Here's what's happening in April...

Hello ladies,

As the evenings get lighter and longer and Spring continues to blossom and bloom, so does Malago WI!

We’ve seen lots of new members join us this year and are still happy to welcome more. Our new, pro-rata membership means the price for the rest of 2015 is just £27.00.

We really want Malago WI to be a place where any woman can come and expect to be welcomed, included and make friends and as our membership grows with more and more individual members it’s important that we all put in the effort to keep it that way – I hope you all agree?!

We know we have members that join seeking new friendships with like-minded, local women. Some are new to this wonderful city, some regaining their social life after starting families and others just craving new and stimulating company. Whatever the reason, coming along without knowing any other members (as we know many do) takes courage, and we’d like to ask all our members to make a special effort towards anyone they see sitting alone.

It’s easy for us longer standing members, or those that have joined up with friends, to carry on in our usual circles, but next time, just look around and see if you can get chatting to someone you’ve not really spoken to before.

Our March meeting was a great opportunity for interaction with other members as the air filled with wonderful aromas as Philippa Lovemore of Pure Scents Natural Skincare tempted us with a bewildering range of amazing scented oils to choose from, as we made up our own serum before settling down to produce some lovely bath bombs to take home.

Our April meeting will be one of style and accessories, Camilla will (among other things) show us how to make one outfit work for the day and the evening with the use of accessories. You’re invited to bring along an outfit or item of clothing for advice on how you can adapt it for different occasions – she might not be able to get through everything, but you’re sure to pick up some hints and tips.

Camilla is a stylist for jewellery and accessories specialist Stella and Dot, so she knows her stuff and is also kindly donating an item from the Stella and Dot range for us to raffle, so make sure to bring some cash along too!

We hope to see you on Wednesday,


MWI x

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

Roll up, roll up, roll up...

The circus is coming to town!

It really is, sort of, because our first guest of 2015 is Nell Gifford.
Nell is the driving force behind the magical Gifford’s Circus and is going to talk to us about how she went from Oxford University English Graduate to Circus supremo. 
She’s written a couple of books on the subject too, they’ll be available for sale on the night, so bring your cheque book or cash so you don’t miss out.  It’s going to be a fabulous evening, behind the scenes tales of circus life - I can’t wait!

Hopefully we’ll see plenty of you next Wednesday, all refreshed after a fun and festive Christmas season and happily settled in to a bright new year.  
 Did lots of you get to Treefest at St Mary Redcliffe church and see our lovely tree, or get to Windmill Hill City Farm Christmas fayre, where we had a successful stall?  There was no meeting in December, but it was still an active month for Malago WI!

Anyway, membership is open now for new members and it’s also renewal time for our existing members.  It’s £36.00 for 2015 membership or we continue to welcome guests at £5 per meeting, if you’re undecided about joining.  Again, cash or cheque is the accepted form of currency on the night!

We’ve still got our lovely Malago WI tea towels for sale, so since you’ll be bringing cash with you, you might as well buy a tea towel too, don’t you think?

It’s very important that we have enough cake to eat next week, of course!  We’ve got a few confirmed, but another 1 or 2 would be great, so please drop us a line here if you can bring along some form of baked goods.

Looking ahead to February, we’ll be holding a raffle of unwanted/surplus/duplicate Christmas pressies , so if you’ve got anything lying around that you know isn’t going to get used (unused, in good condition), bring it along to the January meeting and we’ll hold on to it and co-ordinate the prizes for our February raffle.  The money we raise will go in to our funds so we can continue to bring in exciting and interesting guests throughout the year.

Phew, lots going on, but that's all for now.

Until 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