.
.
Hello my Farmgirl friends!!! I get myself into some pretty crazy sewing rabbit holes… you know what I mean. You just keep getting deeper and deeper until you realize it’s really becoming a problem right? Well, here’s my story!
.
.
Continue reading
My family and I love day trips, especially in the summer. New England has no shortage of wonderful places to visit! Recently, we found a Connecticut town so full of charm, we can’t get enough of it! Grab a lemonade and come take a visit with me to Chester, Connecticut!
We have lived in Connecticut, in Sandy Hook, for over thirty years. My husband has traveled all over the state for his job, and we have gone on road trips here and there across the New England area since we moved here over three decades ago. We thought we had seen most everything in the state. When my daughter found a town we had not heard of before, we were intrigued!
An hour and ten minutes from where we live, Chester, Connecticut is a small coastal town, nestled along the Connecticut River, with a population under 4000 in the last census. The town is bursting with charm! The homes, the buildings such as the library, and the surrounding area are so quaint and charming, and it is a friendly town. Rich in history, the Main Street looks like it could be part of a movie or storybook, reminiscent of a small hamlet you might find in Europe, perhaps.
We were first recently drawn to Chester when my daughter saw an Instagram ad for a small local store there. We LOVE to read, and love many of the same books and genres, one being romance. There is THE most wonderful romance-only bookstore in Chester.
This bookstore, Montgomery and Taggert, is so charming, it looks like the store itself looks as if it is out of a novel! Walking through the parking lot to the entrance, you cross under a beautiful archway covered in vines, to the beautiful English-style garden full of flowers and herbs, where you almost expect to see Mr. Darcy!
Inside the store, there are all sorts of beautiful books and gifts. There are all types of romance-themed books, from Jane Austen and other classics, to modern-day “cozy” and “cottage core” romance novels, with plenty of beautiful “painted edge” books that I love so much!
Walk from the bookstore to the corner, and there is the bustling, quaint Main Street. Planters brimming with flowers, cobblestone in the sidewalks, amazing restaurants and stores with artisan wares make Chester a perfect destination.
Ask the shopkeepers in town for a good restaurant, and the answer is the same: all the restaurants in Chester are noteworthy and delicious! The first time we went to Chester, it was just my daughter and myself in early June. We walked around, and ate lunch outside on the patio of the Pattaconk 1850 pub. It was so delicious, we ate there again when we returned to Chester last week with my friend, Alison, and her daughter for a fun “girls day out”!
After our lunch, the four of us ended up walking all the way to the end of Main Street, to a local beautiful cemetery, open to the public. It was hauntingly beautiful and peaceful.
On both visits, we ended the day on my favorite note – ice cream! The BEST ice cream I have EVER had is found in Chester, at Honeycone Craft Ice Cream. Owned by a mother-daughter team, the ice cream is truly Heavenly. The vegan ice cream is to die for (Vegan Coconut Cream was delightful), but right now I am just over the moon for their dreamy Blackberry Basil ice cream (we bought pints to bring home it is so scrumptious)!
On Father’s Day, we even drove to Chester just for an ice cream at Honeycone, and brought home a delicious wood-fired pizza home for dinner from OTTO pizza.
After living over thirty years in Connecticut, Chester is on my list of favorite places to visit, and certainly worth checking out if you are in New England! There are art galleries, shops, and special events that occur downtown – “Chester’s First Fridays”, special Friday evenings where stores and galleries stay open late, with live music and other specials. A visit to Chester is refreshing! I am so glad we found such a tranquil, beautiful little village. Tell me, do YOU have a favorite town or area that you love to visit for the day? Share with me in the comments!
Rainbows & rainstorms, heat & humidity, flowers and fruit…welcome July! So far summer has brought us abundant rain, incredible heat, and formidable wind gusts. We tied down everything that might blow away, slipped on raincoats and boots to unclog gutters before dawn, and tried to beat the heat with homemade ice cream and root beer floats.
Continue reading
.
A few months ago I offered a giveaway here on the Farmgirl blog for one of my quilted hanging hearts! Today is finally the day!
.
.
I’ve chosen three winners to each receive a quilted heart. They are:
.
Bernie F
Kelly J
Ginger L
.
I’ve sent each of you an email! Please respond so I can get your sweet little heart in the mail to you!
.
.
Thank you to everyone for entering my giveaway, for reading my blog here on the Farmgirl Bloggers! Your friendship means a lot to me!
.
Until our gravel roads cross again… so long.
Dori
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”.
Weekly Blogs and Recipes