I’m calling you out!!!! On a roll … call, here’s where you can read about the amazing accomplishments of Sisters who earn Merit Badges. “Hear YE!”
Winnie Nielsen says: Daffodil awakening?
MaryJane says: Yes, and they’re already fading.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … CJ Armstrong!!!
CJ Armstrong (ceejay48, #665) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning an Expert Level UFO’s Merit Badge!
“For a variety of reasons, I just don’t have many UFOs left sitting around waiting to be finished. That generally isn’t my style anyway, but because of health challenges and other things I’ve been purging, recycling, and cleaning up my project room.
During the summer of 2011, my daughter and I had the privilege of going on the “Women of the Wild West” road trip which took us through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. We met many farmgirls along the way, enjoyed a lot of activities and adventures, and ended our journey with a stay at MaryJanesFarm B&B and a Farmgirl Tea Party.
I had made memory books for both of us to take along. We asked each farmgirl we met to write a short note in the books and we also made notes, etc. I had taken a lot of photographs, had some prints made, and have been carrying this project around in my project case while glamping or traveling, hoping to get time to work on it. I also had included scissors and adhesive products and other embellishments to finish the book.
This project required sorting, selecting, and cropping photos as well as mounting them in the book and making journal notes to correspond with the photos.
It has taken well over the required 30 hours to complete.
Photos of this project are included in the UFO thread in the Stitching and Crafting section: www.maryjanesfarm.org/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=71440
I’m so glad to have this project finished and be able to enjoy the book, looking back at the photos, reading the notes, and smiling at the fun and fond memories of this wonderful trip with my daughter.”
Winnie Nielsen says: WhooHoo CeeJay! I know you shared this earlier this week on the Forum and it is a beauty. Love that FarmGirls on the loose theme too. This is a wonderful keepsake of great times and memories with Robin and your friends. You did a beautiful job and I know you are going to enjoy looking through it time and time again!
Denise says: CeeJay that is awesome. What a beautiful job you did!
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,861 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,721 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
For this week’s Out There Kids/Park Place Beginner Level Young Cultivator Merit Badge, I channeled my inner child (and also Nora and Andy) and we went to the park.
Not having had kiddos myself, I was totally immersed and enjoying the whole “playdate” experience. I mean, I’ve scheduled playdates for my doggies and maybe one or two for the chickens (Chickens are social creatures, too, you know!), but I hadn’t seen any human ones in action. There were mommies sipping on lattes while their offspring climbed trees and daddies taking business calls while their little ones went down the slides. It was like a Norman Rockwell painting.
If Norman had had Andy and Nora with him, though, his paintings might have been a little less perfect. More like they were painted by a totally distracted adult being run ragged by two adorable urchins. Did Norman have children? Must Google that.
photo by David R. Tribble via Wikimedia Commons
Anyway …
Winnie Nielsen says: LOL!!!!Kids are amazing reflections of ourselves!!
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Wendie George!!!
Wendie George (#6918) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level UFOs Merit Badge!
“This is a great badge to earn. It’s a real feel-gooder. It feels great to finish a project that has been nagging at you.
The first part was a bit intimidating. Organizing and putting all my UFOs each into their own container or bag was a bit of work. It has started the whole process of cleaning and reorganizing my entire craft room. This is also a good thing. I purchased a bunch of clear plastic totes and placed one project into a tote/box. I then made the list of any supplies still needed to finish it and put the list inside the box on top of the supplies. I had a bunch of chalkboard stickers, so I put one on the front of each box and labeled the box with the project inside. While cleaning, I also made a box labeled “donation” for projects I no longer had interest in doing.
The second part was to finish one of the UFOs. I chose to finish a baby quilt for a coworker that I started about a month ago. The quilt top was pieced together, but that’s as far as I had gotten.
I feel I have succeeded in bagging and tagging all my UFOs. I also made a quick list of them all so I could start to cross it off. I am not going to admit the total number of UFOs on the list. I will just steadily work at finishing them while not creating more. Today I mailed the box of donation items to my Aunt. She is heavily involved with the church and many other quilters and aspiring quilters. I will let her spread out the projects to others who are willing to complete them (most were never started).
I started to finish the quilt by sandwiching the top to the cotton batting with a teal minky backing. I chose a quick method of quilting the layers together, “stitch in the ditch.” I used my machine for this. I added the pieced binding onto the front by machine, and hand-quilted it to the back. The final step to complete the quilt was to embroider a tag for the back. I have a Viking machine that kindly embroiders the words for me. I then hand-sewed the tag onto the back. One UFO down, a “few” to go!”
Winnie Nielsen says: Wendi, this completed UFO is very pretty. I love the simplicity and the summer like colors you used. You did a great job and I know you are going to enjoy using this or gifting it! Congratulations on tackling that UFO pile and making a winner!!
The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,861 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,721 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! ~MaryJane
Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …
For this week’s Young Cultivator Farm Kitchen/Icing on the Cake Beginner Level Merit Badge, I sat down with the two whippersnappers in my life (Nora and Piper) and we made ourselves a list.
Lists are my life.
I brake for lists.
Me and lists forever.
Lists: A Love Story.
Normally, the rugrats scoff at my list making, but this one was one they could get behind. And in front of, and across from, and so on and so forth. Why, you ask? Because it was a list of Things You Could Put On a Cake (T.Y.C.P.O.A.C. for short).
Who wouldn’t want to keep adding onto a list like that?
photo by James Petts via Wikimedia Commons
We were going to need more paper …
Frosting went without saying, though surprisingly, none of us are fond of it. We all agreed it is what’s under it and on top of it that could float our boats, culinary-ly speaking.
Nora, Piper, and Yours Truly’s T.Y.C.P.O.A.C.:
After all this brainstorming, we were seriously famished. Ravenous. Starving. Our bellies were rubbing our ribs. Our tummies were rumbling.
In short? We needed cake. Stat.
Winnie Nielsen says: I like how your lists ended up with needing cake. Now that is a proper list if I every heard of one! Hmmm, I think I need to find a way that all of my many lists have delicious endings!
Who doesnt love cake? Although I am in the European tradition of cakes, not gooey and not so sweet. Think the good fruitcakes ( nope not the American kinds) and cakes that don’t need icing really.Italian Pennetone is my idea of cake heaven.
Karlyne says: Now I need cake. Or as Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest says it, “caaaaaaake”.
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Connie Bergstrom!!!
Connie Bergstrom (#6861) has received a certificate of achievement in Garden Gate for earning a Beginner Level Backyard Farmer Merit Badge!
“My first chicken was Burt, a Rhode Island Red rooster. I have had him for about 5 years. He has several lady friends, as we own around 50 hens and 3 roosters, including him and his son, Willie. We also have a Barred Rock rooster named Farmer who has a flock of his own Barred Rock and Cuckoo Maran hens.
We also have Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Buff Brahmas, RIR, Americanas, and New Hampshire Reds, and currently are raising up some Banties, Favorelles, Sexlink, RIR, and Orpington pullets. We feed organic cracked corn and hen scratch, occasionally free range, and they love scraps from the garden and the kitchen.
I absolutely love it. I sell our eggs; we get approximately 5-15 eggs a day when they are not on strike because of the Texas heat.”
Winnie Nielsen says: What pretty brood of chickens, Connie! Your project sounds like it is not only fun but a great way to enjoy fresh eggs and sell a few to pay for chicken feed. I bet you make some awesome omelets for breakfast too!
Winnie Nielsen says: This early Spring view of the cow barn must be how it looks in Idaho where new green grass is poking out of fresh snow dusting. For this Floridian, it is a unique and pretty way Spring gets started. Old Man Winter…. your efforts are losing out day by day!
Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)
Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)
My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Nicole Epperson!!!
Nicole Epperson (#6762) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Embroidery Merit Badge!
“I checked out a couple of stitch dictionaries from my local library. I read about the history of embroidery and learned a few stitches from the books. I put together a sampler of border or outline stitches and the new stitches I learned are blanket stitch, Chinese stitch, feather stitch, double feather stitch, feathered chain stitch, and chevron stitch.
It turned out better than I had anticipated. I learned how to cross stitch when I was younger, so I had the canvas to practice nice, straight stitches for this project. It was a good project for me to start with since there was a bit of familiarity. I even reused an old frame that was collecting dust in the closet to finish it!”
bluedog355 says: That came out beautifully! Well done
Winnie Nielsen says: Nicole, beautiful handwork! Your stitches are perfectly neat . Cross stitching is lots of fun and I know that I enjoyed doing many projects in that craft myself. The cool thing about cross stitching is that it is timeless and you can continue to enjoy your projects for years to come . Congratulations on your badge work and being highlighted here for all of us to enjoy!
Good morning winnie,
I posted the video of Nat King Cole singing your song on the previous daffodil post. Also Wordworth’s poem about Daffodils. Please look at them.
happy spring,
lisa – seed Woman
Winnie Nielsen says: They are here!! Just in time for Easter weekend too. Remember that old Nat King Cole song “If I had to choose just one day?” One of the first lines was “Lots of daffodils, were showing off their frills….” That was one of my very favorite songs ever and I remember stopping whatever I was doing when it played on the radio so I could hear every word. Daffodils are so special!
MaryJane says: Nat King Cole was my mother’s fav, but that song slipped by me. Awesome to know about Cole… showing off their frills indeed!
bonnie ellis says: Anyone with gray skies today could use a double dose of daffodils today. Since Easter is early some of the spring flowers haven’t had a chance to come up. Especially with the goofy weather. thanks for the picture.
Janice Slater says: Living in the Puget Sound area of Washington, we are blessed to have an abundance of daffodills. They have always been a special part of spring for me, especially the daffodil parade that happens the 1st of April. Unfortunately, many of the fields are being sold and paved over for ‘progress’. Such a sadness for all of in for this area of the world. I do plant bulbs in my yard, and have these lovely sunny flowers all around! Thank you for your lovely picture!
area
and don’t forget by William Wordsworth:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
and for you winnie:
here is Nat king Cole singing that song: “That Sunday, That Summer” that you remember
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
Spring green and deep pink have always been a favorite combination of colors for me. The detail of these leaves and flower are stunning!
I don’t recognize the tree/plant. So what is it?
It’s a bloom about to open on my gooseberry bush.
So pretty.
Those colors really are something! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gooseberry bush.
Yes finally spring!