‘Clan Plaids & Plaid Cans’. Try saying that fast three times. I can barely get it out once. However, a pattern (literally) has been more prominent in and around my life of late. Plaids. Firstly, my ‘new’ 1958 farmgirl Glamping trailer has become my playhouse. She has a name now: EmmyLou (after my fave country songbird). Anyway, EmmyLou loves vintage plaid goodies and I’ve managed to collect some 50s plaid accessories for her. And, now that Christmas is nigh, plaids are back on the scene – wrap, ribbons, table clothes etc. Ever wonder why tartan plaids play a signifigant role in holiday decor? Me neither, but my curiosity woke up.
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“
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
”
~ Mark TwainDebbie Bosworth
is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
Column contents © Deb Bosworth. All rights reserved.
Being a farmgirl is not
about where you live,
but how you live.Rebekah Teal
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
Column contents © Rebekah Teal. All rights reserved.
“
Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away once in awhile to climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods, to wash your spirit clean.
”
~ John MuirCathi Belcher
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Column contents © Cathi Belcher. All rights reserved.
“
Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
”
~ Anthony J. D’AngeloDori Troutman
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
Column contents © Dori Troutman. All rights reserved.
Shery Jespersen
Previous Ranch Farmgirl,
Oct 2009 – Nov 2013Wyoming cattle rancher and outpost writer (rider), shares the “view from her saddle.” Shery is a leather and lace cowgirl-farmgirl who’s been horse-crazy all of her life. Her other interests include “junktiques,” arts and crafts, glamping, collecting antique china, and cultivating mirth.
Mary Murray
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
Column contents © Mary Murray. All rights reserved.
Farmgirl
is a condition
of the heart.Alexandra Wilson
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Column contents © Alexandra Wilson. All rights reserved.
Libbie Zenger
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
June 2010 – Jan 2012Libbie’s a small town farmgirl who lives in the high-desert Sevier Valley of Central Utah on a 140-year-old farm with her husband and two darling little farmboys—as well as 30 ewes; 60 new little lambs; a handful of rams; a lovely milk cow, Evelynn; an old horse, Doc; two dogs; a bunch o’ chickens; and two kitties.
René Groom
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
April 2009 – May 2010René lives in Washington state’s wine country. She grew up in the dry-land wheat fields of E. Washington, where learning to drive the family truck and tractors, and “snipe hunting,” were rites of passage. She has dirt under her nails and in her veins. In true farmgirl fashion, there is no place on Earth she would rather be than on the farm.
Farmgirl spirit can take root anywhere—dirt or no dirt.
Nicole Christensen
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
Column contents © Nicole Christensen. All rights reserved.
Paula Spencer
Previous Suburban Farmgirl,
October 2009 – October 2010Paula is a mom of four and a journalist who’s partial to writing about common sense and women’s interests. She’s lived in five great farm states (Michigan, Iowa, New York, Tennessee, and now North Carolina), though never on a farm. She’s nevertheless inordinately fond of heirloom tomatoes, fine stitching, early mornings, and making pies. And sock monkeys.
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Archives
Happy Holidays Shery! It’s safe to say you are in a very festive mood by the sound of things here! Looks like it too!
Emmylou looks adorable all dolled up in her Christmas Garb! I’m on my way over!!! Thanks for all the wonderful info on Tartan too! My curiosity hadn’t led me there but I’m glad yours did. We love our holiday music around here! It’s tradition to start listening right after Thanksgiving. Plus, this year our daughter has been working on another composition and it’s a Christmas tune! Her first! We’ve had a house full of music already! Love your gift wrap idea. I like brown paper too. One year I did brown paper with red and green raffia and pinecones.
Bum bump and have fun at your " farmgirl " gathering…
love,
Deb
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We might pass each other about Iowa since I’m headed your way for a taste of Christmasy salt air ;o)
How fun, Shery! Love your tartan information, much of it I had studied because of my own Scottish heritage and travels to the land of the tartan. My own family is part of the Gordon clan, a Highland clan and my hubby is an Armstrong. The Armstrongs are a Border Clan and were known to be rascally "reivers". So I have a collection of tartans and clan jewelry for both. Tradition states, however, that if your husband is Scottish and has a tartan, a women wears that one. AND, tradition states that women do NOT wear the kilt . . the tartan fashioned into other garments, but not the kilt. Thanks for sharing the info!
AND, I think "EmmyLou" is just FABULOUS! I’m SOOOOOOO totally jealous . . . have fun with her.
By the way, you are RIGHT ON with Sean! I’ve always thought in one handsome Scottish hunk!!!
Merry Christmas!
CJ
Isn’t it wonderful how our ‘trailers’ speak to us…. and tell us their personality….
I had posted the other day about how I came about nameing my ’59 Aljo….. it all started with a Junkshop find…and the rest is "Herstory" as we say! lol!
I absolutly love EmmyLou’s Tartan theme! With so many colors, reds,greens, blues, yellows, browns,,, you can change her "outfits" according to the seasons if you so desire…. and now I have even seen Pendleton Woolin Mills put out Spring (pinks/lt.greens, etc.) colors of plaids… I mean Tartans. Check out their catalog for some cute sewing/deco ideas… old wool blankets/throws make great deco pillows.
And don’t toss away those old westerny blingy t-shirts,,, they too make great deco pillos.
Happy Trails…….
>^..^<
Hey Sherri! I think Sean Connery is the BEST POSSIBLE model you cold have chosen, and I am a mere 45. What a hottie!
EmmyLou is the perfect name for your "glamper" – would you believe the human EmmyLou is my uncles first cousin? We are practically related! HA! Your EmmyLou looks positively welcoming and warm-what a great job you have done with her! Merry Christmas!
Love your Emmylou! But my husband wants to know how in the world you get any people inside?
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People? :o) Well, there is room…for a couple farmgirls on the fly! shery
Shery, EmmyLou looks absolutely adorable. You are so lucky to have found her. I have always loved tartan (when I was in high school tartan kilts, and matching sweaters and knee socks were the thing to wear)and I absolutely agree with you about Sean Connery! Oh my, that voice!
As always thanks for letting us live vicariously through your blog. What a wonderful life you have.
Karin
Farmgirl #2708
I never tire of reading your words and descriptions of the ‘simple’ things of life and your pictures always add so much! It transports me to a most wonderful place every time, no matter the subject. Love it all! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Sheri! Hope you have a peaceful, joy-filled Christmas season! Enjoy every moment!
Ruth
P.S. Your side-note about John and his misguided attempt at apparel for the portly gave me a great laugh, too!! HA! Indeed!
Hi Shery … I love how you have EmmyLou decorated for the winter! I’m so happy for you! I also love all the tartan "stuff" you have collected – it’s so festive. Thanks, too, for sharing the wonderful photo of Sean Connery … Whew! I’m fanning myself … as I type. Have a wonderful holiday season!
I too have a tartan passion. Clan kilts are very expensive. I was delighted to find a pre-owned kilt on my clan’s web site. It was a very large kilt so I sized it down and was able to make a matching kilt for my scottish terrier. Hamish Macbeth and I attend the Door County Scottie Rally every May and volunteer at The Midwest Pet Expo. We help raise funds for puppy mill education, rescue and canine health research. Not only does Hamish wear a Grant Clan kilt but he wears dog sized bagpipes ( with prerecorded bagpipe music) He favors the Red Hot Chili Pipers cd! Slainte!!!
Merry Christmas Shery! I too have Scottish ancestory, Irish, English, Danish, German, Swedish, French, Native American…Anyways I too love tartan! And EmmyLou looks pretty, I wouldn’t paint that lovely maple wood either!
hi Shery, I am so jelous of the camper,I have wanted one for years.You have decorated her wonderfully,Stay warm this winter.Intresting about the plaids,my dads family is from Scotland originally,so,I will have to look that up.Moma sewed me several little plaid church dresses as a child,with smocking,I always loved.Stay warm this winter!Merry Xmas!Carol Branum
Interesting^^