Buns & Roses WI

April Workshop - "Run BnR" - Street Dance Workshop

Saturday, 31 May 2014 § 0

So first of all apologies - this post is a bit overdue - in the post excitement of the workshop (so much so I left my stereo in the Car Park at the Cosmopolitan, but they have kindly returned it to me thank you very much lovely Cosmo staff!) I haven't yet written about the fabulous time we had being taught how to do a Street Dance routine by the lovely Harriet Lawton who is also a textile and ceramic artist as well as a street dance enthusiast and instructor.

I have to admit that I was cynical of what Harriet might achieve with a mixed ability group of Roses (in particular my own clumsy self - I once managed to give myself a black eye walking into a wall!) and across the short space of time of just an hour and a half.

We first of all learned how to "ripple" hard to explain, but basically a very isolated movement where you "ripple" your body slowly or fast, but in one continous motion.

Harriet helped us learn a "simple" routine, which was challenging enough to be interesting, but actually looked pretty good when we fitted it all together. The workshop was pretty active work too and we were all a little glowing by the end!

Take a look at some of our Roses in action!

May Workshop - Beauty School Drop In - Hair workshop

Monday, 19 May 2014 § 0

Vintage hair is often something we've had requested for a workshop and so we were pleased to be joined by Natalie Willingham who was teaching us how to achieve the art of victorious victory rolls - something like this!

To be victorious in creating this wonderful vintage look you need the following items:

Comb – preferably a tail comb
Hair spray
Hair grips to match your hair colour – small pack
Either 1 inch or smaller curling tongs, curling wand, straighteners (if you can curl with these) or heated rollers.
Free standing mirror to work with – you must be able to see your whole face in the mirror.

Natalie used a demo head to show us how to create a victory role - you initially make a curl using the tongs and then pin it in a curl to your head to cool down. Once the curl is cool you backcomb a tiny bit (Natalie showed us the right way to do this!) and then you pin into position - simple (!)

It is fair to say that some of our roses found the technique easier to master than others, but everyone enjoyed the practice and certainly some of our roses had some great results!

April Meeting - Buns Got Talent

Sunday, 27 April 2014 § 0

Last week saw us celebrating our 5th birthday party in true Roses style - there was cheese, cake, chat, mystery present swapping, name badge making and caricatures courtesy of the very talented Mik Artistic and a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to us to get us all in a birthday party mood.

There was also the formal bit of WI business as our birthday party is also our annual general meeting - Lucy (our president) gave us a report of the year and its highlights - bricklaying stands out as an especially good workshop and the talk about the history of buttons and the talk about bones also stood out as particular highlights. She also confirmed that she'd be staying on as President, Helen as treasurer, Sam as Secretary, Gloria as Vice Chair, Siobhan as Bookclub Lady and general committee member and thanked those Susan and Tana for their help over the last twelve months but who were now standing down.

Helen gave us a finance report (we're in good shape), Siobhan reported on the recent WI Conference she attended about Inspiring Women and Gloria gave us forthcoming highlights that West Yorkshire federation are organising and also told us about the National WI Raffle and encouraged us all to buy tickets. Sadly though she didn't win the talent competition but former president Gemma did with her recorder playing. Gemma also handed over the 5th anniversary certificate which had been presented to Buns and Roses by Janice Langley CHair of the National Federation of Womens Institutes at the West Yorkshire Regional AGM held at the end of March.

If you're not a member but would like to come along to a Buns and Roses meeting we meet the third Thursday of the month at Cosmopolitans in Leeds, from 7pm for a 7.30pm start - you don't need to book you can just turn up and find out for yourself what goes on at a meeting - our next meeting is Thursday 15th May 2015 and is going to be all about bees with a talk by local beekeeper and Minster FM dj Alex Brown - hope to see lots of you there :-)

March Meeting - Talking about a Resolution

Thursday, 10 April 2014 § 0

March’s meeting saw the Roses getting to grips with the campaigning side of the WI as we looked in more depth at this year’s resolutions.

What’s more our lovely vice president Gloria talked to the group about past WI campaigns and enlightened us on some of the group’s history – as the WI has been known as a campaigning organisation since it was first founded in 1915. A number of past resolutions gave the Roses a real insight into past concerns including a 1950s campaign to keep giblets in poultry and other more recognisable issues such as equal pay for equal work.

While the famous craft stash was off course out alongside instructions (and fab examples) of patchwork, Suffolk puffs and knitted bunting making for a crafty and informative evening.

April Book Club - Gone with The Wind

Wednesday, 9 April 2014 § 0

Once again we met amidst the Victorian splendour of the Tiled Hall Café – and once tea and cake and scones had been purchased we settled down to discuss Gone With The Wind. The Pullitzer prize winning novel by Margaret Mitchell that was first published in 1937 and the Oscar winning film version which was made in 1939 and remains the most successful film ever made in terms of box office.

It’s both a long book and a long film and although most of us had seen the film at some point and so knew the story none of us had finished the book itself – though one of us had got to 73% and was determined to finish it as she was at the point where Scarlett marries Frank and she just had to know how it turned out.

All of us struggled with the racism in the book, the opening pages which set the scene of late 19^th century southern American society are extremely shocking to enlightened 21^st century eyes and it’s part of the criticism which surrounds the book and the film as neither really comment on the dreadful inequalities but just describes them. But those issues aside we all agreed it was a rattling good albeit long tale and the descriptions of Tara the plantation are so vivid we could smell and see the red earth. None of us wanted to be close friends with Scarlett but we would love to watch her machinations from a distance and we all agreed she was a survivor, it’s been argued that rather than it being a love story it is in fact a tale of survival and Scarlett does exactly that.

One of the things we do at Book Club is to compare the different covers we all have – one was a tie in to the film version with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in a passionate clinch, a couple of others also had a bodice ripper look about them but one had a background of burning buildings. It’s interesting to see how the covers change over the years to attract different demographics.

Our next meeting is Sunday May 18^th 2.30pm Tiled Hall Café (just inside the Art Gallery on the Headrow) and we’ll be discussing The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim – as always we don’t mind if you haven’t finished the book, just seen the film adaptation or read the Wikipedia entry about it – come along, chat and have some cake with us.

"If I had a Hammer" - March Workshop - Bricklaying

Sunday, 16 March 2014 § 0

Bricklaying is probably one of our more unconventional workshops and probably not one that you would imagine as a typical WI activity, but our ladies and honoury gentleman (yes men are allowed at our workshops although not at our meetings) had a great time learning this classic skill.

We learned all about how to measure if our mortar and bricks were at the right height.

We then learnt how to manipulate the mortar and "butter" a brick (not much different to putting butter cream on a cake!)

It's very important to make sure that your wall is level and we used a spirit level to check.

Some intense concentration on brick laying!

Some of our ladies looking very proud with their excellent walls!

The end of the workshop culminated in judging of each walls on how level they were, number of bricks laid, finish (had it been pointed well) and how accurate the spacing was by laying a flat surface along the edge of the wall and seeing if it touched every brick.

And so who was the winner? It was our honoury gent who received the brief moment of glory to hold the "Golden Trowel"

For more information and for a great place to learn bricklaying and a number of other DIY skills, please visit Build Skills Academy

February Meeting - Dr Bones

Wednesday, 12 March 2014 § 0

For February’s meeting we were joined by the lovely Dr Janet Fletcher, an osteoarcheologist at Sheffield University who is a specialist in neonatal and perinatal remains.

Janet treated the group to a fascinating talk about the Chapel Wood Ritual Landscape site. Janet even let the group get up close and personal with some human remains including two skulls!

The Roses were then taken through some of the basics of identifying individuals from their bones as well as teaching us about the site as a whole. Overall, it was a good evening for all.