I remember...

I often surprise myself by how much I love creating things. It is usually when I am in a crunch trying to think of something cute to make as a favor for a party, a handout for a lesson or as a gift. I don't do it for the praise, even though I must admit it is nice when the oos and ahs come out, no I do it for the simple reason that I remember. I remember how it felt when I was their age and someone cared enough to make a lesson, an event, or a moment special. One of the best ways to show someone they are truly special is by taking the extra time to make something special for them.

So with creating comes the challenge of making something out of nothing. This past week was our Young Women's program New Beginnings. An evening to focus on the Personal Progress program and discuss the importance of setting and accomplishing goals. Our theme was "It takes two" and we had invited the mother's to join us.

Well anyone who knows me and themes, knows that I have to have an analogy and something cute to decorate with that goes with the theme. And so we used shoes, all kinds of cute shoes in all of the value colors. It was awesome. We put four chairs to each small square table and on the table as the center piece was a "pair" (remember "It takes two") of shoes with greenery and flowers.


Don't worry all of the shoes were barely used because one of our young women who just graduated could open up her own shoe store. The idea turned out really cute and we focused on the importance of the mother's following in our Savior's "shoes" or "footsteps" and the young women following in their mother's "shoes" or righteous "footsteps". Also how the "two" of them could work of Personal Progress together.

That was the easy part. The hard part came when I lost a week. I hadn't placed the order for all of the new materials to come in time for the activity. The materials were suppose to be our gifts to the young women. So in the midst of a sleepless night on Monday I was inspired. "We can give each class member something that represents their new class symbols", I thought to myself. The twelve and thirteen year old's symbol is the beehive. The fourteen and fifteen year old's symbol was changed to a rose and the sixteen and seventeen year old's symbol was a laurel wreath.

It was the rose that gave me the idea because it is super easy to find a rose both real or artificial. Surely I could find a beehive somewhere, spring is on its way and, well, the laurel wreath, well I might just have to make one.

Needless to say I ended up making both a beehive and a laurel wreath. That is when I had an epiphany, at eleven o'clock at night when I am burning my little finger tips with the hot glue gun and not caring one bit because what was once an Easter egg had been transformed into a beehive.



And what use to be a wicker heart wreath was slowly and painfully (remember the hot glue gun) becoming a laurel wreath.


It was so refreshing to know that through my vision a young women would have something given to her, that even if it were for just a brief moment, make her feel special.