Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Donna Rowe!!!

Donna Rowe (Mrs Noah, #6295) has received a certificate of achievement in Make it Easy for earning a Beginner and Intermediate Level Make it Pretty Merit Badge!

“My favorite thing to do is to make things of practicality for others. My pastor’s wife wished for study bags for each attendee in one of our classes, so I made 24, each unique. I ended up with some leftovers and was happy to put them in my Operation Christmas Child collection!

The ladies (girls!) had a difficult time just choosing one, which made me all the happier that they approved my combinations. Kind of a “Whew!” They still don’t know who made them, as I asked to keep it that way.”

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Patricia Guthrie!!!

Patricia Guthrie (Patricia99, #6991) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Cross-Stitch Merit Badge!

“Made a bookmark. I’m certainly glad that looking at the back of the bookmark won’t be required for this badge! It turned out very pretty. I had to un-stitch a few times, but finally completed it.”

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Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Mica Garbarino!!!

Mica Garbarino (Farmgirl Freckles, #6985) has received a certificate of achievement in Each Other for earning a Beginner Level Lend a Hand to Farm Families Merit Badge!

“I helped a local farmer & his wife while they went out of town for a week. I fed, watered, and cared for their chicken flock and tended the garden. They also let me glean from their garden. I picked tomatoes, butternut squash, peppers, pumpkins, and zucchini. I also got to enjoy their farm-fresh eggs while they were gone.

The farmer & his wife were happy I helped. It turned out great and I will surely help them whenever they are in need.”

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,130 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,150 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Garden Gate/Grow Forth Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I kidnapped borrowed Piper from next door and we sat down with a basket of applesauce muffins to make a list of five local eateries that make her life easier and more fun.

Turns out, ever since the Spaghetti in Her Hair Episode of 2011, Piper’s mom doesn’t frequent restaurants much these days.

Can’t imagine why …

Anyway, despite my reassurances that there is not a big poster of Piper’s face with a slash through it on every door in town, Mom decided not to come on our little Tour of Delight (as we called it).

An excuse to wander downtown and sample wares? Why, yes, please! The two of us set off with stars in our eyes and a rumbling in our tummies.

postcard, Boston Public Library via Wikimedia Commons

We ducked into a delicatessen, where Piper was shocked and awed to find she actually enjoyed a good sauerkraut; a cookie bakery that was giving out samples of mini snickerdoodles; an organic smoothie shop where we shared a mango and pineapple concoction that was quite delish; a diner that specialized in hand-cut French fries with a special and secret sauce; and a coffee bar that served up a spicy and thick hot chocolate that nearly made me swear off coffee, it was so good.

I confess, it had been a while for me as far as eating out goes. I had gotten so into growing and cooking my own grub, I’d forgotten the tiny luxury of a sandwich made by someone else, and the feeling of satisfaction I get when I know my money has gone to a local business.

I was fairly sick with remorse over my lack of attention to my town’s eateries, so I bought a dozen more snickerdoodles to calm my fretful heart. (Yup. Totally did the trick. But just in case the icky feeling came back, I purchased another basket of French fries.)

Then, our consciences abated, we made another list. This time it was for ideas for our own, imaginary food business. Well, imaginary as of right now anyway … but you never know.

Piper and Jane’s Business Ideas (Food Edition)

• Totally Tacos: Hey, they’re not just for Tuesdays anymore!
• Little Miss Muffins: 24-hour muffin shop (how many times do you crave a peach muffin at 2 a.m., canIgetanamen?)
• Donut Forget the Sprinkles: Get it? Donut? Do Not? Ha!
• Piper’s Pickles: homegrown right from the cuke!
• Salad Toppers: everything you wanted to put in a salad but were afraid to ask
• Save the Grape: (evidently, Piper has a hatred of raisins and wants to eliminate them from Planet Earth)
• Scones R Us
• Ice Creamery: an ice cream shop where Piper refuses to put nuts in ice cream no matter how many customers want them

We eliminated a couple right off the bat (the grape rebellion will have to wait) and settled on Piper’s Pickles. Who wouldn’t want to buy a jar of homegrown pickles from a cute little stand, manned by a whippersnapper with a knack for pickling?

Now, we just wait patiently for summer …

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Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Ashley Edstrom!!!

Ashley Edstrom (#7053) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Intermediate Level Quilting Merit Badge!

“I took a class to learn the Hunter Star technique, which included using a ruler I had not tried before. I was able to use some animal fabric that had been hanging around my sewing room for years.

I worked on my project at a local quilting retreat, which included 30 other women. It was a great time, and I made enough progress on my project to come home and finish it!”

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,130 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,150 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …   

For this week’s Each Other/Her-Story Beginner Level Merit Badge, I found myself stumped for a moment. Find an influential and/or powerful woman who is still alive to research.

Hmm. Seemed simple enough, but surprisingly difficult, to boot. Also, I got a little sad when random women jumped into my head, then when I Googled them, found that they had passed to their eternal reward. Sniffle. Audrey Hepburn, I’m talking to you.

Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer, while filming War and Peace. Milton H. Greene for LOOK Magazine via Wikimedia Commons.

I puzzled and puzzled till my puzzler was sore. I racked my gray matter. I pondered and pontificated and mused. I ate some cookies. I thought some more. I drummed my fingers restlessly on my coffee table, where my latest stack of library books sat ready and waiting. I looked down.

Then, I had it!

Harry Potter’s cute, little, bespectacled face peered up at me endearingly.

J.K. Rowling!

photo by Daniel Ogren via Wikimedia Commons

Talk about influential and powerful. I mean, she singlehandedly got millions of school-aged youngsters to love books again. That’s influential. She changed the game for middle school novels. That’s powerful. And even more than that, I learned she’s pretty darn inspirational too.

Some facts about J.K. you might find as super-neato as I did:

• J.K. (or Joanne as I like to call her, since I pretty much assume we’re friends by now) wrote the first Harry Potter while she was a single mom on welfare, and it was rejected 12 times before being picked up by a publishing house for a mere $4,000.
• The fourth book in the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, became the fastest-selling book in history. Like, history of the world, peeps.
• Rowling is now the 13th wealthiest woman in Britain (wealthier even than the queen!)
• Her book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, puts every cent in royalties earned towards charity.
• The films based on her books are the second-highest-grossing films in history.
• She went from living on state benefits to multi-millionaire status in a mere five years.
• Forbes ranked Rowling as the 48th most powerful celebrity of 2007, and Time magazine named her as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fans. In October 2010, Rowling was named the “Most Influential Woman in Britain” by leading magazine editors.
• She based the character of Hermione Granger on herself when she was 11.
• In 1982, she took the entrance exams for Oxford, but was not accepted. She ended up going to University of Exeter, where she recalls doing very little work, and mostly read a lot of Dickens and Tolkien.
• In 2012 Forbes had to remove Rowling from their list of billionaires because she had given so much money away to charities, she lost her billionaire status. Wowza!
• Rowling has named communist and civil rights activist Jessica Mitford as her “most influential writer,” saying, “Jessica Mitford has been my heroine since I was 14 years old, when I overheard my formidable great-aunt discussing how Mitford had run away at the age of 19 to fight with the Reds in the Spanish Civil War”, and claims what inspired her about Mitford was that she was “incurably and instinctively rebellious, brave, adventurous, funny and irreverent, she liked nothing better than a good fight, preferably against a pompous and hypocritical target.” Sounds like a few s/heroes I know!
• Rowling has described Jane Austen as her favorite author, calling Emma her favorite book. As a child, Rowling has said her early influences included The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, and Manxmousee by Paul Gallico.

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Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Melissa Jackson!!!

Melissa Jackson (#3639) has received a certificate of achievement in Cleaning Up for earning a Beginner Level Going Green Merit Badge!

“I have been mostly green for a while, but after doing some extra research on this subject, there are certain things that I would use “sometimes” if I needed to, bleach being the number-one culprit. I have started using fresh lemon, baking soda, and salt as abrasives and whiteners. I made a green category on my Pinterest board as a reference for good green and homemade cleaners without chemicals for my reference. It also has some upcycled projects for useful things I can use for storage, etc. around my house. I am also loving the many uses for vinegar—it eliminates lots of nasty odors!

I am loving the fresh scent of lemons as cleaners—everything feels just as clean and I feel better knowing everything is biodegradeable. My daughter just moved into a new place, so I made her a little starter kit of natural cleaning supplies. I packaged up some basics, along with the upcycled cans she can use for storing things in her laundry room.”

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