Continue reading »]]> So the 4D Challenge includes doing something crafty every month and earning a badge. This month I designed the SS12  camp badge and earned my Postcard Exchange patch.

The SS12 badge was easier than past years as it was a very clear vision of what we wanted (there is a biscuit theme to the camp this year). There was a second design with some biscuits on it but this was clearly the winner before I even shared it with the committee.The real challenge came with conforming to the new Girlguidng UK rules on badge desgin.
 All one colour (despite what my limited computer skills suggest) – Senior Section Aqua and as far as I can tell all in line with the new guidelines. You might think this design looks a little like a Tunnock’s Teacake wrapper but since the trefoil can’t be part of a design this is clearly just coincidence.

My badge this month was the Thinking Day Postcard Exchange. It’s the units second year of being involved and it’s a fun and easy activity. You sign up to the list find people to swap with and send each other a postcard before Thinking Day. So I sent off postcards of pretty bits of Scotland  (and the girls are also doing this) so hopefully we’ll have a fun mix of postcards to share with each other for Thinking Day. There have already been about six through the front door from Germany, England and the USA.

and I earned a pretty new badge for my camp blanket.

Continue reading »]]> Clair shared her badge tab a wee while ago and it got me thinking about what can it tell someone about of your Guiding life? I think it can tell you a lot, so I thought I might share mine to prove my point. Straight off you can tell the section someone works with by the coloured band on the top – mine is the one for a Senior Section Leader. Then you have the badges, what do I value highest among my Guiding achievements and moments?

My tab has evolved with me as I’ve grown as a Leader. My original tab had four badges – my Leader promise badge, my Baden-Powell award, my Gold DofE award and either the World Badge or the Girlguiding Scotland badge depending on what I was doing. More recently I’ve worn the shiny gold centenary Girlguiding Scotland thank you pin (for my work towards SS100) and the Scottish Chief Guide thank you badge (for my work as Scottish DofE adviser,a post I finished back in 2010). However, only one of all these badges is still on my tab.

Starting top left  - my shiny for managing the camp and holiday scheme (albeit just for Senior Section/ Guide residentials), my centenary promise badge (I can only wear that till the end of the year and then I need to go back to the dark blue promise badge), my 10 years service pin, Pax Lodge promise pin and my Gold DofE award (the only one I also had on my first leader tab).

While they are perhaps not the most exciting mix it’s a good view of my Guiding life and the fun times I’ve had so far. Every time I wear it I remember the good times. From the stupidity that was the Lones residential (India themed chaos), the Pax Lodge Trip (7 adults, 3 days and lots and lots of laughter), my current role as DofE leader (my memories of working on the award and my term in the Scottish adviser post), the highs that I had in the centenary year (from 100+ people all singing Edelweiss in a restaurant at SS100 to seeing my God Daughter make her promise as a Rainbow) and of course my ten+ years of being a leader (starting with Guides, moving to Senior Section and now with the Senior Section Lones). All good memories full of laughter and friendship.

So I realise you might not get all of that but I reckon you’d get the gist of it just by looking and if nothing else it’s a handy conversation starter when you meet other leaders to ask about the badges you don’t recognise.

Continue reading »]]> Alas this is not a big gay craft session, rather one for the upcoming SS11 event I’m involved with. As in the past couple of years, I’ve been assigned to the crafts and so I’m having to try things out.

I started with the rings from Mollie’s Makes vol.3:
but I decided that for a camp project it was a bit too long and fiddly (some of my girls have additional needs so it needs to be something we can vary the difficulty or input a bit more).

So next I tried out a felt brooch using the templates for the flower brooches again from vol.3 of Mollie’s Makes (in the magazine they use stiffened fabric)
Verdict: Too big, too long to do and not as nice as I’d hoped.

After a bit of a re-think, an internet search and a review of crafty supplies available I opted to make flowers and either add them to a hairband or add a pin to the back. Made using left-overs from dance outfit fabrics with a felt base these are easy, fun to do, fast and look good. I found a great how-to at make it-love itThe only difference with the ones online was that the fabric I was using is non-fray and possibly a bit thicker so I found 30 circles was sometimes too many. Also I hand sewed mine so to cover up I added a second circle of felt to the back and used that to sandwich the hairband between or add a pin to.

On the upside the hairband offers additional variations if folks want – I added the dog from Mollie’s Makes Vol.3 to one of them
Finally (at least for this post) I made badges for my Lone Senior Section members who’ll be on site as well:

Continue reading »]]> So for Easter Clair gave me a ‘Hello Kitty shop bought egg but much to my joy she wrapped the chocolate egg!

Even better between the layers were some suitable awful Easter jokes – genius! My favourites were:

What would you get if you crossed a rabbit with a Girl Guide?
A rabbit that helps little old ladies hop across the street.

How do you know carrots are good for your eyes?
Have you ever seen a rabbit with glasses

and

Why can’t a rabbit’s nose be twelve inches long?
Because then it would be a foot.

I also opted for some wrapping of chocolate eggs – though the layers didn’t contain anything. I thought the pretty hummingbirds looked really sweet on top.

Continue reading »]]> This month’s Senior Section Lones newsletter featured the exciting ‘Surprise Egg’ as a goodie.

I thought I’d share a quick how-to.

You need:

• Strips Crepe Paper (1/2 inch wide and as long as possible)
• Glue Stick
• Plastic egg (I used the inner bit from a Kinder Egg)
• Goodies – confetti, stickers, fluffy chick…

How to make a ‘Surprise Egg’

1. Fill up the plastic egg with goodies – you can pop in anything you fancy on any theme. I opted for Easter fun so a mix of confetti, stickers, pastel fluffy balls, little chick and bunny stickers were added.

2. Next start wrapping a strip of crepe paper around the egg. Ideally you want to do it evenly. I found that folding the paper at a slight angle to let you change direction worked well.

3. Repeat the above step

and every so often add in a goodie (something small and ideally flat unless you are going to make a really large ‘Surprise Egg’.

4. When you are happy the egg is big enough (I did four strips of crepe paper) and you have hidden any of the goodies you wrapped in glue the end down.

Now it is all set to place in a parcel and mail to an unsuspecting Girlguiding member

Continue reading »]]> Book 22. Dr.Seuss on the Loose!: a collection of rip-roaring rhymes from the master of verse by Dr.Seuss was one of The World Book day titles this year. Only £1 means it is positively a bargain as it is brilliant. I read it twice! (it is short so this wasn’t a major challenge). A collection of excerpt of poems from a range of Dr Seuss titles it was actually thought provoking at points. Even better it introduced me to a few of his books I hadn’t been aware of. Everyone should get this! Oh and if you haven’t seen this speed read of ‘Fox in Socks‘ you are missing out it puts my speaking fast to shame.

23. Spy Dog’s Got Talent by Andrew Cope/ The Great Pet-Shop Panic by Katie Davis was another of the World Book Day titles, again only £1 but this time it was two short stories. I have to say I really enjoyed them both and while I can’t see me running off to read the other titles by these authors – I can see me buying them for Goddaughters and nephews.

24. A Bone to Pick by Charlaine Harris  is the second of my Aurora Teagarden mysteries. It wasn’t quite as enjoyable as the first. Something about it wasn’t as gripping. It was an interesting story and certainly the idea of inheriting a house only to discover a hidden skull was fun. I felt the solution and climax was weren’t as exciting as they could have been and, while I hadn’t actually called the solution, I think it was more because I hadn’t spent anytime trying to rather than I had no idea.

25. How the Girl Guides Won the War by Janie Hampton was a bit of an epic to read. It seemed to take me a while to get into it and I had to almost force myself to read it all, rather than jump to the bits I was most interested in. It was a bit of a Parson’s Egg as far as I was concerned. I learned a lot from reading it but felt it could have been done better.

Chapters focused on one topic and  jumped around in time and location with each new chapter which meant that it didn’t progress as logically as you might have expected.  The author herself said  it was a book written by someone who hadn’t felt the love of the movement but was impressed by what she’d learned and I feel that may be where it fell down. To me it reads as an account of the work during the period from someone evaluating the movement, and finding nothing in the negative column, merely remains a neutral observer.

Personally I found it wasn’t as emotionally engaging as it should have been given the subject, the real highs and lows and my passion for Girlguiding. The bits that were most interesting to me where about what was expected of the girls or what they got up to but so often it was only mentioned in passing. Things like badges – it talks about girls gaining badges but there is little mention of what was expected of them to gain them – surely this is something that non-Guides or even more recent Guides would not know given how much this has changed. Even an appendix at the back with a few examples would have helped this. Or it focused on something irrelevant for too long trying to set a scene, or add humor, often I felt explaining something well known while other less well known topics were rushed past.

In the end I feel it fails as a good historical non-fiction as it didn’t make me connect with the people. It has plenty of stories and quotes from those involved and you feel like it should work, but it doesn’t. I wonder if in part it’s because it is written by an adult talking about children and young people with an adult perspective and values. Lots of ‘didn’t they do amazing work’ rather than a tale of what they did do, leaving you the reader to be impressed at what a girl of 14 can manage when she has to and wondering if you could have done the same.

Continue reading »]]>

I hung out with my God-daughter and her sisters last weekend and we completed The Wonderland Challenge Badge all the challenges are loosely linked with Alice in Wonderland. Created by the Leaders of the 10th Coulsdon Guides the money raised goes to the unit and the best thing has to be the badge!

Lucky for me my God-daughter and her sisters and mum are badge daft so convincing them we wanted to do this wasn’t a challenge It proved to be an absolute hoot.

The challenge had five parts – Be on Time, Be Creative, Be Sociable, Be the Opposite and Be Happy.

For Be On Time – The girls bunny hopped for 100m (or round the block as it’s also known). Me and Mummy opted for checking or clocks with the speaking clock and guessing how long five minutes was.

Be Creative – had us decorating our own party hats for the tea party (Knocker the Dormouse is modelling the one created by the two year old) and helping the girls perform a scene from the book.

Be Sociable – We had our tea party and made tea for each other and brought a mix of cakes to the table.

Be the Opposite – We tried some cakes and chocolates we had never had and ‘balanced’ on one leg for 3 minutes

This was much, much harder than you’d think and we didn’t always look so solid Finally for Be Happy we taught each other ‘magic’ tricks, spent the day laughing and performed some silly dances.

Continue reading »]]> As an adult there is no excuse not to join in the badge fun and Best Of GuidingUK offers a range of interest badges for adults (i.e. over 26 so not eligible for Senior Section) . Now as it is peer assessed, based on sharing with their yahoo group what I’m posting here is what I did for the badge. To see the full syllabus for the badge go to the site and have a read.

Boguk Celebrates the Centenary

Compulsory clauses;

Help to organise an event to celebrate the Centenary of Guiding, or take part in an event to celebrate the Centenary.

• Part of the planning team for SS100 where I ran crafts (I designed a shrink plastic ‘promise badge through the decade’ charm bracelet) plus I designed the badge and promotional materials
• Attended the Forth Valley Launch and the Larbert Division Vision Event.
• Organised and ran the Scottish Lones Centenary Residential – Indian and Vision theme

Re-introduce the concept of ‘The Good Turn’ to a Unit which has forgotten it. – Regularly mentioned to Lones in newsletters and private lones blog entries.

List the things you have experienced because you are a Guide.

• International camp (albeit along the road) and selection
• Getting to enrol my God-daughter and her sister as Rainbows
• Seeing the girls I had as Guides or Senior Section and grow up into amazing young women
• Learned first aid
• Meeting two of my best friends who I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
• The joy of a campfire – songs and marshmallows
• The fun and challenge of running a camp, unit, etc.
• Lones – seriously fun both adults and Senior Section
• Challenged to try new things – like abseiling or zip-line that I’d never do without
• Friends – no matter where in the world you feel welcome
• A love of badges and a lovely camp blanket
• Gain Bronze, Silver and Gold DofE and that has led to me meeting the Duke of Edinburgh and running Dof E for Girlguiding Scotland for 3 years plus all the fun of being a participant.
• Staying at Netherurd (and soon Pax Lodge!)
• Pitching ridge tents, building gadgets and tying knots (seriously how useful is a reef knot).
• Far too much fun being a leader with my best friend

Complete 7 of these clauses, at least one from each of the following sections. One of the clauses must have a PR angle.

SECTION A

3. Be-prepared; review what you have in your handbag, which would help you to be prepared.

• Frog prince purse contains memory sticks x 6 and spare SD card
• Handmade camera pouch with digital camera (and two spare batteries)
• I-Pod Shuffle and ear phones
• Mobile phone (includes alarm clock setting, internet and calculator)
• Tin containing 2x sanitary towels and 2x panty liners
• Umbrella
• Work pass, fob and keys (and another memory stick)
• House keys includes bottle opener and mini torch
• Car keys and trolley coin
• Wallet for cards (includes stamps, emergency credit card, AA membership and donor card) and notes includes diary, address book, pen and spare paper
• Coin purse (complete with lego sword)
• Reusable bag
• Small pencil case contains marker pen, highlighter, blue and black biros, mini post-its, 4head, ceramic nail file, hand cream (10g), tissues, glasses lens cleaner cloth, breath mints, Allan Key, 2 lip balms and a lipstick.
• Small tin with painkillers, flu medicine and a safety pin.
• Plus have similar stash of stuff at work and in car glove compartment.

8. Visit charity shops, jumble sales, ex-members, boot sales, and build up a collection of old Guiding books and ephemera for a Unit or District Library. – Collected books and magazines with an emphasis on lone or postal guides.

SECTION B

1. With your Unit, do an interest badge from the early years. – Challenged girls in my Lone unit to complete the Reader badge (Guide or Ranger level) and bought the old Guide badges for them. A few have completed already most are still working on it.

3. Consult old handbooks, PORs and games and activity books. Choose, and try on your Unit, activities from as many decades as possible (minimum 5). – Created a vintage style newsletter based around the ‘Lone Guiders handbook’ from the 1950s. Included regular activities from vintage copies of The Guider or other resources in newsletters. Did a newsletter on crafts through the decades and food through the decades with a number of ideas for each decade included.

8. Run a campfire of songs from all the decades. Perhaps invite ‘civilians’ to share it. – Organised for the Lone unit to do the Campfire Challenge badge and did it with my God daughter and her sister (two Rainbows) and their mum (fellow leader) led them in a campfire with songs from all decades.

SECTION C

2. Take part in Change the World. – Completed three Changing the World projects – Woodland Trust, Plan and WWF with my lone unit.

5. Help put on a display in your local Library, Museum, book shop or similar public place, showing the history of Guiding locally, and its present and future. – Created a display in school library promoting the 100years, modern Guiding and providing contact details for local units.

Continue reading »]]> Well I am not managing a book every 3.5 days so this might be a struggle to mange the 100 in 2011 but I have managed one every 5 so it’s going ok so far. Plus I’m reading another 5 currently.

Finished were the two tv tie-in books written by the fictitious Richard Castle. On the whole both were enjoyable but the second Naked Heat was I felt a better book. The first didn’t read quite as grippingly as you might have expected from Richard Castle. The only other thing was that allusions to the book in the TV show where they mentioned page numbers or similar didn’t match up.

I also read the first book in my Aurora Teagarden Omnibus – Real Murders – which I really enjoyed. Light hearted crime which proved to be a pleasing diversion. I’ll do a proper review of the book when I finish the omnibus.

Although I’m not counting it as ‘read’ I also dipped into a book a acquired this week from the 1930s all about hints and tips on gaining your first class award and similar. A fascinating read!

Continue reading »]]> The snow day continues so a chance to do some craft albeit all for Senior Section Lone fun. First to be done is the penguin for Lones. This was a kit from Crafty Little Bugs so it was easy and quick to do.

From bits to penguin in about five minutes.

Second on the list was the Lone Christmas tree decoration swap.  I bought some wooden decorations from Tesco.

Then I carefully traced around the decoration onto the left over Centenary wrapping paper. Then cut it out – one for each side.

Finally I added a Centenary sticker to the decoration.

So now each of the girls will get a wee centenary reminder for their tree. I think that’s a nice reminder of a wonderful year.