June 2004

Brown Owl decided to hold a Jumble Sale the other week to make some money to help pay for this summer’s Pack Holiday. So Mum decided this was a good excuse “to have a damn good clear out” (LANGUAGE Mum!!) - starting with my bedroom!

“You’ve got so much tut lurking in that cupboard of yours, Dorothy Com,” she grumbled. “It’s a wonder you can find anything!”

Doh! Well I don’t think it’s full of tut – anyway I have a totally cool system in my cupboard. I know exactly where everything is… er well, I thought I did!! It’s actually amazing how many board games, jigsaw puzzles and craft sets etc etc etc you forget you had in your cupboard when you can’t see over the big pile of stuff just inside the door… and then there’s all the clothes…WHY do they all have to fall off their hangers like that?… no wonder I could never find that ‘Fabulous’ T-shirt I liked so much… or my old blue jeans w the frayed bottoms… or all those odd socks… they’d all gone in the ‘Black Hole’ at the back of the cupboard!!

When Mum finished I felt like Old Mother Hubbard who had a very bare cupboard in that nursery rhyme Nan used to say to me to get me to go to sleep when I was little!

“Now for your Dad’s stuff” Mum said, spreading out three black sacks onto the landing. Thought I’d leave her to that one…

Lots of people came to the Jumble Sale and we made about £60, which was cool – specially as everything was only 5p or 10p. Genie and I helped out on the accessories stall - Genie kept calling out:

“Roll up! Roll up! Genuine plastic pearl necklaces - bargain prices!” Think she’s been watching Eastenders too much!!

But by the time everyone had gone and we began to clear up there still seemed to be an awful lot of clothes and bits and pieces left over.

“I’ll have to take them all to the clothing bank at the dump,” said BO.

But Snowy Owl had an idea. She sorted through all the leftovers, filling a sack with girls’ clothes, and then collecting up all the belts and scarves and beads and chains which Genie hadn’t managed to sell.

Snowy brought all the bits she’d collected to the next Brownie meeting - all freshly washed and ironed. She said we could “revamp” them (? weird word… nothing to do with Dracula, means kind of make-over) into something funky!

So we spent the next hour jazzing up jeans with chains and belts and fixing old T-shirts with beads and fabric paints. We cropped and frayed and glued and sewed - made all the clothes we hadn’t sold look totally street fashion!

Next weekend Snowy took them to a car boot sale - and sold everything! She even made another £40 towards our Pack Holiday fund!!

Think I’ll just check out some designs on the Internet as I’ve got a couple of pairs of jeans that won’t fit me for much longer…

If you want to find out more about Brownies and Guides in your local area why not visit their excellent web site:

www.girlguiding.org.uk