Relief Society - Service Auction

Service Auction 

When your church calling incorporates organizing activities, it can sometimes be a tad overwhelming.

Also, rewarding.

This past Friday I organized our Relief Society's Activity.

Service Auction.

The whole evening focused on us ladies in the church, offering our time, talents and acts of service to each other.

I didn't take pictures during the activity as I was the MC/Auctioneer.

But here is a rundown of what I did.

Make Auction Paddles - These were the personal invitations for each sister.

A master winner's copy of what everyone won.

Questionnaire

Tickets for the point amount each sister tallied from the questionnaire

The cellophane gifts were from me. 

On the table above, I did a movie theme: a popcorn bucket, a box of popcorn, boxes of candy, and a bottle of ginger beer.

The one next to it was Jane Austen's theme: Pride & Predicjuce book, Jane Austen theme bookmarks, a mug that says, 'Go to Pemberly they said, he won't be home they said. Box of herbal tea and of course, chocolate.

The farthest ones were a spa-filled basket, an array of boxed candy, and my homemade body sugar scrub.

Carys, my daughter kindly offered her squishmallows and some stuffed toys that we laundered and wrapped in cellophane too.

I also had some fabric-made banners, pink heart wall decor, and a heart hanging decor for a girl's room

I felt that we wouldn't have enough in-person items as we had quite a few after the evening acts of service that sisters choose to do eg: babysitting, gardening, walking, sewing class, and art class.

I also got a couple of fast food gift cards and wood burned a heart with the Welsh word Cyfeillgarwch - which means Friendship.

Overall the sister brought along some wonderful things to auction too: Freshly baked bread and homemade jam, banana bread, fresh produce from a garden, and freshly picked apples with 3 recipes to go with them. Soda and chocolate, Toys, Pasta maker, Pizza maker.

We provided a simple table of treats for refreshment

Being part of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints is wonderful and as Relief Society sisters we get many opportunities to serve one another and those in our charge and in our neighborhoods. 

It's all about being kind, caring, and giving, just Like Jesus Christ did.

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Carys' Baptism.

 Well, the time came finally that we could baptize Carys and it came just before numbers of those that could congregate were once lessened due to covid. 

Also, there is one more thing that stuck me - struck me to the core and I shed a few tears. Carys is the last of my children to be baptized! I'll never get to do this again. Mind you I never thought I would get to have more children to baptize after my divorce. But - here I am writing about Carys' baptism. Child #7, daughter #6.

And to top it off! I'm turning 50 this month! ARGH. Where on earth did the time go :/

Anyway, back to Carys. This is all about her, not me. ( maybe a tiny bit about me - the mam ;)

Carys was so excited. It is wonderful to see the joy in her eyes and little nervousness about going underwater. Carys and her sister, Seren were learning to swim, Seren can, Carys was still wary about going underwater. But I have to say, Carys did great. 

And she was even more excited afterward as she had to get dunked twice lol as her foot decided to pop out of the water LOL in her own words - How cool was that I got to be baptized twice :)<3

It was a very short and sweet service ( covid regulations), but we had a little get together back home in our backyard. It was lovely to have dear friends and some family to help Carys celebrate this special day for her.

AS per usual, I had to make Carys' day just as I did for Seren. Which, I had decided to keep everything I used for Seren's. 

The theme was - I love to look for rainbows. :)

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GENTRI

When you get a chance to go to a concert - you jump at it with both feet and a credit or debit card lol.

With my 18 yr old daughter's birthday at the beginning of this month, Ashton informed me that GENTRI was playing at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah.

And within 5 mins, two tickets were purchased and smiles spread across, not only Ashton's face but mine also.

I have to admit, I love GENTRI'S music. 

The way they all harmonize is a delight to my ears, not to mention the three guys, 

Bradley Quinn Lever, Casey Elliot, Brad Robbins, 

are can I say, very easy on one's eyes :) 

So going to see them in concert was something I will always cherish. 

Their set list went as follows;

A million dreams

Edelweiss

Just the way you are

Medley of Broadway songs: 

If ever I would leave you (Camelot)

 Some enchanted evening (South Pacific)

   Tonight (West Side Story)

Danny Boy

Singing in the Rain/Hound Dog Piano mashup by the talented, Stephen Nelson

Believe

You are the reason

  (Which they dedicated to their wives! How darling is that!)

Somewhere over the rainbow/I'm yours (Jason Mraz) - mashup

Don't let go - This is where they played the video a long while they sang this song. Few tears were shed in the audience!

On the Outside

Dare to Dream

Bring him home (Les Mis) 

Now I have to add they also sang Let it be and one more which I didn't video :/ But both were amazing too.

Anyways, here's some pics and videos from that GENTRI'ific' night :) In which we were so lucky to get to meet the lads of GENTRI too and get all of their autographs!

https://www.facebook.com/GENTRImusic/

     https://twitter.com/GENTRImusic?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

I took a ton more pictures, however, I thought best not to 

Post all of them, or you'd be here for hours :)

       SWOON :)

Above, Left to right

Steven Nelson, Bradley Quinn Lever, ME, Ashton, Casey Elliot, and Brad Robbins

Below - same minus Ashton lol

Check out the awesome shoes the GENTRI Lads are wearing! And not to leave out the dashing suits too! 

They are so dapper :)

Now the Videos

A Million Dreams

Edelweiss

Just the way you are

Broadway #1 & 2

Danny Boy

Singing in the rain/ Hound dog

Believe

 You are the reason

Somewhere over the rainbow/ I'm yours

Don't Let go

(This is grainy as the lights were down so the video can be seen)

The Outside

Dare to Dream

Bring him Home

This was the encore song :)

And that, my friends, is it :/ 

Now how many times will I watch these videos 

- Too many most likely LOL

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Seren's Baptism

As a person of our church, when we turn 8 or join our church after the age of 8, you get Baptized just like Jesus and become a member of 'The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints'.

 SEREN WITH HER DADDY

ME, JASON, SEREN & CARYS

So, when our darling daughter, Seren turned 8 in March we knew she'd be getting baptized. A decision she made also :) 

WE ARE SO PROUD OF HER AND LOVE HER TO BITS :)

Given all that, I began the process of figuring out what THEME to use for her and the family and friends who would come for refreshments afterward.

Which led me to Pinterest and the theme of RAINBOWS

THE WONDERFUL WOODEN CIRCLE WITH SEREN'S FULL NAME AND TEMPLE WAS MADE MY BY ELDEST DAUGHTER JODI WHEN WE WERE IN WALES FOR A VISIT IN MARCH.

JODI HAS A WONDERFUL LITTLE SITE:

HYFRYD CREATIONS

 I MADE SIMPLE TISSUE GARLANDS

AND THOSE CIRCLE GARLANDS DANGLING ABOVE THE #8

I ALSO MADE THE TRIANGLE BANNER, WHICH I USED FOR BOTH OF OUR GIRLS' BIRTHDAYS THIS YEAR.

I PURCHASED THE RAINBOW WITH RAINDROPS BANNER FROM ORIENTAL TRADING

THE MORNING OF SEREN'S BAPTISM

 AS TREATS I USED 'TASTE THE RAINBOW' AND SKITTLES. 

I HAVE TO ADD - SORTING EACH COLOR BY HAND WAS TIME-CONSUMING. 

I made cupcakes and used Xtreme sour candy belts as a topper as well as making the cupcake wrappers in the rainbow colors to match the triangle banner and rainbow circle decorations. 

I MADE THE WOODEN HALF RAINBOW CIRCLE FOR THE SUCKERS.

I used templates from HERE AND HERE

How the table looked before everyone tucked into the food and candy and towers of individual rainbow jello.

YOU CAN SEE HOW I MADE THE RAINBOW TABLE SKIRT - HERE

 left to right:

Mark, Me, Jason, Daniel, Jarom

Seren and Michael 

 Breanna, Brad, Jade, Me, Jason, Jarom, Daniel

Autumn, Paisley, Seren and Michael

Seren's big brother, Bradley

and big sister, Jade

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Rainbow Tablecloth

Red and Yellow and Pink and Green

Purple and Orange and Blue

I can sing a Rainbow,

Sing a Rainbow, 

Sing a Rainbow too.

Who doesn't sing that rhyme whenever there's a Rainbow?

I always do :) I can't help it. 

So, when I was perusing Pinterest for ideas for my daughter's baptism theme - HELLO RAINBOW:)

Plus, it goes along with a song that the LDS primary children sing to go along with their Baptism - 'Whenever I am Baptized'.

Here's what I did.

Visited the Dollar Tree and picked up a bunch of plastic tablecloths, minus orange (which Walmart had)

Then came the laborious task of literally being on my knees for two hours for one Rainbow table skirt. I made two! So, four hours! BUT I think it was well worth it. What do you think?

I bought white as my BASE cloth. This is what you'll stick your strips of colored plastic cloths onto.

An easy way to cut the tablecloths is when you pull them out of the cellophane wrapper, keep them as they are. Then all you do is cut them in half LENGTH WAYS!

You will use TWO lengths of each color for one whole cloth. Which is one whole colored tablecloth

Then you begin the long knee hurting, the back-breaking task of sticking each color on. 

I marked my middle first and then joined both strips of cloth. Then taking one of those strips, I measured where the middle of that was and stuck it down. THAT way its easier to GATHER in sections and not be left with either too much or not enough. AND you'll get an EVEN gather

You have to GATHER as you go and stick.

I found it easier to use a yardstick to hold my gathers then taking a clear tape to stick it down

JUST KEEP GOING :)

AND GOING

UNTIL YOU'VE GOT YOURSELF A RAINBOW TABLE SKIRT!

I MADE TWO OF THESE ONES FOR THE FRONT AND ONE FOR THE BACK. I JOINED THEM ON THE SIDES OF THE TABLE

I used some extra tablecloths I bought on top of the table to hide the tape I used to hold the table skirt up.

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