Temple

Last night for our mutual activity we did Personal Progress! Yay for that! All the girls really want to get into personal progress so we've been focusing on that a lot lately.

Our theme was temples mostly because I really wanted to make this craft and mostly because it's a great topic. Nicole found an experience that they could complete that night, Choice and Accountability #3 which she tied into the temple quite well. She printed a cute little handout as well- that I don't have a picture of :(

I saw something similar on Pinterest one time and I've been thinking about it. Should we give it as a gift? Should they make their own? We decided they should make their own.

We talked about it and we needed 36 pieces to make 12 temples and Kristy said she had a lot of spare siding that could be used. Then she's a genius and decided that was a ridiculous amount of work to cut all of those pieces so she went to the hardware store and bought garden stakes! (Not steaks :))
She bought 3 packs of 12" stakes, the "problem" was we needed two of the three stakes (per temple) to be be a bit shorter than the longer one. Again genius she asked one of the employees to cut 1.5" off the bottom of two of the boxes. He cut right through the box and had them all cut in a jiffy.

What we did was use quick dry wood glue and put the two shorter pieces on the table just a little ways apart. Then we put a bead of glue on each of the inside sides of those pieces then put the taller piece on top of them. You can mess with it a little bit until it looks like you want it to. Then put a book or something on it until it dries. While we waited we worked on the value experience and by the time that was done it was time to paint! Basic white paint. Easy.

This is one of the many reasons I'm thankful for a very competent presidency who take an idea that I really wanted to do and they are the ones that make it happen. School has been very time consuming lately and I've felt really inadequate at my calling because there are so many things I want to do but don't have time to do. Oh well it is actually good because it makes me rely on those around me more which is something I need to do. Learn to let go!

On to the pictures which is the most fun part!

 I made these little quote cards and printed them on card stock. They the girls tied them on with tulle once their temples were dry.

 Taking a break with a photo shoot at the end of the night. Some of the girls had already left.

Here is a closer picture of the quote I made. You can go HERE if you'd like to print off your own copy of this page. There are five to a page.

This is our take on someone else's idea but it's the "easy" version.

Oh PS happy 1 year to our presidency on November 3rd :)

S Reception

I haven't even posted pictures from my own brother's reception in June yet, I'm awesome! I've actually been having issues with the computer all those photos are on and haven't gotten to transfer them yet. But someday soon I will post them, I promise!

Last Saturday I got to be in charge of a childhood friend's reception (open house shingdig). I've known the Pratt family my entire life and they're such amazing people. So generous and helpful and kind, and just awesome (plus they're my bosses!). So when they found out Haley was getting married in August they asked if I would be willing to help them. Summers are crazy busy for them and I knew with everything else in life right now, trying to plan a reception would be really fun for me, and not as much fun for them. Of course, I said YES! haha

I believe it was mid-June that we started the planning. Now I'll be the first to admit, I'm bossy and like to get things done my own way, which I think can be good, sometimes....but not all the time. So once I got the OK, I was off! Her parents took care of the food, cupcakes, chair/tent/tablecloth rentals and I got to do the rest. I seriously LOVE this stuff ok.

It was so fun looking around for ideas and inspiration and I had a really good time pulling it all together. It's hard to know someone else's taste (even if you have known them your entire life:)) but I did know she wouldn't like diamonds dripping from the tree branches and peacocks wandering around so I crossed those off my list (I kid, I kid).

It was a backyard reception and I think it went wonderfully! Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves and lots of people came out to congratulate the happy couple. I was so glad to have the chance to help them out.

Here are some pictures (all from my phone-high fives for attending a reception that I didn't have to take pictures at! I can count on one hand the # of receptions I've been to that I haven't taken pics at since I was 17).

Others have better photos but I only have access to my own for now.

I made several of these planters for succulents! I also made this chandelier out of wax paper for the gazebo.

Some silly details. Water bottle labels and wrapped silverware...intriguing! (These types of pics are mostly for myself so I can refer back.)

Tree branch bubbles! Some of my ideas are a little over the top to some (cough, mother, cough) and it's probably true but if it's something that I WANT to do and LIKE to do then it's all good.

Amazing HEIDI and her amazing aunt did the flowers! Heidi and I ordered flowers online about a month ago and they arrived two days before the wedding. So they were hard at work all day Friday and half of Saturday working on the beautiful flowers. They made 10 table centerpieces, 6+ ball jar arrangements, lots of corsages for moms/grandmas, 3 or 4 mini bouquets for the sisters, two head crown things for the flower girls (nieces), lots of boot-in-ears (never can spell that word)

for groom/brothers/dads/grandpas. Seriously so amazed. We had lots of flowers left over so just before everyone got back from the temple, I put some baby's breath into a couple bird cages to put around.

 This was the gate where people walked in. There was a guestbook table....

 A birdcage card table, a favor table.....

The favors were mini succulents that I made mini cement pots for. Kind of fun, kind of a pain, but it was fun to make the pots!

 I made 500 paper cranes to hang from the trees but it was a pain to hang them and I didn't have time to worry about it so only some of them got hung up. But it was ok.

 More centerpieces (and BBQ sauce)

 I had some amazing help the day of to get ready for this. I would still be sitting huddled in a corner if they hadn't come to help cut fruit/veggies and make trays, help decorate, set up, take down, etc....

 This is the buffet table. Bare Bones BBQ catered the dinner. Really we just went that day to pick up all the food from them and handled the rest ourselves.

 The drinks! We had a little mishap with the lemonade dispenser just before the family got back to eat dinner....the seal was broken and juice went evvverywhere! 

 The flowers were just so pretty!

 The tent where we put all the food stuff was really cool and handy. This is the dessert table.

Some more flowers Heidi made

 As the party was winding down.....

The end of the night. I loved the gazebo in the dark! The chandelier is now hanging in my room :)

 The cutest flower girl I've ever seen!

 And the last pics of flowers.

Wow I congratulate you if you actually made it through that mess of words/pictures! Yikes.

Overall it was so great and while it's a lot of work trying to prepare for it, seeing everyone come and enjoy themselves was awesome.

Promise to post Ty's reception pics sometime hopefully soon.

Chyla's wedding this Saturday! Literally 15 wedding invites in the mail in the last two months...cray cray.

"All that Glitters"

I have been pretty busy getting ready for a wedding reception that I'm planning for this Saturday but last week I decided I needed to stop focusing on myself because I do that a lot. I have a friend who is having a tough time with stuff right now and since I love themes and surprises and happy mail, I decided I should send her a little package. The theme was "All that Glitters".

Seriously if I could get a job doing this kind of thing, I'd be ALL over it haha. It was so fun to put it together. Here are the silly things I put in the box :)

 A couple frames for her craft room- it's a fun room so hopefully they will match!

 Who doesn't love lindt truffles, especially when they're in a bejeweled box. Her and her daughters love to do nail art so I got some fun nail accessories and put them all in a green glittered pouch to represent Elphaba. They too, are obsessed with that green girl!

 Remember the Wicked obsession we just talked about? I got green and pink nail polish and renamed them after our favorites.

 Candy. She has 4 daughters so I got a variety of candies for them to share. I also got a couple of those cute suckers with the long sticks.

 A few other glittery things- a pen, sequin ribbon, high heel pencil sharpener, a bottle of pink glitter, and bejeweled clothes pins, because who doesn't need those things? A tube of homemade epsom salt bath soak.

 Some random fun princess accessories just because. I found some glittered pink flipflops in the clearance bin so obvs. I got them.

 Hey it was glittery and an R. Also who doesn't love the smell of fresh crayons and a brand new coloring book? That's one of my favorite things!

Gum is yummy. To go along with the Wicked obsession once again, I painted a mini Galinda and Elphaba because I love making those little peg dolls.

It's always fun to get unexpected mail even if it is totally silly and random!