If you’re reading this because you're craving community & creativity and don't know where to start, I see you. Creating connection is something that we all crave and need!
I host a small group once a month at my church and yesterday's group I had everyone make their own charm necklace! The DMs came flooding in with questions on how to host one themselves. I want to empower you to make it happen.
I got the idea of making charm necklaces from my friend Kacie Jo! She hosts a book club and did this and it was a hit. Everyone in the book club had only met a few times and by the end convo and laughs were flowing. There's something about putting your phone away and creating something that eases the social anxiety because you have a goal and something to bond over!!
I believe this is a way for you to build community, deepen friendships and feel confident doing so!
Start here
Okay you've decided you want to do this, now what? Look at your calendar and find a few dates that work for you and send the text!! You could do a book club, brunch, wine night, movie night, or simply a girls night out!
“Hi friend! I’m hosting a girls night and would love for you to come! Do any of these dates work for you?”
Once you get the date and time set, head to amazon or hobby lobby. Don't be afraid to ask your friends to pitch in for supplies!
Supply List
- The necklace to put charms on. I grab mine at the hobby lobby when they are 50% off but here is the exact necklace I use!
- A few chunky charms.
- Lots of small/medium sized charms
- Jump rings
- Jewelry pliers 1 per every 2 people.
- I used trays I already had to lay out all the supplies!
If you are wanting to spend a little more I bought some charms from Etsy! Here is the shop.
Intentional Community and Creating Connection
Everyone showed up, Yay! This is what your going to do next.
Thank everyone for coming!
Share your heart. Why did you want to bring everyone together?
Explain instructions on how to make the necklace.
- Pick all of the charms you want and lay them out how you want them to be on the necklace.
- You're going to open the jump ring and connect the charm to the necklace and tightly secure it.
- Make sure you are putting the charms on the same side of the necklace and facing the same direction.
- Attach the middle charm first and build around it.
- Get Creative! Layer the charms, pick a color scheme, pick charms that represent you, etc.
Let's talk about creating connection and community. I keep deleting this paragraph because I'm afraid some people will be like “not everything has to be so deep” and they are right! Laughs and creating something can be just as healing as deep conversation and connection. We live in a lonely world and I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the need for connection is at an all time high right now. If you're like me and don't have a huge group of girlfriends and your get-together might be full of people who don't know each other, I want to help you navigate the conversation to be intentional and uplifting! Think about who's coming, whats going on in their lives.
Conversation Starters
Susie, I saw you graduated from nursing school this week. Tell us about the journey of getting there!
Becky, you're engaged! How did you meet? When did you know you wanted to marry him?
Frida, I love your jewelry business, was this always a dream of yours?
Listen and ask follow up questions:
How do you feel about that?
Was that scary? Or were you confident?
Dang, that's a brave thing to do. How do you feel now that it's done?
I wish I could voice memo on here, I could go on forever. That's probably the hairstylist in me!
Fostering the Connections
No hosting and ghosting over here. If your heart behind hosting is creating community make sure to follow up and steward the relationship. Let people know that you genuinely appreciate them coming. We live in a weird world where everyone's always networking. Being a business owner I've had so many people reach out after hosting and it feels like they are just doing it to check a box. In the past this has kept me from doing the same but I know my heart and pray it comes across to others as well. I want to create real connections, not just ones that can help me get somewhere and I will constantly check my heart on that. There is a time and a place for networking but don't let it be the leading factor of really getting to know people. Okay rant over.
I hope this inspired you to create the community you've always craved and have fun doing it!
If you host one make sure and tag @beautyxgabrielle and share this post. xoxo Gab