Monday, November 30, 2015

Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning ~

“To live will be an awfully big adventure.”

― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

This is the 45th year for the Festival of Trees and We CAN's sixth year doing a tree for the Festival. This year, our creative, talented artistic director, Paula Perkins, took us to Never Never Land through the Darling's Nursery window.

Carolyn and Paula ~ getting us all started

We arrived at the South Town Center this morning on a cold, beautiful bright winter's day. Our number was on the opposite side of the hall, so we all hoped that it would be a little warmer this year, but not to be - our booth was right in front of a big, OPEN bay door and the wind was cold. We put on our coats and mittens!

Paula and Carolyn decorating the tree

We are given a 9 x 7 space, which can be challenging when trying to fit two beds, a rocking chair, a Christmas tree and lots of presents!

Rae Lee, Carol and Sandy covered the frames with fabric

We spent a couple of hours on this cold concrete floor, stapling fabric to the frames -

Paula makes certain that everything is wired in and just perfect! Everything on the tree must be wired in to the branches and there is re-bar going up the center of the tree that is connected to the tree stand below, making the tree solid and easily transported to the new owners after the Festival.

Carolyn, Paula and Sue working on the ornaments for the tree.

Tinkerbell is the star of the show - she appears inside the paper lanterns and on the colorful clocks and takes the show on top of the tree

The bright colorful garland is all folded paper, wooden spools and ribbon

Second Star to the Right and Straight on Til Morning!

John and Michael's beds are covered with bright home-made quilts and matching pillowcases

Carol's getting feisty with the electric tools!

Because of a few technical difficulties and rules that we were not aware of, Paula had to re-design some of the background scenes . . . and they turned out beautifully. There are silhouettes of Michael, Peter and Wendy flying over the London Skyline.

All the banners add a personal touch and festive look to the Nursery

This year's crew minus Scott, who helped in spite of a recent shoulder surgery
Lynn, Rae Lee, Carolyn, Carol, Paula, Sue and Sandy

All finished! And what a fun Nursery

Ahhh, we were all cold (freezing cold) hungry and tired . . . it was so great to sit down at Olive Garden to visit eat and relax Lynn, Carolyn, Paula, Sue, Rae Lee, Carol and Sandy behind the camera
Festival of Trees runs from Wednesday, December 2 through Saturday, December 5th at the South Town Center in Sandy, Utah. All proceeds go to help children at Primary Children's Hospital get the medical care they need. Many of the trees done for the festival are dedicated to children or other loved ones and their stories are always inspirational and touching. It is a great way to help children in need. We work together on our tree and crafts that will be sold at the Festival Boutique throughout the year ~ so it feels like Christmas all year long!. We enjoy lots of laughter, fun and many hours of service together. They are all great ladies!

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Fill the World with Hope

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world it hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” ― Barack Obama

Carol, Patti, Sue, Carolyn

We met at Sandy's home, Monday, November 2nd for our We Care And Nurture Humanitarian group meeting.

We made Neighbor Gifts that will be sold at the Boutique & Gift Shoppe at the Festival of Trees, which will be held December 2-5th at the South Town Expo Center. All proceeds from Festival of Trees goes to help children at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City.

We made a total of 163 Neighbor Gifts - all with Christmas wrapping, bows and cute sayings.

Carol and Patti working on the Snowflake Gifts

Our next meeting will be Monday, November 30th. We will be going to Salt Lake to decorate our tree for the Festival of Trees Utah! So excited!

for more information on the festival

go to

Festival of Trees Utah

Celebrating 45 Years!

Wednesday, December 2 through Saturday, December 5, 2015
at the South Towne Expo Center.

Teach me to Sing!

“Pan, who and what art thou?" he cried huskily.

"I'm youth, I'm joy," Peter answered at a venture, "I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”

― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Our October, 2015 We Can meeting was held at Carol's home. We collected items to fill Christmas socks for soldiers. We all thought that this year's socks (which are sewed at the American Fork Humanitarian Center) were the cutest ever.

We tried a new system for filling the socks, which seemed to work much better than our past system. The socks were jammed full of things such as playing cards, paperback book, hand warmers, pens, candy, gum, mints, chapstick, hand sanitizer, tissues, etc. Each lady had previously signed up to bring something to help fill the socks. We wrapped some of the items to help make opening the sock a more festive experience. We will be donating 12 Christmas stockings.

Filling the socks didn't take very long, so we also worked on making our garland for the Festival of Trees tree a little bit longer. Carol is 5 feet tall, so we stretched the garland out on the floor and used Carol as a "yard stick" to estimate how long the garland is. Carol actually laid on the floor so we could measure! What a good sport she is! We also were busy making shape toys for the A.F. Humanitarian Center. It was a busy and productive morning.

We enjoyed a yummy potluck lunch. Those in attendance were Paulette, Paula, Vila, Carol, Janine, Barbara, Lynn, and Carolyn.

“If you cannot teach me to fly, teach me to sing.”

― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

“To live will be an awfully big adventure.” ― J.M. Barrie

“You know that place between

sleep and awake,

the place when you can still

remember dreaming?

That’s where I’ll always love you

That’s where I’ll be waiting.”

~ J. M Barrie, Peter Pan

Our September meeting was held on Monday, the 14th at Carol's home. We collected things for the Days for Girls organization. Our stake will be doing a large service project with Days for Girls in November.