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Hello Farmgirl friends!
When we were first issued the “stay at home” order back in March, I thought to myself that this would be a really good time to focus on staying in touch with friends and family in the old fashioned way.
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Hello Farmgirl friends!
When we were first issued the “stay at home” order back in March, I thought to myself that this would be a really good time to focus on staying in touch with friends and family in the old fashioned way.
“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 Twain
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.
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 Muir
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’Angelo
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.
Previous Ranch Farmgirl,
Oct 2009 – Nov 2013
Wyoming 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.
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.
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.
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
June 2010 – Jan 2012
Libbie’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.
Previous Rural Farmgirl,
April 2009 – May 2010
René 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.
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.
Previous Suburban Farmgirl,
October 2009 – October 2010
Paula 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.
Love your card idea. I’m thinking of making a bunch for gifts for friends. I haven’t done that in awhile, a n.v d they always love them. Thanks for sharing.
Be safe.
Thank you for the great ideas. Makes me want to run, not walk to my sewing room. I so enjoy your posts.
Blessings,
Phyllis Parrish
What a wonderful idea! I send one card a week to an Aunt who recently went into assisted living in Arkansas and they of course went on lockdown. So I send her a card since she likes to write letters, she would really appreciate receiving one if these!!
,
Xoxo,
Kim
These are the most delightful little note cards!
How cheerful & sweet! It’s a really fabulous idea & I think maybe even I could do this
Thanks for sharing dear Dori!!
Love this idea!!!
Making some today!!
Those cards are so bright an cheerful – what a wonderful idea…and the materials would make lovely masks !
Oh, Dori…I wish I had your energy and gumption! Yes, I do write ~ long or short newsy notes in birthday, Cmas, Easter and Thanksgiving cards as well as thank you cards and get well cards. Sometimes in sympathy cards too.
I taught my children who are 30 and 33 that if they received a gift and the gift giver wasn’t there to see them open it they had to send a thank you note. My daughter writes the most beautiful and special thank you notes. She’s become a real gem. My son, not so much, however I did learn from other family members he will call and thank them.
Yes, letter writing has gone by the wayside, but especially for the elderly I try to send occasional notes because they probably miss “snail mail” the most. I sure don’t mind a newsy email from friends now and then!
Thank you for reminding us all how much a simple letter or note card can change the day of someone special.
Nanette
PS you are special too!
I really like your idea. I’ve been writing letters as well. I’ve been making collages with pictures from magazines. My granddaughters love them.
These are absolutely adorable! Thanks for sharing such a sweet and simple idea! KB
So cute!
Thank you Dori. I really like your idea for the cards, and if I received one of these, it would make my day, and many others to come.
I also loved the story of the quilt. Thank you for the idea.
The story was definitely a tear jerker!
Very heart warming.
I thought this was “SEW” cute.
I wish we could do more crafts that show vintage, old-fashioned fun. In the olden days, my mother had an old pedal sewing machine that we made doll clothes on. Perhaps you could create some doll clothes or paper-doll clothes with your fabrics and stitching.
Also, my aunt used to take old ties and put them in quilts and did Brazilian embroidery roses on them. The quilt was divine. Perhaps you could do some embroidery on some of your cards onto the fabric.
THE CARDS ARE ADORABLE!!! Thanks. – Mary Ross
I was just thinking yesterday that I could make a Mother’s Day card for my Mom this year instead of going out. Love this idea. I have blank cards on hand and plenty of small scraps from making face masks.
What a great idea! Since I love to write, I’ll give it a try. Have a wonderful weekend. Blessings, Jac
Great idea Dori. You have the best ideas and this one certainly is appropriate for right now.
What a great idea. Thank You for the tutorial. Stay safe and well.
Mariyn
I t should be Marilyn
These are absolutely lovely, thrifty, caring, and I plan to make some very soon. thanks!!
Hi Dori!
I always enjoy your blog, but the “What I learned from my Dog” was so special. I loved it. You do indeed have a wonderful friend.
This one is so fun! What a cute idea sewing fabric to cardstock. I might be giving it a try soon. I, like you, enjoy being home and can always find something to do
Take care and stay well.
Thank you for this great reminder! I haven’t done this for a while and have a lovely bit of scraps left from mask making that will work for this project!
What a sweet, clever idea and great way to use fabric scraps. I’m sure your recipients were delighted to receive such a charming note in their mailbox. Thank you.
Great idea!!!good memories in all the scraps.
What a great idea and good way to use up fabric scraps! I have been inspired by the creativity, kindness and love so many people in our country have shown. My computer crashed but finally got straightened out. Need to reconnect with your friend Kathleen whom you graciously helped make quilts for her children. I have been alone during this
stay at home time so it has been a challenge. Thank God we have farmgirl hearts.
Pamela
What a very clever way to use up scraps of fabric.
I recently moved to California from Iowa to be near my son. Never dreaming I would be staying at home. I love crafts and was thinking of my two sisters whose birthdays are coming up. They will be surprised to get their clever birthday cards. I am cutting blocks to make a throw for my bed and have so many scraps so will be able to make many cards.
I grew up on farm life and loved it. Such a healthy way of living.
Thanks for sharing this.
Love these!
Your projects always wake up my desire to sew again. This PAUSE has shown me where my priorities should be. Gifting and giving.
Bless you!
Thanks Dori,
Loved your Idea here in Australia Mother’s Day is this coming Sunday
So I made one of your cards for my Mum I hope she loves it as much as I did making it
Until next time
Charlene
Hi
I write letters to friends, lov the idea of using frabic to make a pretty card
Thanks for letting me steal some of your ideas. I am not crafty in this respect, but maybe I can make some cute cards that will please some possibly “bored out of their heads” friends in the nursing homes around here? I’ll give it a go.
I adore most of your ideas and enjoy seeing YOU ENJOY watching your family grow and create their own little worlds.
Thanks for allowing me in. Be safe and healthy and joyful.
The other day on TV a gentleman of 101 years of age was asked to give an example of a “Life Lesson” that had helped him through these years. … Without thinking about it, he said: “Be Kind Until It Hurts”…. Isn’t that beautiful? I must try to think this way more often than I do.
Sending Farmgirl love from Ohio.
What a great idea! They are so charming.