And during today's program...

Today's program served as a much needed venting period for those of us who feel the stress of the semesters end pressing down. We ate cookies and made necklaces, earrings and bracelets using materials from previous donations via Caravan Beads and Thistle Hill Glass. Lyndsay made a ton of paper cranes too :)



The jewellery made during this little session will be sold at the December 5th craft fair in the Woodbury campus center. All proceeds will go towards the Women's Resource Center.



With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it really feels like things are winding down. I'm glad that the Tea and Arsenic program has been so well recieved by the USM community; I've made closer bonds with a lot of peers!

So much relaxation, you may melt...

If you have a couple minutes, go to Big Huge Labs and make yourself a photo mosaic of relaxing items. Everyone likes to look at images of their favorite things. I highly recommend it.

Craft and RELAX!

Feeling a little stressed out, as of late? It's totally normal.

Everyone I talk to seems to be five minutes away from a mental breakdown - and I can't blame them! School work is still piling up and most people seem to be behind on previous assignments.

Here are some simple tips to help keep you stress free:

1.) Get your sleep! It's temping to skip out on sleep with so much work to be done, but sleep is essential to keeping you healthy. If you find yourself up late into the night, take a nap during the day! I've seen plenty of people curled up in the Woodbury campus center...
2.) Get exercise and stretch! Exercise always helps get rid of stressful energy.
3.) Spend time with your friends.
4.) Do a little "self massage" ;)

The Ladies Underground Tea and Arsenic Society's November 19 (from 12:00pm - 2:00pm) meeting is all about crafting and relaxing. There's no formal discussion topic this time - we'll be focusing on relaxing mostly. We'll be making a variety of things to sell a USM's upcoming craft fair to benefit the Women's Resource Center.

Knitting and the Workplace

Thanks to a very generous donation from Knit Wit located on Munjoy Hill in downtown Portland and the WRC's Rachel Church, we had more than plenty of yarn to learn a handful of knitting skills last Wednesday during our most recent program.

The level of knitting skill was varied (personally, I learned little to nil but that's not a reflection of the time and effort others took to try and help me; more a reflection of my lack of knitting skill!) Marianne Benson from USM's Career Services office was present to help us not only with our knitting needles, but to lead our discussion on women in the workplace!

We munched on goodies from Hannaford (cookies, turnover bites, ginger snaps, oh my!) and the as always, delicious tea from the North Star Cafe.

Next week, I hope to add pictures to the blog so everyone can see what this wonderful program looks like in action! We take over the section of chairs and loveseats just outside the Womens Resource Center and usually have an overflow of people from seats on to the floors, arms of chairs, et cetera. Isn't it about time you joined us for one of our meetings?

Next Meeting: November 19th, Women in Poetry

We'll be making our own magnetic poetry and as always sipping on that sweet sweet tea and arsenic :)

P.S - Despite my inability to knit propperly, I have NOT given up! There's still hope for this scarf!

Todays body image and jewelry making event had an even better turnout than our kickoff event! We saw a large handful of people returning from our first event, which was nice - and I hope the increase in participants at our meetings will be an ongoing trend!

The folks at Caravan Beads were kind enough to donate to us a very hefty box of beads, featuring freshwater pearls, black pears, silver seed beads and more!
Thistle Hill Glass donated beautiful handmade lampwork glass beads in all different (but equally gorgeous) shapes, colors and sizes!
Additionally -Rachel, Lindsay and Erin from the Women's Resource Center were all kind enough to bring in their own boxes of beads to share with everyone.

Pie was provided by Two Fat Cats bakery, while other pastries came to us via the good people at Panera. North Star Cafe donated tea to us again... because what would the Ladies Underground Tea and Arsenic Society be without its partial namesake?

Representatives from the USM Counseling Center guided us with prompts about body image. It was a fantastic discussion and we made some fabulous jewelry! If you ever have any questions or concerns about yourself or friends on campus, the counseling center is always there for you.

Second Meeting: Jewelry Making and Body Image!

Join the Ladies Underground Tea and Arsenic Society for our second meeting on Wednesday, October 22nd, from 12pm - 2pm in the Woodbury student center!

We'll be making jewelry and disucssing body image, with help from our friends at the USM counseling center!

I hope you know you look fabulous, but we all get down on ourselves sometimes. What better way to remedy this than to drape ourselves in jewels and have an open discussion with others from the community about their own take on the issue?

And of course, men are welcome! Guys have hang ups about themselves too... and they look just lovely in necklaces! ;)

Our kick off event was a great success!

We had our kick off event today and it was as the heading suggests, a wonderful success! We chowed on goods donated to us from the North Star Cafe and Standard Baking Company, while we had an open discussion about last night's debate between presidental candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. We also learned to make paper cranes, tea cups, penguins and more!

It was wonderful to see some more student activity in the Woodbury campus center; I saw both familiar and new faces. Thank you to everyone who came today, and thanks to the staff of the Women's Resource Center for spreading the good word!

Seems like people are so far enjoying both their tea and the conversation! I hope to see everyone and their friends back on October 22nd, for our second event: Jewelry making!

We're on Facebook!

Have you joined our facebook group yet? Why not?!

Well, you best get to it! :)

Tentative Schedule of Events

In addition to our kick off event, we have a tentative schedule of our bi-weekly lunchtime events!

October 8th, KICK OFF EVENT! Join us for tea as we get to know one another and decorate tea cups.
October 22nd, Jewelry making
November 5th, Knitting!
November 19th, Women in Poetry
December 10th, Decorate your own speculum! You know you've always wanted to add frills to the cold hard metal (or in this case plastic) of the dreaded speculum! Perhaps the frilly/glittery speculum could make it's way to your mantle for the holidays?

Each event features a talk on a spectrum of TBA topics, from women in literature to body image!

You are Cordially Invited...

The Ladies Underground Tea & Arsenic Society
would like to cordially invite you to our
1st KICK OFF SOCIAL of the 2008-2009 school year!
All are welcome to come and decorate a tea cup, enjoy some
tea & cookies, and some piping hot conversation!

Where: Women's Resource (Woodbury Campus Center, Portland)

When: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8th from 12pm-2pm.

If you would like more information on Society Events or
The USM Women's Resource Center you are always
welcome to stop by or call 207-780-5646