Monday, January 25, 2010

Box of Shine


I love writing a daily post where the pictures can do all the talking. I feel like today is one of those days.

Yesterday a small gathering of women joined me to send boxes of sunshine. Our goal? Put a ray of sunshine in the mailboxes of family and friends around the country.

We called the party, Box of Shine.

Theme?

All things yellow!

Each guest brought twelve yellow items and boy, did they get creative! Starbursts, handmade yellow fortune cookies, beautifully packaged yellow jelly beans, seeds for yellow flowers, yellow tea bags, bumble bees, happy faces, yellow toiletry items, m&ms, yellow note cards, calendars, pencils, post-it notes, and MORE!

All I had to do was supply:

Boxes, tubes, and mailing envelopes...
Packaging tape...
Ribbons and stickers...
Shred...
Scissors, notecards, and markers, and...
Fun stickers to decorate the outside of our packages (compliments of Cheryl).
Include yellow food (compliments of my culinary friends)
Some decorations

Insert great company...
Put it all together and what do you get?
It was a great afternoon of friends, fun, and food - topped off with 31 boxes of shine.It might be mid-January and cold where you are, but for a brief time yesterday at my house it was warm and shining!

Signing off until tomorrow...

20 comments:

Heather said...

I'm so bummed that things were crazy and I didn't get to come to the Shine party. But alas, the way Lily was behaving yesterday would not have been conducive to a SHINE party...no it would have been a WHINE party if she came along.

Instead I have my 12 items to contribute to the stash for next year.

Lauren said...

My computer FINALLY decided to like me enough to see Friday's video - Heather, congratulations!!!

Kat said...

Oh, that looks like fun! What a great idea.

Peggy said...

Share
Happiness
IN
Everything!

Katie said...

It looks like you all had a great time shining some light on others! I love all the yellow!

Cheryl Houston said...

The party was lots of fun. What a great group of ladies!! I can't wait to get mine in the mail.

:)

Happy Monday Everyone!

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Peggy,

Did you notice the great yellow cards? Even though you weren't in Grapevine for the party, your presence was still felt!

lindsaymarie said...

what an adorable party! i have to ask, WHERE did you find pretty patterned packing tape?! i've never seen anything like it, that's way better than the typical boring brown.

Diana Leilani said...

I had such a good time visiting and making these packages!

Plus, I just mailed them all off right after lunch. Working in the University Union does have some advantages.

Jessie Freeman said...

Super cute!!! You are so creative!

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Lindsay Marie...

I got the cool packaging tape at Joann's Fabric. It comes in a variety of colors and patterns.

A funny story about the tape. A roll costs $6.99 (a little pricey), so for weeks I would hoard Joann's 40% off coupons and each week for four weeks I bought one roll. Some of our readers have seen me in action and know I can be a maniac about Michaels, Joanns, and Hobby Lobby coupons.

futurowoman said...

What a great idea!

Cheryl Houston said...

Part of my Chinese fortune says this:

Wednesday is the best day to shine in any group activity.

I'm a rooster in case anyone else is, too. I'm just saying, Claudia. Wonder what we're doing Wednesday...

b.k.root said...

This is so awesome! You never cease to amaze me with your cool projects.

Peggy said...

:) yay! creative greetings!!

Sherry said...

Such a fun Sunshine party... What are some of the cookies... yum lemon? details

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Sherry and some of you other new faces...thanks for stopping by today.

I wish I could take credit for all the fun food, but actually much of it was compliments of one the guests. She has a blog of her own, dedicated to reviewing cook books. She happens to be one of the most interesting and smartest women I know.

I will contact Kelly and ask her to share more about her recipes in the comment section of our blog one day this week. Keep checking back in. In the meantime, check out Kelly's blog at www.bookscookslove.wordpress.com

jennlynnjones said...

where did you find the yellow tape? also where did you get your boxes and mailing tubes?

Claudia @ Highlowaha said...

Jennylynnjones...

Thanks for joining us at Highlowaha. We love welcoming newcomers.

The tape I got at Joann's Fabric Store. I mentioned in an earlier comment that each roll is $6.99 (kind of pricey), so I gathered up as many of their 40% off coupons and purchased them that way. At my Joann's, they are located right near the register.

As for the boxes and tubes... I love the container store. I have a silly obsession with clean white boxes. They have the best and in a large variety of sizes. Small boxes/envelopes are better for a project like this, because heavy boxes cost more to mail. The tubes also came from the container store. I love mailing tubes because the don't cost much to send, but they are a fun way to get a package.

Thanks for the inquiries.

Cori said...

Two of my people received theirs yesterday, and I feel like I had a "pay it forward" moment of sorts. I have had a crazy, stressful week and their expressions of thanks and surpise made my day! Such a great idea. Claudia, thanks for including me!!!!