winter wonderland

So yesterday was the ladies' event I've been planning for all year. Seriously, I picked the theme just a few days after the party last December and have been pinning and planning and crafting stuff for it ever since. It was such a fun theme. I envisioned tons of snowflakes everywhere. I pictured the stage decorated as if snow was falling. And since I had plenty of ladies sign up to host a table this year, I didn't have to figure out a centerpiece and set up a table. So I went full-fledged on making the stage look pretty. I don't think I did all that bad bringing my vision to life. I had help stringing the cotton balls, but the rest of it I did myself. I was at the church for about three hours three nights in a row to get it all made and up there.

I had glittery snowflakes, styrofoam snowflakes, cotton balls, and these big 3-dimensional snowflakes I made hanging on fishing line from a wire. The shadows on the wall really added to the effect. I learned about those snowflakes several years ago. I taught my 3rd and 4th graders how to make them and we had them hanging in our classroom from the ceiling. They are big and so pretty. I just used regular copy paper.

We had 11 tables set up. I got to sit at this one. My friend Kathy crocheted the huge snowflake in the center, the smaller snowflake coasters (which we got to take home), and the trees. She also made all of us a pair of earrings which were in the boxes that she also made. She has a degree in art, that girl, and she is amazing.

There were lots of cute snowmen all over the place, but these cookies won the prize in my book.

We brought back to life the metallic cardboard trees that I cut out and spray-painted last year. This table holds all the baby clothes, diapers and wipes, toiletries, and blankets that we collected for Options360, our local crisis pregnancy center.

My dear friend Barbara made the banner. They all have a little bling with glimmery jewels. Barbara is all about the bling, and this was perfect.

Barbara's sister-in-law, and a dear friend of mine, Sue, was our guest speaker. She shared an amazing devotional with us. Her husband is a pastor of one of the churches in our conference and she was recently voted as our new conference women's president. She is a super talented paper crafter, so you know we're kindred spirits there, but she loves the Lord and she is a faithful prayer warrior, and she was the perfect choice to have come and share with us.

So now that it's over, I can work on getting our house decorated (we did the outside lights today) and get the tree up (probably Tuesday), and get ready for our musical date night (Friday) and my cookie exchange (Sunday). After that, things should slow down a bit :)