MOPS Cardboard Testimonies

This year we had our Tea & Testimony in April and decided to have some Cardboard Testimonies as a sort of introduction for our Steering Team Member who felt lead to share her testimony.

If you have never heard of either one of these concepts... Let me shed some light on these subjects.

In our MOPS group we try to have at least one Tea & Testimony. I idea behind it is to have our ladies come dressed up {wearing tiaras, feather boas, fancy hats, etc.}. We have each table bring a tea set to decorate their table with, we place packets of assorted teas around the tables, and we buy enough flowers from the garden center of Wal-Mart {to be used as the sweet smelling centerpieces}to raffle off at the end.

***I am going to apologize in advance for the "photography" {or lack thereof}, the lighting in our 

meeting room is less than stellar! These are as good as they get in there! :) ***

Looked a lot cuter in person! ;)

We wanted to "Plunge in and be transparent", so we decided this year that it would be good for all of the Steering Team and our DGL's {and even some of our moms volunteered!} to share a short testimony of something that was painful or difficult in our lives on one side and then on the reverse side tell how God has changed that in us. It was pretty powerful... because some of our moms were tearing up while reading them.

This is the only one that I got where both sides were visible... :) 

We had many, many more! But you get the idea, right?

We are lucky that we have two video prompter and sound system at our disposal... and I use them throughly!I played Jason Gray's "I Am New" during this. I created these to put up on the screen while we walked across at showed our testimonies.

We handed out surveys at our last meeting and this meeting was one of the favorites! This year has been hard but it was full of love and friendship. I am so glad that God pushed me to step out of my comfort zone this year and become the coordinator of our Manna MOPS group... I have grown by leaps and bounds! I would like to thank my fellow ST members for serving alongside of me this year, without you all none of this would have been possible! 

I also made some images that you can use or edit to your liking... just click on the image and then right-click to save the image! :)

~Yvonne

MOPS Plunge Theme Centerpieces...

These are the centerpieces that we came up with yesterday for the new MOPS theme, Plunge.

The Ocean Fun Table

We found all most all of the supplies at Michael's in the dollar section! The fish net and the smooth white wreath are the only things that we got from Hobby Lobby. We also got the battery tea lights (3 per pack) at the Dollar Tree. I made the first one this morning before our Steering Team meeting. It was super easy! 

To make the first one... We bought a .5 gallon mason jar and filled it with sand, shells, a starfish, and a tea light. Then, we hot glued the little sign to a skewer and poked a hole in the mason jar lid with a nail (this will keep the sign centered and stable). The lifesaver is just as easy to throw together. All it requires is the embellishment ribbon (that we found in the same dollar section as the journals and signs) wrapped around the wreath and secured with hot glue on both ends. Ta~Da! 

We are going to add a few finishing touches, like add some cute scrapbook paper to the top of the jar lids and some more of the embellishment ribbon around the neck of the jar. 

Here are the pictures of the other table themes...

The Swimming Table

The Ahoy Table

The Fishing Table

The Sail Away Table

The Anchors Aweigh Table

They only had six styles, which worked out perfect for us because we only have six tables. So... each table will get their own mason jar with their sign, matching embellishment lifesaver, and a coordinating prayer journal. 

I think that we have an awesome set up this year! What do you think? 

~Yvonne  

Scripture Cookies

I saw something really cute on Pinerest from a lady who was making them for her Young Women's group... She had made Scripture Cookie recipe cards to give to all the girls. I was so excited about the idea! I started to look up all the scriptures she had listed and look for the ingredients, only half way through, I realized that some of them were from book that I had never heard of... I finally figured out it was because she had made a LDS (version

I really wanted to make some for our MOPS group and some to give to my Girl Scout troop, so I decided to make my own version...

Here are the free printables that I created...

The Front 

The Back

Free Scripture Cookies PDF

I just changed the settings when printing to print 4 images per page and then reloaded the paper to do the same for the back page.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we did! 

*** Update*** 

A lot of ladies were wondering where the original LDS version that was my inspiration... It is Marci Coombs blog! She was a YW (Young Women) leader and has tons of cute ideas! Go check her out! 

Marci Coombs Blog

Mother's Day Free Printables

I was looking for last minute ideas for gifts for all the mothers in my life and came up empty handed. So, I created some printables for you to quickly print out and give as gifts! 

My mom used to sing this song to me when I was little and she continued the tradition when my daughter was born. I think that she is going to LOVE having this print hanging up as a constant reminded of how much she is loved!

I created this one for my mother-in-law... I really love this saying! 

They are yours for the taking. Do with them what you please... I plan to Mod Podge them to canvas and send them off for Mother's Day!

A Valentine-A-Day...

I was inspired by The Dating Divas to show some L-O-V-E to my husband this year! So, I went on the hunt at the store for brands that I could put a fun little pun on! I am going to apologize in advance about the quality of my photos... I took most of them in the evening (right before he got home) and the lighting is not very good in our house at night!

Day 1

His favorite dessert is strawberry shortcake, so I thought that these would be perfect for him. 

You can use my "funny puns" or make up your own...

Day 2

He LOVES Sweetarts and these chewy ones were perfect for my message!

Day 3

You have to look very closely in this picture for the box of Whoppers behind the GIANT heart doilies that I had on hand... hehe

Day 4

Ok, I didn't get a picture of this one (I know, I am a slacker) but I put a SoBe Fuji Apple Pear drink in the seat of his Jeep and attached a heart to it that said: 

You are the "apple" of my eye... "SoBe" my Valentine forever?

Day 5

He made a comment about all the sweets so I decided to do a salty one... 

Day 6

I thought that this one was cute! 

Confession... I took pictures of the next one but I have decided to tell you the brand name and leave somethings to the imagination... ;)

Day 7

I got his favorite flavor of "LAYS" potato chips... Do with that what you will!

Choctoberfest...

One of my good friends recently invited me to a Choctoberfest that she was hosting and gave me a challenge... she wanted me to make something with chocolate and bacon! I started to research on the internet to see what I could come up with. I saw that some people had dipped bacon in chocolate but I wanted to be a little bit sneaky with the addition of bacon. Then, I came across chocolate chip cookies with bacon! SOLD! 

I have a favorite cookie batter recipe that I use for... um... EVERYTHING! So, all I did was make my batter and add 12 cooked & chopped pieces of maple brown sugar bacon.

I know what you're thinking... Stop making that face! 

They were delicious!!!! The richness of the dark chocolate chips and sweet & salty taste of the bacon were awesome together! I got 2nd place for the most creative recipe!!! {I was beat out by a Chocolate Risotto... Boo}

I know that you are dying to try these AWESOME cookies for yourself... so, here is the recipe:

~CONFESSION~

I was a little over ambitious... AS ALWAYS... and decided to bring two dishes to Choctoberfest. I wanted to bring something else that was a different combination of flavors that I have not tried before & something that the guests would not turn their noses up to {like I was afraid they would... but they surprised me}.

 SO... I am a little bit obsessed with pumpkin... ok, a lot a bit... and had never tried pumpkin and chocolate together. I found a SUPER easy recipe that was not too involved to add to my to do list: PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BROWNIES

ARE YOU SALIVATING? I AM!

I won Best Presentation with these little beauties! They were delicious! 

What is that, you say? Two great recipes in one post... You're welcome! 

Pumpkin Ring Toss...

For our Homeschool Group's Fall Festival each mom was asked to come up with a carnival game for the children to play and win prizes. I thought that I would make a pumpkin themed ring toss game...

Each child would get three rings to try to throw over a "pumpkin." For each ring that they got over a "pumpkin" I rang a bell and they received a prize. For getting 1 out of 3 rings on a pumpkin, they got to pick a piece of candy out of the pumpkin basket. For 2 out of 3 rings, they got to pick a Wendy's Free JR Frosty ticket from the trees on the table. For anyone that got all three rings on a pumpkin, they got a velvet print and markers that were a harvest theme.

We had four different age groups going around to each booth, so I came up with different distances for each group to stand away from the pumpkins. I had the 1-2 year olds I had stand pretty much right in front of the pumpkins, the 3-4 year olds stand 32 inches away, the 5-7 year olds stand 44 inches away, and the 8 and up stand 56 inches away. I think that it worked out perfectly!

The kids really enjoyed themselves! And I did too!

To make you own set of a Pumpkin Ring Toss game all you need to do is buy 6 large orange soda bottles, 3 glow in the dark necklaces, and some prizes! I took the labels off the bottles and painted the lids green. Then I took a green paint pen and drew vines and leaves on the bottles.

Presto... You have a SUPER cute fall themed ring toss! ENJOY!