What's up, fellow patch traders?

My stars, has it really been well over a year now since my last entry here? Goodness, how time flies when your staggeringly busy around the clock! As some of you know, this site my main blog (that would be Chronically Vintage), but I do still like to post here every now and then, if only to let others know that I'm still actively trading, selling, and buying GG patches.

While my life has certainly seen many changes and advances since my previous entry here, things remain largely the same on the Girl Guide patch (et al) related front. I continue to receive the occasional email from someone wishing to swap items and considerably more from folks who have GG/GS collecting related questions (be they pertaining to collecting or otherwise).

Though I find it goes through bursts of activity, as has been the case by and large for the last few years, eBay remains fairly slow on the GG front, particularly in terms of my key area of collecting, GGC Area, Division, District, and Provincial patches (though of course I do collect many other types of GG items, too).

I know that as time goes on, fewer and fewer people are still involved in the patch collecting scene (especially as it relates to the web) and that at least a couple of prominent collectors have scaled back or retired from the hobby (obsession! :D) in recent years.

Luckily though, there are still some of us out there keeping this wonderful pastime and passion alive and well (and of course heartfelt thanks enough cannot possibly go out to those who blazed the trail when it comes online trading, no matter if they're in the game, so to speak, any more or not).

Looking ahead in 2016, I plan to stay the course on that front and was struck recently by the fact that this blog is in its ninth year of life now, which is really cool. I eagerly look forward to hitting a solid decade next year.

As always, I adore hearing from fellow Girl Guide and Girl Scout collectors and enthusiasts, and welcome your emails on any subject pertaining to such.

Have an awesome, fun filled year and great time growing your own collection further in 2016, my friends!

This blog got a major makeover!

It had been one of *those days*. You know the sort, where you just can't seem to catch a break, everyone and their dog is in a crabby mood, and all you want to do is silently, secretly slink off to a private desert island somewhere and let the waves carry your worries away.

Drastically lacking the needed Air Miles for such, I turned instead to a longstanding second retreat of mine - creating something new as a means of calming my nerves and mind alike. For me this usually falls into one of three headings: crafting, organizing/home decorating, or writing.

A couple of nights ago though, following that less-than-stellar day, I didn't opt for my usual writing haven - penning a post or two for my vintage fashion and lifestyle blog, Chronically Vintage - no, instead I figured it was high time I finally gave this blog a serious makeover!

Now, it should be stated for the record that I'm not a pro coder, nor a graphic designer, in the slightest. I have however been running, building and tinkering with various websites for over a decade now though, so I like to think I've picked up a bit of know-how in that time. :)

First to go? I was still using the (very!) old version of Blogger, so I updated and opted for a free Blogger template and background design that I thought had a Girl Guide-esque quality to it. I then set about tweaking and adding things here and there, completely revamping my sidebar, adding handy-dandy tabs to the top of the page, putting up a new photo of myself on the sidebar, sharing my social media links (granted most of them relate more to my vintage interests and daily life than Girl Guiding, but in some cases, such as Pinterest, they tie into my passion for GG/GS related happenings, too), and other things that helped to bring blog up-to-date from the 2007 version it had been operating in (and looking like) for seven years now.

I've still got a bit of work to do here and there (and plan to create a FAQ page as soon as time permits), but overall, considering I did all of this work on my own, I'm pretty happy with how things are looking. If anything really starts to nag at me, I can always ask my husband - a software engineer and computer programmer for IBM - for help, but the independent, headstrong Girl Guide in me likes to try and accomplish as much as I can on my own first! :)

This blog is at present the oldest site (that I founded) that I still have online and I really want it to continue to be my way to connect with fellow patch/crest/badge/pin/etc collectors across Canadian and around the world, so in addition to all the sprucing up I've been doing here this week, I also plan to post at least slightly more often than I have in the past couple of years.

If there's ever a GG/GS collecting (or otherwise) related topic that you'd like me to write about, please don't hesitate to let me know. I welcome your suggestions and may very well end up turning them into future posts here.

I'm really psyched about this new Girl Guides & Girl Scouts Patch Collecting Blog revamping and hope that it might just help bring some more patch trades my way (as goodness knows things have been mighty slow on that front for ages now!).

I'm still here and happy to trade Girl Guide or Girl Scout patches anytime

Phew!!! It's hard to believe that well over a year has passed since my last post here. Granted, it is not my focal blog at this point in my life (that would be my vintage fashion and lifestyle blog, Chronically Vintage), but I do want folks from around the world to know that it's still active and that I am continuing, as always, to collect, trade, and purchase Girl Guide and Girl Scout patches, crests, silks, badges, pins, and various other related items.

A great deal has transpired in my life since I last penned a post for this blog, and telling you all about it could fill many, many entries - if not a whole book, but again, I'll defer you to Chronically Vintage, if you want to learn more about my daily going ones in recent months. :)

One extremely exciting thing, and great new undertaking, in my life that I will mention here is that in May of this year (2014), I launched an Etsy shop dedicated to antique and vintage fashions, jewelry, hats, accessories, books, sewing and knitting related items, ephemera, and various other delightful old school items.

Chronically Vintage was already a full-time job (I'm very fortunate to have been able to turn my vintage blog into my career in recent years), and now with my shop, which I put many (many!) hours into each week, I have two jobs, on top of running a household, tending to our pets, and making time to spend with my husband and family (as well as the occasional day of R&R for myself!).



{Click on any of the listings above to learn more about it and visit my Etsy vintage shop, which shares the same name as my popular vintage blog, Chronically Vintage.}


While I do not currently have any Girl Guide, Girl Scout, Scouts Canada or Boy Scout related items in the shop, given my unending passion for this field of collecting, it's highly conceivable that some will land there in the future. You'll definitely want to favourite my shop now so that you can catch wind of it right away when such listings come to fruition (and to see all the other super cool antique and vintage items I sell there).


Though the patch trading front in Canada continues to be exceedingly slow and I can often go months or more between trades, again, as always, I remain very committed to this fabulous hobby (obsession! :)) and sincerely welcome you to zip me an email anytime if you'd like to set up a trade or simply chat about any aspect of patch collecting or Girl Guiding/Scouting in general.


We're in the midst of my favourite season, autumn, right now and though not terribly warm here in Penticton any longer, the sun is still poking out most days and we're having a beautiful (is somewhat windy at the moment!) season. I hope that the same rings true for all of you, wherever you live and that you have a joyful, awesome remainder of 2014.

At the hospital

Hi everyone,

Jessica's husband here. Jessica was admitted to the hospital earlier this week and is currently waiting for surgery. It may get a little quiet around here for a few days. Please bear with us and a sincere thank you for your understanding.


Sincerely,
Antonio (acangiano@gmail.com)

Geocities is no more

A few weeks back a reader kindly emailed me to say that it seemed like some of the links in the Patch Collectors’ Directory were broken. I immediately looked into it and it turns out the links she was referring to were all Geocities websites. It wasn’t that the links weren’t working so much as that the websites in question no longer existed.

(A once popular and well known personal website hosting provider, Geocities recently closed its doors as a free service.)


In 2009, Yahoo, the company that ran Geocities, shut down the free personal website hosting service after offering it to users for numerous years, citing that they wanted to focus their attention on other sectors of the Yahoo web sphere.
Though it is my understanding that Yahoo gave their Geocities users fair warning in advance of their shutting this service down, its cessation still caught many users – and a substantial number of web viewers the world over off guard (I heard about the matter throw my husband who works in the IT industry). This closure, which you can read more details about in the official Yahoo page on the topic, also means that nearly everywhere a Geocities page was linked to from an external website, said links are now defunct.

Thusly it was time for me to once again prune my way through the Patch Directory, removing all of the “dead” links (be they Geocities or otherwise) and bringing it up-to-date just in time for the New Year. I like to weed out any defunct links on that page at least once a year, and hadn’t done so for several months, so it was actually not a hassle in the least to update the page today.

To those who lost their Geocities websites (be they Guiding, Scouting or otherwise related) as a result of this closure, I’m sincerely sorry. While I realize Geocities was no longer as popular as it once was in the nineties, many people will still utilized its services, and I feel Yahoo should have at least offered to keep hosting any and all existing Geocities pages for free (and simply closed new sign-ups, if they wanted to cap user numbers).

With Geocities gone, there are now far fewer personal Guiding and patch trading related sites on the web, but I hope that at least a portion of those who lost their pages will rebuild them or start new sites elsewhere (if you’re looking for a free personal website hosting service, I’ve heard positive things about Jimdo.com, but have not tried this site myself).

If you’ve launched a new Guiding/patch collecting related site (or simply have one that isn’t in the Patch Trading Directory already) please let me know and I will post it in the directory at once.

I sincerely appreciate the reader’s email that reminded me about Geocities shutting its doors, and always welcome correspondence regarding any element of this blog or the Guiding/Scouting realm.