*Giveaway* Brownie Lottie Doll

So you may have read recently that we’re part of the Lottie Brownie Blogger Pack – and with that comes the opportunity to give a Brownie Lottie Doll away!
Brownie Lottie Giveaway

The Brownie Lottie Doll has been travelling with us. We’re back from Cornwall where she had a great time. She came with us to a few places, though there were some times it was best to leave her at home.

What can I say about the Brownie Lottie Doll? She’s pocket-sized, (although on more than one occasion we’d hear “is this your daughter’s dolly?” when she had fallen out) so maybe front pouch sized!

Brownie Lottie outdoors

She comes with a hoody, a scarf and elasticated woggle and there’s a load of accessories available too which we don’t yet have. One thing I really like is that Lottie’s shoes stay on. Brownie Lottie’s shoes don’t come off easily too, which is definitely worth pointing out.

The Brownie Lottie has a cool trefoil print on her t-shirt too. Lottie has knees that bend and arms that can be posed. If you’re good at balance you can get her to stand on her own too, which H enjoys doing. She also has hair you can plait!

Brownie Lottie box WAGGGS

Brownie Lottie is a Branksea Island Brownie, and is Girl Guide Association approved.

Here are some of the adventures she has been having…

Our holiday was at Coombe Mill. We decided it was probably for the best that Brownie Lottie didn’t help feed the animals!

Brownie Lottie at Coombe Mill

We did some exploring outside. She was pretty good at that.

Brownie Lottie Map reading

You can see her tucked into H’s pocket as she practises flying at Dyrham Park. Amazingly, this is one of the times she didn’t fall out! (I would insist your child holds on to Lottie at all times because of this)

Lottie in pocket

Doing some of the trails at Dyrham Park as well – you can see beautiful carved wood trees that you had to find. We also took her to Hidden Valley.

Brownie Lottie Sherlock Holmes Trail at Hidden Valley

So after sharing all these adventures Lottie has had (she is now safely back at home and hanging out with our football Lottie again), we thought you’d like to try and win one for yourself. So here’s our first giveaway in a while. We love Lottie Dolls. We love there is now a Brownie Lottie doll.

You can buy the Brownie Lottie Doll here.

The winner will receive a Brownie Lottie Doll.  The giveaway finishes on the 28th August. Good luck!

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We’re Cheering England in the Football!

Are you watching the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 Finals? We are – all the games are on Eurosport so we’ve been watching a LOT of football.

scoring a goal in football

England are on a roll – we won all the matches in the group stage (which was pretty tense at times) setting up a Quarter Final with France.

Women’s Football is still a funny old game though.

This last week The FA launched a campaign with Disney, asking the England Women’s players which Disney Princess they identified with the most. Alas, they didn’t also ask the England Men which character they identified with too…

We recently bought an Amazon Echo which has been brilliant for a lot of things. We’ve been asking Alexa what the football scores are (when a game has been too good and we don’t want to flick between channels in case we miss a goal) and she hasn’t been able to answer. I flagged this, and received this as a reply from Amazon.

Hello,

I understand that Alexa is providing the sports update for men’s football but not for the women’s football scores.

I’ve checked our records and I’d like to let you know that, Currently Alexa doesn’t support women’s football sports update as this feature is not available on Alexa.

As this is a newly launched device in UK, there are few features which need to be added. However, we are constantly working to add more features to the device at the earliest possible. I’ve forwarded your message to our Amazon Echo development team for consideration as we make further improvements.

I’m sure that they’ll carefully look into this and take necessary actions in the nearest future. I’d like to thank you for bringing this into our notice and please be assured that we’ll try to bring this option to the earliest.

Let’s hope so, eh?

Friday night @paniniukofficial sticker time #weuro2017 #paninistickers

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Meanwhile, in the neverending quest to fill H’s Euro 2017 Panini Sticker Book, shops are running out of stickers. This must mean they’ve been really popular – I’ve seen the starter kits at our local WH Smiths, they don’t stock the refills though. So far I’ve seen them in WH Smiths and Sainsburys, and that’s all. Things are getting better. Slowly.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was an England Football Lottie doll? H has several, including the football kit – Brownie Lottie and Football Lottie watched the match together, apparently.

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H now has a subscription to She Kicks magazine – she’ll get a copy every month, and we’re loving the current Euro 2017 edition. If you want information about the Women’s game, then She Kicks is the place to go. In fact, it’s the only place to go – and it’s a great place to go.

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I had a conversation with one of our football-mad Brownies a couple of weeks ago. “Are you looking forward to the Women’s Euros?” I asked. “Oh, I don’t follow Women’s Football” she replied. I pointed out she was such a good footballer what if she ended up being a future Lioness… I think this is the problem with the women’s game. The funding of things like the SSE Wildcats groups needs to continue. Keep making football affordable and fun. Awareness is getting out there, make more clubs available for girls to attend.

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Accept that girls will like the men’s game as much as the women’s game, and make sure information about the women’s game is available. Get England Women playing at Wembley again. I realise this is difficult due to Tottenham playing there this season, but in the last three years they’ve played there once – opting for games in stadiums around the country for friendlies instead.

McDonalds sponsor a lot of Grassroots football. When England do well, get players on adverts on tv – you know, like they do with other sportsmen and women. Let’s have players getting equal billing alongside the men so people stop saying “who’s that?” and know exactly who they’re watching.

Things are getting better – having Little Mix do their Euro 2017 Salute campaign was brilliant! Even if half the girls at Wildcats weren’t keen on Little Mix they were happy to do a salute for England!

H doing her #salute for England’s #lionesses #weuro2017 #wecanplay

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Most SSE Wildcats sessions are coming to an end now, and we’ve found out Crystal Palace will continue. Our sessions have moved up in price from £1 a week to £3 which is still affordable. As well as this you can select which weeks you want to go.  We’ve decided to stick with Wildcats as despite our local club offering free sessions for girls, I feel like H is progressing better alongside other girls right now. That may change in the future but for now it’s what works best for us and we’re lucky to have the choice.

Assuming that England qualify for the 2019 World Cup in France, we’re definitely going. Definitely.

Just yesterday it was announced that Arsenal Ladies were going to be known as just Arsenal. The only time their gender will come into it is when it needs to. This is awesome news and I hope more clubs follow.

Of course, it also goes without saying, boys like women’s football too. Don’t shut them out while trying to encourage girls to play….

We’re in the Lottie Blogger Brownie Pack!

A Brownie Lottie doll has just been launched, and we’re a part of it. We’re joining in with the launch of the Lottie Blogger Brownie Pack!

The Lottie Blogger Brownie Pack is a group of former Brownies from various eras, some of us have children who are also now Brownies. How brilliant is it to be working with someone who has launched something we’re doing in real life?

Lottie Dolls need no introduction in this household. H has five of them – and a Finn, her little boy-chum. The Lottie’s and Finn live in our little cardboard dolls house which lives in H’s bedroom.

Lottie Dolls are suitable for children aged 3-9. I like that they’re normal little dolls. They have simple clothes and do fun things that most children will also do. They’re very relatable – and I think that’s why H loves them so much.

Back in the seventies I had similar with Amanda Jane dolls. I loved them SO much! My favourite was my Brownie Amanda Jane – I was delighted to discover there is now a Brownie Lottie doll.

H has just finished her first year at Brownies and loves it! In the year she has done Brownies she has done SO MANY BADGES. Seriously. Even better, she’s doing quite a few on her own. I love the independence Brownies is giving her and hope that we’re encouraging the girls to find things out and do more for themselves.

What I like the most about Lottie dolls is how they’re normal girls like H. They wear normal clothes and do normal things that H and her friends would do.

Having a Brownie Lottie is wonderful! H plays with her Lottie collection a lot – so having a Brownie one is ideal. I love that there are activity sets alongside the launch, and even better, you can buy the Brownie clothes separately, so brilliant if you already have Lottie dolls and don’t want to buy a new one.

How would I sell Brownies to someone who didn’t know? As a Brownie in the seventies I learned life skills – I think everyone did the Hostess badge, learning to make someone a cup of tea. Or learn how to tie various knots that might come in useful (then promptly forget them)?

My favourite thing was learning about Brownies around the world. I think that’s what makes me the happiest about Brownies. It is a worldwide organisation designed to make young girls have better skills in life and allowing them to grow.

Having Lottie team up with the Brownies is in my eyes, a perfect match. Over the coming weeks if you keep an eye on my Instagram feed or follow the hashtags #LottieBrownieDoll you’ll see lots of people sharing their pictures.

Lottie Blogger Brownie Pack, Brownie Throwback pic

Of course, there’s the obligatory #BrownieThrowbackPic – and happily I have just the one which I love! It would be around 1977-1978, though I didn’t seem to have many badges on my uniform. The first badge I did was the Brownie Friendship badge (which was really hard!) – apparently I was the first girl in York to do it.

Looking through a copy of the old Brownie handbook I can’t remember which other badges I did. I do remember having a brilliant time while making friends.

As the packaging says “The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is the largest voluntary Movement dedicated to girls and young women in the world. Our diverse Movement represents ten million girls and young women from 146 countries. For more than 100 years Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting has transformed the lives of girls and young women worldwide, supporting and empowering them to achieve their fullest potential and become responsible citizens of the world.

We are delighted we are in the Lottie Blogger Brownie Pack! Now if only there was a woven badge to add to our camp blankets….

Lottie Brownie Pack Badge, Lottie Blogger Brownie Pack