August 13th 2015 - Making a badge sash

August 13th 2015 - Making a badge sash

As per previous posts I have had to take my badges off my camp blanket as I bought a new one.  I had a sash when I was in guides many years ago of which my guide badges are fixed on to.  I didn't have one when I was in brownies as my uniform was a brown dress and the badges were sewed to the sleeve.

I tried to buy a brownie sash off ebay but the prices of them were not cheap, even for used ones.  So I asked on the local selling pages, 1 lady said she had 1 I could have but she lives over 45mins drive from me so too far to go and we were not able to meet up as not available at the same time.  So this left me 1 option - to make a sash that I could sew my brownie badges onto.

When I went to £1 shop today I bought a beige under bed storage bag.  It had a dark brown trim round the edges.  When I got home I cut out the strip that ran round the bag making the depth of the storage bag and cut off the zip.  It was double the width of what I needed so I stitched it in half and made it slightly shorter as well.  From here I have pinned all my badges onto it ready to be sewed (or pinned with safety pins if I don't get them all finished in time).  This will be sewed to my new blanket as I think the guide ones look really nice on it.

August 12th 2015 - St Bees beach

August 12th 2015 - St Bees beach

As it turned out to be a hot afternoon we loaded the car and set off the 2 miles down the road to St Bees beach.  It seemed that everyone else had the same idea as it was really busy down there.

However we found a spot big enough for us to put the shelter and wind breaks up and "make camp" for few hours.  I laid sunbathing and reading and hubby sat in the shelter reading (he doesn't like the sun that much) and the boys played in the sea, the giant puddle left near the rocks on the beach and the beach.  They built castles and had fun.

A family behind us had started to build a big castle with moat and when they left the boys took it upon themselves to fill the moat with water.

August 11th 2015 - Minecraft papercraft

August 11th 2015 - Minecraft papercraft

Following our trip yesterday to the Rheged for the minecraft event, we have spent today making paper mincraft bits.

I have found loads of them, copied them all to word documents and printed them out - the kids wouldn't share them so I have had to print 3 copies of everything!  (how to kill printer ink!)  The older 2 were able to cut, fold and stick their own but I had to help lil man with his.

Some of them have turned out better than others, and some the glue has held others have had to have tape on.

Here are a few of their makes:

a torch, house red creeper, cat, 3 small and 1 big block.  They do have pages upon pages of others that they can make as well.

August 10th 2015 - Rheged Centre

August 10th 2015 - Rheged Centre

The Rheged Centre is an hours drive from my house.  Over the summer holidays they have a minecraft event on.

Today we took the boys, we hadn't told them where we going but they needed to get up, have breakfast and get dressed ready to go.  Once we were all ready we set off.  Sadly the weather was really naff and was raining all the way there.  This isn't a problem in itself as the Rheged is indoors but would mean they couldnt play in the outdoor play area.

Upon arrival the boys saw the big minecraft signs outside the building and the older 2 were really excited.  We went in and I took a few photos of them with the figures that were downstairs and they stood infront of the minecraft wall with minecraft heads on for pics.

It looked like it was going to be a really good event.  We followed the signs up to where it was and still looked good.  However looks are deceiving, we were there a total of 45mins!  The boys looked around had a few photos taken, tried to make paper figures but the glue was too runny it made the paper wet and not keep shape.  They were unable to play with the lego as it was really busy, so they coloured a minecraft figure and we left.  You exit through the shop which was very expensive, items were more than what they are in the shops in town!

They did enjoy looking at the models and pictures  but said its a shame there wasn't more to do.  We came home and they played minecraft on their devices.

August 9th 2015 - Camp Blanket

August 9th 2015 - Camp Blanket

For many years I have had a camp blanket, it was pale blue and a really old blanket and quite rough.  I helped my Dad make it when I was a brownie (i'm now in my 30's).  I remember "helping" to sew the blanket stitch around the sleeves and neckline.  I'm sure my Dad went and re-did most of it!!!

Well it was used a lot when I was involved with guides and the odd beaver cubs camp that I helped with.  But after leaving guiding and scouting and sticking with St John Ambulance it has been quite redundant as most of camps are in buildings not tents.

I got my blanket out the other day as I needed to sew some badges on to it before my SJA day camp at the weekend.  I was really saddened to find that it had marks on it (no idea what they were but seemed like oil) and some of the badges that had been loose in it were no longer recognisable as badges but disintegrated bits of material. :(   so I sat and unpicked all the badges (going right back to when I was a rainbow) and have been and bought a new purple fluffy blanket.

I spent yesterday stitching the sides together and cutting/stitching a neck hole. I now have the mammoth task of sewing my badges onto a new blanket before the weekend and plan to take it with me for round the campfire. I am waiting on badges in the post as I was able to work out which ones had been damaged.

August 8th 2015 - Pillow spray

August 8th 215 - pillow spray

A few years ago I bought a bottle of peppermint & nutmeg pillow spray from boots to help me sleep.  I was a bit skeptical as both of the ingredients were active oils and aimed at rejuvenation and such.  However, this spray really did work and helped me sleep.

I was very disappointed when I found out they had stopped selling it and replaced it with a lavender spray.  Yes lavender is meant to help you sleep unless you are allergic to it and it makes you very sick!  I'm not talking about being ill but hugging the toilet for a few hours sick!

I have looked around for a replacement pillow spray to help with sleep for nearly 3years and found a blog that had directions on how to make your own pillow spray using peppermint, nutmeg and water mixed in a spray bottle.  YAY!!! i'm so happy and I will be even happier if it works.

I bought a pack of bottles from £1 shop the other day and ordered peppermint and nutmeg natural oils off ebay which arrived today.  I am going to mix it up and spray my pillow and hope that it helps me sleep.  I will add an update tomorrow as to whether it did or didn't work.


UPDATE

well I made it, sprayed it and slept. woo hoo!

August 7th 2015 - Making mini marshmallows

August 7th 2015 - Making mini marshmallows

I found this marshmallow toss game on pinterest, it is played with real marshmallows.  However, I was really dubious about this incase any of the children put them in their mouths after they had been on the floor etc so I decided to make some mini marshmallows from material.

The other day I had bought some pillows to make a big marshmallows for a smore race, I only used 1 of the 2 pillows so this is what I have used for the mini ones.  I have done them in the same way as the big ones.  I cut open one end and removed all the stuffing, now with the paper material cover I have cut it into strips about 1 1/2 " wide and then pinned and cut the strips into squares:

From here I have stitched 3 sides and then stuffed them with original stuffing.  The first 1 I did was just stuffing but when we threw it it didn't go very far so I undid part of it and added some rice to it to give it some weight for throwing, this worked much better.


I have a big red box that is coming to camp (it has chairs n things in it) and this will be used as the marshmallow toss game instead of the bucket like picture shows.  I have printed and laminated a picture of fire and the words marshmallow toss to be stuck on them as well.  We also have a small red spade from the sandpit to throw them with.


Although the image doesn't tell you how to play the game it looks very simple - you have a bucket that has fire/flames on it and marshmallows and a spade, I assume that the marshmallows represent water and you need to throw them into the fire to put it out.  The way we are going to play is each person has a turn with all of the marshmallows to see who can get the most in the bucket.