings, try painting the gourds shades of silver & gold. Group them together in a glass bowl surrounded by evergreen and pinecones for an earthy, yet elegant holiday look.

Jessie's Snowman Ornament

If you haven’t done so already, it is that time for pulling out all of the Christmas decorations and setting up the tree! Decorating the Christmas tree usually involves some kind of tradition and just looking at various Christmas ornaments can send a rush of memories of Christmases past.  Jessie’s gourd ornaments have become a loved product line here at Meadowbrooke Gourds. The line includes a snowman, santa claus, angel, and penguin. Click here to see them all!

Also, our December Products of the Month happen to be gourd ornaments as well! These brand new, beautifully colored ornaments are part of our Gourdicopia line. They will add a nice, richly colored look to your home whether on the tree or in your favorite bowl!

The ornaments are 31/2 – 4 inches in diameter and come in five colors. (The colors shown are pumpkin spice, paprika and parsley.)

We hope you enjoy making new memories decorating the tree this year!