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.

we heart EEWI

If you are in Bethnal Green tomorrow,  do pop in and see the East End WI Christmas Tree at the Christmas Tree Festival at Bethnal Green Mission, opposite the Museum of Childhood in Cambridge Heath Road.  There are some charming and quirky creations in there and we heart out little EEWI  tree.  I mean where else are you going to find a tree with icing sugar as fake snow? It's free to get in and you should be able to buy a cup of tea if you need one (as one does).

bloodlines and snow

We're so glad that the Overground was working on Wednesday when we had to get over to the Brockley Jack to see Bloodlines.  You know what an adventure it can be getting to the other side of the river.  Well done everyone who made it.

Great little theatre, wonderful spartan set, spirited acting - we loved Mary Queen of Scots and her embroidery - "not while we are embroidering" she says when it seems there is going to be a bit of a row. Must remember that line.

Sleepy Hollow next?

wine, women and song

Almost forgot to mention what a fabulous evening we had at the AGM.  The lovely Mike and Maureen from Waitrose Canary Wharf did a first class job of presenting and serving a selection of Christmas wines - we are super-grateful to them and to Waitrose for their generosity in providing their time and the wine.  If you weren't able to get a copy of the list I've posted it here for you.   Many thanks too to Clare and Veronika for organising the wine-tasting and the mini-feast that accompanied the wine.

Congratulations to everyone who took up the challenge of making something from a Cafe Direct coffee sack.  As someone whose sack got a bit holey after a spin in the washing machine, I can only say it was not as simple as it looked.  Anyway we had some lovely entries and clearly lots of work had gone into making them as well as not a little imagination. Whoever would have thought you could craft a sack bouquet?  Well done all!

As to the song - Gemma gave us a wee reminder of what a coup it would be if Jerusalem - including al of our lovely EEWI singers - could make it to the Christmas charts.  If you buy a copy on 12th December they just might.

Don't forget our next meeting on 14th December.  We've been planning our craft evening and there will be chocolate, flowers, hearts and who knows what elve.  And mince pies, ladies, for our annual mince pie competition.  We need your homemade mince pies!