Claire October 30th, 2013

As per usual I fall off the blogging waggon despite my best intentions (and a lot of IT issues) but he’s to having another go!

There’s been a few changes round here since the last time I blogged.  I’m no longer teaching craft evening classes – a combination of time and energy mainly, and restrictions on how many people need to be enrolled to make a course viable have made it harder to teach.  This is combined with the college needing me to update my teaching qualification, which kind of made the decision for me.  I do miss it, and have done a couple of private crochet workshops since then, which made me realise how much I missed it, and want to organise more of these in the new year.

Private crochet workshop at The Pretty Dandy Flea

I’ve been trying to take more photographs, and have been on 2 day courses in how to use my digital SLR camera, with Line and Light (who I would highly recommend), as well as playing a bit more with the vintage cameras I have from my parents.  I’m far from being an expert, but I am certainly a lot more confident at knowing what the camera does!

Stereo camera – my dad’s pride and joy

We have new (fluffy) additions to the family in the shape of 3 lovely, cheeky chickens.  More about them another time (and there will be another time this time as I’ve already got the post written and ready to publish!)

And last, but certainly not the least, we’ve started a new branch of the Women’s Institute in Sherwood.  There used to be a branch in Sherwood years ago but it closed, I think because it’s members were ageing and there weren’t many new members coming along.  I spoke to Linda, our WI adviser about setting one up last November.  There were lots of people interested in going to the WI, but who wanted something that they could ideally walk to, particularly important if you have children or other commitments that restrict the time you are available.  Once our County WI had approved it, we had 3 meetings arranged to see if there was enough  interest in the group to make it viable, and on the first, very manic night in January we had 60 people there!

The room I had booked at the United Reformed Church had a capacity of 50 – plenty,we assumed.  We ended up borrowing extra chairs and pretty much shoe-horning them in.  I knew it was busy as I was making teas for everyone, when my lovely neighbour popped her head in to the kitchen and told me people were queueing out of the door!  It was quite overwhelming that so many people wanted to find out more.  We have so far 42 members, and have had a lot of visitors too.  I was honoured to be elected as President and I’m immensely proud of being part of a diverse, lively and fun group that’s grown so quickly.  I have a fantastic committee along with me too, and although we are “talking shop” even our committee meetings are fun and go on for probably far too long!

Here’s an delightfully unflattering picture of me signing the official constitution and rules making us a WI:

In fact the amount of pictures taken that night is the only thing that’s really taken me out of my comfort zone as I much, much prefer being the other side of the lens!

We made it into the local paper too -

It’s been a busy year so far, and I’ve met and made friends with some amazing people.   Work has sometimes(often) got in the way, especially when it comes to having a holiday – the only time I have been away this year so far was in late May/ early June we had a lovely week with everyone over in Northern Ireland, and I’ve been ready for another break for months, but that’s not going to happen any time soon.  Next year I intend to change that and get out more!

Thanks for stopping by – will be back again soon x

• furry things , nottingham , stuff , teaching , Womens Institute
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Claire June 21st, 2012

Hi, my name is Claire and I am a member of the Women’s Institute.   Very proud member in fact; so much so I volunteer on the committee too.  Our WI is one of the newer generation of WIs where most of our members are in their 20′s/30′s, most work full time or are studying but all have an interest in cooking, crafting, gardening and generally meeting other interesting people.  I think that the perception of the WI is changing, mainly thanks to some of the other, newer WIs springing up all over the place, and popular media is helping too with films, TV shows and documentaries.

I probably had one of the best introductions to being in a WI as the first meeting I went to was a baking taster evening in Oct 2010 – the range of baked goods that evening was amazing and I met loads of other new people who were also new to the WI.  I’m actually quite reserved (I hesitate to use the word shy) with people that I don’t know, and wondered if this would be somewhere that people would be friendly (I can feel quite panicky in new social situations) but I need not have worried.  I even got chatting to a lady from Ballymoney where David’s family live, really proving that it is a genuinely small world!   One of the nicest things about our WI (and the other couple of WIs I have visited) is that they are really friendly, so you never really feel on your own as there’s usually a bunch of people that introduce themselves to you before you’ve had a chance to get a cuppa!

So, what do we do, apart from eat cake?  Well cake clearly does feature significantly in most of the things we are associated with, but there’s more to us than that.  Each month we have a guest speaker on a topic that is of interest to the group – last month we had a talk on organic gardening from Ecoworks.  We have also had talks on vintage fashion, eating seasonably, and the work of the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance.  Sometimes we book guest speakers, other times we have really fascinating talks from within the membership, such as our January meeting where one of our members spoke about her experiences of volunteering to help clear up the damage left by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  Next month we are having Robin Hood guide us on a walk around Nottingham.

The WI also have a long history of (and a fearsome reputation for) campaigning on a variety of issues, from environmental campaigns such as helping save the bumblebee, to reducing packaging on foods (I love that some WIs took back all of their excess packaging to the supermarket and dumped it on the manager for them to deal with).  The current resolution (what members vote on and what will be campaigned on in the following year) is to call for more midwives, and for more midwife training.   The resolutions are proposed by members, and voted on so whatever causes are close to people’s hearts they have a chance to submit proposals each year to be (hopefully) selected and voted on – I like the democracy of the process, which seems to make a refreshing change in the current climate!

One of the things we do really well in Nottingham City WI is our fetes – this year will be the third fete we have held, and the second one that I have been involved in.  This is one of the main ways we raise money for charity – this year’s nominated charity is The Friary Drop In, an organisation I work with closely in my day job and who do some pretty phenomenal work with really disadvantaged people, on next to no money.  We raise money for this by selling cakes – have a look at the cake table from last year:

(Excuse the rubbish picture – these were taken on my phone as I had sensibly left the camera at home…!) and by having a raffle, which last year was epic and covered the bar upstairs completely.

Speaking personally it’s the only place pretty much I sell my Pinky and Boo bits and bobs now, and there are lots of other really talented crafters out there who also sell their work too.

This was my stall last year: 

This year our fete is on 7th July at Cape Bar in Hockley, Nottingham from 11-3.  I know I could be accused of being biased, but you really aught to come down and have a look.  Not only is there the amazing cake stall and raffle (which lets face it is actually reason enough) but you can get hold of some lovely crafts, clothing, home grown plants, pottery, even get your nails manicured!  And meet some lovely people in the process of it all too.  Who knows, you may even end up joining us too!

If you don’t live in Nottingham, find out where your nearest WI is – I thoroughly recommend you find out what they’re up to, you may be surprised! xoxo

P.S.  We don’t sing Jerusalem either!

• craft fairs , crafts , nottingham , pinky and boo , stuff I made , Womens Institute
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