Rebel Update

 Hi all. I thought I'd stop by with an update on how I'm doing with my badge work.

My daily journal is complete for April and ready to be started tomorrow and I'm surprised at how much I'm looking forward to ticking tasks off!

This is a project I worked on for a while and I decided to give it to my mum for Mother's Day so I framed it. The cross stitch comes under the Craft Badge and gifting it covers an aspect of My Talents. Not only that, I've discovered it covers the Be Kind Challenge!

The next update is to share this. Another aspect of the Craft badge I want to try is Calligraphy and it just so happened that my mum bought this kit for me and I can't wait to try it out! I just need to locate some good tutorials, books or websites to learn from.

The Reader Badge appealed to me as soon as I knew there was one, but there's also a clause in the Codebreaker Badge that covers the reading of a book. This has been on my wishlist for ages so I decided now was the time to buy it. Firstly as one of my six books to read, but also to cover the Choose Your Own Adventure aspect. Let's hope I avoid that bizarre death they warn about on the cover!

I've also been out today and bought some plants for my Indoor Gardener badge. I need to look after five different plants, but I already have a little rose I was given for Christmas and there's an Oxalis Triangularis in our bathroom I look after too.

I was quite impressed that this little bundle, including the food and snips, cost less than £30!

Finally, last night I went for a meeting of our District Scout Adventurous Activities committee about joining and training up to become an instructor in activities like tomahawk throwing, climbing, rifle shooting, all the cool stuff. So it looks like my Adventurer Badge is on the cards.

Critic Badge - Album Review: Not all Those Who Wander Are Lost, Dave Brons

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost - Dave Brons

I first heard about Dave Brons' music online, possibly Instagram. There was an offer to download four free tracks and I took advantage. I adored them and instantly had to get the album.

The music is inspired by Tolkien and so really has an other worldly feel. Straight away I feel like I'm walking through a forest or experiencing magic.

My favourite track is Awakened by Starlight (track 4). It has a light and airy quality and feels like the perfect sort of track to meditate to or, at the very least, sit and chill to.

There's a lot of soft, almost childlike voices taking you on a journey throughout the tracks, giving the album a storyline.

Another track I like is The Riders of Rohan (track 9) which feels like a complete opposite of Starlight. It's deeper and faster and, as the title might suggest, you feel like you're participating in a fast paced, urgent horse ride.

I can't really say there's anything I particularly dislike about the album, just tracks I like more than others. I definitely would, and already have, recommended it to others and will continue to as well, hence the link at the top!

Happy listening!

My Brand Badge

"Time for some personal branding." 

So, I'm hoping the image above is clear enough to show my 10 chosen words and the corresponding 'Brand Values' (which I had to Google to find out what on earth that meant).

I'd like to think that for the most part, my behaviour does represent these values. I'm not perfect and I don't try to claim to be, but I would like to think that I can honestly say I do my best.

As to whether there are any changes to be made, I'm sure I can. There are times when I'm just not in the mood and many of these brands will fall by the way side and I need to be careful not to, but I like to think I try.

"Social media and my 'brand'"

I use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as some of the messaging media. My Instagram is pretty much photos of my cross stitch or other projects and how they're progressing, flowers I like or sky shots that have particularly caught my attention. So in this instance, I think my Instagram quite easily sits within my values.

Twitter and Facebook I share a lot of things that fascinate me, like random facts, things like that. There are frequent shares of posts my place of work posts and because I love my job and want people to come and enjoy our facility, I try and always share those. On Twitter especially because I can be more reliably notified, I share posts from a Christian radio station I like listening to. There's also a lot of Scout stuff, whether as the association in general, or my group specifically.

I think all in all, my social media represents me pretty well.

So hopefully that's a few aspects of this badge ticked off. I'll have a think about the other parts of this badge and return.

Photographer Badge - Sequence

 "Create a sequence of at least 4 related photos"

I had intended to use some pictures I took today while out for my daily walk. I spotted a robin that had found a worm.

Unforunately, I'm having issues with cropping the images so you can actually see the bird properly. And they're not the best sequence either.

So with that in mind, I remembered a sequence I took of my friend's child while we were away on a camp. (Yes, I have permission to use her photo 😊)

Hopefully I can use this to cover this aspect of the badge. A previous post should cover the exhibition, but if not I have made photobooks.

Rebel Badge update

 

I was going to be all organised and write out the first three months of my journal but I think it's easier to stick with the first month and make sure I haven't added too much. They're all little tasks, but they add up.

There are also a lot of tasks to add that aren't going to be done on a daily basis but I can't add them until I know my rota for work. So far I've got next week and no further so it's hard to plan in things to do on my days off when I don't know my days off! Lol.

Hey ho, does feel like an achievement to at least have completed this much. Just need to stick to it now. It'll all start fully on 1st April (no, not a Fool's).

On another note, I decided to take a progress photo of my current project, Northern Lights. It's part of Dimensions' Sky Lights collection. The photo isn't the best one because it was starting to get dark when I took it, but the colours are amazing. I particularly like the use of satin threads to give that brightness in the green. There's also a purple and blue shade in the satin but they don't stand out quite so much.

Cross stitch is one of the activities I'm doing to cross off an aspect of the Craft badge, but then I've been doing them for 27 years! I will be trying new things as well.

My Completed Projects

 Hello again, everyone.

Lockdown gave me a good opportunity to try and work through the stash of cross stitch kits I've been accumulating. Problem is, I also kept buying them! Being signed off as well gave me plenty of time once everyone else was back at work. I spent a lot of last summer sat in the garden with a speaker for music, a ball for the dog, the fountain giving me that lovely sound of running water, and my cross stitch. Looking forward to doing that again this year, though hopefully not quite so frequently! 2 days off a week is enough unless I'm on annual leave!!

So here are the kits I've completed since I started cross stitching as a 10-year-old.