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 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.
René Groom
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.
This is beautiful! I’m going to give it a try!!
What a wonderful project! Thank you so much for sharing. I love the flowers but I bet these would also be great with Christmas scraps and a Christmas saying. I’m adding them to my gift idea list. Now I just need some time to sit at my sewing machine 🙂
I love that Dori it is so pretty. I wish I could sew as I would love one for myself and a couple of Farmgirl Friends. You always have the greatest ideas and make the prettiest useful pieces.
Thank you for sharing and Happy Summer.
Hugs,
Debbie
So cute..Thank you
I love this project so much! What a beautiful gift! This will be an heirloom for sure! Thank you for sharing. Happy Summer!!
Sew cute!
Where are the giveaway winners announced? I don’t see that. Stay cool we are 3 weeks away from the halfway point of summer.
Hello Tori! You can find the winner post here: https://www.farmgirlbloggers.com/24240
Planning to make at least 3 to give to my tea party friends. They love things I make for them and this is the perfect project to do at do when I am between bigger projects.
What a cute idea! I am not new here, but quiet. I occasionally read blogs, but I find myself being captivated by life and other things.
I am actually living in Oro Valley, Arizona, ( northern foothills bedroom community of Tucson) and soon to be moving to New Mexico, more specifically in the north central area, near the Sandia Mountains, halfway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. We wanted to be between both cities for medical convenience, as my husband is in remission from cancer. We now own a small ranchette of 7 acres and will live in an adobe home, which we LOVE! I wanted to simply give a shout-out and actually, and finally, introduce myself.
I am a wife, mother, grandma, and definitely a country woman, not a city lover, by ANY stretch of the imagination! If it were solely my decision, it would have been 100 acres, 100 miles from the nearest neighbor. LOL!
Wishing all a wonderful upcoming week.
I love all it! Itis very pretty!
Thank you for sharing.
These are see sweet! Beautiful work.
Lovely mug mat! I am recently retired and look forward to using up as much of my “stash” as possible. This mug mat may be my first project! Thank you for providing so many wonderful ideas!