{Ornaments and Birthday Blocks}
Wohoo! We finished Super Saturday and lived to tell about it!!!
We had almost 100 sisters come to craft last Saturday, over 400 projects FINISHED!!!
{Menu boards and Family Is Everything Board}
It was so fun combining two wards this year, doubling the visiting and the number of helpers :0)
We went from 9am to 2pm and had ladies working every minute of the day.
{Easter Family Home Evening Kit Assembly Line}
Most of the ladies were there to work on projects, but another handful came just for lunch or to help with the projects. Gotta love those ladies that came just to help! You're my favorite ;0)
This banquet table design had been floating around in my head for a while. I knew how I wanted to place everything, but come 10pm Friday night I nearly bagged the whole thing. Thanks to my supportive friends that just wouldn't let me quite{crazy ladies} we pulled it off.
The balls paper lanterns were especially vexing. The lanterns themselves go together super easy, but getting them to look like the picture I had in my head was another story. I finally just strung them up in a sporadically organized fashion and called it good.
I think it turned out nicely though. You know how crazy I am about decorating the whole space, ceiling to floor. We were limited by budget, but I think next year I will add a curtain behind the table to hide the church-y looking walls.
My little tree was a must-do. I drove the toddlers out to the local dump site {we called it a field trip} to look for branches. I found the perfect stack, sawed off a couple, and took them home to spray paint espresso brown. I filled an old metal bucket with rocks, jabbed the branches deep inside, then placed pine cones strategically to keep the branches in place. I bet you didn't guess that this tree was really being held together by pine cones, huh? I took leftover paper from my centerpieces and punched the circles for my paper dot garland hung on the branches. You can read how to make one Here. Just substitute "paper" for "fabric" when regarding the circles.
Once I finished the miles and piles of blocks needing to be cut and sanded for the craft orders, I set about cutting and sanding wood for the centerpieces. I used a Thanksgiving theme this year, making fall leaves, acorns, pumpkins, and my personal favorite...
Trees! Oh my gosh, was this tree L-O-V-E at first sight. I saw a clip art, like 1" big, and that was what actually inspired this tree. I created a much larger version, moved the branches farther apart, and added the little birdie, sentiment block and pumpkin/acorn to make a complete set. My whole goal at the end of this ordeal was to leave with one tree in my possession. I almost did it too :0)
Guess we will have to make more!
I made centerpieces for 8 tables and the main buffet table. At the end of the day, they were divided among the many people that helped pre-paint wood or put together kits during our prep period before Super Saturday.
I also started a new thing this year. I pulled aside 5 of the finished projects, including 2 of the coveted trees, to give away as prizes in our Finished Project Drawing. Each lady could enter her name in the drawing, once for each project she finished. At closing, we drew to see who won the crafts. I got a kick out of how excited everyone got. There were a few ladies, all finished, just standing around waiting to see if they had won.
So for the food, we served soup and pumpkin bread bowls. I was stopped all over the place by people wondering where I got the bread bowls. There were a good number of insane people that thought I had made those too. I assure you, I don't "do" bread :0)
I purchased the bread bowls at the cute little bakery in Mesa, Arizona, Whole Grain Natural Bread Co.
About this time of year you can get the pumpkins in the store front, but you may want to call ahead just to make sure they have some. When placing a larger order, I would call or go in a week in advance if not more. Those "gourd"eous little things are in high demand.
We had 12 sisters bring in their own special soups, each one was to die for I promise you! I heard several ladies saying that they had to go back even 5 or 6 times to try a sampling of all the different soups. We did have two casualties, unfortunately. Two sweet sisters' soup meet early deaths via accidents in the car before ever reaching the church. Uggg! Thank you for your efforts anyway you poor ladies! Soup can be a lot of work, and to feed a whole pot to your back seat makes me want to cry for you! That may be an upcoming project, huh? A soup transportation system :0)
Anyway, we had a great time crafting, visiting, eating and laughing.
Ladies and glue guns sprinkled through out the hall.
{Temple Bracelet Table}
{Play Food Wooden Blocks}
{More Play food Makers}
{My Slave Laborers cutting Play Food Labels-I'll love you forever!}
Just in case you are interested, I included some of the printables from the table decorations.
Here are the Food Placecard tent cards. I just printed them like a photo, picked them up from Costco Photo Center, and had the ladies write what kind of soup or snack they brought to share. You can click on the image. When the bigger image comes up, right click, save to your computer, and then treat it like any photo you took yourself to get it printed. You can write on these with a reliable ball point pen, or just use a sharpie, then simply fold in half and place on the table.
The following are the printables I used to make the sentiment blocks for the centerpieces.
Do the same to save and print. Cut 2x4 blocks to 4 1/2" wide for the first couple of these prints. Cut the print in half and modge podge to a painted block.
These prints were modge podged to a painted block made from 2x3" wood. I cut the blocks to 6 1/2" long.
Whew! What a lot of fun, but what a lot of work. The following is probably one of my favorite pictures from the event...
For one, it shows that the whole thing is finally over. For another, my poor Madison didn't have even one more ounce of energy left to even stand while finishing up the sweeping. I knew just how she felt.
What a doll! She was such a huge help. I was kind of a mess through this whole thing. I started out very organized and ready to go, but when everything happened with Grandma's death and having to leave town twice during my prep time for days at a time, I kind of fell apart.
There are no words to express my gratitude to my {So Sweet} husband for carrying me through the past four weeks. Again, no words for my dear friends that showed up at my door to pull me through another day of unimaginable work loads. By some miracle, all the projects got cut, painted, kits assembled, supplies purchased, people called, event executed, and finally done.
Thank you everyone who made this craft endeavor possible and for anyone who gave me even the smallest ounce of support. I really couldn't have done it without you all!!!!
