2016 Resolutions

Hello there,

Welcome back to Bake, Natter and Roll - the Farnham WI blog!

As you may know, the WI has a long history of campaigning on a wide range of issues. These campaigns are about changing things for the better and tackling the issues that matter to members.

Members are at the heart of the WI and they play a central role in bringing issues onto the WI's national agenda through our public affairs and campaigning. The WI has a resolutions and mandates process which means that every campaign starts within our membership and every year we vote on which resolutions to support.

Previous campagins and initiatives have included SOS for Honeybees, More Midwives and Time to Talk about Organ Donation.

As a newly formed WI group Bake Natter and Roll are not able to vote on the Resolutions in 2016, but that didn't stop us finding out more about them and having a discussion at our May meeting. At the meeting Gill Wright (joint Farnham and Hale member and Tresurer at Hale WI) gave us a presentation on the two resolutions have been selected to go forward to a final vote at the Annual Meeting in Brighton on 11th June:

Avoid food waste, address food poverty
'The WI calls on all supermarkets to sign up to a voluntary agreement to avoid food waste, thereby passing surplus food on to charities thus helping to address the issue of increasing food poverty in the UK.'

Appropriate care in hospitals for people with dementia
'We call upon HM Government and the NHS to provide facilities to enable carers to stay with people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia that have been admitted into hospital.'

Following Gill's presentation we had a group discussion about the two resolutions and look forward to hearing the outcome of the vote next month.

For more information visit the Women's Institute website.

Thank you for popping by today,

The Bake, Natter and Roll Committee

Our May Meeting - the tea-riffic world of social media!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Bake, Natter and Roll - the Farnham WI blog!

This month our monthly meeting was led by Vice President Rachel Wheeler who also runs some of the Social Media for Bake, Natter and Roll. As Rachel also writes a blog dedicated to Afternoon Tea we decided to dedicate this meeting to the world of Social Media and Rachel shared her blogging story with the members, giving them some tips on using social media and answering questions.

Rachel is a self-taught blogger whose afternoon tea blog is popular with tea and cake lovers around the world. Rachel attributes her love of social media (Twitter in particular) to her blogs popularity and she took the members through how she set up the blog and shared it with potential readers.

Since we were talking quite a bit about afternoon tea - Rachel and President Cat Hoare thought it would be a wonderful treat to enjoy a spot of afternoon tea during the discussion and each table had a tea-riffic afternoon tea stand to enjoy....

Topics discussed during this interactive meeting included setting up a blog, using Twitter, dedicated Facebook pages, Instagram and the use of hashtags in social media (remember to be careful what you write in your tags!). Rachel answered as many questions as she could during the evening and invited members to ask her other questions via the Bake, Natter and Roll Facebook page if they wanted.

The cucumber sandwiches, savoury tarts, scones, cakes and biscuits were enjoyed by everyone!

June's monthly meeting is called WI-NEY Night - where we will be enjoying (responsibility) a selection of wine and increasing our wine knowledge!

Thank you for popping by today,

The Bake, Natter and Roll Committee

Time for some Easter Crafting - Part 1

Hello there,

Welcome back to the Bake, Natter and Roll blog - here at Farnham WI we love a spot of crafting and with Easter just around the corner we thought we would share some Easter crafts with you.

Today we're starting with a really simple papercraft, which is perfect for giving mini eggs to friends and families this Easter. We've been making paper carrots....

All you need to make this cute little gift bag is some orange card, some green ribbon and some basic craft supplies (pencil, ruler, scissors, hole punch and sticky stuff).

First you need to create a template for your gift bag - I started by creating the shape for one side of the carrot and then I used that to create the full template. You'll need four of the sides, plus a little tab for gluing everything together....

I made my basic triangle shape 12cm x 8.5cm and then added a curved arc to the top, so it looked a little like an ice cream cone.....

Once you have cut your template out, you need to score along the long lines between each side of the carrot shape. You'll also need to score a line across the top edge of the triangle shape....

Once you have finished scoring all the lines you can start folding. 

Make sure you fold the arc shape inwards.....

Finally you need to punch holes in the top of the arc shapes, this is for threading the ribbon - so pick your punch size/shape depending on your ribbon width. Once you have punched the holes, you can fold the carrot shape and stick the tab in place.

The finishing touch is the green ribbon, which keeps the carrot together at the top but also looks like carrot leaves......

A very simple, but cute Easter project....

If you give this craft a go we'd love to see the results - send us a photo on Twitter or via our Facebook page! 

Thank you for popping by today,

the Bake, Natter and Roll Committee

Our March Meeting - Let it Grow, Let it Grow!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Bake, Natter and Roll , the Farnham WI blog - we hope you are well today!

This week we enjoyed our March monthly meeting, and around 50 members joined us for a talk from David Hepper from Farnham Local Food. Our President Cat kicked off this meeting telling us about the Surrey Federation Annual Council Meeting which she had the pleasure of attending a couple of weeks ago, where she met Janice Langley, the Chair of the National Federation. She also talked about our success at the United Reform Spring Fair and thanked all the members who donated handmade and baked items.

Rachel & Cat at the Spring Fair - Bake, Natter and Roll, Farnham WI

 Farnham Local Foods is community-run local agriculture project was founded in 2008 and is supported almost entirely by volunteer labour. David told us how they currently have land at Runfold and Dippenhall.  Their aim is to provide fresh, locally grown vegetables for people in and around the Farnham, Surrey, England area.

Farnham Local Foods

David talked to us about the project - what they grow and how volunteers can get involved if they fancy stretching their green fingers. He also answered all our questions about growing vegetables at home - including a very neat trick which uses old tyres as a container for growing potatos at home.

We also got to try some of the fresh salad which is currently being grown at Farnham Local Foods - everyone commented on how delicious it tasted.

March monthly meeting - Fanrham Local Foods

Once David had finished his informative talk, Cat launched the Bake, Natter and Roll Freakiest Vegetable Competition! In September our meeting is about what to do with all the lovely fresh produce we've been growing, and we'd like our members to bring along their most peculiar looking fruit or vegetable. We're looking forward to seeing what everyone has managed to grow!

Our next meeting in April is a more sociable affair - we'll have board games and crafts to try......plus of course there will be cake to enjoy! Two committee members have Birthdays close to this meeting and will be celebrating - we hope everyone fancies joining us!

Thanks for popping by today,

The Bake, Natter and Roll Committee

Bake, Natter and Roll First Fair!

Hello there,

Welcome back to Bake, Natter and Roll, the Farnham WI blog!

Last weekend we had a stall at our first community fair! If you've popped by before you'll know just how talented our members are....and so when we heard that the United Reform Church was holding a spring fair we knew we needed to have a stall!

Our first Bake, Natter and Roll handmade stall!

We asked our fab members for donations....and they came in thick and fast! 

Our bakers made us all kinds of sweet treats from welsh cakes and bug biscuits to chocolate fudge cakes to an Icelandic yogurt cake - our customers were spoilt for choice!

Bake, Natter and Roll homemade treats!

We also had a wonderful selection of handmade items donated, including pretty crochet bunting, handmade cards, flower brooches and hair slides, felt brooches, teacup pin cushions and wooden mother's day hangers.....

Bake, Natter and Roll - handmade crafts!

The fair was open from 9:30am - 1:30pm and it was lovely to meet so many members of the local community. We enjoyed telling people all about Bake, Natter and Roll! It was also lovely to see some of our members who popped by to say hello!

We're now planning other local events to attend during 2016 - keep your eyes peeled for more information on dates and locations!

Thank you for popping by today,

the Bake, Natter and Roll Committee

Our Members

Hello there,

Welcome back to Bake, Natter and Roll, the Farnham WI blog!

As a shiny new WI we are often asked about our members - everyone wants to know what they're like, what type of ladies have joined us.

When we set up Bake, Natter and Roll we really didn't know how many people would be interested in joining us or what they would be like. Our motto is that we're for the young and young at heart and our programme includes a mix of traditional activities and more modern pursuits - what impact this would have on membership we didn't know!

However, we are incredibly lucky as we are already at capacity with 80 members and another 40 ladies on our waiting list! And probably the best way to describe us is like a big bag of Liquorice Allsorts - we have members of all ages young and old and from all backgrounds! The one thing we can say about our members is that they are a talented bunch!

From baking to crafting, from jewellery making to singing and painting - we are discovering that we have lots of skills  and talents in the group! And today we thought we'd share some of our recent makes and bakes.....

Alex's homemade afternoon tea spread

-created when teaching a friend to bake...

Jen's wall painting, 

created on a playroom wall.....

Emma's homemade Welsh cakes, 

made on St David's Day.....

Eve's necklace, 

which has been submitted to the Eileen Bowler competition.....

 Kate's patchwork cushion...

Rachel and Helen's acoustic group - 

Little Iris.....

Lydia's scrummy cakes - 

a triple layer peanut butter cake a sunken Nutella cake....

Olivia's indoor Igloo....

Shauneen's fabulous masks.....

And this is just a small selection of the items that have been shared on our Facebook page recently! It's brilliant to be part of a community of ladies who are so diverse in their skills and happy to share their talents with the group.

Pop back over the coming months as we share more of our makes and bakes!

Thank you for popping by today,

Bake, Natter and Roll Committee

Our Mindfulness Meeting - February 2016

Hello there,

Welcome back to Bake, Natter and Roll - the Farnham WI blog.

This week we had our second monthly meeting - with our first external meeting. I think the whole committee felt that this was our first real meeting as a WI and were looking forward to seeing all the members again.

In this meeting 51 members and 7 guests joined us for an introduction to mindfulness, led by Suzette Jones Health & Wellbeing Adviser The Diocese of Guildford.

Suzette took us through the basic principals of mindfulness, introducing us to the concept of paying attention to our experience in the present moment with an attitude of acceptance. She explained that anyone can practice mindfulness and took us through some simple exercises.

We practiced mindful smiling - a very simple exercise where we did nothing but smile and focus on our smiles for a full thirty seconds.....

Suzette encouraged us to smile more, especially when we have moments in life when we become irritated. Next time you're stuck in a traffic jam give it a go - smile and for a few deep slow breaths.

Evidence shows that mindfulness practice can boost our well-being and compassion for ourselves and others. Being in the moment and paying attention makes us more present and awake in life.

As well as mindful smiling, we also learnt about the three step breathing space meditation and mindful eating - really thinking about the food we are eating, where has it come from and who created it, before eating it.

Suzette encouraged us to continue practising mindfulness at home - there are many different ways to do this, from colouring books, to guided mindfulness meditation to simply taking time out each day to focus the mind on your breath. 

The meeting was enjoyed by all our members and we'd like to thank Suzette for joining us for the evening

Thank you for popping by today,

The Bake, Natter and Roll Committee

Don't forget to try mindful smiling next time you feel your irritation levels rise!