I can’t believe it’s mid July and school starts in a few weeks! I hope you’ve been enjoying your summer. We were in Maui last week so I’m just getting back into the swing of things, but wanted to share some of the pics from my craft night last month.
I love being crafty and making our house pretty, but I’ve been praying about how to serve and use my gifts in other ways. It’s easy for me to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and the kids’ activities, and raising a family is an important job, but I’ve felt challenged to do more. Baby steps, of course, but my first idea was to host a craft night so some ladies could get their craft on, have a fun night out, and we could also work on a service project.
One of my flaws is overthinking and I could get caught up in details for weeks, but I decided to go with what popped in my head first: mason jar painting and a service project for the Jessie Rees Foundation. Read on for all the details! 🙂
For the decor, I found some yellow paper flower kits and Heidi Swapp Marquee Love lights on clearance at Michaels so that became the inspiration for my summery color scheme.
For the crafts, I set up two stations: one for the mason jar painting outside…
And another table for the service project: making cards and bracelets for JoyJars.
JoyJars was started by a courageous and caring 12 year old named Jessie from Orange County who battled two brain tumors from March 3, 2011 to January 5, 2012. Her motto was “Never Ever Give Up” (NEGU) and her mission was to help other courageous pediatric cancer patients. She created JoyJars with fun-filled gifts of joy to share with her peers receiving treatment and now the Jessie Rees Foundation continues to carry on her mission.
My little helper loved the beads!
For the food, I can’t take any credit. My chef hubby made all the savory goodies.
We used a lot of lemon in the dishes to tie in with the decor.
Carrot and Celery Cups
Berries and Cinnamon Chips
The treats were made by Shana of Society Sweets. She did them custom to match my theme and they were perfect! Check her out if you’re in Orange County – she makes beautiful and delicious sweets for any occasion!
The cookies were perfect for favors and name tags.
When they found their spot at the table, they pinned the mason jar name tags to their shirt.
I loved seeing what everyone created!
And the cards and bracelets for the JoyJars came out so cute!
Such a fun night getting crafty for a good cause with friends!
If you’re interested in donating to the Jessie Rees Foundation, click here.
Oooh this is all so pretty!! I’m totally impressed with the cards everyone made…those look great. Joy Jars are such an awesome idea!