Having a cross stitch: Big Brownie Birthday Edition!

As I have mentioned I am a member of Girlguiding UK and this year marks 100 years of Brownies. This event has spawned a lot of projects and keepsake items and one that caught my eye was cross stitch patterns. There was a set of patterns for a Brownie, a Rainbow, a Guide and a Guider published in Cross Stitch magazine designed by Lucie Heaton. They were great but they didn't really represent my uniforms... So I adapted them!

Cross stitch isn't my usual medium of choice but I have done it in the past. I thought I'd give it a go for this project and attach the results to my new camp blanket. So far I have started my Guider and I will keep you posted on my progress :-)

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Camp Blanket

I have been working on my Camp blanket for almost 20 years. It has Brownie badges, Guide badges, patches from the places I've been, badges for things I like and tags and bits and pieces from old clothing and stuff like that.... My entire life really! And it is finally finished! There are nearly 500 badges on this thing and I've already started a new one :-)

 

 

 

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100 Years of Brownies

 

I think a while back I mentioned that I am part of Girlguiding UK and am a qualified Brownie Leader.

 

This year Brownies is 100 years old and to celebrate there are lots of events planned. This weekend I took part in East Kent Guiding's big Brownie Birthday Star Quest - it was super fun! The girls (aged 7-11) got to go into the past, present and future at the Winter Gardens, Margate and do lots of fun activities.

This is me helping out with a science activity where the girls had to work out what the mystery white powder was from doing some tests - we think it was baking soda! That was in the future.

This us me with my original Brownie uniform - well the same as I wore anyway! In the past the girls could try on old uniforms. This, being a costume person, was my favourite part!

 

 

 

I made my mum hold up the best ones :-)

 

In the present the girls got to have a go at temporary tattoos, hair chalks and see some reptiles, including holding a snake. I think everyone had a good time and I was really glad I got to be a part of the Big a Brownie Birthday in 2014!

 

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I Promise That I Will Do My Best...

I was reading a blog post on the BUST website the other day and felt that I needed to comment on it.

http://www.bust.com/blog/2010/09/10/the-un-godly-girl-scouts.html

Hans Zeiger, a Republican candidate for Washington’s House of Representatives (yes, I know I'm British and have no idea what that means, but I do understand that he feels he has influence) had this comment to make about Girl Scouts:

"the Girl Scouts allow homosexuals and atheists to join their ranks, and they have become a pro-abortion, feminist training corps"

At home, we have Brownies and Girl Guides instead of Girl Scouts, but it's the same thing. I am a Girl Guide. I started as a Brownie and was a Seconder (the only reason I wasn't a Sixer was because I joined late), then went into Girl Guides and was Patrol Leader of the Kingfishers for a long time. We didn't have a Rangers company at that time so I went on to be a Young Leader and Pack Leader of the Brownies I had formerly attended. At the age of 17 I started work on my Leader program and as soon as I turned 18 I became a full fledged Leader. I now also have my Pack Holiday Licence, which means I can legally take a Brownie Pack on holiday.

Being part of Guiding has influenced my life. It has made me the strong, independent woman that I am today. It has taught me leadership skills, how to care for and support others and how to be organised and prepared. These are all things that are essential to my career and my life. In my eyes this is not 'feminist training', it is teaching young women how to be themselves and giving them the essential skills to be successful in their lives. If that scares you, Mr. Zeiger, then so be it.

More to the point, Guiding is fun! How dare you diminish that!

I had already decided to make a Girl Guiding square for my feminist quilt, now I am even more committed to it :-)

If you would like to know more about Girl Guiding UK or the Girl Scouts of America, visit these sites:

Girlguiding UK

Girl Scouts of America