September has been a fun month for us WI ladies – full of fashion, beauty and inspiration.
On 19 September we were welcomed to Harvey Nichols in the city centre for an evening of beauty, shoes and then a fantastic dinner.
Starting downstairs amongst the glamorous surrounds of beauty counters from Espa, Shu Uemura, Bobbi Brown and Red Carpet Manicure. With glasses of fizz in hand, we were shown some of the products on offer, including a full gel manicure and false eyelash demonstration.
After everyone had tried products, a few of us (yes, me included, lucky thing) won products from Espa (the body butter really is to die for) it was time for, well, shoe porn. Upstairs to view the likes of Laboutin, Jimmy Choo, Alexander McQueen – the selection seemed endless. Just when you thought you’d seen every pair you could fall in love with, out of the corner of your eye, you’d spot another.
Finally, when we’d reached shoe saturation it was time for dinner. A three course dinner held in the upstairs restaurant, with the Manchester skyline now submerged in darkness. Stunning views, excellent food and very good wine selection made for very happy WI ladies.
For our meeting on 25 September, we went back to our roots. Sort of. With no Jerusalem in sight, we were instead treated to a talk by Clippy McKenna – on her own jamming empire and how it came about. Clippy’s story is inspiring, particularly her battle to have her products called jam – I suspect Clippy’s army may have more members in its ranks.
We also had our friends the Craftivists talk about their tomato jam project – Craftivism is a way of protesting using craft (you can find out more about the movement here and here). Several members went away with tomato jam kits and I hope to see them at the next WI craft group, sewing their jam jar covers.
To tie in with the theme we also held a jam and scone competition – judged by Clippy. The plum jam went down swimmingly, as did the savoury goat’s cheese scones. With prizes from both Clippy herself and Hey Little Cupcake at stake, competition was fierce. This was the first of it’s kind in our Institute, though unlikely to be the last.
I can’t wait to see what October holds…
Photographs of the September meeting itself, very kindly copied from Sara Duncan, with her permission. Photographs from the Harvey Nichols event care of Xanthoula and Rachel Adams.