Giving someone a surprise is SO MUCH FUN. That’s just one of the reasons that I love being a blogger who gives products away all the time. I have a blast sending out those good news emails to the lucky winners. I get to have a Santa Claus moment several times each week!

I also really enjoy getting the opportunity to give a gift to people in my life for no particular reason. Personally, I find those unexpected gifts to be some of the most memorable.

Recently, I had the opportunity to give a gift to my blog assistant, Alanna. I’ve mentioned Alanna before, and I’d like to take another moment to highlight all the great work she does for this site. She works tirelessly behind the scenes to promote all these fantastic giveaways we have, and her posts on various contest sites and on Facebook and Twitter are the reason so many of you found your way to this corner of the blogosphere.

Alanna takes care of most of the parts of running this blog that tend to wear me out (indeed, like any type of work, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine!). Honestly, if I didn’t have her help, I likely would have burned out and quit blogging a long time ago (GASP!). But because of her help, I am still very joyful about blogging and it is something that I look forward to doing (almost) every single day!

So yeah, Alanna is an important person in the life of this blog! And I wanted to give her a gift to express my gratitude. So I asked her to hop over to one of my favorite online shopping destinations, , and pick out the perfect piece for her home.

She was so thrilled! She and her husband combed through the site and selected the perfect piece for their home. I didn’t want to pick out the art for her, because I think that art is a really personal thing, and it can be difficult to capture someone else’s style rather than simply picking out what you personally like.

Here’s Alanna’s precious daughter enjoying the process of unwrapping their art. This is a familiar scene to me, as Darah LOVES to play with all that bubble wrap, too!

And here’s the piece, which is on birchwood (it is such a cool look!) hanging on their wall!

I really had fun seeing what they chose. I think the piece is absolutely stunning, yet it is something I’ve never even noticed on Gallery Direct before, as I tend to search for art with cooler colors (blues, greens, yellows and grays). Did you catch that? You can search for art by color on Gallery Direct. That’s one of my favorite features of the site!

If you love the idea of giving a piece of art as a gift, but would much rather completely surprise the recipient with a finished piece, you might also want to consider uploading a photo (those are easier to get your hands on thanks to Facebook, Flickr and Instagram!) and have it turned into a work of art to hang in the home. And right now, all gallery wraps of photo uploads are 50% off! Woo hoo!!!! I’m actually going to be getting a wedding picture put on canvas for my sister and her husband as their Christmas present this year (they got married in May).

I’m so happy that I was able to give Alanna a piece of art to hang in her home. I think it is a very special type of gift, and it definitely inspires me to start paying closer attention to the artistic style of my friends and family so that I might be able to gift some art to them in the future! I’d love to hear if you have any tips for choosing art as a gift for someone else…it can be tricky! 

Disclosure: I serve as a blog ambassador for Gallery Direct. Product samples are provided as part of the program. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.