We're off to see the Wizard...

A few weeks ago, we had a mini-retreat at our church for the women.  The church was set up with scenes from The Wizard of Oz.  We followed the yellow brick road to each scene and heard from different speakers along the way pertaining to different characters from the story...

I thought I'd share some pictures of our set up with you.  My friend took them with her phone and it was kinda dark in there, so please forgive the dark pics.  This is our tornado in Dorothy's scene.  The colors changed to give it the appearance of swirling.   I was asked to speak and my character was Dorothy, so this was my scene.  I chose to focus on her famous line "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore".  I talked about the fact that sometimes life takes us places we don't plan on or don't expect, so what do we do when we're there?  I shared about times in my life when things didn't go as planned and how God was always there for me, no matter what.  The only way we can make it through disappointments and changes is by depending on God!

The next scene was the scarecrow.  My new friend, Lori, spoke here and talked about "If I only had a brain...".  She talked about how us ladies let so many things cause our mind to be distracted and how we must keep our focus where it belongs.

We then followed the road to the tin man.  As you know, in the movie he was wanting a heart.  Another friend, Kathy, spoke here about being heartsick and letting God heal our broken hearts.

Our next stop was the cowardly lion.  My buddy, Maribel, spoke here about courage and how courage is more than just being brave.

To get to each destination, we followed the yellow brick road.  This was made using sheets of cardboard and sponges, cut in the shape of bricks.  The ladies used yellow paint and sponged it on there to make it look like a road.

Our last stop was Oz, the emerald city.  At our conference, this represented heaven.  My dad, our Pastor, spoke here and talked to us about heaven.









We had a good time and it was a nice day with the ladies.  For lunch, our tables were set with blue gingham and ruby slippers.  I made mini picnic baskets as favors and we put them at each place setting and filled them with candy.

(Please ignore the background - I took them right before we started for the day because I forgot to take pictures at home!)  I designed the picnic basket, handle and lid in my Gypsy.  It took tons of tweaking but when I finally got it right, they were pretty easy to put together.  For the cut file, I used Plantin Schoolbook for the basket and lid and Elegant Edges for the handle.

I added a square of blue gingham to each end of the basket to make it look like a cloth hanging over the edges.

I made 35 of these baskets and was dreading tying all those red bows.  So....I went to Hobby Lobby.  And Hallelujah!!  I found them in the Christmas section.  They were only $1.99 for 70 bows and were on sale 50% off so I was a happy girl!  We stuck them on with glue dots.

Wow...this post was long, huh?  Although I don't claim to be a good speaker, I enjoyed being able to share that day about how good God has been to me!  And, of course, I had fun making the little baskets!  I will have the Gypsy file for the picnic basket available soon, if you're interested.

Blessings,

Cheryl