Pearls of Wisdom Poem & Bracelet

For Young Women's (YW) camp this year we went with a nautical theme, to go with this years Mutual theme.  So of course, we tried to find everything that was 'sea worthy' for our YW camp 'cruise'.

We found these cute pearl bracelets and tutorial on 'thecraftyblogstalker' so we bought hemp twine and a load of pearls, with the idea that the girls would share 'pearls of wisdom' each night to everyone or to a particular YW (it was really lovely and quite entertaining too).  With each 'pearl of wisdom' shared they would get a 'pearl of wisdom' for their bracelet.

We bought the 1mm hemp twine thinking that would be small enough to fit through the holes and a selection of different sized pearls.  We ended up having to buy 0.5mm twine, and we found only the 8mm and 10mm pearl beads fitted comfortably on the twine (I wriggled a metal skewer in the holes if they were a bit blocked) for our bracelets.

We gave each girl four strands of twine already knotted (as described in the blog tutorial link) at the beginning of camp, but in the end the girls made all different sorts of bracelets....unfortunately this is the only one I got a photo of.

And here's the poem I wrote to help the girls catch the vision of what we'd like them share....the idea came to me during the midnight hours, or as we like to call it in our Presidency 'creative hour' lol!?!

(poem can only be used for personal use)

Enjoy hearing and sharing those pearls of wisdom.

'Kinder' pillow treat

I don't know how many times I've bought the 'Kinder' eggs, chocolate etc before, and it was only the other week that I noticed (while I was trawling the sweetie aisle to get some inspiration for YW camp) that it actually says kinder!!!  Doh!  How have I missed that all these years!??!

So I then rushed home with my chocolate stash determined to find a quote from General Conference that used the word kinder, and instantly loved (and remembered) this quote from Gordon B. Hinckley.

I then used glu dots to stick the chocolate to the card so that the Young Women could keep the handout after camp (hopefully some of them did??), and then popped them into a sealable cellophane bag.  Job done....and now the agonizing wait to give them to the girls!!  

The girls loved them, and were the same as me about not noticing that it actually said 'kinder', glad I wasn't the only one, lol!?!

Just right click on image above 

& 'save as' to your computer

(for personal use only)

Now that our camp is over, there will be more Young Women's camp ideas coming your way soon....seriously can't wait for next year, I love our girls!!

P.E.G.S. bag

Here's another gift that I gave at Christmas, this time to my mum :)

Being one of eleven children and number eight in line, my mum has received lots of lovely presents over the years and has a house full of Willow Tree figures (I would have a small collection, but I'm currently down to one!...my kids love looking/playing/touch them, oh well).

So I tried to think of something that my mum would use most days, that would make her smile, and let her constantly know how much we love her, especially as we are a five hour drive away!!...Basically, I wanted to give her a big KugAll in a pressie.

And hey presto, the cogs got working and I came up with the idea for a P.E.G.S. bag...Positive Expressions Generate Smiles!!

click here for to download

 P.E.G.S. image

You need to print the image onto a medium weight fabric, by ironing freezer paper to the back to help stiffen it up so it will go through your printer like a piece of paper...here's the link to my post 'How to print on fabric using your printer'.

I was sooo excited when I was making this and then getting the kids to write on the pegs what they loved about Grandma, and of course I had to write on some too...I couldn't believe I was having one of my excited, clapping my hands with joy moments over a peg bag and some pegs, haha!!

My mum absolutely loved it, and she can't wait for this lovely English weather to brighten up so that she can use them...and if that doesn't happen any time soon, I'll be making her an indoor washing line for her Christmas present next year, haha!! ;) 

Quick and Easy tips for PEGS bag...

• buy a peg bag, print off the PEGS image onto your fabric, and then sew on the front.
• buy a peg bag, and use a sharpie pen to write the phrase on.

For Peace at Home

I can't believe it's been two months since Conference, time is just flying by!!?!  I loved conference and didn't know where to start with the things I've learnt and the FHE's and activities that we've got planned....soooo excited, can you tell??!?  We decided to start with Elder Richard G. Scott's talk entitled 'For Peace at Home'.

As Elder Scott spoke the words below in his talk an image popped into my head and I sketched it down in my notebook so that I wouldn't forget.

I’m sure you can identify the fundamental principles that center your home on the Savior. The prophetic counsel to have daily personal andfamily prayer, daily personal and family scripture study, and weekly family home evening are the essential, weight-bearing beams in the construction of a Christ-centered home. Without these regular practices it will be difficult to find the desired and much-needed peace and refuge from the world.

I'm still not super duper at doing graphic images but I'm good at sharing (lol) and hopefully getting better at it as I go?!!  Well this is what I came up with.

to download file

click here

We used this talk as our guide tonight for FHE, there was sooo much in the talk that we could focus on, and I didn't want to leave any of it out, so I broke it up into smaller bite size chunks/topics so that the kids could take it all in.

I stuck a picture of the Saviour in the centre of a piece of paper and after we had read each of the quotes from the talk, we discussed them and then wrote on the paper what we could do to make Christ the centre of our home.

This is now stuck on our kitchen door as a reminder of what we are going to try to do to make our home more peaceful (here's hoping!!) and Christ centered.

For the activity at the end of the lesson, everyone got a strawberry lace and we put a big bowl of Cheerios in the middle of us all.  One by one we had to say something that made us 'cheery' (aka happy), and then we could put one cheerio on our lace...we set a time limit of 5 minutes to do it, so everyone was trying to think of things to say as quickly as they could.

It started off well with the kids saying things and quickly threading on their Cheerio so that they were ready for their next go.  It was only as we were half way through the game that the older kids noticed that every time they were saying something my three year old was repeating it and handing a Cheerio to his dad to thread on...hence his lace had lots more than the others, then everybody just went for it and shouted out lots of 'cheery' things with no waiting this time...it was really funny, and we had such good giggle at it all.

I really enjoyed the lesson and game tonight, but more so the game...it wasn't particularly peaceful, but hopefully we heard some of the things that makes others in our family happy, and will look for ways to make them cheery in the future.  Playing the game was easy, but the further it went on, the harder it got...but as I heard some of my children's answers it made me reflect on lots of wonderful things in my life that have brought me so much happiness and joy.  We are all so blessed in so many different ways, we've just got to stop, look and think and we will find things that make us 'cheery', no matter what our circumstances  :)

Visiting Teaching Report Sheet

I was recently called as a visiting teaching coordinator and I'm very lucky to have five great women working with me as district supervisors.  

We held a training meeting the other day at my house, it was lovely to sit and discuss together the beginnings and importance of visiting teaching along with ideas, concerns etc.  I found Chapter 7 of 'Daughters in My Kingdom' really handy when compiling my thoughts and instruction.

I gave each of the supervisors a wallet containing the list of companionships in their districts (you can get this off of MLS), also a great quote from Thomas S. Monson on the importance of reporting, post-it notes, pen, highlighter, and some visiting teaching report sheets. 

I thought the VT report sheet would help to remind the sisters of their need to report their visiting teaching, as well as help the supervisors to collect their information in.  We put the sheets on a little A5 clipboard with a trimmed down Relief Society Purpose Poster on the back it and used self-adhesive film to attach it.

We hand round the clipboard at the beginning of Relief Society each Sunday so that the sisters can take a sheet to fill out at home or complete there and then.

You can't see from the photo but at the bottom of each sheet we included a list of all the supervisors/coordinator names, telephone numbers and email addresses.

Visiting Teaching Report Sheet
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Click on the link above to download the report sheets, (you can choose from 4-6 sisters visited).  I hope this idea helps your wards and branches to collect the information, but more importantly to do their Visiting Teaching.

I am a Child of God games

'Build a Beetle' is one of our family favourite games, so I thought I'd change it a bit to coincide with this years Primary theme, and we love it!!  Click on the link below to download the game and the instructions and get drawing some crazy stick people :)

Click here to download files for

I am a child of God game and Instructions

If you would like an easier version of the game, I found a similar type of game on Pinterest.  I downloaded the image and then typed the words above... 

gingerbread dice game

kinziekreations

I laminated both games to make them more durable and to save on photocopying...and the added bonus is that my kids love using the felt tips and then rubbing them out...the simplest of things amuse my kids!!?!

I am a child of God Totes

Include a die and felt tips and you have a great pressie and activity for all ages.  If you want to be extra crafty you can also make a 'I am a child of God' tote for the game to go in too.

I am a Child of God tote

Sugardoodle posted a link the other day to a wonderful blog entitled 'My Computer is My Canvas' that has a load of free printables and cute stuff????????  She's done some really cute images for the Primary Theme this year 'I am a Child of God'.

My Computer is My Canvas

From this site I downloaded the 'I am a Child of God' SUBW...6x20.jpg (1022KB), when I went to print I noticed that because of the American sizing I would miss some of the lettering, so I right-clicked on the image to copy it and then opened up Microsoft word and pasted it onto my page...I had to shrink it a whole lot to get it to fit, and then centred it and left more of a gap at the top of the page to accommodate for seam allowance and attaching handles (see picture below).

I then printed the above onto calico fabric using my 'How to print onto fabric using your printer' post.  I then used the printed fabric to make a cute little tote and drawstring bag, but you could make a cushion, frame it etc.  My little tote bag worked out to be the perfect size to fit a Book of Mormon in :)  And yes, I am still squealing with delight every time I print onto fabric, haha...what am I like!!?!!?

Keep Calm and Call Your Visiting Teachers

My family and moi have been poorly over the Christmas holidays, so we've all curled up and hibernated for a couple of weeks...I personally can't think of a better time for it to happen, new toys on hand, great tv and lots of goodies too (if you can stomach them!).  But it also means I couldn't make it to my family party and give them our gifts, so I can't post anything yet until I've handed the goods over, I can't wait to share some of them :)

Soooo, in the mean time, I know I'm probably going a bit overboard with the whole 'Keep Calm' thing, but I love 'em, and this idea came to me as I have just been assigned some new sisters to visit. 

I made the one below so that you can put your phone numbers on and make it into a fridge magnet.  

And of course, I had to make some for the home teachers too....

I've made free printables that you can download and play with of both types of images. Enjoy!

                                 VT Printable                                                                                      HT Printable