Celestial Spa Night

This week we had a fabulous relief society activity: Celestial Spa Night!  Although this idea had been on our radar for quite some time, we weren't sure how to do it and incorporate a spiritual theme as well.  We know that taking care of ourselves and taking time for ourselves is important, but sometimes as women we feel guilty doing so.  I think that's one of the reasons we had a hard time coming to grips with this theme and not feeling frivolous about it.

Having said that, this was one of our best activities this year!  Many people were involved in putting it together and considering it was in July, we had a great turnout as well.

Here was the awesome invitation/flyer one of our awesome committee members made:

So adorable, right?  She always makes the best flyers!

For the spiritual thought and the focus of our activity we used the talk "Daughters of God" by Elder M. Russell Ballard.  We honed in on this quote specifically:

We also used this quote from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk "Like a Broken Vessel."

Once we had our spiritual focus, the night came together more easily.

Although our night went well, I definitely would have changed the order up a little bit.  So, thanks to 20/20 Hindsight, your activity can go even better! This is the order I would suggest so you don't run out of time to do hand scrubs and/or nail polish at the end.    

1. Gathering (Hand Scrubs/Nail Polish)
2. Opening song & prayer
3. Spiritual Discussion
4. Refreshments & Presentations simultaneously.

1. As the sisters come into the cultural hall, explain to them that as things are getting started, they are welcome to use the hand scrubs in the kitchen and/or paint their nails in the cultural hall.  We set up our hand scrubs in the kitchen so they would have access to a sink and since several people can fit in there, they could chat as they scrubbed away!  

Here are the sugar scrub recipes we used along with some modifications:

• Lavendar Scrub from Pocketful of Motherhood  Love how this one smells, but it didn't feel as soft on my hands because of the soap in it.  However, she suggests using it in a bubble bath and that would be awesome at home!  I might find another lavendar scrub recipe that doesn't use soap if you want to have a lavendar scrub at your spa night.
• Grapefruit Mint Scrub from Martha Stewart  Love this recipe, but I used coconut oil in it and I would recommend using a different oil, like olive oil and almond oil or something else, grapeseed oil maybe?  I would recommend using an oil that doesn't have a strong scent so that the scents of grapefruit and mint really come through.  I also added grapefruit zest to enhance the smell.  Even with a different oil (not coconut) I would still recommend using the grapefruit zest.  
• Lemonade Scrub from Pocketful of Motherhood  Even though I followed this recipe exactly and it called for coconut oil, I would use coconut oil again.  For some reason the lemon scent still shines through the coconut.  This was probably my favorite scrub, just because the lemon scent was so awesome!

The nail polish table had nail polishes, cotton balls, cuticle pushers, emery boards, and paper placemats I got from Zurcher's so they would have a paper surface on which to polish their nails since we had linen tablecloths at the tables.  If you're wondering what those pink and green cubes are, they have nothing to do with nail polish--they are scented wax that I forgot to take off the table before taking the picture.  :)

No one even used our nail polish things because we ran out of time.  This is why I would do it at the beginning.  Besides, it is hard to do nails and then eat refreshments.  Doing nails at the beginning as people are gathering would allow for drying time as they listened to the spiritual thought and presentations.  

2. After everyone has gathered, have an opening song, Be Still My Soul, as well as an opening prayer.

3. Spiritual thought/discussion

Our spiritual thought was based on the quotes mentioned above.  The sister did a great job explaining how taking time for herself has helped her spiritually.  She also brought the other women into the discussion by asking them what they do to take time for themselves and relax.  

Some of the questions the spiritual discussion could include:

• What do the sisters do to replenish and rejuvenate themselves?
• How does taking time for ourselves help us spiritually?
• How does taking care of ourselves give us a greater capacity to serve others?

We got the idea of having a spiritual discussion from Sisters of the Temple 2nd Ward Relief Society.  So, thank you, ladies, for an awesome idea!

4. Refreshments & Presentations:

We had the sisters eat refreshments during the presentations.  This was nice because people didn't have to wait until the end to eat and it saved time at the end when we had gone kind of long anyway.  So, if we did it again, I would still do refreshments during the presentations. I liked the casual atmosphere it helped cultivate too.  

We had veggies & dip, cookies, and chocolates.  We also had delicious fruit-infused water! 

Don't you just love the darling chalkboard signs my cute friend used to label the water?!

Our presentations were as follows:

• Skincare tips by an esthetician in our ward.
• Massage tips by a massage therapist in our ward.
• Hair tips by a sister in our ward who always does the most amazing braids, buns and other darling hairstyles in her own hair.  

You could do other things if you have people in your ward or who you know with other "spa" talents, such as nails, makeup, pedicures, etc. :)

Here are some of the spa-like details that I loved about our decorations:

Aromatherapy: We had a diffuser going behind the refreshment table and a wax warmer in the kitchen.

Relaxing Spa Music: I already had this album on my phone.  I hooked the phone into the sound system in the cultural hall and it worked great! 

I absolutely loved how our centerpieces turned out!  Here was our inspiration (from Lovelyish.com).

 My rendition at home to make sure it would work.  I got these glass bowls/vases from the dollar store a while back, but I have also seen them there recently.

  

Here they are on the table with some cute wicker chargers one of my committee members had and some river rocks that I already had.  

Our chair decorations were super simple, yet really added to the sophisticated feel of the activity.  All we did was cut white vinyl tablecloths into strips 21.5" wide (doesn't have to be exact, that's just what I did so that I could get 5 strips from each tablecloth).  The bows were made from a different tablecloth that I got from Walmart's baby shower section.  They were the closest to spa-like as I could find.  The polka dots reminded me of bubbles.  All you do is drape the larger strip over the back of the chair so that part of it hangs lower than the other.  Then just tie a bow around the whole thing with the smaller strip.  

Our entry table was all ready for the handout to be placed on this wooden bowl, but the bowl was actually too small and the relief society president brought the handouts in a beautiful basket anyway.  But you get the idea.  I hope.  :)

The framed quote is the one from above. 

The handouts were scented epsom salt in a cellophane bag.  The quote (shown above) was tied to the bag with some baker's twine.

Here's a view of the cultural hall.

We also dimmed the lights, which added to the spa-like ambiance.  You can tell if you look back at the food pictures since those were taken after the lights were dimmed.  

All in all, it was a great night full of physical and spiritual renewal.

One last thing: If you have someone who wasn't able to come, and you wanted to let them know you were thinking about them, you could always make a little Celestial Spa Night at Home kit.  I'm sure it would brighten their day!  I didn't take a great picture of the final product.  I just put the hand scrubs and chocolates into some of these small containers.  Then I shrunk (is that proper English??) down the label printables to fit the small containers.  I also included a nail polish, emery board and cuticle pusher; a printout of the lyrics to Be Still My Soul, which I rolled up and tied with a ribbon; and finally the epsom salt handout/quote.

Blackbeard's Ghost Family Movie Night

*I apologize in advance for the poor picture quality!  Our basement lighting is not very good and it's hard to get nice pictures.

Friday night we had a blast at our Blackbeard's Ghost Family Movie Night! If you haven't seen this oldie-but-goodie Disney movie, you need to!  I grew up watching it and have fond memories of myself and my siblings laughing hysterically at all of Blackbeard's antics.  It delighted me to watch my own children last night when my youngest was giggling his cute four-year-old giggle because "the motorcycle was driving itself!" My oldest was quite skeptical when presented with the surprise movie and decided to go read a book in a nearby room.  Upon hearing our laughter, she became curious and came out to see what was so funny.  By the end, she was the one telling everyone how funny the movie was and how much she loved it.  She even asked if she could watch it again the next night with her cousins.  

To put this movie night together, I gathered a bunch of awesome ideas from the internet.  Here they are, compiled for you:

I printed off my water bottle labels and napkin rings pictured above from Catch my Party who featured Printabelle on a pirate party post.  Here is where you can get the free printables yourself.

I got a bunch of printables from The Brother Creative Center.  They have an assortment of free printables to use for various parties.  I used their bunting, pirate hats, paper chain, pirate party box, and their pirate party cupcake toppers (just for decoration, not for cupcakes).

  

 

This next printable is from Paging Super Mom.  You can see it in the middle of my other bunting. I thought it was the perfect  complement. 

I used this great printable from Making It Sweet for my Pirate Ships (aka hot dogs).  I would suggest using the smaller sticks for making suckers, cake pops, etc., rather than the long skewers.  I was afraid they wouldn't go through the hot dogs, but I think they'd be just fine and they'd look even cuter. You can see how adorable they look on these cupcakes.

Here's how my Pirate Ships turned out.

I used these printables from We Heart Parties to make my food tents.  They have a lot more darling printables for a Pirate-themed birthday party for a younger child.

I also used this tutorial from Diapered Knights to make my pirate bandanas.  I didn't do her cute iron-on because I was going to be covering it up with a printed pirate hat, but they were super easy!  The iron-ons would be really fun too, if you don't want to have hats over them.  I'm thinking of the cute kids on Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

And before I go, I can't forget to thank Pizzazzerie for sharing their pirate party ideas!  I got my food ideas from here!  So, be sure to check it out!

Here are the pics of how my food turned out:

This party was a lot of fun!  I was so glad my family enjoyed the movie as much as I did when I was a child. I'm sure it will be one that we go back to year after year. 

Board and Batten Feature Wall

I wanted to do something interesting on this wall since this is something everyone who came to our door would see.  I sat in the living room and stared at the wall trying to figure it out.  Then I searched Pinterest and Houzz for entry ideas.  There were tons!  Of course.  :)  I loved this photo on Houzz:

Beach Style Entry by Boston Interior Designers & Decorators Rachel Reider Interiors

I also did a Google search for "Board and Batten Entry" and found this lovely piece on Simply Beautiful House.com:

I love both of these photos and knew I wanted this lovely look!

Here is the wall we started with: (Don't you love the items strewn out on the floor from my kids coming in and out?  Just keeping it real, folks.)

The first thing Travis did was put a border around the whole wall to give it a finished look.  He just used the same boards as our baseboards.

Our wall has a subtle texture to it.  I like the texture, but I didn't want it to show behind the board and batten.  I wanted it to have a really smooth finish behind it.  I admit I am a bit obsessive compulsive though and a huge perfectionist.  I knew that I would stare at each and every bit of texture on the wall all the time and it would drive me nuts.  So, I begged my husband to cover it up with a board before doing anything else.  He had done this once before in our previous home, and he really didn't want to do it again, but because he knew it would drive me nuts, he very kindly obliged me and did it.  

He got this thin panel board from Home Depot that has a finish like a white board.  (When I was teaching elementary school I bought some of it and had it cut into individual white boards.) 

I came up with a brilliant plan of how to cut it by measuring where the battens were going to go and making the boards that wide so the battens would cover the place where the boards joined together. Any time and effort we can save on the finishing is what we want to do because, let's face it, who likes puttying and caulking?  

However, if you already have smooth walls, you should skip this step.  Or if the slight texture won't bother you, then by all means, skip putting up the backing board!

But here is what it looked like while the panel board was going up:

After putting this up, my husband installed the vertical boards.  We used 2 1/4" lattice trim, which we were originally going to space about two feet apart.  

Here's a tip: When you are doing any type of board and batten, find the middle first and measure out from there however far apart you want your battens.  Otherwise you will end up with different widths on the ends and it will look like an obvious DIY. 

It sat like this for about a week while my husband was travelling for work.  When he got back we decided to space them one foot apart instead of two feet apart.  This is when it got a little tricky because originally we were going to have only two horizontal boards and three spaces. I can't remember how far apart they were, I think it was a little over 2 feet.  That was a pretty easy measurement.  We had marked the wall and everything.  After deciding to do it the other way, my measurements got really messed up.  We had to account for the light switch as well because we wanted to make sure it was in a square and not in the middle of a batten.  

I think I tried the measurements about 5 times and stayed up half the night doing so.  (Oops.  My OCD is showing again.)  I was finally able to go to sleep when I remembered that if I found the middle of the wall and went out from there it wouldn't really matter because the top and bottom sections would be the same size.  So, that's what we did.  The middle is in the middle of the square with the lightswitch.  We just measured 6 inches above and below to know where to put the next board.  We drew a line.  Then we measured 12 inches down and made another line and 12 inches down to make the last line.  We did the same thing above.  Then we (and by "we" I mean Travis) started putting in all the boards.  He cut a whole bunch of the lattice trim to 12 inches and began putting them up according to our measurements.  Because of how closely we spaced them, this was a pretty tedious process.

Filling in the nail holes and caulking was not fun at all, but sure made it look professional! 

My sister and her husband were really nice and came over one Saturday to help us paint.  Thanks, Randy and Emily!!

Here is how it turned out:

I love the white, but I also think it would look amazing if it was painted a different color.  

Now to figure out what piece of furniture to place in front of it.  I am thinking some type of console table since we already have a bench in our entryway.