christmas starts here

Our traditional Christmas Craft evening this week was a cracking finish for our meetings this year.  It's always such a pleasure to see everyone looking so pleased with the things they made.  It was lovely too to see our "We Heart EEWI" tree surrounded by the generous gifts members brought for our friends at U-Turn.

Mulled wine, mince pies and our first Christmas Craft Market added to the hubbub.  There was so much tempting gorgeousness around.  Special thanks go to Jill for generously making the screen printed and hand painted bags - wonderful designs and an absolute snip at £4 a bag - there are a few left if anyone's interested, but be quick.  (You'll find a link to all of our stallholders details here shortly.)

Congratulations to the winners of our annual mince pie bake off (sorry - only crumbs left when I thought about taking a picture), the Christmas Quiz and Guess the Weight of the Queensland Blue (!) competions.  And many, many thanks to Jo, Elizabeth and Veronika for leading our flowery, hearty and chocolatey activities and our heroic and flu-battered Clare for her alchemical skills at mixing mulled wine.  

The last word goes to , Niki who puts so much seemingly endless energy into making EEWI such a vibrant community of women:

"One of the best moments for me was seeing one of the U-Turn staff struggling down the alleyway with an Ikea bag filled to the brim with presents. Your generosity never ceases to move me and U-Turn is so grateful to us for this gesture - it means an awful lot to them so thank you from me, the committee and from Rio Vella, Project Director of U-Turn.

Our coffee morning today was so great and as the snow fell on the garden at the Geffrye Museum we drank tea and ate cake watching the landscape outside become very Christmassy indeed."

Indeed, indeed.  

Happy Christmas to you all.

hurwunderful

We had a lovely time this week. Local drama group Phakama ran a warm, welcoming and fun-filled drama workshop for us with singing, stories, games and a little bit of wire scupture too. Even if you, like me, you went along feeling rubbish, what with the cold, wet weather and viruses about this week, you came out feeling energised and full of life. We're delighted that the lovely Corinne from Phakama wants to work with us again and has invited us to become part of their community chorus in their show "The World at My Feet", to be performed in February 2011, so look out for more information in our next newsletter.

Our Friday coffee morning at Hurwundekei was fab too. Good cakes, well up to EEWI standards, in vintage surroundings with a table large enough to accommodate a dozen chatty women and, erm, a horse's head for company. As you can see, not a crumb remaining when we left, though we did leave the horse. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

And, if you like all things crafty, you might think about going along to Curvey Crafters, a new group for over-18s set up by multi-talented EEWI members Jo and Noeline. They are meeting tonight from 7 - 9pm at the Salvation Army building, Kerby Street, Poplar. Just take along a current project - knitting, sewing, card making, whatever - and make progress with some good company. There's a charge of £1.50 - refreshments will be available. The group meets every two weeks; next meeting scheduled for 11th November.

Finally, an apology from me for failing to post info on October meetings on the blog.  I'm getting old and forgetful...obviously.

goddesses hit the runway

Well, it was quite an evening.  Sharing names, and words, and flow.  We put our feet on the ground.  We thought about times when we were on a roll.  We had some music and some movement.  We chatted and smiled and let ourselves go.

Then we took flight.

Massive thanks from us all to Cate McKenzie for leading the evening with such energy and warmth.  If you want to spend some more time releasing your inner goddess Cate is running a workshop at Bromley by Bow Centre on 12th August.  More details available here.

snippets

The vile weather did not put a dampener on our Life Drawing workshop this week. It was wonderful to watch everyone's pieces come together as we followed in Matisses' footsteps creating collage pictures of our model. Thanks to Kate Hardy for running yet another great session and thanks also to Amanda for being our model. Kate's sessions are always very relaxed and she has a brilliant way of bringing people's creativity out even when they are convinced they don't have any.

We also managed to collect some newspapers, pens, blankets and towels for the Celia Hammond Animal Trust in Canning Town. They are always in desperate need for these things as they get through many more than they can afford to purchase. CHAT is an animal hospital, animal shelter and vet clinic offering low priced veterinary care to those who cannot afford vet's fees but who do not necessarily fit into the low income bracket served by other charities. They also have hundreds of cats, kittens, dogs and puppies that need a home.

EEWI will continue to collect these items so please do bring whatever you have to the next meeting. That also goes for your old bras which we have begun collecting again for the charity Knickers4Africa.

We recognise that you may feel a little daft with a bag full of old bras, old newspapers and old blankets but its all in a good cause!

Da Doo Ron Ron

Oh, Cynthia, we love you! Not only did you cycle to our meeting, you got us all singing and smiling like we were born to perform.

I don't think I've ever seen so many smiling faces and such exhilaration.

We were doing brilliantly... until we had a go at "Jerusalem". We might need just a bit more practice if we decide to try again.

Cynthia - there's no other. You are the leader of the pack. Come again!

christmas crafted

Thanks to everyone for joining in with the mulled wine infused frenzy and making our Christmas Crafts event so good. The wealth of talent is source of wonder.

Special thanks to Jo for bringing along the flowers, greenery and floristry tackle and working so hard to help produce so many accomplished floral displays; to Elizabeth for sharing the secrets of origami box making; to Niki for wielding the needles; and Sorella for the fairtrade florentine goodness.

Congratulations to Annie for winning the Mince Pie Bake-off. The homemade mincemeat really hit the spot with our totally impartial and dedicated judges. As did a wee drop of mulled wine. (Hope I'm forgiven for contaminating the first batch!)

One of the best part of the evening was seeing people waltzing off with their handiwork. If you're still wondering "Did I make that?" ...

...the answer is yes you did. And very good it was too.

(PS Geffrye Museum 10.30am tomorrow for the coffee morning)

blueberry boy bait

You can find the recipe for Veronika's Blueberry Boy Bait cake on the enticing Smitten Kitchen blog - a virtual visit to a New York kitchen .

Delicious.

I speak from experience. And thanks to Veronika for sharing.

buns and life

What a great turn out for our life drawing class! Kate managed to calm us down and get us to focus on space and shape and light, helped by our brilliant professional model.

We managed to produce these before we went home.

Never was an iced bun more appropriate to celebrate our success.

Round of applause all round.

SOS for honey bees

Our May meeting focused on annual resolutions and we took a vote on the SOS for Honey Bees resolution: "Honey Bees play a vital role in the pollination of food crops and in our environment. In view of concerns about the accelerating decline in the UK honey bee population, this meeting urges HM Government to increase funding for research into Bee Health." EEWI members endorsed the resolution which will be voted on at the WI AGM on 3rd June. Look out for feedback soon.

We have decided to look at ways in which we can support the Bee campaign. Contact us if you have any suggestions. You can find out more about bee health here and here and here.

Post Script: Motion carried at the AGM!