Happy New Year

Happy New Year everybody!

It seems a little late to be saying that, but it’s our first communication of 2014, so think it’s more than justified.
Hopefully you all had a wonderful time over Christmas and 2014 is moving along smoothly for you.

It was lovely to see some of you for Christmas drinks at the Tobacco Factory in December and our November meeting with Ivory Flowers was gorgeous.
Isn’t her shop looking fantastic, brightening up North Street during these drab, wet, winter days?

So here we are, January, traditionally the month for new regimes and resolutions – get fit, lose weight, stop smoking/drinking – essentially stop the fun stuff, straight after a month of indulgence.

It's just too hard, particularly with half full tins of chocolate, Christmas cake, biscuits and other delicious edibles bursting from cupboards and cluttering surfaces.
Far more practical to spend January enjoying all these tasty treats and start afresh in February, surely?

Well, with that in mind, we have Attic Tea visiting us in January for a tea tasting session.
Anne will talk us through the different types of tea available and the health benefits they offer.
Take a look at their lovely website if you’re not already aware of them and their products.
Maybe this will help kick start a healthier regime for February.
There’ll be products available for sale too, so come prepared, cash, cheque or credit card are all acceptable.
I’ll be looking out for the tea with cleansing and detoxifying properties!

As we mentioned at our last meeting, do bring along any unwanted Christmas gifts or excess boxes of chocolates, bottles of wine and so forth (unused and unopened, please!) that you want to get out of your house, ready for our raffle, which we'll hold during our February meeting.
We’ll store the donations until then and can co-ordinate the raffle draw and prizes in to something a little more orderly.

Importantly, please remember that it’s membership renewal month so you will need to pay your annual fee of £34.70 or the £5.00 visitors’ fee. You can pay by cash or cheque, but you only need to fill in the membership form if you’re a brand new member or if any of your details have changed.

Finally, we’d love more volunteers to help with the smooth running of our meetings, so if you can offer your services to help set up the hall before the meeting – committee members are usually there from 7.15pm, or help out with serving the tea and cakes during the break or to make/bring a cake to be served, that would be wonderful.
We’ll be creating a roster for helpers for each month which will be available at our meetings, or you can contact us through the usual channels to offer your help.

Until Wednesday...
MWI x

November news...

What a great October Blackout party!
We enjoyed a sociable and relaxed evening of themed food, music and movies. The hall had never looked so good, decked out in fantastic vintage bunting and 1940s memorabilia.
Hats off to all those who entered into the spirit of the occasion and came dressed up in style and huge thanks to the girls from the pop-up parlour who performed their 1940s hair and make-up magic on lots of lucky Malagowers.

We also got down to business with the formalities of the AGM, looking back on another successful year for Malago WI and feeling in good shape as we look ahead to an exciting programme of activities for 2014.
Thanks to our hard-working committee, with special thanks going to Nancy, Shelly, Jacqui and Emma who are taking a well earned break from committee duties and a very warm welcome to new members Lucy Culliford and Suzanne Bech.

We do need more committee members so would you just like to join us in helping to keep Malago WI a thriving, fun group?
Maybe you have a flair for photography or a great idea or contact for a future meeting? Maybe you’re keen to get a spin off WI group off the ground – a crochet club, book group or knitting circle? Whatever your reason, a warm and friendly welcome awaits you, not to mention tea and cake! Just get in touch or speak to one of us at the meeting and we’ll go from there!

Looking ahead to our final meeting of the year on Wednesday 27th November we’ll be getting into a Christmassy mood with a glass of punch and mince pies before Xanthe from Ivory Flowers demonstrates how to make a Christmas floral arrangement.

We’d like you to bring along some flowers and foliage from your own garden (or foraged if you prefer) and maybe you have a container that you think would be great for a flower arrangement but have never quite got round to working out how to make it look good?
Bring it along and Xanthe will create some impromptu displays using some of these and give us tips on how to create a lovely display with often overlooked foliage.

Xanthe will also have some goodies for sale so bring along some cash or your credit card, she’ll be telling us all about her new shop that’s soon to open on North Street too…exciting times!

Don’t forget that membership is open for new members to join for £34.70, existing members will need to renew in January, although if you’d like to do it at November’s meeting – that’s fine with us!

And if that hasn’t got you in a festive mood, don’t forget our December informal Christmas drinks get together, on 11th December from 8pm in the Tobacco Factory.

See you next week,

MWI x

Let's get ready to party!

Well hello Malagowers,

I think it’s time to admit that the summer – Indian or otherwise, is definitely over! 

We saw it out in style with some tasty seasonal recipes brought to us by Shannon Smith as she demonstrated some recipes using seasonal produce.

We sampled wasabi pea dip, courgette kofte, polenta pan bread and my personal favourite, the lovely, fresh potato and apple salad – why hasn’t it occurred to me before to use yoghurt for the dressing rather than the usual mayonnaise?   I hope you and your taste buds approved.

Now as the nights draw in and the temperature drops, what do we have to look forward to?

Only Malago WI’s 5^th Birthday Party and AGM!!!

We can’t wait – no we really can’t.  So we’re having it 1 week early on Wednesday 23rd October.

We’ve got lots in store for our 1940’s blackout party; food, music, movies, memorabilia and a fabulous pop-up parlour specialising in hair and make-up in the 1940’s style.

Do come dressed for the occasion, you may also get the chance to have your hair or make-up done by our parlour professionals – you’ll definitely be able to watch and learn and pick up some tips.

And as if that isn’t enough for you, membership also opens for new members, so if you’ve been coming along as a visitor until now, this is your chance to join up for 2014 for the small sum of £34.70 (and you get the last 2 meetings of 2013 for free – irresistible huh?)

We also have the AGM formalities, which will be confirming our committee for the coming year.  It shouldn’t take up too much time and then we can all enjoy a good, fun and very sociable evening.

Do say you’ll be there!

See you on the 23^rd

MWI x

Plenty, Bounty...Glut

So, before we bid a fond farewell to a well deserved warm and sunny Summer, let's recap on our August meeting with Bracey Interiors.
It proved a lively session with Malagowers sifting through an array of sumptuous fabrics brought in to dazzle and inspire.
Ben Bracey and his team romped through some of their style and design tips and completed projects to an appreciative audience who left the hall buzzing with design ideas and laden with tantalising brochures and catalogues.

Just a few days later, Malago WI were providing cakes to the masses at the International Kite Festival at Ashton Court. The weather was warm and sunny and the cakes were a hit with just about everything selling out by the end of the Sunday.
Thanks so much to everyone who helped out and made this a success, we've boosted our funds by over £650, and hopefully raised our profile too.
 

Now as September lives up to its reputation as the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness we look forward to this month’s meeting, entitled Plenty, Bounty…. Glut.
The session will be led by experienced food and cooking tutor and gardener Shannon Smith who is also involved in the Horfield Organic Community Orchard project
 

The full flow of late-summer harvest can feel both a blessing and a curse but Shannon will show us how to enjoy one more courgette, and that there’s more to apples than crumble.
This ‘cook and taste’ session features savoury and sweet foods –as well as recipes that children can help cook.
 

Members are invited to bring samples of seasonal produce – familiar and unusual – from the garden, allotment, or gathered from the wild, for tasting and inspiration.
 

It's gonna be a good 'un, see you there...

MWI x

Summer Summer Summer time...

Well, hello Malagowers
It was lovely to see so many of you at July's meeting.
What a fun and lively session we had with Liz Ferguson giving lovely idea's and tips for creating an eyecatching and appealing stand or stall for an event and sharing her wonderful albums of projects (not least of all her daughters wedding) and regaling us with her plentiful supply of warm and funny anecdotes .. all that and then on to the hands on activity of making tissue paper pompoms.
Weren't they fabulously frou-frou?
So simple and effective, but a real punch of colour - I like them a lot!

At August's meeting Bracey Interiors will be talking to us about interior design, less paper pompoms and more paint palettes I suspect!

I'm sure it hasn't escaped your notice that we are nearing Kite Festival weekend, it's not too late to offer your services if you haven't already and we'd love to have you with us whether it's helping on the stall over the weekend or bumping up our cake numbers.
The money raised will go towards making your WI even better by keeping up our tradition of interesting, varied and fun speakers so any little contribution you make, really helps your Malago WI.
Drop us a line at wearemalagowi@gmail.com and make us an offer or hopefully we'll see you at Wednesday's meeting and we can talk then.

Until Wednesday...
MWI x