Merit Badges

My littlest cousin is a Brownie.  A very accomplished mini-scout with a vest full of badges to show for it.  Last weekend, at Mimsey's birthday party, she brought along some boxes of cookies, which everyone went crazy for!  I haven't seen a scramble for cash like that since the time that Jake and I got stuck on a toll road and had to scrounge quarters out of the floorboards of the old Sprint (or was it the Geo?).   Sandy and I both marveled over her vest, since we too were once bedecked with the scouting jewels of accomplishment.  The hours of time invested in learning new skills, worth it for the awesome badge of honor we wore proudly.  We were the only ones in our troop with full sashes.  I asked my mom about that recently, because I just thought it was because she was troop leader and wanted her kids to set a good example.  She said nope, she thought it was cool that her girls had the most badges!  I laughed for days about that.

I miss merit badges.  I want something to show off my mad movie quoting skillz, or my advanced pizza making skillz, or my ability to complete sewing, knitting, and crochet projects these days without crying (even once!!!).  How about a badge for throwing a kick-ass party?

I found some awesome Nerd Merit Badges at this site.  There are two so far, but it looks like they have plans for more.  Not my dream badges, but good for my Nerdy-Cool brother-in-law.

I have looked at this book a number of times.  I really want to like it.  I want to find it awesome, and just what I wanted, but it's all of the work of "earning the badge" and aside from the actual skill learned, it's sort of anti-climactic.  And it looks like hard work.  And I don't want to learn those skills... I admire the idea.  But it's not crafty/creative enough for me.

That leaves me with one option.  I will have to create my own.  Perhaps that will be the first merit badge: Seeing an Idea through to Fruition...  Hmmm...  

I will think about this for a while, and let you know what I come up with...