Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … CJ Armstrong!!!

CJ Armstong (ceejay48, #665) has received a certificate of achievement in Cleaning Up for earning an Expert Level Home Insulation Merit Badge!

“Our home is not in need of different or replacement insulation. We have, however, replaced weather stripping around doors due to sun damage or because our former cat tore it all to pieces.

My sister, who is handicapped, and her hubby built a nice enclosed sun porch on their house and I assisted in installing the insulation in the ceiling and around the windows and doors in that room. I’m envious of this room, as it’s wonderful.

I have also assisted my daughter in utilizing curtains, blinds, etc. in her home to help insulate. She lives in the Arizona desert, so the main thing there is the blazing, three-digit, summer heat.

It’s always good to reassess insulation issues over time due to things wearing out, etc.

I’m glad our house is still in “good shape” regarding insulation in the walls, ceiling, and floor and we have insulating “honeycomb” blinds on all the windows, which makes a huge difference.”

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Kris Sievert!!!

Kris Sievert (#6020) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Cross-Stitch Merit Badge!

“I have been doing cross stitch for years, so I tried something different, I tried perforated paper. I had never used anything other than fabric.

It was hard because you can’t wash the item when done. I had to be particularly careful. I am giving them as gifts to some girls in my life for Halloween.”

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,065 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,688 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Stitching and Crafting/Scrapbooking Expert Level Merit Badge, I was on a roll, still basking in the warm glow of earning my Intermediate Level Badge. I tend to be a bit on the obsessive side when it comes to hobbies. They’re kinda like cookies: I collect one flavor and binge eat them until I get a little bored, then I move on. So lately it’s been my scrapbooking hobby obsession, and I’m all about something super nifty I wanted to share with you Chiclets:

Potato Stamps!

Why yes siree, girls. How much more farmgirl can it get: combining good ol’ salt o’ the earth spuds with a little creative artwork? I know, right?

So here’s what you do to really up the ante and customize your Expert Level scrapbook …

Homemade ‘Tater Stamps

Supplies needed: potatoes (regular or sweet will do just fine), an Exacto knife, your imagination (don’t leave home without it. Wait. You are home. Just have it with you at all times, ok?)

Slice your potato in half. You want a nice smooth surface, so this is not the time to use your dullest knife (save that for spreading frosting or something). Decide what kind(s) of shapes and designs you want your stamp to be. If you’re feeling a bit nervous, just go through your cookie-cutter drawer and use one of those. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, you can Google silhouette shapes and stencils, print one out, and trace it on your spud. If you’re feeling super devil-may-care-throw-caution-to-the-wind-we-only-live-once-take-the-bull-by-the-horns, then freestyle your own design right atop your potato. You little rebel, you.

Cut out your masterpiece with your Exacto knife.

Dip into the paint of your choice, or color with watercolor markers or Sharpies. Press onto your scrapbooking pages in a highly sophisticated and organized pattern. (Or just go willy-nilly nuts like I did. I enjoy a good crazy-quilt effect, so sue me.)

Photo by Jimmie via Flickr

That’s it. You now have a truly one-of-a-kind stamp that can also be used to do other things (though I can’t guarantee you it will earn you a merit badge):

Stamp with fabric paint onto tablecloths, lightweight baby blankets, cloth napkins or placemats, hand towels, personalized gift wrap or gift tags, stationary …

I’m a mad stamper.

Somebody stop me.

Is there a 12-step program for stamp addicts?

My name is Jane and I am a stampaholic. Oh well. As they say, pot-AY-to, po-TOT-o.

P.S. Another benefit to using potato stamps as opposed to buying all those expensive, factory-made ones: you can toss ’em (or eat ’em, ha! note to self: use organic paints) when you’re finished. No fuss, no storing, no cost, no dusty collection that you’re embarrassed to find when you’re rummaging through drawers looking for cookie cutters … win, win!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Mary Jo Boyd!!!

Mary Jo Boyd (Quiltsister413, #5559) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level Knitting Merit Badge!

“While in Lincoln, NE, for a business conference, my friend and I stopped in to the local yarn store and found an adorable shawl pattern that we both had to make. We purchased two skeins of Crazy yarn and got to work right away in our hotel room. It took me about a month, but I finished it.

I think it went well. The pattern was by far the most challenging one I have tried, but I enjoyed knitting a little each night and watching it grow. I got to use circular needles for the first time and found I really loved them. The edge called for an I-cord bind off, which was completely new to me. YouTube videos are so helpful in these situations! I found several videos to help me through and it turned out very nice.

I taught four ladies how to knit at our last Faithful Farm Girl meeting. Each of the ladies brought size 7 knitting needles and some practice yarn and I taught them how to tie a slip knot, do a long tail cast on, how to knit and how to purl. I also provided them with two patterns for knitting dishcloths and they are off and running … or is that knitting.

The fifth person I taught to knit is actually my friend and knitting teacher. I actually got to teach her two techniques I had learned that she didn’t know. How cool is that! I taught her the long tail cast on method and also a new way to add a new color or skein in the middle of your project. She now uses both new techniques and loves them!”

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,065 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,688 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Cleaning Up/Going Green Expert Level Merit Badge, I burrowed myself into my abode for a couple weeks and buckled down in some serious green projects. See, there’s a nasty piece of carpeting in my bedroom I’d been ignoring for quite some time, and I’d been feeling guilty each time I ran my dryer when there’s perfectly excellent sunshine right outside, and, well, suffice to say, I needed to spruce up my green living a bit to earn this badge.

I rolled up my proverbial sleeves (and the literal ones, too), donned my cutest and hardest-working apron, and got to work.

Here’s what I accomplished with a couple of afternoons, some know-how, a little grit and determination, and several slices of Gluten-free Apple Cake:

• I yanked and pulled, tore and ripped, pushed and shoved, rolled and kicked, and in all other ways, completely and utterly abused the poor carpet. No, I wasn’t beating it clean; I was removing it altogether. I could have gone the cleaning and out-gassing route, but let’s be honest, I’m more of a dismantler than a … uh, mantler. You know what I mean. And also I wanted an excuse to buy an adorable little shag rug for right beneath my bed to squish my tootsies into each morning. Call me shallow.
• I bought a length of clothesline and squinted my eyes at my backyard. To be honest, the front yard would have been slightly more perfect in my quest for line-drying clothes, but I kind of figured my neighbors didn’t want to stare at my unmentionables fluttering in the breeze. I’m selfless like that.

Short of waving my magic wand and making two trees line up perfectly in my backyard, I was stumped. I stood, feeling dejected, in my wide-open space, with my coil of rope in my sad hands. Then it came to me. The laundry room window lined up perfectly with my one lonely pear tree! Voilà! I was back in action. I rigged it up just like they do in all the old-fashioned movies with shots of the cities. You know the ones that go from apartment to apartment, sometimes slung right over the streets? With my clever pulley system, I am feeling several shades of grand. I even feel a little like a Disney princess somehow, and I must confess to singing to the squirrels and chipmunks and birds as I line up my yummy-smelling laundry to dry. Another point for the backyard and the neighbors, as my singing voice is … well, unique.

• I also needed a new coat of paint in my pantry (holiday baking is here, my pretties), and so I took advantage of my green streak to purchase a couple of small tins of non-toxic paint. My cinnamon-colored pantry with ginger-colored trim is begging for a batch of Christmas cookies right now.

• I arranged my best go-to books about greening up your life in alphabetical order, and then let my friends and neighbors know they were available for borrowing. My books, not my friends and neighbors. Rent-A-Friend? Ha! I may be onto something there. But in all seriousness, have you seen this?

The next part of this badge (hey, it’s the Expert Level, dahlinks—it takes time) was to donate six hours to a friend in need of greening up. But first, let me bask in the glory that is my shaggy rug, munch another piece of cake, and finish crooning to the woodland critters.

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Sherrilyn Askew!!!

Sherrilyn Askew (Sherri, #1350) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning an Expert Level Putting Away for Winter Merit Badge!

“I have canned tomatoes, peppers, onions, carrots, cucumbers (ad nauseam), pears, apples, pumpkin, and plums using either the water-bath method or the pressure canner (my grandmother’s). I posted in the chatroom about my canning endeavors. I dehydrated chicken and a variety of vegetables and herbs for later use, and froze countless blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Using my dehydrated chicken, vegetables, and herbs, I made chicken soup in the crockpot. Using canned pears and frozen raspberries, I made a fruit strudel for dessert. When my folks came over midday, they helped clear the contents of the dishes.

Having things already partially prepared makes preparing meals so much easier, especially during harvest season when time is a hot commodity. My mom even paid me a compliment.

My goal has always been to have a home that smelled as good as hers always did. Hers always smelled like home-cooked food. She told me I had succeeded, and it was wonderful.”

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,065 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,688 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Know Your Food Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I channeled my despair over my non-producing cucumber plants, my acorn squashes (the bugs found them delicious), and my frostbitten cherry tomatoes, into something less sorrowful: realizing I could use a CSA for some of my veggie needs.

What’s a CSA, you may ask? Is it like CSI, Miami? Uh, no. Not so much. Less violence, more arugula. Less drama, more kale. Less movie stars, and more low-profile stars (like the oh-so-humble potato).

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it’s positively dreamy for beginning gardeners, such as Yours Truly. You support your local farmer by giving her a set amount at the beginning of the growing season, and she gives you a hand-picked bag of produce every week. While I may have grandiose dreams of perfectly flourishing gardens, they don’t always come to fruition (get it? Fruition? Fruit? Gardening? hah), and I might need some professional help.

No, not that kind. Well, maybe that kind …

While I’m working on the hue of my thumbs (while not green, they are a shade up from the black they used to be … a nice gray, if you will), I will pledge to support my friendly, local professionals. I mean, how can you possibly go wrong with homegrown, local, fresh, organic, produce? Um, yeah. You can’t.

Did you know that most supermarket produce—besides being coated in toxic chemicals and bizarre waxes—lingers in trucks and boxes for up to a year in cold storage? Whaa? By that time, those brightly colored apples you’re so happy to find for 98¢ a pound have almost no antioxidants left in them at all. And your orange juice (that sneakily doesn’t really taste like oranges anymore) has probably been sitting in a vat for months and months, only to have some orange “flavor packs” stirred in. Aged wine? Yum. Aged OJ? Ick.

Yikes, yikes, and double yikes. Here’s where changing where you get your produce comes into play. The challenge for a lot of us is we really, really like “one-stop shopping.” I mean, come on, who wants to (and who has the time to) go to several different stores for different items? Can’t we all just grab a cart and get it all at once at McWalShop?

Well, make a small change, says I. Support your local farmers, who would love to cut you off a slice of their Golden Delicious, and who would happy to assure you it came fresh from a tree only a few hours before. You’ll taste the difference, by golly, and you’ll also bask in the warm glow that’s the feeling you get when you do something beneficial for the community.

Once you’ve picked out your very own CSA, snuggle down with a bowl of fruit and a copy of The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Your brain, your heart, and your tummy will thank you.