Lovely "LOVE" Luncheon

I KNOW! I am SOOOO behind in posting on this blog. It's sad really. But I wanted to share what I've been doing that's been keeping me too busy to post.

Back in September, a friend of mine {TRACY LOVE}, called and asked if she could hire me to help out with her sons wedding luncheon. HECK YES!! I LOVE party planning & decorating. It is one of my favorite things. And to think...I could get paid for it!

Well...OF COURSE I'd be interested in that.

The wedding was to be the Friday before Thanksgiving (11.16.13). Best of all, the wedding planner in charge of the reception was my freind Shauna!! So excited to work on the wedding plans with her.

You see, there is a back story to Shauna & I. We had both been in charge of the Multi-Stake LDS prom that our stakes did together. I was in charge of it in 2010 for Peoria North Stake. She in 2011 for Glendale North Stake. So we had gotten to know each other pretty well from that. :) However, we had never had the chance to work together. So I was thrilled to be working with her on this wedding. She on the reception for the brides family and I, the luncheon for the grooms family.

 

I wish I could take credit for the theme of the wedding but I couldn't...it was all Shauna & I just followed her lead. So what was the theme? Fall done in METALLICS. She had the vision of pumpkins & leaves all painting in beautiful metallic colors. LOVED IT!! 

Since I was doing the luncheon. My decor was much more casual than the reception that followed. But I still wanted it to coordinate with the reception theme. Sooo...how did I dress it down? With one of my favorite things...BURLAP of course.

Shauna & I used all the same color theme...red, black, white & metallics. But I added in burlap, to keep the luncheon much more casual.
Being that we live in the "Valley of the Sun." I suggested that we have the luncheon outside. We held it in a ramada at a church building in our stake and we could not have asked for more beautiful weather.

I set the tables up in a "U" with the Bride, Groom and their parents sitting at the hea d table. I used white table clothes as the base. Topped with cranberry toppers and then burlap runners going down each table. We placed bunches of metallic pumpkins down the table as centerpieces.

Here is a look at the serving table. Instead of burlap runners, I just placed smaller burlap toppers on the serving table to cover up the white table clothes & soften where the cranberry toppers met each other.

I placed a large grouping of the metallic pumpkins in the center as the centerpiece.

We served the food out of CASUAL platters and baskets. I wrapped mason jars with burlap & glued on a metallic leaf to serve the silverware out of.
Cute!

The only table I actually "set" with place settings was the Bride & Grooms "head" table. Again, the centerpiece was a grouping of metallic pumpkins. I put a large white pumpkin in the center with a large "L" on it for there last name of "LOVE."

 

 

At each place setting, I had white lace doily as the place mat with a clear plastic plate on it. I also had a name card, silverware wrapped in a napkin {that I tied with burlap ribbon & metallic leaf}, & and mason jar for them to drink out of.

I think my favorite thing was the name cards :)

Turned out so dang cute!!

To decorate the actual Ramada. All we did was tie up bunches of will branches & fall leaves with burlap & bronze ribbon to all the pillars of the Ramada. It was all it needed I think to pull that little bit of fall into the space. And although it was countless hours of work {spray painting pumpkins & leaves, wrapping/tying silverware, & numerous trips to Michael's & Hobby Lobby}, I had a BLAST putting it all together.

So grateful for the opportunity my friend Tracy gave me to do it!!

 

"Keepers of His Light" YWIE 2012

The mutual theme for 2012 was "Arise & Shine Forth."

So for our Young Women in Excellence program this year, we chose the theme to be

"Keepers of His Light."

 The whole evening was based around the girls individual testimonies. We wanted to spend the evening talking about the girls testimonies as their 'LIGHT.' How Personal Progress has helped strengthen that 'LIGHT.' How they can that light with others.

Naturally, we chose yellow to decorate in. I added grey & white (who doesn't LOVE grey & white?)

We also decorated with black lanterns & battery operated candles all over the room that were paired with pictures of Christ.

We held it in our RS room. Here is a look at the front of the room. The backdrops on either side of the large projection screen are just rolling chalk boards that we covered in white fabric. One of my Beehive advisers has boatloads of white fabric because her hubby is a photographer. I borrowed the chair covers from my friend who decorates for weddings. The yellow chair ties were from my secretary. :)

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the yellow and grey together.

 Down each side of the room, we set up narrow seminary tables so the girls could display their PP items. We asked the YW to display an experience/project they had done during the year that had strengthened their testimony...strengthened their 'LIGHT."
We also had each YW write down her testimony for us prior to YWIE.
That evening, we had a wood block with each girls testimony typed up on one side & The Living Christ on the other side. These blocks served as a sort of name plate for their display, as well as their hand out. I can't take credit for these blocks at all. My adorable secretary made ALL 25-30 of them for the girls.

"The Living Christ"                                          Testimony            

As the centerpieces on these LONG display tables, we grouped large frames filled scriptures that had to do with light. I made these & just printed them on card stock.We grouped lanterns and pictures of Christ around them and a few votive candles.

Even with 6-8 those narrow seminary tables down both sides of the room, We needed more space for YW displays. One of my AWESOME advisers has the idea to put another table in front of the piano to camouflage it. I LOVE the way it turned out. It hid the piano perfectly & gave us the extra space we needed for the girls displays.

 

In the back of the room we  had the dessert table, a small table for programs & a wall of pinwheels that we made to cover up the seminary display on the wall.

For the dessert table, we hung a painters tarp up behind it, to cover up a seminary display. We added the cute (and oh so easy to make) yellow Polk-a-dot garland & the Shine Forth Sign.

For the centerpiece, we just filled up frames with pictures of various activities that we'd done during the year. I WISH I had a picture of the DELICIOUS DESSERT that my first councilor made for that night. We wanted something "yellow." She make the BEST vanilla pudding parfaits that I have EVER tasted!!

Here was our small table with the programs on it. By the way, the program was fantastic. I really brought in the spirit to the evening. It went like this...

~OPENING REMARKS: by me :) based on Pres. Monson's talk "Believe, Obey, Endure." from the YW General Broadcast back in April of 2012. The prophet stated & I emphasised

"Is there a way to safety? Is there an escape from threatened destruction? The answer is a resounding yes! I counsel you to look to the lighthouse of the Lord. I have said it before; I will say it again: there is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what the lighthouse of the Lord can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. It calls, “This way to safety. This way to home.” It sends forth signals of light easily seen and never failing. If followed, those signals will guide you back to your heavenly home.

I wish to talk with you tonight about three essential signals from the Lord’s lighthouse which will help you to return to that Father who eagerly awaits your triumphant homecoming. Those three signals are believe, obey, and endure."

 It fit PERFECTLY with our theme of LIGHT & TESTIMONIES.

~TESTIMONIES OF VALUES: We then had 6 YW & 2 leaders bear their testimony on how a specific value strengthened their testimony.

~VIDEO PRESENTATION: One of my advisers had put together a video of all our YW bearing testimony on specific questions we asked them. This way EACH one of our YW were represented, but they didn't all have to get up & talk in front of everyone. It turned out GREAT!!

~CONCLUDING REMARKS: Our Bishop spoke about lightness & darkness. He based his remarks on the series of videos that Elder Bednar put out on that subject.

~CLOSING SONG: "Light on a Hill" by Jenny Phillips

For this song, we had our YW form a HUGE circle around the seats where everyone was sitting. We gave each girls a battery operated taper candle and turned off the lights before the music started.

The song started out as a solo for the first verse with only the soloist candle on. The rest of the room was dark. Then at the 1st chorus, we had a few more YW join in singing. As each girl joined, she would turn on her candle.

A few more started singing at the second verse until by the time we got to the second chorus ALL our girls were singing and all the candles were lit. Filling the room with light. It was BEAUTIFUL!! The girls did an absolutely AMAZING job with the song and the spirit was defiantly felt. At the end of the song I think the entire group of parents & leaders sitting in the middle were crying.

Here is our Pinwheel wall that we made to camouflage another seminary display. I can't take any credit for this either! My AWESOME second councilor made ALL THOSE PINWHEELS & I think they turned out DARLING.

The whole night was just PERFECT! It couldn't have turned out any better. I have to give credit to all my amazing YW leaders! They are the best & there is no way the evening would've been that great without their help.

I LOVE my calling! And my YW! I am SO blessed.
UPDATE: I've had lots of emails asking for the artwork that I used at this event. I have added it below. Feel free to download for your personal use. However, if you post it online, please link it back to my blog.

Thanks!!!

Girls Camp 2012

I LOVE girls camp...But I HATE camping! And even though I know Camp LoMia {the girls camp that services most of the stakes in Phx}, isn't REALLY camping...It's close enough for me. I'm just not a huge fan of sleeping on cots & with spiders. So the last 2 years that I've been YW Pres, I've just gone up to camp on Bishops Night. Which is one of my favorite things that we do all year in YW. We get to have a spiritual lesson, visit together as a ward, eat a delish dinner & then share testimony meeting with our Bishop & his cute wife.

This year our stake camp theme was "Rise Up, Step Up, Shine Forth." Which went right along with the 2012 theme of "Arise & Shine Forth."

The small lesson that I shared with our YW was talking about strengthening your own "light" and "shine forth" as an example to others. So to go along with that...I made each of our YW these necklaces to remind them of all their fun experiences at camp.

Girls Camp Bishops Gift

Every year for Girls Camp, on Bishops Night, we present our Bishop with a gift from the YW. 2012 just happened to be the 100th year of camp. So my adorable camp director {Amy Evans}, who also just happens to be our Bishop's niece had the thought of having our YW and YW leaders fill a book of 100 things we LOVE about Bishop.

She cut scrapbook paper to 4x6 size and we filled a small photo book with notes to Bishop. I then looked up online, other things that were celebrating their 100th birthday in 2012 & we filled a galvanized bucket (that I found at Goodwill for $3) with treats for Bishop & his family.

FYI-Things that turned 100 were, the state of AZ (gave a postcard & small cactus), Lifesavers candy, OREO's, Cracker Jacks (gave a 3 pack for our Bishops triplets), & the Japanese Cherry trees in Wash D.C. (gave Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion & hand soap for Bishops wife).

The basket turned out SUPER cute!! It was a great way to give our Bishop a little Thank you for all his service.

CHEAP Dollar Store Jewelry Organizer!

Maybe I'm the only one!?! I don't know. I've had a jewelry box for years but in the last few years Ive collected costume jewelry, I've had no where to store it with out it getting tangled up into a HUGE mess of necklace. Then I would never wear it often because it wasn't easy to see or coordinate with my outfits.
I was on a hunt for a wall mounted jewelry organizer where all my necklaces, bracelets and rings would be easily displayed and most importantly...NOT TANGLED!!!
As I looked & looked I found some jewelry displays online that I liked and would work BUT they were pretty spendy. I didn't want to pay $75 to display my jewelry. I'd rather spend $75 ON jewelry.

Then I found these accordion hooks at the Dollar Tree. AHHHHH...I LOVE DOLLAR TREE! They were well within my budget of what I wanted to spend. I bought 6 of them. Then I went to Staples and bought a roll of  Command Double Sided tape. I hung them on the back of my sliding closet doors.

I was so happy when it fit ALL my jewelry PERFECTLY!! All my necklaces, bracelets & rings are now on these hooks. So I see all my jewelry displayed as I get dressed in the morning. Let me tell you, that makes all the difference!! I wear jewelry WAY more often now. I kept my earrings in my jewelry box but even that is more functional now that it only houses my earrings and all the other clutter is gone.

I know, I know, they are NOT as cute as some of the adorable jewelry hangers you see on Pinterest or Etsy. BUT it is functional and it was cheap!! With the accordion hooks and the tape the total cost was about $12!! SCREAMING DEAL!! AND I love it!!!

Measuring Up!

Apparently these ADORABLE Ruler Growth Charts are all over the web aand have been sold by Pottery Barn. But I JUST discovered them!!!

The minute I saw them, I wanted one. I told my hubby to buy me one off of ETSY for my Mother's Day Gift. By coinsidence, after Idiscovered them, a couple friends of mine happen to be making these for our monthly church craft group. Talk about good timing!!! Soooo I bought the wood from them for $10 (wood measures 6' x 12"). I then stained the wood myself to look as much like a real ruler as I could. I cut & applied my own vinyl to fit it...again to look most like a ruler.

It was a pretty easy craft project. Only took a couple hours total.

My hubby hung it up for me on Mothers Day Weekend and I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the way it turned out!!!

All I need to do now is actually measure my kids. :)

"Your Future is BRIGHT" YW Grad dinner

It's that time of year...GRADUATION!!

I had 7 young women at church who were graduating from high school this year.

With the suggestion of one of my Laurel advisers,

we decided to host a graduation dinner for these sweet YW.

Our theme for the night was "Your Future is BRIGHT." To tie in the 2012 mutual theme of "Arise and Shine Forth." We decorated with YELLOW, YELLOW & more YELLOW.

We invited all the laurels, the entire YW presidency, the laurel advisers, the entire RS presidency,

& the Bishop.

We began the evening by having each of the younger laurels spotlight one of the graduates. It was really cute to see the girls spotlight each other.

THEN ONTO THE FOOD.

For dinner we served chicken Caesar salad, rolls & fresh fruit kabobs.

Lemonade & water for drinks. Lemon cake for dessert. It was all YUMMY!!

After dinner, we turned the time of to the RS pres. who welcomed the YW into RS. She talked a little bit about the RS organization. Then presented them all with a RS manual, the new RS book 'Sisters in my Kingdom," a bookmark & some chocolate. The YW really liked it.

We then had all the YW leaders stand up and each give a bit of advice to the YW. The advice given was collected in advance that we put into a book that each YW could take home that night.

Then the Bishop presented each YW with their Laurel certificate for finishing YW.

To complete the night, we gave each graduate an "off to college" basket that were put together with contributions from all the YW leaders. Each leader contributed one or two items they bought for a dollar or less to help fill the baskets.

Each basket contained:

Laundry bag, flip flops, air freshener, antibac hand sanitizer, bleach wipes, ear plugs, book lights, first aid kit, sewing kits, sleep masks, face microfiber cloths, advice book & Top Ramen.

They turned out so dang cute!!

For the rest of the YW- we made these ADORABLE light bulb favors. Found these at Hobby Lobby 50% off-making them .71 each. Then we added lemon heads to each & tied them up with ribbon and a tag.

It was such a fun night. We will defiantly have to make it a tradition each year for the graduating YW.

I am going to miss this group of girls SO much!! They are all beautiful and amazing YW!! Best of luck to them all and they head of into the world.

End of School Teacher Gifts

 Every school year-the end of the year seems to approach way to quickly. This year, my husband and I were going to be out of town during the last week of school which meant teacher gifts has to be done even earlier than normal.

This year I kept them SIMPLE!!

I found these cute insulated cups at Wal-Mart for about $4 each. I then bought Country Time lemonade drink packets to put inside of each one. Then tied them up with a cute tag and ribbon.

The tag read "Thanks for sparking my creative JUICES this year...

Have a COOL summer!!!"

My boys really liked them and were excited to take them into their teachers.

Grandma Gifts

This year for Mother's Day, I really wanted to give our mom's something they would use. Both Mom's/Grandma's have certain treats that they ALWAYS have on hand to give the Grand kids. My mom ALWAYS has fruit snacks for the boys. My husbands step-mom ALWAYS has lollipops.

So I decided to make them special jars for them to keep their treats in.

I hunted and hunted for cookie jars. Seriously...I went to 12 stores trying to find cute cookie jars. FINALLY, found these jars at K-Mart. Then added the vinyl on the front & filled the jars with the treats for the Grand kids.

Both mom's seemed to like them & appreciate them.

~Happy Mother's Day~