New beginnings, literally and figuratively

So I got called to serve in our ward's young women's presidency. I'm the secretary and it's been fun so far. I'm finding that Pinterest is a life saver when it comes to ideas and inspiration. No shocker there. Last night we had New Beginnings to welcome in all the girls that will turn 12 this year and be able to join us. Talk about a pretty massive undertaking for someone that really had no idea what prepping an evening for 30+ girls would entail. But it turned out to be a fantastic success and I'm happy to work with such a great leadership of women. 

We decided to make the theme "love" inspired because 1) the year's theme is Come unto Christ and be perfected in him. And Christ is the perfect example of love is he not? :) 2) Valentines day was the same week. Here is the template of the invitation I made up and gave out. Thanks to Pinterest:

I didn't put on the ribbon because I'm lame. Didn't make it to the store in time. I'm still working out the kinks of time management here:)

A pan of the cultural hall before the guests and food. We covered the front table with a table cloth also so it wasn't the standard poop brown ;) We were able to get chair covers and tie backs for a really good price and it dressed it up SO much! 

The walls were lined with pictures of the incoming girls and some fun facts about them.

And of course there was dessert. 

The strawberries were gone so quick. We joked that we could have just had 3 bowls of them and the girls would have been happy. Note to self for next time. The water was beautified with some fresh raspberries, peppermint and limes. It was very tasty. An idea that I think I should start doing at home:)

I'll thank pinterest for the idea to make a screenprint from this image:

and add it to a small tote bag like this:

And would you believe that the one thing that was so time consuming and stressful I didn't get an "formal" pictures of! This is what I've got:

The YW president and I sewed a combined 28 bags. I had my husband do the screen printing because he showed me that he could do it no problem. Brat. I originally contracted the idea out to my sister in law who said she wouldn't mind doing it since she has an awesome machine especially made for things like this. And I was happy to pawn it off to someone else. But that dream soon burst when she realized that being pregnant with two kids at home, one of home as therapy every day of the week, just wasn't conducive to the slave labor favor I asked of her. So I worked my hands to the bone and we pulled it off. 

And if I drank, you bet your butt I would have cracked a cold one when the night ended. But I don't. So I just slept it off.

Whew. 

Picture. Over. Load. 

If the pictures aren't linking you can find the sites here and here.