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.