Author Archives: Paula Spencer

How I'm Getting From A to B

Posted on January 19, 2010 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

I sure wish I still had this patchwork quilt (below). As quilts go, I own finer specimens (a good subject for a future post, actually, for what quicker way is there to farmgirlize your suburban house than by its bedding?). But this particular quilt — that’s my younger sister posing in front of it when she herself was much younger — is beloved in part because it was made by me.

Entirely of potholders.

Not the comfy-coziest of quilt materials, I admit. But here’s the more specific reason I love it: The amazing variety of potholder patterns I came up with for the squares. A bag of raw material, time to tinker, the courage to try, allowing yourself the freedom to make mistakes, and voila! Possibility! No such thing as one kind of potholder. Looking at things in new ways is the best kind of momentum I know.

For example:

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When Change Pours Forth

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

It’s said that there are years that ask questions and years that give answers. I’m not sure which was 2009 for me. More like a year that kept the ground shifting with transition. (Details in a second.)

I’m writing this looking at a lovely teapot on my desk. I own an inordinate number of pots and pitchers. I’ve always been drawn to them. I never understood why. After all, you can only use so many pitchers in an everyday kitchen. It’s not like I have to haul water or keep one handy at every washbasin, for example.

Partly, pitchers and teapots are farmgirly icons: Utilitarian, comforting in their roundness, often pretty, too. But I now think I’m also drawn to the concept of a pitcher: You fill it up, pour it out, and repeat as needed. It’s versatile: Tea, water, juice, syrup, cinnamon sticks, bread sticks, a cheering bunch of flowers, a thought-provoking spray of branches. Pitchers brim with the potential of what might come next.

That’s my interpretation, anyway, and I’m sticking with it. And I know something of both pitchers and transitions. Here’s what’s happened, oh, just this past year, for instance:

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It's a Heart-in-Hand Christmas

Posted on December 15, 2009 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

Have you ever seen the motif of a heart nestled inside the palm of a hand? I love this little image because it captures my heritage so well: I come from a line of women whose hearts lived in their hands. At Christmas, especially, their handiwork fills my house.

A couple of posts ago I wrote about Christmas decorations. Last night we trimmed the tree! Almost every ornament is handmade by 1) These amazing women in my family, 2) My kids (I once wrote a column in praise of clever teachers, Brownie leaders, and Sunday school teachers and the wonderful ornament crafts they think up!) or 3) Other craftspeople (whose ornaments I’ve bought as souvenirs or received as gifts).

Uh, notice my own name is absent from that list?! I can’t make anything! How is it that some people just miss out on the crafty gene?

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A Doll's Christmas

Posted on December 8, 2009 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

So I have to ask: Are there any dolls on your Christmas-buying or -making list this year? I’m wondering because — as I troll websites and ogle, as I do every year, things I might have wish-listed as a girl – I’ve realized that my very favorite present to give this time of year is… a doll.

Yep, dolls!

Admittedly it’s not the kind of gift you can give everybody (or most anybody!) on your list. And — big sigh — my three girls are outgrowing their doll years. But when you have the right recipient, and (this is key) you’re a “doll girl” yourself, like me – why there’s nothing more fun to give.

Dolls can be so much to a girl: Confidant, role model, co-conspirator, pal, loved one to nurture, loved one to nurture you. It’s a real shame kids think they want to abandon them earlier and earlier.

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Let the Decking of the Halls Begin!

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

So do you have your Christmas tree yet? Where did it, or will it, come from? Chopped down in your backyard? Picked out after an outing in the woods or to a tree farm in the country? Bought at a local farmer’s market or — as is the bane (I mean convenience) of us Suburban Farmgirls — plucked from the nearest corner lot that sprouted last week the day after Thanksgiving?

(Hard to imagine there are any farmgirls out there who go for an artificial tree — are there??)

Welcome to December, that season I wait all year for… yet which inevitably sneaks up on me way too suddenly, just the same. There I was, perfectly content in the whole cornucopias-and-crunchy-leaves groove of the last holiday when, overnight, my pumpkin-and-brown color scheme is all wrong wrong wrong!

When do you typically make the pilgrims-to-Santas switch?

Big Christmas Smile in my Santa Claus suit!

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In Praise of Knit Wits

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

I’m a sweater girl. Oh, I’m devoted to my sturdy, throw-it-on, functional fleece. But there’s nothing like thick wool or supersoft cashmere to make me feel warm, cozy — and something extra. Classic, maybe? Distinct? Stylin’? Many of my sweaters were knit by my gifted late mom, adding a whole extra meaning to “warm-and-fuzzy.”

What I really like about hand-knits: Their personality! Nobody else has a sweater, scarf, vest, etc. just like it. And when the knitter goes that extra level beyond basic to create something with a story — it’s magic!

So now that the weather’s cold and I’ve hauled out the woolies, it seems like a fitting time to share some standouts from my Witty Knit Hall of Fame:

Hand-knit sweater with kitten face on front

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What a Dad I Had

Posted on November 10, 2009 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

You know the expression, “You can take the boy out of the small town, but you can’t take the small town out of the boy”? That was my dad. He died last week, just 20 days shy of his 88th birthday.

Sylvester Patyk may have raised a tract-house-full of suburbanites (five of us) and lived in three different ‘burbs himself, but for my whole life he seemed like a fish out of water. He was a small town fellow through and through, born in tiny Wakefield, Michigan, among the lakes, forests, farms, and mines of the beautiful Upper Peninsula. (Picture Bedford Falls from that old movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”)

Paula Spencer's father

I’m still processing his being gone – it was amazingly sudden, even though he’d been in decline – but his passing has me thinking a lot about a person’s legacy. And how that legacy is tied to place…

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What Makes Fall Smell So Swell?

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

Walking into a bakery this week, I sniffed the allspicy, gingery splendiferousness of pumpkin pie. Okay, so my sniffer has been pumpkin-programmed ever since I wrote about the great pumpkin shortage last week. (I’d like to say I walked into *my kitchen* and smelled the pie, but alas I haven’t yet mustered the courage to roast and mash and bake with a whole pumpkin…but thanks for all the great tips…will keep you posted!)

That spicy pie smell, I realized, is just one of the reasons I’m so invigorated this time of year…

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Searching for the Great Pumpkin

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

I know it’s a bad week to admit I hate Halloween. But I do: I’m too shy for dressing up, too easily spooked by ghouls and goblins. Even the candy part I can do without. All that said, I *love* this time of year…it’s the season of Orange!

Pumpkins! Sweet potatoes! Chrysanthemums! Persimmons! (I just ate my first one, yum!) Falling orange leaves! And did I mention pumpkins?!

Orange has been “my” color as long as anyone who knows me can remember. Family photos going back to my third birthday feature an annual cake finished in orange icing. My bedroom walls were bright orange; I even had an orange-haired doll. I still gravitate to the color as a grown-up, whether in my favorite Patagonia fleece or the aforementioned mums. And nothing cheers me like seeing pumpkins on front porches, especially when they’re left uncarved.

Because I’ve seen so many, I’ve been a little slow to discover the black truth about this orange season…

Paula as a pumpkin

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Grace Notes

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Suburban Farmgirl Paula Spencer

[Previous Suburban Farmgirl, October 2009 – October 2010]

I’m tickled to join MaryJane’s roster of scribblers expanding the notion that farmgirl isn’t a just place on the map, but a place of the heart.

True confessions (as the title of this blog makes clear): I was born suburban and raised suburban. I detoured briefly to New York City (I’m a writer after all) but now I’m raising my kids suburban, too.

Despite all the cul de sacs, WalMarts, and store-bought tomatoes, something a little bit country has always two-stepped inside me.

Bonanza: Ponderosa Party Time