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Hello Friends!
I don’t know about where you are but winter is still here in Tennessee! We are heading into our rainy season now. My favorite thing to do this time of year is to read! (Well, next to quilting anyway!) How about you? Are you a reader?
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.’”
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
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!
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”.
My most recent favorite book is An Unexpected Grace by Kristin von Kreisler. I’m sure you and your grand daughter will enjoy it, too.
Hi. I am writing from cold snowy southwestern Ontario. I got the MaryJane magazine out from the local public library. I am looking forward to checking out your recommended book titles.
I have just finished The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah. I learned a lot about the Depression and the Dust Bowl years.
Love the bookmarks. They are very cheery.
Hi Dori! I love the fact that you and your 13-year old granddaughter share a love of reading. What a great bond!
I love your fabric bookmarks and I know I will be making some, especially the little squares that fit onto the corner of a book. What a great little handmade gift to send to friends in the mail. I’m always looking for ideas of things to make that are flat that will fit into a greeting card. These are perfect.
Just another idea … when a box of tissues is emptied, I cut it up and make bookmarks from the box. I can’t just throw out those pretty boxes!
Carol
These bookmarks are so sweet! A great, easy project for my quilt group. Thank you. And I love reading wherever and whenever I can, mostly at bedtime.
I love the idea of the fabric bookmarks! I am a retired Children’s Librarian and love to read. Like you I sometimes use unusual things for bookmarks. I love love to sew and scrap crafts are my favorites. This is perfect for me and for gifts. Thanks so much for the great idea.
I am reading the eleventh book in the Mitford series “In The Company Of Others. I have three more to read in the series. I am also reading a few cozy mysteries. The bookmarks are lovely. I collect bookmarks. Thank you for sharing the tutorial. God Bless.
Marilyn
I’m reading the Mitford series too! On Home to Holly Springs right now. Wonderful books. Happy reading from Kim in southern Iowa
Hello Dori,
One of the best books I recently read was “The Writetress by Lynn Dickinson.” I literally couldn’t put it down and read the whole thing in one day. You are so clever with all the things you make. The bookmarks are really neat. Have a wonderful day and thank you for the book suggestions.
Hi Dori.
I love reading and at present I am reading the 7 book series of Dune House Cozy Mysteries and I also read Nathan Dylan Goodwin, The Forensic Genealogist books, as I love genealogy mysteries (family tree). I have joined the Cozy Mystery Book Club and this year 12 authors each give away a free e-book, a different author and book each month. You can download or not, depending on if you like their genre or not. I have over 100 ebooks on my computer, some I purchased at a discount, and most are free, as Amazon has many free ones. I have the free Kindle account. I also purchased a Kindle reader so I could read in other places besides in front of my computer screen. I love your bookmarks – also the idea Carol has about cutting up the tissue boxes and making bookmarks. I don’t buy physical books anymore, except for my Bible and religious ones for study. I hope you and your granddaughter always find reading to be enjoyable together.
Thanks for sharing the book titles and the bookmarks. Always in need of good reads. Much appreciated!!
Checking in from the Central Coast of California. Loved this post! I’m reading Gun Lap, by Robert Wolgemuth. It’s for those in their 40’s or 50’s looking at finishing well in their 60’s and 70’s. It’s directed to men but my husband and I are reading it together. It’s so very good!!
I really loved The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek. It is set in the .mountains during the great depression. What a hard life!
I always enjoy the farmgirl posts, but being from Tennessee I especially enjoy yours. I hope you guys missed the ice storm earlier this month. Some people here in Memphis were without power for eight days because of trees on the lines. Enjoy your reading and sewing time.
Recent favorite..Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Profound❤️ Thank for sharing your books and ideas!!
I’m reading The Wind in the Willows. I didn’t read much as as child and I’m catching up. I cut corners from colored envelopes as bookmarks with my granddaughters. Easy and fun. I’ve also made fabric ones using fusible interfacing for gifts.
The best memory of my dad. Reading books. Then exchanging them and discussing them.
What cute bookmarks! They would make great gifts.
I have a very large shelf full of TBR books! The one I’m reading now is “Woman 99” by Greer MacAllister. An interesting, thought-provoking thriller about first-hand experience inside an “insane asylum” during the “gilded age.”
The Bookmarks are great and so pretty. Thank you for the tutorials and patterns. I am trying to get reacquainted with my sewing machine this year. I do not sew at all, but I thought if I started with small patterns I could learn better and faster perhaps.
Oh and my favorite author is Kristen Hannah, she writes historical fiction which I love. I have learn so much from her books.
Thank you again I do enjoy your blog.
Hugs,
Debbie
West with Giraffes and Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale both by Lynda Rutledge, Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osmann, Reminders of Him by Coleen Hoover and No Hiding in Boise by Kim Hooper. Currently reading The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris. I also like Jack Reacher books by Lee Child and the TV series is good. The actor playing Reacher fits the book’s description of him much better than Tom Cruise.
I usually read on my Kindle so a bookmark isn’t needed though I think their quite nice. I am happy to get some new titles that people have enjoyed. Thanks.