"Taste The Rainbow~Savor the Blessings" New Beginnings

The end of January we held our annual New Beginnings. This evening is held for the purpose to introduce the YW program & Personal Progress Program to the girls who are 11 turning 12 each year. This year our theme was

"TASTE THE RAINBOW & SAVOR THE BLESSINGS"

 

 

We've known for a LONG time that we wanted to do a "RAINBOW" theme for this evening after getting the idea for our evening from here~

marcicoombs.blogspot.com

Love that Marci Coombs and all of her FAB-U-LOUS ideas!!

So we stole the idea from her and gave it our own spin.

 

Here's what we came up with....

 Here is the invite that we made for each of our YW. We tied a rainbow unicorn sucker to each one. They turned out adorable & the girls loved getting an invite with a treat to eat!!
Below is a BLANK copy of the invite that you are welcome to download and use.

 

 {a look at the front of the room}

Each YW value has a color...We wanted to introduce these values & Personal Progress program to the upcoming girls by talking about each value, it's color, what its color reminds us of and the blessings that we've experienced as we've worked on that value in doing the Personal Progress program.

We assigned the evening's program to our YW & may I just say they did a TREMENDOUS job!!

 

The program went like this...

YW THEME-YW

YW LOGO & MOTTO'S-YW

CLASS MEANINGS/LOGOS-CLASS PRESIDENTS

 

INTRODUCTION/WELCOME-YW Pres

 

INTRODUCTION & TESTIMONY OF PP PROGRAM-Laurels Class Pres

 

SPECIAL MUSICAL NUMBER-6 YW {2 from each class}

"I walk by Faith"

{there is a new version of this song that now includes 'VIRTUE' value in it}

 

VALUE PRESENTATION-1 leader & 7 YW

We had a 1 girl introduce each value. We gave them a simple script to go off of and asked them to elaborate with there experiences & testimony.

The script was "Hi my name is __________________. I've been asked to present the value of FAITH. The color for FAITH is White. 

To me that color represents __________________.

I have tasted of this value and savored in the blessings by

______________________________________________. 

GUESS WHO? SPOTLIGHT & INTRODUCTION OF 11 YR OLDS-2nd Councilor

(we presented each of these girls with a large rainbow sucker}

CLOSING REMARKS-BISHOP

 

This beautiful frame is my friend Terri's. She let me borrow it for my wedding I did in December & since then I've kind of hijacked it. :) I've used it MULTIPLE times & just LOVE IT!! I think I may need to buy her a new one and keep this one :)

The decorations were VERY easy and cheap. The back drops were created with colored crate paper streamers. The balloons we hung upside down so we didn't have to buy helium. I brought marbles to put in them before we blew them up to weigh they down but forgot to actually put them in the balloons. I would highly suggest that you DO use the marbles if you hang balloons this way. Ours hung OK, but kept sticking to each other because of static and I think the extra weight of the marble would've helped avoid that. We already had the colored table toppers in our closet. Can't get cheaper than crate paper and balloons.

Side Views

There were a couple things that I made new to decorate for the evening.

One was the value boards. We had these in our closet BUT they were old and icky from years of use. So I gave each value board a little face lift. They needed it!!

I also put together the small floral arrangements for each value color. Believe it or not..I already owned the vases (from my friend Emily's wedding I did last year) & I had ALL the flowers in my craft box, EXCEPT for the white ones & the gold (that I had to buy).  But making those were pretty cheap & easy! :)

 

In the back of the room we had the refreshment table & a candy table.

The candy table was what we had for the girls as their take home for the night.

Isn't this table darling. Thanks to my second councilor, JAMIE PIEPER, for putting it all together.

I made the pinwheels to go over the candy table. Super easy but time consuming. They make me happy!! But if I never make another pinwheel it will be too soon.

 

My cute secretary, RACHEL BLASER put together these buckets for the YW to put their candy in.  

 For the refreshments...We made rainbow cupcake & rainbow jello to serve. Both were a HUGE hit with the girls!! I can't take credit for either though. One of the advisers made all the cupcakes & My mom actually made the rainbow jello cups for me.

My adorable secretary also made the 2 pennant banners that we had in the value colors. We hung one on the front table & one on the refreshment table.

2 things that I'm a little OCD about are having the paper products & water bottle labels match. I know...no one else probably even notices but it's kind of a big deal to me.  We've had these cute rainbow napkins in our closet just waiting to be used for over a year. Don't they go just perfectly?

The whole evening went off with out a hitch!! Im grateful to all my AMAZING YW & the job they did on the program that night. Also to my AMAZING YW leaders and for their help pulling it all together. I am blessed!!

UPDATE: I AM ADDING the BLANK files that we used for this. You are welcome to download and use. Just right click on the image and save it to your computer. As always, if you post these images online, please just link it back to my blog.

 

Thanks!!

My *FIRST* Reception

Because I could go on and on...I'm going to TRY to keep the words to a minimum. Let me start by saying that back in October, I decided (after MUCH coaxing from friends, thought & consideration) to start hiring out my services as a "consult" for weddings & home decor. I LOVE to do this anyway, so why not?!

Anyway, my first *OFFICIAL* reception was for a YW who I have known since she was about 10. She happened to be one of my YW, babysat my kids, helped me as a youth consult for LDS prom...and now she was getting MARRIED!?! {it was a moment when I realized I was getting old}. So I was HONORED to help out!! Here are the pics of how it turned out.
 

YW Christmas Gifts

 For our YW Christmas Party, we kept it S-I-M-P-L-E!! I was in the midst of JUST doing a wedding luncheon & planning a wedding reception for 5 days after Christmas. So I needed to make it EASY!!

Our Theme was "TIS THE SEASON." We had every leader bring a bite sized dessert for a dessert bar. Then I brought everything for a hot chocolate bar. :) the program consisted of all the YW leaders sharing their favorite Christmas story with the YW.  We ended the evening with our annual gift exchange, which is always a fave of the girls. REMEMBER...EASY!! The evening was perfect!! Simple, spiritual but fun as well with YUMMY food!!

For the handout, my adorable second counciler {Jamie Pieper} put together these fuzzy sock cupcakes for every girl. In the middle, we rolled up a small nail polish. We displayed the handouts on a cupcake stand @ the dessert table with the treats. We tied them in by talking about the new 2013 theme 'Stand ye in Holy Places.'

 

UPDATE: I am adding a BLANK copy of my invite for anyone who would like to use it. If you do, use it, and post it, PLEASE just link it back to my blog. Thanks!!!

 

 

S.T.A.N.D. YW Board Meeting

The beginning of every year, I have a YW board meeting with all my YW leaders.
We go over leadership training, our calling responsibilities {per the handbook of instruction}, teaching responsibilities, & the Personal Progress program.

This year I really wanted to discuss the Handbook Section 3,

 "Leadership in the Church of Jesus Christ."
 But also tie the evening into the new 2013 mutual theme of 
"Stand ye in Holy Places."
 

I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull it all together but was hoping to figure it out before our meeting. :)

 

As I was studying the handbook, reading talks & watching videos on serving the YW of the church when I came across the talk from conference a few years back by Sister Beck called "Mothers who know..."

I had a light bulb moment!!!

I thought I could do my leadership instruction & call it

"Leaders who know...STAND."

 I would use each letter of the work STAND & talk about our responsibilities as YW leaders {per the handbook}.

Here is what I came up with...

I pulled out a section of the handbook to share with my leaders for each letter that we discussed.

S-Strengthen-Handbook 10.1.1 & 3.2.3

T-Teach & Testify-Handbook 3.2.4

A-Apply-Handbook 3.2.1 & 10.5 paragraph 3

N-Nurture-Used a portion of Sis. Becks talk "Mothers Who Know...Nurture."

D-Do more by doing less-Handbook 3.3.3, 3.3.4, 10.8

 

Here is the handout that I made for each of my AWESOME leaders to that home that evening so they could remember the 2013 theme.

I just printed a picture of the temple out on card stock that I had put the word "STAND" onto & modge podged it onto a 6x6 tile.
Thanks again to Mindy Evans Photography.
Who has the most beautiful pictures of various temples and allows you to use them for personal use.
The evening turned out GREAT!! I am so lucky to be working with the most amazing YW leaders on our board. They are fabulous!!
Good luck to all you YW presidents planning your board meetings.

UPDATE: I'm adding the BLANK files for this evening for all of you who would like to use them for your own board meetings. You can download by just right clicking on the image and saving the pic to your computer. If you do use it and post it, please just link the file back to my blog. THANKS!!!

Hope this is a help to someone, somewhere. :)

 

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!!!