kringle mingle

today we had part one of our relief society activities for the christmas season. our activities co-ordinator came up with an idea of doing something called host or coast, which enables 4 sisters to host an activity during a chosen week, which in turn allows more sisters to attend an activity as they are all on a different date and time. hence the name host or coast, as we can either host an activity or coast between them as we choose. each this time had a christmas activity (the one i attended had a pass the parcel, each layer had a piece from a nativity set - and whoever opened each piece, got to tell what that piece meant to the christmas story. that was a lovely way to spend some time together.

after that, we had an amazing lunch, full of goodies we had all brought along  and some extra special dishes prepped by the ghergori team for us. it was so good! as you can see, it made us all pretty happy (and full)!

lastly, we exchanged our secret gifts. the instructions on the invitation had said to bring along one of your favourite things wrapped in brown paper. i took some of my handmade earrings (totally allowed, earrings are definitely one of my favourite things!) and ended up with two mangoes. i was completely stoked!

it was a lovely morning spent with some of the sisters from our ward. such a great idea and a lot of fun.

the frock exchange

we had the most incredible relief society additional meeting on the weekend, the frock exchange. our additional meetings coordinator like me, is an opshop lover and had a brainwave of having a frock exchange, to allow the ladies in our ward to bring along their awesome but unworn items and trade them with someone else. i was in opshop heaven... even more so because there was no money required :)

we did have a monetary system that consisted of one button per item checked in, which we then used to "purchase" other items at the end of the evening. 

and a fashion show covering the eras from 60s - now with these epic modest dresses loaned to us for the evening from omika australia worn by some awesome volunteers from our young women and young single adults. 

as you can see, our crew made an amazing amount of effort creating a store and a cafe and i was just blown away when i walked in and saw it all set up. i mean seriously, our activities coordinator even went to the effort of having vintage look signs painted up to place around the hall.

and it's no secret the we mormon ladies love to bake... and just look at the spread we busted out on the evening!!

it was such an incredible night, i can't even tell you how good it was. huge props to the ellenbrook ward additional meetings committe ♥

relief society birthday high tea

after weeks of preparation, begging and borrowing items from ward members, my personal collection and an insane amount from my lovely mother, we finally had our ward relief society birthday activity this evening, a beautiful high tea. oh the effort involved! tablecloths, chair covers, sashes, 52 vintage trios, bunting... and a photobooth. but it was so worth it, because it looked absolutely amazing! 

i had some amazing sisters from the ward give their time to assist in setting up and thankfully they even did little things that mean so much to making it look perfect, like moving all the unused chairs to another room... matching the sashes to ensure they were in a perfect order... and dealing with my never ending ocd to ensure it all looked perfect!

we used a vintage floral sheet that i picked up from an opshop last year for $1 for the photobooth backdrop, which fitted in so perfectly... i was thrilled to finally put it to good use, as i haven't actually even used it on my bed yet haha

each place had a quote about the relief society (printed at the local big w on photo paper) for the sisters to take home, a floral serviette (found at the local $2 store) and a trio for food and drinks

as the sisters arrived, we had them drop their food to the kitchen, so we could mix and match it all - ensuring that each seat had a variety of food available to them without getting up over and over.  we also had a quiz about the history of relief society on each chair (which you can find here!), so that they had something to do until the food came! we were also careful to pass a sign up sheet around the relief society a few weeks in a row prior to the evening to ensure that we didn't end up with all of the same food or too much sweet or savoury.

during the evening, we had the answers to the quiz and awarded a prize to the winner, then we had each sister stand and tell the room their name and one thing about themselves that others might not know. this is one of my favourite things to do... it's amazing the facts about ourselves we can come up with when we are put on the spot. mine was: hi my name is jade and i have been to over 600 funerals. true story. and i know it would definitely be more than that, but that is a safe number to go with. we also awarded a door prize, we had placed a sticker on the bottom of one of the cups and asked the sisters to find it. easy!

and then we had some fun with the photobooth... i've only popped up these two pics, because i don't think it's right to share pics of all the sisters in our ward without their permision, but these peeps with me here count as family, so i know i am safe...

it was such a fun night and a total success... so happy 174th birthday relief society. we love you!

relief society birthday prep

we have our relief society birthday celebrations in a few weeks and being the additional meetings co-ordinator my planning for our high tea (involving a lot of hot chocolate and herbal tea of course) is in full swing... we are having a quiz on the evening and i thought i would pop it up here, in case any one wants to use it in the future. please feel free to send me an email (starsinourhearts @ gmail.com) or comment below if you'd like a pdf of the questions and answers emailed to you.

by the way, if you know all the answers (without googling them), i'll be super impressed!

1. In what year was the Relief Society founded?
2. What is the floral emblem of the Relief Society?
3. What colours are on the emblem?
4. What was the original name of the Relief Society?
5. What is the Relief Society motto?
6. Who is the current President of the Relief Society? 
7. What date was the Relief Society Founded?
8. How many dollars worth of gold did Joseph Smith give to the society to begin?
9. Who was the first president of the Relief Society?
10. In what year did the general women's broadcast become a biannual event?
11. Since the founding of the Relief Society, how many presidents have there been? 
12. With a 29 year effort, which Relief Society president served for the longest period of time? 
13. Name the three sisters who serve on the Relief Society Presidency of our ward? 
14. How many women were present at the first meeting of the Relief Society?
15. How many other women not in attendance were admitted membership that day that were not present? 
16. What hymn opened the first meeting of the Relief Society?
17. At the first meeting Emma Smith said the relief society was going to do something WHAT? 
18. There are now more than how many MILLION members of the Relief Society?
19. Where was the first meeting of the Relief Society held? 
20. At which age do the young women of the church join the relief society? 

temple enrichment evening

tonight was my first enrichment evening since being called to relief society a few weeks ago. we had a temple evening and it was wonderful! 

with an emphasis on the temple and the blessings that can be found within its, we had three classes set up: 1. a family search class to teach those attending more about preparing family names to take to the temple 2. making "temple rocky road" (white chocolate rocky road) 3. making foil temple pictures for our homes (i have made these in the past and actually taught this class, to make your own and see what i'm actually talking about, check out the tutorial from a girly craft night a few years back here)

we also watched my favourite mormon message called "temples are a beacon" which is an absolute must see, (you can watch it here) it tells of a family in a remote polynesian island who saved for years to take their family to be sealed in the hamilton temple. it spoke to me especially because it is the temple in which my parents and both sets of my grandparents were sealed and dougs sister is now serving in the visitors centre of. 

when madeline was a small baby, we went to new zealand to attend the unveiling of dougs grandparents grave and while we were there i insisted we had to drive to hamilton to see the temple. my own parents drove across australia in the heat of summer, with my two oldest brothers who were 2 & 4 at the time, in an car with no air conditioning... they then flew to new zealand and drove up to hamilton. the minute i arrived at the temple, all i could think of was the sacrifice my parents had made for all of us and how grateful i am to be part of an eternal family.

the evening was a success, with myself and two other sisters in the ward also speaking of our love for the temple. i am so grateful for the temple and know that no blessings on earth can compare to those found within its walls. ♥