What has been keeping me busy this past month

Right after my last post, I got called to a new position at my church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  I am the 2nd counselor in the Young Women Presidency. We are over the 12-18 yr old young women at church. I teach the 12-14yr olds.  This really is a very busy calling as there is an activity every Wednesday night either with all the girls or individual classes then once a month we meet with the young men and have some sort of group activity. There are a lot of church related firesides for the youth each month and also a stake activity which includes youth from the surrounding youth in my church.  As a presidency we have to oversee a lot of things and all three of us were relatively new to this calling. So we had lots to learn. On top of all this we had to plan a YW in Excellence program in a month.  A MONTH...I could not believe we had a month to plan this party/program.  I am not one to wait last minute to plan things like this, so to say I was a little freaking out was an understatement.  But it had to be done so we had to get busy as this was happening on 11-17-12.  This program is an end of the year showcase on what the YW had been doing all year. What they have accomplished in getting their Women in Excellence program.  We needed to decide on decorations, food and their is always some sort of gift that is given to the girls.  I had made a ruffled tote bag for myself to carry my YW notebook/lesson books in.  Many of the girls had commented on how they really liked my bag. So I brought up the idea to the other two in the presidency what they thought about me making bags for each girl to carry their scriptures in. Neither of these women sew so they were a little startled and thought there wasn't enough time. I assured them it wasn't a big problem. The bags themselves don't take that long to make. The biggest thing would be to figure out which material to use for each girl as I didn't want them to be the same. I made 10 bags. They are a little larger then half a placemat just as a reference.  One of the girls in our program is not girly at all. She would live in flannel shirts and jeans everyday if she could get away with it, so I knew here bag would not be ruffly so that was one down, now onto the others. Here is what I came up with.

The girls all loved them and they each knew who's bag was who's before they looked inside to find their name. We also bought them little pocket calendars to keep in bag so they could write down activities as we are told about them. This way they could see at a glance what was coming up. They loved that also.

Next on my list of things for this program was making a cake. The program theme was Color me Beautiful and we decided on doing everything in a rainbow theme.  I had seen a couple cakes on Pinterest that I thought might work.  Here is my version of the cake I made. 

It is hard to tell in this picture but there was 6 different colors. Not sure why it didn't show up that well.  The cake was 2  9x13 cakes side by side=6 cake mixes, 5 cans of frosting for between layers and a double batch of homemade cream cheese frosting for the outside. That cake was heavy to carry.  Everyone was in awe of the cake and just couldn't get over how big it was and all the colored layers.  I was asked how long it took and would I be doing it again. It took one whole day to do between baking, cooling, drying a little to frost, layering and then covering it all. Would I make it again...probably NOT.  It was fun and I am ok with how it turned out, but WOW.

My camera battery died so I didn't get pictures of all the decorations we had around but as soon as the president posts hers I will copy and add them.  Everything went off without a hitch. Everyone pitched in to help with the cleanup, Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves a lot.

On Sunday I always go over to my cousin Dale's house and we have dinner together and visit, watch a movie, chat etc.  Sometimes it's just Dale and I, sometimes it's other cousins that come over. They all know it's an open invitation and are always welcome. So we never know for sure who will be there. But it is fun getting together.  A couple weeks ago Dale and I discussed making some crafts for the holidays.  This is what we did last night from an idea I found again on Pinterest.

The top one is mine, middle is Dale's and the last one is his sister Chris's. And then all 3 together.  They are made from white knit gloves. They were so easy and we had so much fun making them.  Chris really isn't a crafter she said, but I think she did a great job.  We all laughed, giggled and just had all around fun.  Not sure what we will make next but looking forward to it.

Here is one last thing I made during this past month for the other two ladies and myself to carry our things we need for church.  I made them from 3 placemats. 2 for the bag and one cut up for the handles and a pocket inside.  I had a couple family members who have asked me to make them the owl one for gifts. So will be getting those done in next couple weeks.  I can see me making more of these from placemats for the holidays/seasons. The possibilities are endless.

I know this post is long and lots of photos but wanted to document what has been occupying most of my time this past month.  Now need to get working on the rest of my Christmas stuff.  Everyone have a wonderful holiday season.