maytime: a bit of life, craft and cake

Hope you all had a lovely Easter and are ready for our next adventure.  This month the multi-talented artist Kate Hardy will be joining us on 17th May to lead another of her brilliant life drawing classes.  Kate has visited us a couple of times before and we normally find that we have a full house, so do try to come along early.  We will also be mandating our delegate - this year someone from N1 WI - to put forward our votes on motions to the NFWI AGM.  We'll be at the usual place, usual time - 7.30 for 8pm start at St Margaret's House, Old Ford Road, E2.  All materials will be supplied.  Free for members, suggested donation of £3 for non-members.  We'll also be raising money for Cake Break for MS, so if you are a baker, novice or otherwise, do please bring along some home-made cakes for us to sell, and some spare change to but something!

We hope to raise more for the charity at our coffee morning at 10.30am on 20th May.  This time we'll be visiting the wonderful Create Place (just a few doors down from St Margaret's House) where we'll be able to buy tea and coffee, look at the merchandise and see what they goes on in this craft-y venture.  So more cakes for sale would be welcome there too!

Just to get your appetite whetted, here's a wee sample here of what our faithful bakers made when they generously turned up to support the Mile End Cemetery event last Sunday.  Well done all, especially Clare who co-ordinated our team - and, according to my John, made the very best fruit cake.

And if you didn't make it to our last meeting, just a little taster of what you missed...

Our thanks go to Theresa from Kitchen Buddy for demonstrating how to make delicious raw food salads and for sharing her healthy chocolate - and to Veronika for setting up the event and being such a diligent sous chef.  Look out Masterchef...

a night at the sack races

Lovely evening serving goodies to support Cafe Direct's Night at the Sack Races.  Mind you, it wasn't all hard work...

Do come along and see us at Spitalfields Trader's Market tomorrow at the International Women's Fair, 10-5pm.  Would be lovely to see you.

march events

Well, we won't be dancing exactly at our evening meeting on 15th March, but we will be a little more active than usual with a Tai Chi session so come prepared with loose clothing so that you can practice some gentle and relaxing movement.  We'll be meeting as usual at St Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 7.30 for 8pm.  Refreshments will be available, though do feel free to bring a bottle or something to share.  Visitors are welcome - we invite donations of £3 to help cover our costs.

With spring in the air - we hope - our coffee morning on Friday 18th March will be at the Frizzante Cafe at Hackney City Farm on the corner of Goldsmith's Row and Hackney Road - map here.  Meet in the cafe at 10.30am.

Other dates for your diary:

*We are going to be supporting Cafe Direct's "Jump in the Sack" event for Red Nose Day with tea and cakes.  Next Wednesday 9th March, 7-11pm at Village Underground, 54 Holywell Road, E2.

* To celebrate International Women's Day we'll be selling cakes on Saturday 12th March 10 - 5pm at Spitalfields Market.  More information here.

* Some of us (you know who you are!) will be performing "Cups, Bloomers and Briefs" with Jenny Edbrooke as part of the Chisenhale Dance Space "TV Dinners" festival from 7.30pm on Friday 18th March.  All will be revealed on the day.  Well, maybe not all.  I hope.

* If you want to make friends with a sewing machine, we'll help you to make a simple cushion or bag at an evening workshop on Thursday 24th March, 7 - 9pm, at the Salvation Army Hall in Kerbey Street With thanks to the lovely Cecilia for donating some beautiful fabric to help us hone our sewing skills.

Look forward to seeing you soon.

floribundance

Jo C ran a strict class for us this week - if you weren't testing your brain with her killer quiz then you were exercising nimble fingers cutting and trimming and primping to make the prettiest little table tussie-mussies.  From the sidelines, it was a joy to see such absorption and everybody delighted with their creations.  

We are immensely grateful to Jo who put in such a lot of work to make our evening so successful - that word search certainly kept us quiet, and you've got to admit that takes some doing.  Congratulations go to the winners of Jo's quiz - what exactly do you have to do to remove pollen from your clothes?  Can someone tell me sometime, please?  Hopefully those who attended our coffee morning visit to the Geffrye Museum this morning are now experts on the art of flowers - and a good cafe experience - and will be front runners for any more quizzing.  

Thanks also to our bakers for their flower-themed cakes and biscuits (sorry to have missed out on the lavender shortbread, Clare).  We were very pleased indeed to have raised a very commendable £38 for cake break for MS.  You'll also be pleased to learn that a might haul of your old bras made the first stage of their journey to Africa when Niki dropped them off in New Cross!  And the abandoned cats and dogs of East London should be a little more comfortable with the supplies of blankets. towels and linen we collected and have now left with the Celia Hammond Animal Trust.  All in all, it was a wonderful end to our time at Chisenhale, though we will be popping in again to help out serving tea, coffee and cakes at their parent's morning in May.  

Don't forget, next month we meet at St Margaret's.  Exciting!

run!

It was wild and woolly weather after the worst storms of the year but that didn't stop EEWI members turning out for the Woman's trust fundraising run. I thought I'd be pushing my luck without any waterproofs to go beyond 4km but others were more noble.

There's still time to help Niki reach her fundraising target if you run along to her just giving page.