Thanks & Giving Relief Society Activity

I got the inspiration for our End of the Year activity from this image I saw on Pinterest.

The holiday season is a great time to offer thanks for all that we have, but it's also a great time to serve.  And that's just what we did.

We started out the night by having a "Thankful Dinner" which consisted of 3 yummy fall soups: Butternut Apple, Cauliflower, and Potato Bacon.  We also served a bunch of different salads and some rolls.  I decorated using Thanksgiving decor including my {Thankful Banner I made and posted about here} which I love so much!

We set up the round tables in the Relief Society room and used real tablecloths and the real dinnerware out of our church kitchen.  We wanted this night to be special and using the real stuff just made it feel so much nicer! 

Different sisters brought centerpieces with the Thanksgiving theme for each table . 

And then we had several pies for dessert. 

Each place setting had a napkin tied with a dried grain of wheat and a tag that said, "So Thankful for You." 

So, the sisters came and ate and visited.  We invited the Young Women in our ward to join us for this activity which was great!  

And then we moved into the gym for our service project.  I found this great idea on Pinterest from {this Little Dresses for Africa blogpost} to make pillowcase dresses for {Little Dresses for Africa} an organization that makes and sends these pillowcase dresses to little girls in Africa and other countries all over the world who have never had a dress.  Thier mission is to give these little girls some self esteem.  I loved the idea of making things for some fellow sisters in need, and I thought there would probably be many sisters in our ward who had extra fabric they could donate to make these dresses. 

I was right!  We had more fabric than we could use!  Maybe we'll have to do it again sometime.  The {Little Dresses for Africa website} has a lot of information on how to make the dresses and how to determine sizes and package them up, etc.  

Here are the measurements we used for the pillowcases donated.

And here is the pattern for how to make these pillowcase dresses using just fabric donations.  Most of our dresses were made out of fabric scraps.  

Then, we just followed the instructions from this: 

{Little Dresses For Africa Pattern}

So with the fabric scraps we were pretty much just making a pillowcase first by sewing up the sides before we were able to follow the rest of the instructions.

So, we had a cutting station, where sisters determined what size the dresses could be accourding to the size of the fabric or pillowcase donated.  Then we had an ironing station with tons of irons where the sisters prepared the pieces for sewing. 

And then we had a sewing station where ladies who had brought sewing machines stitched away and mad as many dresses as we could!  I called them my little sweatshop because they were working so hard. 

A lot of the dresses ended up being really cute! 

We strung them all up at the end just so we could see how many we had made. 

I loved how colorful it was!  So many fun fabrics made so many fun dresses! 

It was kind of slow going at first as the sisters got the hang of how to make them, but I was so impressed with how many dresses we were all able to make!  At the end my feet were killing me!  But my heart was happy!

39 Little Dresses for Africa.

All About Autumn

What a gorgeous time of year!

I just relish these months when the world seems to be on fire. 

Fall is my Favorite 

For so many obvious reasons. 

The cozy warm feeling that comes over the earth is hard to beat. 

It makes me want to own a cabin. 

Happiest of Holidays!

Thankful

The older I get, the easier it seems like it would be to just skip over this Thanksgiving time of year and move right into Christmas.  I love Christmas!  And every year, the time left until Christmas seems to get shorter and shorter.

But, then I see a thankful display like this, and I am once again so glad we have Thanksgiving - especially right before Christmas! 

What a perfect time of year to remember all that we have been blessed with!

I decided to have a go at a thankful banner like this one I saw on Pinterest.

It turned out to be pretty easy!  We cut 8" x 4" pieces out of burlap, folded them in half and cut an inch high triangle notch out of the bottom, then zigzaged the edges.

And I ended up just sewing the flags to the ribbon so they wouldn't slide around - they're about 1/2" apart.

After that, we just cut out "thankful" on a cricut using glitter paper - "anu" were 2.5" tall and "thkfl" were 3.5" tall.

I glued them to the flags using a no sew fabric glue, but at our Super Saturday (craft day for tons of women) we realized that hot glue was just as effective and dried a lot faster! 

And I'm just loving the way it looks on my mantle this year!  What a great reminder it is every day.

After all,

This is the perfect time of year to focus on what we've been given, and all that we have.  As we move into Christmas, which can often be all about the things we want, it's nice to have a reminder of what really makes us happy in life.

Be Thankful!

Pillow Pumpkins

A few years ago, I fell in love with these stuffed pumpkins and posted all about the original tutorial {here}

This year, I decided to have a go at them.

I found a bunch of fabric remnants and put together five coordinating fabrics, then got some pretty ribbon, and some curly cues from a past grapevine project and I was set.

The tutorial I linked above is amazingly easy to follow, and after making one or two, I didn't find it necessary to even measure anymore.

The hardest part was stitching up the bottom with the beanbag inside, but it was only hard because it took a while.

I was super happy with the result!

And love the way they're looking on my mantle right now.

Fall Picnic

My favorite part about living in a Southern state is that we get to enjoy fall for so long.

We can take a picnic and enjoy the beauty of Autumn without freezing.

And there are sooo many good eats this time of year! 

It'd be a shame to have to enjoy them all inside! 

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Cozy Christmas

Sometime I think it would be fun to spend Christmas in a cozy little cabin somewhere.

Something about the simplicity of it really appeals to me.  Just sitting around sipping hot cider and enjoying the company of those you love sounds so nice.

Being able to walk outside and feel the snow falling in isolated silence.

To be able to actually use real pine bows and berries in your holiday decorating, complete with real candles, sounds wonderful.

I would love to be able to walk outside and find pine cones in the woods.

To see the snow falling and slowly covering everything in sight sounds so relaxing.

To go on long evening walks through snow covered woods sounds very romantic.

There's something so enticing about a homemade pie.

There's something so inviting about a real wood burning fire.

Something about homemade foods and drinks bring out the best in family time.

Have a tender, cozy Christmas.