We have just returned to the Women’s Shed after our Easter School Holiday break and would like to reflect on what’s been happening so far this year. Apart from our weekly catching up with each other and meeting new people, we now have a wide and varied skill set among us from cardmaking, quilting, macrame, crochet, knitting and general crafting (loving the hot glue gun!). We also have lots of materials that you can use for free.

We have been very grateful to accept donations of craft books, craft materials (including a fabulous spinning wheel), as well as some money from a raffle from The Girl and The Goat Cafe. We are a non-for-profit group and mostly raise our funds through selling some of the handcrafted items made. So far we have spent money on a new hot water urn (for our coffee and tea), new, bright, energy saving LED lighting in the small hall and kitchen and some general items for the upkeep of the hall. We also have a newly installed stove/oven and have purchased a new hot water system (not yet installed), thanks to a grant from Octopod. We are now looking forward to some new lights in the large hall too.

We had a wonderful Open Day with fellow community groups, learning from each other and creating some fundraising partnerships. Special thanks to the Lions Club for organising it as part of the Cessnock City Council Seniors Festival.

We had already established the crochet poppy venture with the Branxton RSL Sub Branch and now have been making poppy scrunchies and head bands.

As part of the Cessnock City Council Senior’s Festival we have an Open Day this Saturday 2 April between 10am and 2pm.

We have been concerned about the weather but are going ahead. All our stalls will be inside the hall.

The Lion’s Club of Branxton will be giving away sausage sandwiches and a can of drink, with the Scouts holding a Bric-o-brac stall, Guides selling cakes, tea and coffee. There are some other stalls as well, such as Belle’s Bows and Margaret’s Jams.

Don’t forget our stall which will have some handcrafted items, including some Easter things for the children. We also have some members actively crafting on the day for you to watch.

Our free trial of Chair Yoga with Melissa was so much fun and relaxing that we are now going to be stretching and namaste – ing every week. Ommmmmm!

For $5 per person, wear your comfortable pants and top and join us at midday each Thursday (during the school terms). All ages and levels of fitness are welcome.

Maintaining a regular yoga practice can provide physical and mental health benefits.

Generally, some of the physical benefits of yoga include:

• increased flexibility
• increased muscle strength and tone
• improved respiration, energy and vitality
• maintaining a balanced metabolism
• weight reduction
• cardio and circulatory health
• improved athletic performance
• protection from injury

Yoga’s incorporation of meditation and breathing can help improve a person’s mental well-being. 

Since returning to the Women’s Shed after the Christmas/New Year break, we have been busy on a variety of crafts. We have a broad range of skills from beginners to very experienced and enjoy sharing a coffee and conversation, while working on our individual projects.

We have such a fabulous community that we have a large supply of crafting materials as well as books with instructions and ideas. If you are thinking of taking up a new hobby, come and join us.

A lovely Christmas Party was enjoyed by all. We finished off our year eating and talking and watching the kids playing.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year. We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and look forward to seeing lots of new and familiar faces in 2022.

Well, it’s really 15 days until the big, red, jolly man visits, but we’ve been counting down to our Christmas Party. Next Thursday, 16th December, is our Women’s Shed Christmas Party.

We would like to invite any one who has ever been a part of our Women’s Shed to join us in celebrating Christmas, and another great year of “Creating, Learning and Sharing”.

Guaranteed lots of yummy food and fun, before we take a break over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Today at the Women’s Shed we had some Macramé lessons. Decorating jars was lesson number one. There are lots of things you can do with macramé. Have a look at some of Kay’s beautiful macramé creations below.

Outside there was some serious planting going on in our garden. Ruby helped put some soil in pots and then plant some geranium cuttings as seen below.

Our garden is growing fast with some cuttings from a few weeks ago, the cauliflowers and other vegetables.

Next week, we hope to have our Eco-dying lessons. Watch for the new Facebook Event invite coming out soon.

It’s not all crochet and knitting! Today at the Women’s Shed Kay was doing some macramé. She was making a little key ring tag and said it wasn’t that good but she’s clearly done these before and whipped this one up very quickly. It seems she is very skilled at lots of handcrafts and keeping it quiet. We might need to look into having a macramé day.

“Macramé: a form of textile produced using knotting rather than weaving or knitting.”

It was a very short meeting today as we left early to attend the Greta Remembrance Day service. We will look into going a bit longer next week and having lunch! Crib box orders, perhaps?