Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Andrea Chavez!!!

Andrea Chavez (#7230) has received a certificate of achievement in Cleaning Up for earning a Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert Level Recycling Merit Badge!

“In the Beginner category, Moscow, Idaho, has curbside recycling and in the summer of 2016, went to single-stream recycling, which has helped a LOT. Before, we had to separate items: cans, glass, papers, etc. It could be confusing, and because I know that an entire batch can be tossed out if something in it is bad, it was a strain. Single-stream allows us to pop everything recyclable into one big bin. The only item not allowed is glass. Glass takes a different process, and can be dangerous when broken. However, I still collect glass in a separate area and take it down to Moscow Recycling myself when I hit a critical mass.

For the Intermediate level, as you know, much of this work is now done for us! However, I have kept the list of dos and don’ts on my frig as a handy resource so I can decide what can and cannot go into the single-stream bin. I have to monitor what my dad puts in, as he thinks some of the plastics he uses can go in and they cannot. When my family is in town, I have to monitor their stuff, too, as Seattle has an even better system. They can put everything but food waste in, and they all have a compost bin for that stuff … nice.

We do reuse a lot of things, too. I often reuse cardboard boxes for storage and when we get a plastic bag (I do use reusable bags … but now and again we get one), Dad uses them for his bathroom waste. If we get a lot of them, they, too, can go into the recycling bin. I think our biggest recycling waste is newspapers and aluminum cans! Still, we manage to fill the bin every two weeks. Our garbage bin is much, much smaller now that we have done single-stream.

Expert level: We have been recycling for years, actually. As I mentioned earlier, I have to monitor the recycling bin to make sure things don’t end up there that shouldn’t AND to make sure things don’t go into the garbage that could be recycled. I help my dad with that. (He is 90… give him a break.)

How did it turn out!? Really well. As I mentioned, single-stream has been a blessing. It has really increased the amount of recycling we do because it is so much easier that even those who aren’t used to recycling can do it, too. I do have to make sure that glass is set aside because I will take that myself. Dad would just toss it … no, no! So, that is a constant learning curve for us. When family visit, I go through the recycling info with them so we don’t end up with beer bottles in the bin.

My sincere hope is that the single-stream is working for Moscow. It is difficult in a rural area for recycling centers to get a critical mass that is worth the energy to transport. Economically, that can be a tricky thing. Recycling is great, but does using fossil fuel to get it to the treatment plant offset the benefits of doing it? It is a question greenies need to consider, not because we shouldn’t do it, but because we need to fight to make it even better.”

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,200 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,226 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Stitching and Crafting/Little Scrappers Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I snagged the opportunity to do one of my favorite things (scrapbooking), and one thing I’d always wanted to do (ice skating).

Henri Giacomotto, ‘La patineuse’

Piper’s family invited me along on their family outing to the rink, and I was pleased as punch to lace up my new skates and try my skillz at waltzing/turning/spinning/arabesquing falling/crashing/bruising/face-planting. I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge, so I borrowed some shin guards from Andy and placed my bike helmet safely atop my curls (better safe than brain damaged, I always say).

Piper was new at this, too, so I was not alone. Not skating, unfortunately, but scrapbooking; so I tried to convince myself we were on a level playing field. We were soooo not. Turns out, skating is much harder to master than cutting and gluing. Or at least, so I thought. (The little whippersnapper really cannot cut in a straight line. I tried to ignore it and patted her on the head reassuringly. Or at least I would have had I not been gliding by like elegant ballerina gimpy penguin.)

Piper took lots of pictures to commemorate my big day and to paste lovingly into her first scrapbook. She can really multitask; she was decorating borders at the same time she was sashaying ‘round the rink. I can relate though; I was multitasking too. I was outlining a rough draft of my Last Will and Testament as I crashed unceremoniously into a Hot Cocoa Booth (that thing came outta nowhere).

photo, Alanna George via Wikimedia Commons

I was very much patting myself on my (thrown-out) back over the use of the helmet. It saved my noggin from crackin’ in four or five places at least, and it also came in handy as our day came to a (blessed) close and I used it to hold all of Piper’s photos on the way back to the car. She skipped along merrily, and I limped like a one-legged pirate who’d had too much rum.

I had mistakenly assumed Piper would use a digital camera, or even her mommy’s cell phone, but she had an adorable Polaroid Snap, so the photos were ready for pasting asap. Photographic evidence suggests I am a professional photo bomber, but in my defense, they were nearly all unintentional … you try staying out of a family’s nice picture when you’re standing on ice in shoes with tiny strips of metal on them. Yeah. Harder than it looks. Photo after photo, I am a blur of panic, leaving not-quite-death and destruction in my wake, as I skated by, knocking out elderly senior citizens and small children alike. Hey, don’t feel too bad; those grannies really know how to move out of the way when they’re motivated. I figure I saved them from having to go to Jazzercise this week.

I would have helped Piper more when we got home with her scrapbooking, but I needed to put a heat pack on my back and a bag of frozen peas on my tushy. She assured me she could figure out the intricacies of album arranging without me and would bring the finished product by for a looksee after my long winter’s nap and after my toes recovered from frostbite.

I’m thinking the skates will make nice flower planters. Is there a badge for that?

ice skate planters, Macys.com

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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 … Cyrie Wilson!!!

Cyrie Wilson (Pixiedustdevil, #6941) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level UFOs Merit Badge!

“I went through my UFO box and weeded out old projects that didn’t interest me anymore, or they had lost irreplaceable pieces. Then I pulled out my bag of chicken potholders, and some jeans that needed patched.

I took about 3 more pairs of jeans and patched/repaired them, using recycled fabric from old jeans. I’m fussy like that; I see no point in tossing clothes if they can be repaired.

Finally, my biggest job was finishing 2 sets of chicken potholders that my sister requested. She requested them a year ago. Shame on me! I finished them in time to give them to her for Thanksgiving.

I’m used to fixing my jeans, especially the corners of the back pockets. One hole even came undone after washing. So I reinforced it with all the powers of ‘overkill’ that I could muster. That solved the problem.

As for the potholders; I’ve made so many that I’m tired of making them, so my sister’s will hopefully be my last for a while. I didn’t really like the colors (I didn’t choose them), but as long as my sister was happy with them, then that’s fine.”

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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 … Sherrilyn Askew!!!

Sherrilyn Askew (#1350) has received a certificate of achievement in Farm Kitchen for earning an Expert Level Unprocessed Kitchen Merit Badge!

“I hosted an “unprocessed” party and helped my sisters discover ways to make some of their favorite processed foods organically, specifically candy canes. Candy is as much art as science, hard candy especially. The key is in the temperature. We did one batch with beet juice and one with cranberry juice, and the color difference, as well as the flavor difference, was significant.

We had a bit of a learning curve about kitchen thermometers (meat thermometer vs. candy thermometer), and the importance of having an accurate one. One batch of candy turned out fine, but the other batch burned. Candy canes with cranberry juice tastes delicious, though.

We talked about divinity and caramels, and the problems encountered making each one (granularity) and how to prevent them.

Candy making is an art, and homemade candy with organic ingredients is the bees’ knees.”

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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 … Cyrie Wilson!!!

Cyrie Wilson (Pixiedustdevil, #6941) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Scrapbooking Merit Badge!

“Instead of making a scrapbook (too expensive!) I made a shadowbox collage. My father and I went to Universal Studios Hollywood and the WB studio tour. We had planned this trip for a year.

I papered over the backing of the frame with acid-free paper, and used acid-free glue and ink. I printed a few photos to wallet size, wrote a few funny stories on labels, and gathered trinkets from the trip.

After assembling the collage, I papered the back and stapled the backing to the frame with a staple gun.

It was difficult to fit so much into such a small collage. There wasn’t even a backboard on the frame, so I had to measure and cut one. Aside from that, it turned out well.”

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The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 7,200 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—10,226 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane 

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Icing on the Cake Expert Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, Nora, Piper, Andy, and the Hostess with the Mostess (that’s me) all joined forces.

For the good of cake.

Yum.

Now, we had all gone through rigorous training to bring us to this day. After all, we had baked our way to success (and one or two failures) through the Beginner and Intermediate Level Badges, and so thusly, henceforth, and so on and so forth, forever and ever, amen, we were set.

(My waistline? A whole ‘nother kettle of fish.)

We had made our homemade, from-scratch cakes earlier and then we read through the badge requirements for this, our final cake badge: woe was us … we were supposed to decorate the said cakes and take photos.

Umm, hello? Those cakes had been digested in our tummies for a while now.

So, we did the next best thing, considering the holidays were upon us …

Andy, Nora, Piper, and Jane’s Gingerbread/Pretzel Houses

Supplies suggested:

• pretzel rods/sticks (Lots and lots. As the age-old saying goes, one for the house, one for my belly.)

• gumdrops (You can buy organic candy here. They even have kosher gummy cubs!)

• red-hots

• licorice ropes

• chocolate rocks

• coconut

• icing for piping

• “cement” for glue

• graham crackers

Now, depending on whether you want to eat your creation or just stare lovingly at it all season long, you will want to choose your ingredients accordingly. Piper and I were more about the architecture of the thing and we had our own snack stash nearby, so we skipped the homemade icings and used hot glue. Shh. Don’t tell. Andy and Nora, on the other hand, were all about noshing on their houses like Hansel and Gretel, and so we made sure they got their hands on most of the good-for-you organic treats, and homemade “cement.”

“Cement” for gluing houses together:

Beat 4 egg whites with 1 t cream of tartar till stiff. Gradually add 4 cups powdered sugar (I said, gradually, Andy!) and beat five minutes. Will harden quickly, so keep a towel or plastic wrap on it when not using.

The pretzel sticks/rods are adorbs for making log cabins. Coconut can be edible snow, or can be tinted with green food coloring to make grass. You can also use half-and-half, pint-sized or half-gallon-sized, empty containers for your house frames. Paint, or decoupage, and then add your candy décor. Rock chocolates make excellent chimneys.

photo by Jeff Markham via Wikimedia Commons

We had ourselves a little Christmas village when we were done. Were they cakes necessarily? In the purest sense of the word? Cakes, per se? Okay, maybe not precisely … but what is cake but something that brings people together in the kitchen? And that we did, me and my elves. And I’d say, it was joyful and triumphant.

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