Speaking of energizer bunnies, Meg and I are going to slow down our postings a tad, which is the reason you get to enjoy Mr. Bunny an extra day. The feedback we’ve received is that we need to give more people more time to read our content. Not only that, but Meg and I want to free up some of our time to work on our Event Center plans and I have a bread book I need to finish. See you Wednesday morning bright and early, then Friday and Sunday. And then next Monday again. M, W, F, and Sundays, here we come!
Occasionally here on the blog, we get a chance to give you an update on a post we’ve previously shared. A while back, I shared the story of a Philadelphia pizzeria by the name of Rosa’s that created a pay-it-forward program so successful it was feeding hundreds of homeless people in the City of Brotherly Love. Rosa’s patrons began donating pizza slices to their community as a random act of kindness in a city that continually sees some of the highest poverty rates in the nation. These RAOKs were originally tallied by post-it notes stuck on the walls of the pizzeria, and although they still adorn the place, Rosa’s has since turned to other methods of accounting.
It turns out we weren’t the only ones smitten with this story. It went viral, with statistics like 35 million shares on Facebook and 800,000 shares on the Internet. All those shares brought owner Mason Wartman into the limelight, garnering him interviews with the likes of Ellen Degeneres, as well as features with Good Morning America and People Magazine.
And what do you suppose has happened as a result of all that media attention? 50,000 slices of donated pizza happened. In just one year. And the program is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, Mason has plans to open a second location very soon, with a possibly expanded menu. There’s also talk of expansion to Rosa’s online store, which currently gives away a pair of socks or a pair of gloves for each pair sold. Fifty percent of the sales of the rest of Rosa’s apparel, which features the designs of homeless artists, goes back into the program, and those sales now account for 10 percent of all donated slices. Amazing! And as an added bonus from this boom in business, Rosa’s Pizzeria has had to bring on more staff, so Mason coupled with agencies that connect homeless folks with jobs. The old adage “start by helping those closest to you” certainly applies in this case. If we could all follow Rosa’s lead, maybe 2016 will come to be known as the year the world exploded with random acts of kindness.
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,825 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,626 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 Young Cultivator Stitching and Crafting/Toys Beginning Level Merit Badge, I decided to make it easy on myself and hand the reins over to my niece, Piper. In order to earn her very first Young Cultivator badge, Piper needed to interview an adult about the toys they played with when they were young.
Ahhh, nostalgia, thy name is toys …
Photo by Webms via Wikimedia Commons
Take it away, Piper!
*tap, tap, tap*
Piper: Testing, testing, 1 … 2 … 3?
Jane: Isn’t that a plastic karaoke machine, Pipes?
Piper: I’ll do the questioning, ma’am. First question: what was your favorite toy growing up as a youngster in the 1850s?
Jane: Yikes! I’m not that old. My favorite toy only recently, as I am very spry and youthful, was my dolly, Adelaide.
Piper: I see. And what was said Adelaide made of? Wood?
Jane: Wood?
Piper: Yes. It’s my understanding that toys that long ago were likely actual sticks.
Stick doll or penny doll. Photo by Wolfgang Moroder via Wikimedia Commons.
Jane: A stick toy?
Piper: No, a stick used as a toy.
Jane, feeling ornery and deciding to go with it: Yes, Adelaide was a lovely stick. She was cherry mahogany, you know.
Piper: I see. And did you play with your stick for hours at a time?
Jane: Oh, yes. I dressed her up and braided her hair, which of course, was made of moss. Once I misplaced poor Adelaide and had to go looking for her. After I walked to school uphill both ways in the snow, naturally.
Piper: Goodness. Did you find her?
Jane, shaking her head sadly: It was a tragedy. It turns out my father had gone to gather kindling that morning for our stove while I was writing chalk verses on my slate for school.
Piper, gasping: Oh, no! Poor Adelaide!
Jane, chuckling: Just kidding. Adelaide was a real doll, and a posh one, too. She had little leather boots and a bunch of different outfits.
Vintage Bradley brand dolls from Japan, Photo by KeiBi via Wikimedia Commons
Piper, looking relieved, and also disappointed: Oh. Yeah, I have one like that. I don’t really play with her, though. I mostly play my iPad and stuff.
Jane: Really? Have you ever told her your secrets? Or sent her on secret missions for you?
Piper, looking slightly interested: Nooo … that sounds kinda fun, though. What else did you do with your stick? I mean, with Adelaide?
Jane: Well, I also had an old tape recorder. Kind of like the one you’re using now to interview me, except mine was way cooler.
Piper: Hey!
Jane: Just keeping it real, kid. Anyway, I was always transcribing stories into it, or rehearsing play lines, or predicting the future. Sometimes, my friends and I would sing songs or tell ghost stories into it.
Piper: Neato! Do you still have the tapes?
Jane: I think I may have buried a couple.
Piper, frowning: What’d you do that for?
Jane: Like a time capsule. You’ve never done a time capsule? You mean to tell me iPads can’t do time capsules? Huh. Well, anyway, we buried a cigar box full of tapes and Polaroid pictures and nifty stuff. We buried it under that old oak tree out back.
Piper, looking mischievous: Really? Well, that’s enough interviewing for one day … thanks, Auntie Jane.
Jane: Anytime, pipsqueak. What are you doing the rest of the day?
Piper: Oh, you know, the usual. I thought I’d take the iPad out to the yard. Maybe sit under that nice, shady tree there.
Jane: Hmm. Is that so? Well, don’t forget your stick.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Denise Thompson!!!
Denise Thompson (levisgrammy, #43) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Backyard Farmer Merit Badge!
“We started our own flock originally by purchasing chicks from a hatchery. We had Black Austrolorps to start and used their eggs to hatch a flock using an incubator given us by my father.
The present flock are Black Sex Link and they were purchased from a hatchery. They enjoy free-ranging as much as possible and are fed organic feed. We enjoy about 6-7 big brown eggs every day this time of year.
We will be enlarging the flock this Spring.”
With another holiday on the horizon, I’ve been doing a little gift browsing. Of course there are all the usual pinks and purples and hearts this and hearts that, but I stumbled upon an enterprise called Child’s Own Studio that claims to have perfected the art of “softie-making” from children’s drawings.
In other words, they can take your child’s drawing and turn it into a plush toy … but I like the term “softie-making” better. And why might you be interested in one of these softies? I learned that young children draw from their imaginations with pure self-expression, and it’s based on an understanding of what is being drawn rather than on observation.
Around the age of 5, children develop a visual vocabulary, or their own unique symbolism. When they draw a cat, it will always be the same basic image, maybe altered with stripes or color. It’s not until around the age of 9 or 10 that children begin to be influenced by realism and often lose their passion, frustrated that the object being drawn doesn’t look exactly like what it represents. From what I can gather, there’s a sweet spot of self-expression from about 5 to 9 years of age, and these plush toys serve as an excellent way to preserve that.
Snail Softie via childsown.com
Inspired by a drawing from her 4-year-old son, Wendy Tsao started Child’s Own Studio in 2007 as a home-based art venture in Vancouver, B.C., but she’s had so many orders that she’s had to expand. The softies start at $70, but that seems like a small price to pay for such a unique and personalized gift that was hand-stitched just for you. The average size of a toy is about 16”, but they also offer super sizes up to 5′. And to top it all off, Child’s Own Studio is enthusiastic about helping fundraising campaigns for non-profits and schools.
Scorpian Softie via childsown.com
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
