March newsletter...

Thank you to those that came to our February meeting, in which we welcomed Shelley, who taught us a few reflexology tips and explained some of the many benefits to this treatment.
We all came away with enough knowledge of how to perform a decent hand massage so I hope you’ve all been putting that to good use!

Now, for this month’s meeting we’ll be putting our beautifully massaged hands to good use in the making of bath bombs and a face serum with Philippa.

Philippa has been making her own skin care products for several years now. What started out as pure curiosity has turned into a lifestyle choice looking at skin care recipe alternatives to mainstream cosmetic products. Her biggest motivator to continue to explore different skin care recipes was the effect it has had on her skin.
When one of Philippa's friends was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer and set up Tash's Bashes to fund raise for Cancer Research UK, Philippa decided to help raise money by running workshops to teach people to make their own skin care setting up Pure Scents Natural Skincare. The workshops are not aimed at an academic teaching, but more a hands on experience to learn in a fun environment. All profits from these workshops go to the charity and time is given voluntarily by Philippa.

It’s sure to be a really fun evening, Philippa will provide everything for making the products but we do need everyone to bring a few pieces of equipment as Philippa doesn’t usually run workshops for so many people in one go.

The items to bring are as follows:

• Flexible ice cube trays (to use as moulds for the bath bombs, ideally you will all bring 1 or 2 as the bath bombs will be best left in them for a few hours to set properly)
• A small mixing bowl
• Measuring spoons

Apart from that, just bring your good selves and we’ll see you there!
As always, we welcome guests as well as our members, but where numbers exceed capacity, priority will be given to full members of Malago WI.

Until Wednesday,
MWI x

February news...

Malago WI 2015 got off to a fantastic start in January with Nell Gifford entertaining us with touching, warm and witty tales of her life, from rural country girl to Circus owner and director and all that happened in between.

I could happily have listened to Nell for much longer and judging by all the questions at the end of the evening, you all felt the same way!

If you missed this meeting – shame on you, but it’s not too late to become a member.  Join up at our February meeting instead, just £36.00 cash or cheque and membership for the rest of 2015 is yours.

This month we’ll be getting hands on with a demonstration in reflexology, so bring along your favourite moisturiser for a bit of tuition in hand massage.

Shelley will also be after a willing volunteer for a lovely foot massage treatment, so brush the fluff balls from between your toes and prepare to be pampered!

Don’t forget to bring your unwanted/surplus Christmas gifts to donate to our raffle, and some cash to buy some tickets for the chance to win something you want!  Money raised will go in to the Malago WI funds towards future meetings.

Finally, our committee is dwindling in numbers so if you’re interested in getting involved with the running of Malago WI, let us know and we’ll be happy to give you more information about what that entails.

See you on Wednesday

MWI x

Christmas is coming...

There, I said it! 
Apologies if you’re in the ‘not before December 1^st’ brigade, but it’ll be a real struggle to bring you up to date without mentioning the ‘C’ word.

First off, October’s meeting was a craft fest of starry proportions with origami, crochet, sewing and salt dough decorations being created for our Christmas tree at the lovely Treefest event at St Mary Redcliffe Church.  
It takes place the week beginning 8^th December and we’ll need a few people to help set up and decorate (and possibly a tree too…details, details)!  Let us know if you’ve got a couple of spare hours on the Monday and want to be involved.

If you’ve continued with your crafty talents and made more decorations at home, please bring them along to our meeting next week.

Speaking of which, we’ll be welcoming back Liz Ferguson next week – she taught us how to make fabulous tissue paper pompoms last time she was with us.  This time she’ll be sharing and demonstrating her gift wrapping ideas, from the budget end through to the more luxurious, with a generous smattering of funny tales from the life of Liz!

We’re still after volunteers to help on our stall at the Windmill Hill City Farm Christmas Fair, on Sunday 14^th December – have you put your name down for an hour or 2 yet?  If not why not?!  Come on, season of goodwill and all that…

Finally, bring along some cash to next week’s meeting, there’ll be opportunities-a-plenty to part with it.
If you’re not already a member of Malago WI, membership is open so why not join us for 2015 – we just need to relieve you of a mere £36.00.

We have received our beautiful, tea towels, designed by the very talented artist and Malago member Emily Ketteringham, so they’ll be on sale for £6.00 each.
Finally, we’re clearing out our cupboard to make way for a new load of goodies, so we’ll be flogging stuff such as glitter, beads, sequins, art pad and anything else we can find!

Any money raised will go back in to making Malago WI as fabulous as we can.

See you on Wednesday,
MWI x

A starry night...

Well, let me start with a big Happy 6^th Birthday to Malago WI!

It’s really been 6 years since this lovely little branch of the WI began to grow – have you been with us since the start?  No?  Well it’s never too late to jump on board.

If you’re not a fully fledged Malago WI members, October is the perfect time to change that.  New membership opens so you can register for 2015 for £36 and you will get the last 2 meetings of 2014 for free, so come, join us, we’ve so much great stuff planned.

Last month the serious topic of personal safety and awareness was delivered in a fun and practical manner by Andras Millward from FAST Defence.   Simple skills to take forward through everyday life, others that we hope we won’t ever have the need to use – Set, knee!

However, on to our October meeting, we’ll be getting crafty once again making a variety of star decorations.

We’ll have several demonstrated star crafts, including origami, crochet and sewing as well as committee made decorations ready to be embellished.  These will go towards our entry in toTreefest and for selling on our stall at the Windmill Hill City Farm Christmas Fair on Sunday 14^th December – more on that next week!

We’d love you to bring along any of your own ideas that fit the star decoration theme if you’d prefer to ‘freestyle’, or maybe you’re a dab hand at a craft that adapts to our theme and you could share with us – contact us if that’s the case!

We have a fairly decent supply of stuff, but it’d be really helpful if you have anything you could bring to use or share such as gel pens, glitter glue, paint pens,  odds and ends of fabric, felt and wool, paper – and if colours are glittery or festive, then so much the better!

Also, please bring a crochet hook if you fancy having a go at crochet stars – we don’t have enough of those to go round.

This is going to be a lovely informal meeting, in which everyone will be able to produce a few star decorations using a variety of techniques, and enjoy a good chat with fellow members and of course enjoy a slice of cake because we’re also celebrating the 6^th birthday of Malago WI!

In addition to all of those goings on, we’ll also be unveiling our first, bespoke, designer Malago WI tea towel – you’ll be able to get your orders in first to beat the rush when they go on sale at the Windmill Hill City Farm Christmas Fair.

Finally, for those that are already Malago WI members and  would like to get a bit more involved, we’d love to have  some more of you  joining our committee - as someone once said, teamwork divides the work and multiplies the success, so who’s up for it?

See you all on Wednesday,

MWI x

September news...

Hello Malagowers!

Thanks to all who came to last month’s meeting with John Wright.  He knew a thing or 2 about mushrooms, but has anyone been brave enough to go mushroom foraging after listening to his stories?
Not me!  I’ll stick to spotting them and taking a photo but I was thoroughly entertained listening to all he had to tell!

Now, September’s meeting is approaching and the nights are drawing in.  We’ll be covering the subject of personal safety and self-defence, with tips and strategies about awareness and boundaries and using assertive body language and verbal strategies to dissuade an attacker.
 Dress in comfortable clothing and be prepared to get involved a bit too.

We’ll also have some news about a new WI choir group, so if you fancy stretching your vocal chords, you’ll want to come along and hear about the plans for this.

Finally, we’ve started to look for local winter or Christmas fairs that Malago WI could get involved with in order to raise both funds and our profile.  We’ve made some enquiries and will hopefully have news by next week, but if you know of an event that you think would benefit from a Malago WI presence, then do let us know,
 
Until Wednesday 24th,
 
MWI x

Drawing you in to June...

 

So, how good was May’s meeting?  It really was a huge success and proved a great social occasion as well, a great set up for a good chat with edible treats to boot!

 

Sue Duggan from Teach Me Sugarcraft let us into some of the secrets of decorating cupcakes and under her skilled tuition, within minutes we were all turning out artistic creations everyone could be proud of. A big thank you to Sue and also to our May cake makers.

 

The relaxed format of the session meant we also had a chance to chat and meet one another which has resulted in lots of suggestions for our 2014 programme, but do keep the suggestions coming through all the usual channels as this will take some time to finalise.

June’s meeting will be challenging our skills in the art of life drawing. Deb Pearson has spent her life around art – she is a life drawing model, passionate collector of art and a regular at the RWA Drawing School.

 

Deb will lead our session, starting with tips and advice on life drawing before taking up a series of poses for us. (NB there will be nudity involved!!)

Please can everyone bring a sharpener and rubber and if you have your a favourite sketch book do bring this along too. But don’t worry if you don’t have your own as there will be paper, art pencils and charcoal provided – so avoid pale clothing with all that charcoal and graphite around.

 

As the summer kicks in just a reminder that July’s meeting will be a hands on craft session with Liz Ferguson making all sorts of beautiful decorations for our WI stand at the Bristol International Kite Festival (31 August/1 September).

 

If you can help with our Kite Festival stand in any way, whether it's baking cakes, loaning props or decorations, your time to (wo)man the stand over the event weekend, advice, previous experience, storage space... anything!  Please do let us know, many hands make light work as they say.

 

See you all next week,

 

MWI x

Spring in to April

 

Having enjoyed a Magical March meeting with professional storyteller Martin Maudsley, huddled around candlelit tables listening to tales of enchanted forests, river gods and hidden treasure which, in turn, lead on to musical interludes of apples, sunshine and cider and a bit of riddle solving,  it felt like a fitting end to the dark, cold months of winter.

But now, here we are in April, enjoying longer, lighter evenings and the occasional, teasing glimpse of what spring has to offer, yet still waiting for it to fully unfurl!

So while we continue the wait, let’s get on top of our wardrobe woes with the help of renowned image consultant Karen Lowe.

Have you been shopping for jeans recently and thought ‘Which style will best suit me?’

Do you know which garment is the best style for you?

With Karen’s help we have the chance to indulge in body shape SOS.

Bring some items you struggle to wear, get ready to wardrobe de-junk and learn the style of great accessorising, the importance of correctly fitting underwear and how to dress in a way to flatter our bodies.

Karen has helped a number of clients refresh their style and increase their self-esteem to boot, now who wouldn’t benefit from a little bit of that?!

We look forward to seeing you all on the 24^th April!

 

Toodle pip!

MWI x

Midsummer Malago

Wasn't Lia lovely? May's meeting was a wonderful combination of gardening talk and potting up with the Guardian's gardening guru, Lia Leendertz. All very inspiring. If you want more of the same, have a look at Lia's blog or follow her on Twitter (you ARE following us, aren't you?), and have a gander at Alice's ever-wonderful pics from the night.

June's meeting is a chance to take stock and ponder, much in the vein of our Happiness meet at the beginning of 2012. On Wednesday we'll welcome Jackie who will introduce us to Mindfulness. The way we handle our feelings plays a big part in how we cope with challenging experiences in life. Mindfulness is a potentially life-changing way to alter our feelings in positive ways, and an ever-expanding body of evidence shows that it really works. Find out more about mindfulness before the meeting, or learn everything you need to know on Wednesday.

We'll also be welcoming the ladies from Dundry WI who will be receiving the Avon WI Olympic(ish) torch. A few of our members took receipt of this fiery chalice last week from Westleaze WI - pics on the Flickr if you fancy a nose. In honour of this summer's sport extravaganza, we'd love it if you'd dress with a nod to those famous rings - have a rootle through your wardrobe for the following colours and wear with pride on Wednesday: blue, yellow, black, green, and red.

And looking forward to July, we'll take Malago on the road with a visit to The Ethicurean, voted the UK's best ethical cafe/restaurant. Housed in the most beautiful walled garden in Wrington, we'll hear all about the Ethicurean ethos from the chefs and take a tour of the veg patch. More details at Wednesday's meeting, and we'll be sending out an email nearer the time. There may be subs to pay for the coach, so if you could bring along a fiver to the June meeting to secure your place we'll be able to book our transport in advance.

See you on Wednesday 27 June, 8pm.