Archive for June 2016

Thursday 30 June 2016 § 0

The Eurovision Wrong Contest - Quiz Night - May 2016

There aren’t many things that are so wrong they become right, but Eurovision is certainly one of those things. Here at Buns and Roses we’re great fans of the annual song-a-thon spectacle and decided to commemorate it this year with a Eurovision themed quiz at Leeds Crowd of Favours. 

Tension was high in the first round looking for names and nationalities of previous winners, with groantastic cryptic clues like “Dangled doll on a ground down beach” For Sandy Shaws’ ‘Puppet on a string’ followed hotly into the “Terry or not Terry” round, deciphering whether actual quotes from previous years live broadcasts had been the not so subtle sarcasm of the late great Wogan, or the bitchy bravado of Graham Norton.  


European geography round “Have you got a flag” and Euro-history in “as English as Queen Victoria”, gave a welcome relief for the quiz mastering continental art and literature round, just to prove we’re not all song and dance. 


With the winning prize going to…..the team that had 3 members who had been at this year’s final in Stockholm. That’s hard core specialists if we ever saw them!

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I Just Haven't Met You Yet - May Meeting 


May was hot indoors and out at Leeds WI with our lovely speaker Martine Scannel talking about Courtship Gestures - Or How We Girls Rule! - the behavioural psychology of people when they flirt and the advantages of mastering the often unnoticed courtship dance. 


We learned how men puff it up in an attempt to man up and to impress the ladies, whilst the ladies poke them out, pull it in, swish their hair and flash their Pandora bracelets when they want the chaps to know they are keen…and it’s the people that can read these often unconscious signals that often get the girl. 


However, studies have shown that women call the shots, with them being the initiators in the courtship dance in 90% of interactions, which puts the ladies in the power if they know how to use the right dance moves, but watch out for those over the shoulder glances and pelvic tilts or people may think you’re doing the Time Warp!


Many of us were scribbling furiously, including one of our assistant secretaries who pointed out “since I got married I want to avoid guys chatting me up, now I can use these tips to head off any likely Lotharios before they even get started”. 


Even more funny was learning about unconscious displays of masculinity, which has left many of us thinking we will never look at chaps on a sports pitch line up the same way again. 


By the end of the evening we were much better educated in subconscious human gestures and interactions with everyone taking away something from the meeting, whether it be how to use body language to your advantage in a male dominated meeting, to developing the ability to make chaps come to talk to you as if by magic at the next party.

 

We Will Frock You - May Workshop

Wednesday 8 June 2016 § 0

Our guest speaker for this meeting was Jean who had travelled all the way from Sheffield, where she is also a WI member. We welcomed her and everyone to the workshop including new and regular members.

Jean started the workshop talking about colours and how the seasons influence colours and our clothes and the current fashion trends (backed up by some images of current fashion trends in New York at the moment). Jean explained about spring colours such as green and yellow and about everything coming to life in this season. These colours when we wear them can also indicate new beginnings and ideas and have links to nature. We tend to drift towards colours such as these as well as fresh pinks and whites this time of year as our energy rises and we feel young and alive as the spring is here.



Summer months bring more colours into our lives including reds and pinks which we associate with love.  The summer months and more colour in the summer clothes in the shops help us to feel lighter, brighter and better in every way

Autumn brings colours of life turning a circle with golden and brown tints - again seen in nature as leaves fall from trees. Brown is the colour of mother earth. 
Winter is when life’s balance restores and we tend to associate red and green with this time of year, especially at Christmas time.  The red signifies love and green relates to money and energy, of course Christmas is a time for both of these!

As human being we tend to compliment nature with our clothes but we do not necessarily have to copy nature, so you can in fact wear any colour any time of the year!

Other popular colours we wear created by fashion include white - Jean told us how most clothes are made white and then dyed to match that period of time’s must have colours.  

Grey is associated with self denial and fear and holding oneself back. On a grey day we feel down and this is reflected in our grey choice of clothing. Black clothes tend to be mysterious but when partnered with say a red blouse, the red stands out more and is thought to give one physical power - so a good choice to wear for an interview maybe! We can also pair black with pink for social power and yellow for intellectual power! 
It was quite entertaining that pink is associated with royalty and incidentally our treasurer was dressed in pink and gave us a royal wave!!

Jean explained that calming colours like pale blues and pinks tend to be seen in shops for babies clothes as these are seen as calming and nurturing colours.

At half time we had a clothes swap and I know many people (including myself) really appreciated this and got a couple of new additions to our wardrobe!

After a quick rummage through the clothes brought Jean then went onto explain numerology and how our date of birth relates to a particular number / colour.
This involved a bit of maths and a lot of confusion but it was fun to find out our colour / number and to see what that said about us.  It involved adding up all the numbers of your date of birth to come up with a single number

If you are interested the numbers and descriptions are below:

Number 1 vibration the red ray
Number 1 leadership, independence. Red willpower, determination to succeed. Virtues courage, perseverance, goodness, love
Number 1 is leadership, those who have initiative and are not afraid of using it.  They are independent, often forward thinkers and can be pioneers in their field.  They accept responsibility and are always active in one way or another.
Number 2 vibration the orange ray
Number 2 adaptability, can hold back, leads one to harmony. Orange creativity, self expression, leading to confidence. Virtues purity, holiness
Adaptability leading to harmony, this vibration is duality, and we live in a world of duality, day and night, positive and negative, male and female.  Number 2 is the opposite of number 1, who is very definite.  These people are adaptable, and they avoid conflicts but have strong moods and feelings.  
Number 3 vibration the yellow ray
Number 3 the pure artist. Yellow intellect, ideas. Virtues wisdom, discernment, right judgement.
Creativity here we have the pure artist.  To create is one of the highest expressions a person can achieve on earth, and we can create at many levels: children, works of art, beautiful surroundings but what we create we have to live with and this needs to be remembered by the number 3 vibration.  
Number 4 vibration the green ray
Number 4 Practicality, self-discipline. Green energy, balance, harmony. Virtues compassion, understanding, kindness.  Generosity.  Humility.
The ray of practicality.  Ask a four vibration to do anything for you and here we have the willing workhorse.  Everything has to have a meaning and purpose for them but they are realistic and objective.  They either have a lot of self-discipline or will have incarnated to learn self-discipline: that is the essence of the four vibration.
Number 5 vibration the blue ray
Number 5 communication, a tendency to go down too many avenues. Blue intuition, awareness. Virtues faith, trust, loyalty and integrity (same as indigo).
The number of communication.  These people have to watch they do not go down too many avenues and waste time; they need to find a goal and go for it.  The person who is a five vibration has a need to express themselves in many ways, through speaking, writing, singing, communications in some way, otherwise they can become withdrawn – a negative aspect of the blue ray.  
Number 6 vibration the indigo ray
Number 6 responsibility, the organiser. Indigo power with knowledge and understanding. Virtues faith, trust, loyalty and integrity (same as blue).
This is the number of responsibility.  These people must watch they do not take on too much.  Efficient and very capable, whatever they undertake will be done well.  They can organise and delegate and are good at running events of any kind.  They are home lovers, their home is their sanctuary.  They are very caring and could be good therapists in any field or run a clinic, or an office.  They need to be with people for balance as they tend to be loners.  
Number 7 vibration the violet ray
Number 7 sensitivity, insight. Violet high ideals, inspiration, intuition. Virtues sacrifice, unselfishness.
Sensitivity and insight.  This vibration is associated with extra-sensory perception, an awareness of other dimensions.  Many are mediums with this number; they can also be practical mystic, earthing the knowledge they receive to enable others to understand.  
Number 8 vibration the silver ray
Number 8 balancing of spirit and matter, material affairs, business acumen, success. Silver unifying knowledge with awareness.
The eight vibration is the balance of spirit and matter, the eight being formed by 2 circles, one on top of the other (‘As above, so below’).  Above are the heavenly worlds and below is the earth – here are the two principles working together: spirit and matter, the masculine and feminine, which are within each and every one of us.  We are spiritual beings living and working in matter.  
Number 9 vibration the golden yellow ray
Number 9 service, benevolence, giving oneself with no thought of reward.
This is the number of service.  To serve for the sake of serving with no thought of any reward is the highest vibration that mankind can tune in to, and so often the reward comes anyway.  We should not look for results of what we are doing, just to give of our time and energy in whatever way the spirit moves us is enough.  All this is contrary to the materialist of today who is always looking for profit, but there is a time and place for us all to arrive at these points in life and we should allow others their space to experience life the way they wish to.
Jean also gave colour and style tips to the ladies that asked and we all then chatted and said our goodbyes.  
Thank you to Jean for coming over to run this session and hopefully we all took something away from this!

Buns and Roses x


Knocking On Seven's Door - April Meeting - Annual Meeting & Birthday Party

Tuesday 7 June 2016 § 0

So happy 7th birthday Buns & Roses!  Yet again it’s been an exciting year and I’m going to run through some of our highlights with you all!


I’ve now been involved with Buns & Roses for nearly 6 years, on the committee since 2012 and president since 2013 and the time has just flown!  My first meeting was back in Mojos and I learnt the skill of horror make up from Gloria’s sister – the results were terrifying!  I’ve made some wonderful friends and learned some amazing skills like how to make a fascinator, how to melt chocolate with the greatest ease (tip being a hairdryer!) and tried on diamond rings worth over £30,000.  I’m sad to be stepping down as president, but with a very healthy 46 paid members and a great committee and new president I look forward to seeing how Buns & Roses evolves sitting at meetings as a member and being able to craft a chat!



What has always been important for me as a member and what drew me to the group was how friendly and welcoming we are.  For those of you who don’t know the story, founder members Georgiana and Zoe went to a craft group and were made to feel so unwelcome to the point that the other members left without even saying goodbye to them!  They decided that it could be done better! All our founder members were most concerned with ensuring that Buns & Roses WI was a welcoming and friendly group and this has continued to be the theme for us throughout the last 7 years and is certainly one of the things that I'm most passionate about.

So let's have a quick look back over the last year...

As always we’ve strived to listen to members and arrange a number of varied meetings including make up workshops, fascinator making, yarn craft, lots of general meetings because we all know you wanted to chat!  We heard from extremely inspiring speakers including Adam from The Real Junk Food Project and had a very over subscribed Gin Tasting Meeting!  We love the fact that our members and visitors are from a mix of people from different ages and backgrounds and we are working hard as a committee to ensure that we meet the needs of as many of our members as possible. 

This year our big trip out was to Whitby by popular demand and we had a great day searching for seaside tat, enjoying the SUNSHINE, scoffing fish and chips and trying to win our fortunes in the arcades.

Siobhan Maguire-Broad continued to look after Book Club until her University studies took over and very handily recruited Siobhan Ashburn to take over and both Siobhan’s have ensured that it is a fun, relaxed and cake filled environment to discuss a wide range of novels and regularly has up to 10 keen readers or cake consumers debating the merits of the plotlines, movie adaptations or book covers.

We’ve had a few committee changes, mostly lots of our lovely Roses have been mega keen to help out and so we now have bumper committee meetings with Grace-Ann as Treasurer supported by Clare-Marie and Louise, Lauren remains in charge of MCS, Amanda Hill has helped with the most amazing secretarial support and timely and well written minutes and agenda’s ever – I’m so grateful for your organisation as it has helped with my extremely chaotic nature.  We’ve also had fresh new input from Julie-Anne, Emma, Sarah, Lisa, Georgina, Stephanie and Caroline.

We've continued to have a presence within the media with Buns & Roses being featured in Grazia in the last few weeks as well as a couple of slots on BBC Radio Leeds – including back in October when I went head to head against the ex-editor of Loaded to explain why the WI is a necessary female safe space.



We've got exciting things to look forward to in 2016 including Beer Tasting, learning to play the Ukulele, mental health as well as more general meetings to allow members to socialise and get to know each other as well as our trip to Formby and Southport on the 30th April and so thank you to all the committee for helping to make it happen and to all our members for making it possible and if anyone would like to be more involved or has any further suggestions for forthcoming events and meetings, please get in touch.


Happy Birthday Buns & Roses!