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Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Lisa Seaman!

Lisa Seaman (Red Dog, #5107) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level Aprons Merit Badge!

I love the design of the apron, and bonus points for using my Glamping fabric!

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Chicken Feather Earrings!!!! They’re the latest fashion statement. And now I have a pair, compliments of Sandi O’Connor, Travelin’ Sister #3956, made by her daughter, Emily Kate, of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Check out her Etsy shop, homegrowntrades. My pair came with a list of the “lovingly collected, never plucked” feathers from her flock of 26 chickens (my gift perfectly complete with the hens’ names who helped make the earrings—Olive, Grettle, Chloe, and Lady).

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,205 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—7,043 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

For this week’s Outpost/Knotty Farmgirl Merit Badge, I had an ulterior motive. You see, if you give a farmgirl a tree, then she’s gonna take notice of the branches, and if she takes notice of the branches, she’s gonna get the urge to swing, feel the breeze on her face, kick her bare feet up into the air, and lean back to let her hair tickle the grass below.

It’s true.

After all …

How do you like to go up in a swing, 
Up in the air so blue? 
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing 
Ever a child can do! 

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside— 

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down! 

Robert Lewis Stevenson (I like to affectionately call him Bobby) and I have a lot in common.

Anyway, before I could get my swing on and kick up my farmgirl boots, I had to learn a few things. Like, you know, safety precautions. Like, how to tie knots. Not just shoelaces, scarves, and curly-ribbon-bedecked packages, but real knots. This was going to involve

a) another Internet tutorial

or

b) a bored sailor

Being fresh out of sailors, I taught myself with a tutorial and several lengths of twine. I practiced and practiced until my practicer was sore! Not sore so much as tied up in knots. HA! Being extremely adept at friendship-bracelet-making back in the day, I think I picked it up quite quickly. But was my skill good enough to test my weight with a tree branch and a cedar board?

We shall see.

I gathered my supplies for my swing:

• the tree
• one cedar board
• 60-grit sandpaper
• 75 feet of braided nylon rope
• scissors
• matches
• ruler and pencil
• drill with a 3/4” boring bit
• hammer and 4 fence staples (or bent nails)

I sanded and drilled and measured and marked. I threaded and tied (here is where my knot-making expertise came to fruition). I secured and tossed and shimmied (the rope, sillies, not me)! I pulled and cut.

And then?

Well, then of course, I swang. Swung? Swinged? I did some swinging. And it was every bit as lovely as I remembered it to be. I leaned and pumped and admired the view over my neighbor’s garage. I kicked and felt the grass tickle my feet. I tipped over backwards for that indescribable head rush. I even did a fancy dismount (a triple axel with a half twist) and stuck the landing.

It was as good as I knew it would be.

Except I don’t remember my tushie hurting so much afterward.

Next up? Weatherproof pillow.

Thank you Dandelion House aka Beach Farmgirl aka Deb Bosworth aka Girl Genius for my handy-dandy glamper hamper. Me LUBS it!!!!!

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,091 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—6,887 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

Well, I was about to find out just how good my short story was. The next part of the Stitching and Crafting/Ink Slinger Merit Badge (Sheesh! Was selling my soul next? This novel writing really wrings the drama and emotion out of a girl!) was to give it to a friend to correct for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I shoved it into Midge’s waiting hands, knowing she corrected her triplets’ use of the English language approximately 12387.23487 times per day. Before breakfast.

Midge left with my baby in her eager paws, and I swear I heard a maniacal laugh out of my BFF as she did. Maybe it was the after-effects of too much iced tea and coffee, though.

Midge would be gentle … wouldn’t she?

I must have voiced that worry out loud because Brittany, the youngest triplet, started giggling hysterically.

“Um, sure, Auntie Jane … sure, she will.” She patted my head in a reassuring fashion, but she was still chortling.

I could barely sleep that night. Midge assured me she couldn’t get to my story until the kids were in bed that night, so I had to wait. I tossed and turned fretfully. Would she see the parallels between good and evil? Would she appreciate the gentle humor? The life lessons? The sweet coming of age story line? The particularly nice cursive?

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… and our first glamp-mobile is ready for viewing! Let’s begin with THE pink chair for sitting …

with a whole lot of adorable kiddos! (Sweetest, most polite kids we’ve met in a long time.)

A bloomin’ pair of bloomers for wind checks.

And glamporific book signings. Since my mother was celebrating her 60th b-day, she treated herself to a surprise, well, actually, she WAS the surprise … guest. No one but chapter leader, April Choate, knew she was going to show up. Who doesn’t like a birthday surprise?!

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