By LAURA BROOKHART / Community Columnist

It all started with Dirty Santa.

Last Christmas Carolyn Goodall was inspired to make her contribution to the annual family Dirty Santa exchange a stemmed Mason jar painted with a holiday motif.

At the party she hosts for her Valleydale First Christian church choir, she used the same idea.

“People were fighting over them,” Goodall said. “And they appealed to all ages. And I said to myself, there’s something there…”

Goodall, who has been a longtime member of Southern Decorative Artist Guild, said she has always been creatively crafty doing tole painting and participating in the Christmas Village show with hand-painted ornaments, some made from light bulbs.

“Basically we painted on anything that would stay still — T-shirts, pins, wood and recycled objects.”

After incubating her idea with sister-in-law/partner Sharon Chapman during the winter, they began to create their basic line that consists of the Good Time Wineglass, Great Time Wineglass, Home Brew Mug and Sweet Tea Glass, all of which can be customized with your monogram, your favorite school spirit theme, sorority and fraternity Greek themes or gaily-painted watermelons for summer sipping.

At the Alabaster CityFest, where they showed off their Redneck Partyware designs, Goodall said people were cracking up at their red Solo cups on wine stems.

“Everyone had to pick one up,” Goodall said, “And then they would laugh and say ‘You know that song, honey,’ referring to the Toby Keith hit.”

Goodall, who grew up on Park Avenue in Bluff Park, said, “Helena today reminds me a lot of Bluff Park back then. It wasn’t so crowded and city folks would come up in the summer to get away from the heat. We never had air conditioners.

“We would climb the fire tower and have picnics on the crest and my mother and I loved doing craft projects,” Goodall recalled. “Mother sewed and painted, did decoupage, ceramics and flower arranging. Times then were more simple.”

Laura Brookhart can be reached by email at labro16@yahoo.com.