October Relief Society Activity: Dinner with the Stars!

By request, I'm taking a moment to tell you about our October Relief Society Activity, which went pretty well.

A few months back, our Relief Society President wanted to plan a Visiting Teaching Conference, and asked our committee if we wanted to make it into our monthly activity. I'm not one to pass up a chance for someone else to plan a program, so I said, "Sure!" Our committee only needed to come up with a meal and decorations. The presidency planned the program. Her idea was to call it, "Dinner with the Stars."

In my experience, Visiting Teaching Anythings don't exactly draw in big numbers. Most people hear, "Visiting Teach................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" And that's as far as it gets. So, I decided not to call it a Visiting Teaching Conference at all, and focused on the star theme. I was hoping to get people to come first, and then spring the whole visiting teaching thing on them after they were there. (It worked like a charm!)

We had a food committee, and we wanted to keep it pretty simple, so we did soups and homemade bread. The bread was baked into mini loaves, so it made great at-the-table slices and was served with honey butter. We'd planned some simple bar cookies for dessert; that message didn't make it through to the committee, which was just as well. Most ladies sampled more than one soup, and everyone was pretty full at evening's end.

It took me a while to catch the vision of the theme for decorations, though. I just couldn't get past the STAR look. Once I connected it into a Hollywood version of stars (let's have a big fat DUH!!!)..... then the ball really got rolling. Our colors were purple and black and white. I re-used our black cloths and mirrors from the August Black and White dinner. I found these star centerpieces at http://www.shindigz.com/, on sale from $14.99 to $4.99, and grabbed them up. Then I picked up some purple star garland, silver star confetti, and iridescent snow from Michaels, and voila! Tables decorated!! Then I had two Brilliant Ideas that came after snooping around some party websites. You'd never know, though ... because I didn't use one idea, and adapted the other.

The one idea was to make a big clapboard, like what's used in filming movies. It was going to be out of black posterboard, and using my Cricut to cut white letters that would say, "Production", "Directed By", "Act", "Scene", and "Take". Then I was going to fill in the sections with actual chalk. This idea got shot down, though, so I scratched it.

My second idea was to do a Walk of Fame on the floor, like the one in Hollywood. I created squares with 12x12 black paper, made a 10" circle from purple paper, and a 6 1/2" star from silver hologram paper. I cut 1 1/2" letters with the Cricut, but I didn't do real names. I just knew if I did, I'd forget someone, and their feelings would get hurt. So I did roles of women: Mother, Sister, Friend, Wife, Visiting Teacher, etc.

I'd planned to cover each square with clear Contact paper, with enough to overlap the edges and thus protect it and hold the whole thing down at once. But then I was worried that with people walking on them, they'd stick a little TOO well to the wood floor, and I'd have a mess of cleanup afterwards. So it was a small thing to change "WalK of Fame" to "WalL of Fame", and instead of going on the floor, it went behind the lectern, on the wall. I think it worked:

Here's the laugh-about-it-now kicker: I was busily gluing these squares together, and I was three-quarters of the way done, when I read the writing on the back of the hologram paper I was gluing. It said, "Self-sticking Paper". Oh yeah. I'd glued them ALL, and just now realized they were peel-and-stick!! Another lesson in reading the instructions, I guess!


The purple velvet was some we'd bought for a Home Show display for Welenco. It was therefore FREE for the borrowing, and worked perfect for our lectern table with a few more stars, black cloth and some silver star garland:

I'd also thought to pull out the big spotlight that we have in the church building. It never happened, though, and nobody missed it, either!!

The program was NOT long -- a key element, I think. There were three ladies that spoke for a few minutes each about their own experiences with either being a new convert, or an inactive person, and how their Visiting Teachers were a key influence that helped them and did not give up on them. The final speaker was the Relief Society president, who talked about how we all can be the stars in someone else's life.

At the end of this, there was a slideshow presentation, which was photos of as many Relief Society sisters as we could get, trying mostly to get them in a shot that was an example of their life, talents, job, family, etc. One sister's photo was with her motorcycle, another was sewing, and another with her dogs, etc. It had a music background and turned out quite well. (A lot of the photos were also ones that we had taken at some of our past RS activities, too!)

We closed with handing out the newest edition of our RS directory, and also some Visiting Teaching magnet cards for the VTers to hand out to their sisters.

You could really take off with this Hollywood theme, though, and do a red carpet and paparazzi, and have everyone dress up, hand out sunglasses, etc. It would make a great dance theme, too! Oh, the possibilities!

It's all just Black and White

File this one under.... an original idea (mine!) that was a HUGE success!

As leader of the Relief Society activities committee, I've had my share of winners and losers for our activities. This one was definitely a winner, and it's one of the few times I'll pat myself on the back, because this one: I came up with on my own. (Many times I copy others' ideas, tweaking them to suit myself.)

Last Thursday, we had a Black and White Progressive Dinner. Instead of progressing from home to home, we chose to do the whole meal at the church, and progress from room to room. Here are a few shots of the decorations that evening -- most of which I did myself. I was trying to really keep the costs as low as possible, to save our budget for other activities. And, I have to thank the committee members and our food committee for the evening's success, though - because it couldn't have happened without them. On to the photos!

Our greeting table! The black piece on the right is the prize for our on-time drawing. These drawings are a regular feature with us, and we are sold on the idea. It sure is a great lure to people to arrive punctually! The hydrangea blossoms came from my front yard here at the Haven, and the white pitcher was where the ladies put their names in for the drawing. (The prize this time was some desk organizer items. We always coordinate the prize with the evening's theme.)

The tables had either checkerboard or polka-dot toppers, and the white tent-cards (with more hydrangeas!) were conversation-starter questions. This was the room for the salad.We normally have 25-30 people show up, on a good night. That evening, we had 47 ladies!!
It was amazing. We had to set up an extra table for the main course.

Here are my homemade black and white centerpieces! I was going for sleek, contemporary, and definitely NOT lace & raffia. Total cost for centerpieces: $9.00 worth of spray paint. The mirror tiles were in the church closet -- cost: $0. The black cloths were $4.00 of fabric (each), that I was STILL hemming that morning. Procrastination will kill me one of these days!

Can you tell what it's made of? Those are my landscape rocks at the base, painted black and white. And yes, those are PVC and ABS plastic pipes, of varying sizes. Todd got scraps from one of his suppliers for free. This is either really innovative, or really stupid. Your choice, but it looked good!

Our speaker during the main course talked about how things are black and white, while some would want you to believe there are shades of gray. She talked about how we should "Choose the White" (Choose the Right). She also addressed the overwhelming amount of electronics and media in our lives and ways to reduce their influence.

[...I say as I'm typing on the computer for this very blog entry! HA!!]

Then, I totally lucked out with these silhouette people. They're leftover from some dance over a year ago, and were tucked up on the stage. We pulled them out and leaned them on the walls between the main course and the dessert. I think they added a lot. Cost: $0.
Our dessert course speaker was from a local upscale youthful women's clothing store. She talked about ways to accessorize and change the look of a basic black dress (or outfit). So our decorations in there were all fashion related. We added hot pink to our color theme and had high-heeled shoes and other accessories (necklaces, sunglasses, purses) on small tables. We re-used the checkerboard and polka-dot fabrics from our first room. Cost: $0. And I have to say that almost all the shoes.............. came from Alyssa's closet!!!!

Here is a quick look at the dress and her items ready for it: We got a ton of positive feedback from those that attended, so I am checking this one off as another success!

I also have to thank my daughters for all their help, too. Alys and Darce both helped set up and decorate, and Alyssa was one of our servers, while Darcie stayed home with Emma for me.

If you're interested in any other of the details on this, please post a comment! In the meantime, my committee is moving on to plans for September's activity -- which is service-related.

Photography & Summer Softball

I am not a photographer. (Duh -- have you SEEN these blog pictures?) Todd took a photography class in college, but that was so long ago, it was with film. Yes, really. So for our June Relief Society Activity, we asked a sister who is a very good amateur photographer (she regularly does senior photos) to come and do a class on how to take better pictures.

This was right up my alley. Isn't it amazing how I can plan RS activities on things that I'm interested in? So I sat through the class, asked a few questions, took a TON of notes, and came away with the best advice of all: read your camera manual.

I thought it would be a good thing to do in the Suburban, as we were leaving on a 2-hour drive for last weekend's softball tournament. The one kink in the plan: I couldn't FIND the camera manual. I found every other camera manual we own, including the old film camera from 20 years ago, but not the one I needed. Wouldn't you know it!

In the mean time, I took some photos this weekend, and of course, the majority were softball photos. I've still got to find the camera manual, but in the mean time, here are a few photos from our weekend.

(Alyssa doing pre-game infield at first base)

While both girls played in the tournament, they were in different ballparks. I did not get photos of Darcie playing, because they were eliminated after their 5th game, and before I pulled the camera out. Whoops. So Darcie has my apologies, and she will get exclusive shots next time.

Another thing I got from the photography evening was that you should share your photos. So instead of taking 200 pictures of Alyssa, I only took 100 of her, and took a lot of photos of her teammates.

I thought it was very interesting to hear the different comments from the parents as I showed them the camera's playback photo of their daughters. They ranged from the extremely positive: "I love it! I don't have any pictures of my daughter playing softball -- will you send me a copy of it?" And then there was the non-committal: "Mmmm. Nice picture." And then there was the parent who didn't care at all about the photo itself, but what it recorded: " She's way out in front of the ball again!"

I understand there's different levels of competetiveness. But if you were looking at a photo of your kid playing ball (any kind of ball), would you appreciate the photo for what it is: a photo of your child doing something they enjoy, or would you pick apart the child's faults & mistakes?

Anyway. Alyssa's team got knocked down into the Silver Bracket after their first 3 games, but they came back to win their bracket and earned their trophy & t-shirts. It was kind of a sweet victory, since the other team in the championship game is one that beat us 3 weeks ago (score was 1-0, that they scored on our fielding errors). Coming back to win that game 6-4 was a nice retaliatory win for us. Alyssa pitched the entire championship game, even after she got nailed in the ankle by a hard line drive. We're pretty proud of her.

There is plenty more softball to come this summer. Life is good!

Life Lessons from Johnny Lingo

This post is a bit more reflective, so consider yourself forewarned. As Enrichment Leader for our ward, planning and executing quarterly Enrichment Nights is something I stress over. Not stress in a bad way, but stress, nevertheless. This past Thursday was one of those Enrichment Nights. I readily admit I stole the idea off of the Internet. I may not be original, but I can fly with someone else's ideas! We did, "How to be a 10-Cow Woman". (I am not known for overly spiritual Enrichment nights. That's the responsibility of the Sunday lessons!!!)

Anyone who's watched the 1969 LDS short movie, "Johnny Lingo," knows exactly what I'm talking about, and anyone who hasn't is probably thinking that being accused of being a 10-Cow Woman is a bad thing. (It's not!) If you haven't seen it, it's on the "Worth of Souls" video. Or, it's also on YouTube in three parts. See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-PLyy0XM3Y

So the evening went off without a hitch. We did have a last minute debate about doing the activity indoors because of the 100-degree heat. However, we decided that anyone who was concerned about the heat already would have made the decision to stay away, and besides -- we had tiki torches, candles in the centerpieces and stake-in-the-ground decor that just wouldn't work indoors. So we braved the heat under the pavilion & had our outdoor activity. The heat just added to the whole tropical island, Polynesian theme & feeling we had going, right?

The story of Johnny Lingo teaches a basic lesson that all people have worth, and a person will live up to what is expected of them. In her father's hut, Mahana was a timid, homely, socially inept individual, who believed she was worth nothing. As Johnny Lingo's wife, she became gracious, beautiful, charming, and knew she was worth more than any other woman on the island.

So yesterday, I got thinking about some of the other Life Lessons that are also in the story. I'm sure there's got to be more, but here's what I came up with, in no particular order:

1. Most people who are humble, are already aware of their own shortcomings. (And, conversely, prideful people usually have no idea what their shortcomings are!) No one has to tell a humble person what's "wrong" with them, they already know. Telling them just adds insult to injury.
   
2. Older people are generally very wise, and have good advice, if you'll listen to them. Moki's grey-haired advisor was spot-on in everything he said.
   
3. If you're afraid of something, hiding will not make it go away. In some cases, (like Mahana's) it will take you by the hand to lead you away from misery. In any case, Life will go on.
   
4. Aim high. One piece of advice for Mahana's father, Moki, was to ask for a higher price at the bargaining. If you aim low, you have nowhere to go but down. I tell myself, "If you aim for a pile of manure, you're probably going to hit it!"
   
5. What other people think does affect you. No matter how much people today say things like, "I don't care what other people think", it is precisely what other people think that can shape not only how you are treated, but how your life turns. For example, if your boss hates tattoos, and discovers you have one that he didn't know about, it will affect how he treats you, and possibly whether or not you still have a job. Do you care now?
   
6. People talk. Women in particular can be brutally painful in what they say. One of the most painful things is being laughed at. You have no control over this. But you have control over what kind of ammunition you give them.
   
7. Have faith. Mahana saw the first cow show up and dismissed it as a stray. Don't dismiss something that comes into your life that could be the beginning of the answers to your prayers.
   
8. If people are making your situation unbearable, you don't have to get violent. Just leave. Johnny chased off the island boys who were teasing, and then took Mahana and left.
   
9. You get what you pay for. Sure, some inconsequential things you can get by with paying the least amount possible. For anything that really matters, you have to pay more to get a good quality. Usually, the more you pay, the better the quality is. However, excessive prices don't necessarily get you anything better, they only get you rooked. Johnny Lingo paid 8 cows for Mahana, but not 10. He was the sharpest trader in the islands.
   
10. A really good red dress is something every woman should own and wear!