Can We Say, "TACK-Y?"

As mentioned yesterday, my sister and I went to Target. (And came home with a large, twinkly Christmas Flamingo lawn ornament. I mention it again only because it is AWESOME.)

We went because I needed to get an ornament (not the giant pink flamingo) for a party I am attending tonight. I, of course, can't just get one. I want to get a pretty one that whoever ends up with it will actually enjoy. BUT, I must ALSO up the tacky quotient in my gift bag. Therefore, we were on the hunt for an exceedingly ugly, "Why in the WORLD would anyone seriously buy this thing" ornament.

Oh. My. Gosh. I left Target with a new amazement at the stuff that is available, and even more amazed that marketing research showed that people would actually buy it. For SERIOUS. (I buy tacky thing purely for their tackiness, full well knowing that it will not actually be used. Unless, of course, it is a twinkly Christmas Flamingo. That is entirely different.)

We are searching through bins - yes, BINS - of plastic, glittery, neon and feathered ornaments. Some ornament possess all of those qualities in one. Like the limey-green carousel horse head with hot pink feathers sticking out of it's head, with a clip to stick in on the tree. Picture that, please.

We search, and are seeing some good ones. But nothing that really screams, "I am so tacky and ugly that I'm almost cute and you must buy me if only to see the look on the receivers face!" But then...

...we see it.

In all of it's crocheted or knitted or whatever glory. It was hiding behind other similarly hand-crafted-looking ugly, as if ashamed of it's existence. We had to take all the other uglies off the thing it was hanging on to get it off, and it was worth it.

I just hope that the recipient appreciates it as much as I do.