Hurricane Ulta

In the madness of Black Friday, I forgot to post my fabulous find from last Wednesday. Anyone who has an Ulta near them, this is for you!  Ulta often has great deals when you buy fragrances from them.  In the past, I've gotten a great pair of table lamps, a fabulous leopard travel bag, and soft and cozy throw blanket.  All this for FREE when I was going to buy perfume anyway.  Hello great deal!  And right now, Ulta is offering up another fabulous freebie that is just perfect for the holidays.  Spend $30 on any men or women's fragrance and get a free set of glass hurricanes (set = 2).  Ulta says the hurricanes are worth $50, and well, I think that's a bit of stretch, but they are definitely a great find.  The hurricanes are 10 and 12 inches each, and with each $30 fragrance purchase, you get one hurricane of each size.

Sooo...last Wednesday, I walked into Ulta on the hunt for my favorite fall/winter scent.  I went in there oblivious to the freebie, prepared to pay for the perfume and walk out with only the perfume.  But then, I saw the sign, "2 Free Hurricane Candle Holders with Any $30 Fragrance Purchase."  Imagine my glee! To me, glass hurricanes are one of the most basic, yet essential tools for easy, quick change holiday decorating.  The hurricane is beautiful simply on its own, and there are endless possibilites for holiday sprucing.  I grabbed my Burberry perfume and headed to the counter.  "Would you like your free gift with that?" the smiley sales girl said.  I wanted to say, "Umm, yeah, duh!" but I figured that wasn't exactly in good holiday spirit, so I smiled and said, "Oh yes please," clearly way too excited about my free gift to hide my nerdiness.  I paid, grabbed my bag and headed out to share my find with the rest of Matt's family who had been next door shopping for glassware.  Matt's sister was the first to catch on, "Wait, what, where?"  Then she was gone.  She bought perfume for both herself and her husband, and with a smart, thrifty spirit, rung them up seperately so she could get TWO free gifts (four hurricanes total.)  A girl after my own heart :)  We exited the store, and as soon as Matt's brother heard the news, inside Ulta he went.  Luckily (for me) Josh couldn't get his hurricanes on the plane, so he gifted them to Matt and I.  You would've thought he gave me a Range Rover.  Pure excitement.

So now, all I have to do is decide how on Earth I'm going to use these fabulous finds.  There are so many possibilities, it's a good thing I have four to play around with!  Here are possibilities for how these little guys might turn out.  (Note, these are not my hurricanes, just inspiration pictures.)

I'm LOVING the jingle bells and will definitely do that in at least one of my hurricanes.  The ornaments and silver pine cones are a close second, and the red berries would totally be the first thing on my mom's list.

I love using ornaments in as many ways as I can.  Here, they're overflowing in every shape and size.  Precious!

More ornaments, but this time grouped by colors.  Love the different shaped and sized containers.  This kind of reminds me of the candy bar at Matt and I's wedding.

Not a huge fan of the taper candle, but the nuts are a great and inexpensive filler.  This would be perfect for the person who does a more Earthy, "woodsey" Christmas theme or for my mom who has Nutcrackers filling every nook and cranny of her house.

I also think gumdrops would look SO CUTE inside the hurricanes.  So festive and playful!

But if you aren't in need of perfume or a scented stocking stuffer, don't fret, there's more to use besides free Ulta hurricanes.  You probably have several glass containers around the house: wine glasses, martini glasses, vases, glass cubes from your wedding centerpieces, etc.  Think outside the box hurricane and use what you already have.  This little mix and match scene is adorable and oh so easy looking!

 

My crazed in laws and I with our hurricane loot last week!  This picture makes me laugh so hard.  We just can't pass up a great deal!

So what do you think?  Are you going to run to your local Ulta and scoop up a set (or two) of these hurricanes?  What will you put in yours?  Let me know; I'd love to hear!