Almost the end of the work week. Last night I had to pull together some materials for a project we'll be working on this afternoon. My TOPs weight loss group will be attending an awards banquet in mid September with all the other groups in our county, about 300 people total. This annual event has a specific theme, and there are "contests" for a variety of things including group costumes, individual costumes and centerpieces. Last year my centerpiece for our group won first place. We're looking for a repeat win this year.

Since the overall theme (Camp Yougottawanna) has to do with camping and weight loss (of course!) we chose as our group's motto "Paddle to Success." Our costume/uniform will be tan bottoms (slacks, shorts, skirts), solid color bright top or tee shirt (preferably red). We are sewing little neck scarves out of a camping print (bright green background with red and yellow canoes and other camping designs) and muslin. And making sashes in the style of Girl Scouts also out of muslin. The sashes will be stamped with our motto on the front and our group ID on the back.

Using the computer, I downloaded some free clipart. A canoe with two paddlers is now our name tags (name printed across canoe), cut out and laminated with Xyron machine. And we also have "badges" in the style of Scouts - round circles with a piece of clip art representing something we do to be successful at weight loss (like attending meetings, eating nutritionally, etc.) which will be laminated, cut out and pinned on our sashes. We have a large group and cost is a factor, so custom printed tee shirts are out. But muslin is cheap and we can carry the theme through with a few inexpensive ideas. Will we win? Who knows? We have one of the largest groups in the county and that limits us to using more creativity and less money than some of the smaller groups. You can get more creative participation when dressing only 3 or 4 people in a group costume than dressing a group of 25. But we'll have fun trying and we have a good group of volunteers who will craft anything we design.