This is one fantastic opportunity, Farmgirls! There are all sorts of perks but the number one perk is being a part of a group of talented, creative, supportive and fun women across the US and Canada. And, if you don’t get chosen for this giveaway, consider the $20 investment for a present to yourself. We would LOVE to have you join us in all the fun over at MJF Farm!

RedTractorGirl
Farm Sister of the Year 2014-2015

I love to see the ways that women are working to make the world a better healthier place. Also a world not so consumer driven but a world where handmade is cherished and encouraged. A simpler life.

Reading, learning from the Sisterhood, makes me feel a part. A real, connected, like I know you part! I just feel encouraged and want to be a part of that encouragement myself. Hugs!

Although I live in the city, Maryjane’s Farm helps me feel so connected to all women everywhere on and off a farm. I can live vicariously through you all. It is true that farmgirl is a state of mind, I learnd I could still be a part of this sisterhood!

Hay there,

Wow! How many ways have I grown and bloomed by just having the connection of all these wonderful farmgirls? So so many!!! I have meet friends that I will probably never get close enough to wrap my arms around their neck but they are still my friends! I have been inspired by them and MaryJane too. I consider my life much richer to have found MJF and enjoy the farmgirls.

Farmgirls ROCK !!

I don’t do a desk job and my commute is just out the door so its really nice to have human contact thru MJF. I am so very thankful for this sisterhood.

Hugs and prayers,
Daizy #1093

Get so excited when your sweet magazine arrives in my mailbox. I stop what I am doing and start reading with ooos and aaaws about each page – in fact- I re-read it all month!! It then goes in my “Mary Jane” box with notes written all over the covers and inside too. I refer to all issues. I have ordered past issues and have really enjoyed them all. Bless the staff for continuing to produce such wonderful literature.

I just discovered the magazine today at the Honest Weight Co-op in Albany, New York. We are getting chickens this spring and I dream of a milking cow. I’d love to be part of a larger group of women farming. Thanks!

It lets me know about other women and how they live and also I get a lot of good ideas from them. I read each issue a couple of times and share it with the oarents of my Family Childcare.

I love the modern look and feel of the magazine but completely identify with my romanticized ideals of days gone by that are showcased monthly. I love reading others tips and ideas and love feeling connected to a few new generations of “farm girls”

Thanks so much for such a great publication!!!

I enjoy reading what the other ladies are doing to make life better for their families.

I enjoy MJF Every issue i learn something new I like the GF recipes and i enjoy reading about the other ladies adventures in farming, crafts, cooking etc.

Mary Janes Farm has fueled my creative spirit when it has reached its lowest, by bringing me back to life through the creativity of others. MJF gives me the opportunity to see what other women are doing or have done in the past to bring us to where we are today, a group of women inspired to make the world a better place in whatever place we are planted.

This book is the dearest story and the illustrations are priceless. It would make a great gift for a child in your life!

My cow would be named Bossy and I too would love a chance to win your new book!

My favorite dairy products are organic yogurt and cheese

I make the refreshments for our amateur radio club. A favorite has been “Jugglers” Just the 2 1/2 cup of hot water is added to 2 six ounce packages of Jello. It is allowed to firm in the refrigerator, then cut into approximately 1″ squares or cookie cutters are used. It is ‘finger food’ for the members to eat. I would definitely consider using chill over powder instead of the Jello product.

My favorite jello dish was my mother’s fresh cranberry salad. She ground up a package of fresh berries, added chopped celery, apple and walnuts. The ingredients were held together by cherry jello, We had this family favorite at every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

My favorite was to use ChillOver is with jelly making. It is superior to pectin and allows me to use less sugar so that the fruit flavor can be more pronounced. It is a must for my orange marmalade too!

I love the black cherry and Coke jello dessert with pecans.

When I was about six or seven years old, we visited an elderly pair of my father’s “spinster” aunts. They prepared a traditional midday dinner in all its Nebraska glory. I had been taught that you had to take a little of everything and eat it just to be polite. I saw this red ring of jello-like substance filled with lots of celery, onions, chicken and I am sure much more. I had never tried this kind of “jello” before, but how bad could it be? We had jello at home all the time growing up. This, however, must have been someones idea of a joke. I hated it, but had to force it down. As an adult, I can fully enjoy the salad made with tomato aspic, but when you are six or seven, you expect jello to be sweet, not savory. I learned to love it and make if for special occasions filled with our wonderful Northwest Dungeness crab. What a joy!

My favorite jello dessert was one I had as a child, that an elderly lady at the church use to bring to every church social… It was a strawberry pretzel desert. It had a bottom layer of crushed pretzel crust, then a cream cheese mixture middle, and then on top was a jello layer with strawberries in it. Yummy doesn’t do that dessert justice!

Thinking back on it, I think the individual who made it, made the dessert more special. You know how eating something someone special makes, just makes it that more delicious. This lady was one of those special ladies! More than anything I wanted her as my grandmother 🙂 She always had time to listen to my dreams and encourage me to make them a reality. There were times she brought me the dessert for my birthday, for my graduation rom high school, and again for my college graduation. She knew how much I loved that dessert… I just hope she knew how much i loved her too!

The funniest jello story I remember is the one that starred my mother. We were at a Chinese buffet, and for dessert she scooped up some jello and topped it with whipped cream. As she started to eat it, she got a peculiar look on her face and whispered to us, “This whipped cream tastes odd.” So, of course we tasted it. It was horseradish sauce…

My grandmother would always make grape jello for thanksgiving and Christmas- but no other time of yeat

Really I can’t remember any personally because I can only think of my now 19 year old at just shy of 2. Because of some special needs she was beyond picky, also had a large vocabulary but was very hard for her to string a sentence. Anyway we had not really eaten a lot of boxed jello, because of food additives colors etc and I had yet to venture inyo my own. Well I did and made juice gelatin eggs, for Easter. Well, she loved them and she tried her very best to hang onto them and eat em. All the while exclaiming in her sweet little voice ” I like them, I like this egg!” I can still see it so vividly her pigtails her dress the sun her basket my older daughter so happy for her… 💕

My Mother always fixed a red jello with pecans and coconut in it and it was great. Not sure what else was in it but it was always molded into a circular shape. It was great. I have a molded pan for jello but never had a recipe to use for the pan. I am interested in the Chill Over Powder and recipes too.
Patty

Love your magazine !!!! Anyway my favorite gelatin dessert was a wonderful layered desert that contained cherry or raspberry jello, sour cream, pineapple, gelatin and whipped cream. I was given the recipe in 1990…I hadn’t made it in 10 years and when my kids asked about it I pulled it out of the old 3×5 box and it was too faded to read … Couldn’t read all ingredients or the measure amounts 😟 Would love to try your new chill over powder in your pineapple , pretzel & cream dream recipe in the Feb/March issue of Mary Jane’s Farm!

My favorite gelatin dessert is Turkish Delight. It seemed like an easy enough task to replicate, so I tried making it myself one time, but it ended up a bit too chewy.

As we were growing up my mom would make a yogurt cheesecake that used gelatin. It was and is a family favorite. The flavor is little but creamy, with a little bit of fresh blueberry sauce over it! That is the taste of summer for us!

Love strawberry and pretzel gelatin salad.

My Mom used to make us a strawberry layer dessert with layers of jello, then a layer of jello and cool whip blended, then more jello and so on! She topped it with a dollop of cool whip and a strawberry. It was always a special dessert!

As a kid I always liked just plain cherry jello. It was always fun eating the little cubes! Also just very recently my mom starting making at Christmas time her grandmas old Christmas standard. It was one of those jello rings with strawberry jello, crushed Oreos and cool whip. Which is not very healthy at all! But… If I won the chill over powder (which I have been dying to try!) We could make it with homemade jello and cool whip!

My favorite quilters have always been my Mother and Grandmother. They helped me create my favorite quilt in 1971, when I was getting ready to head off to college. We worked on it at my Grandma’s house, while visiting, laughing, and drinking a lot of coffee. The beloved quilt is still in my possession, after traveling to Alaska with me, keeping me warm for 9 years up there, and then back to Michigan (my home state) again. Of course, it shows its “wear and tear”, but more importantly it brings back a lot of memories, and LOVE.

I admire the quilting of Carole Provost-Meier, of our HenHouse. She owns a quilt shop that provides beautiful fabrics, accessories, and all manner of quilting needs. The quilts that she has made and shared online are beautiful! If I win this book, I will give it to her to enjoy and share with her quilting community.

My mom and grandma were not quilters per se but the made a few. My favorite is the an appliqués quilt that was a kit. By the time I was a child my grandparents were sleeping in twin beds due to my grandfathers back problems and grandmas arthritis. Grandma bought two kits for matching quilts. She and my mom worked on them all summer. I remember playing on the floor at their feet while they sewed on the appliqués. I now own one and my cousin has the other. Sweet memories of the past.

I would have to say that my favorite quilt is the one I made in high school. I took a sewing class and the teacher said we could make whatever we wanted for our final project. So knowing this I went big and chose to make a quilt. At the time I started to regret my choice but as I look back now I’m grateful for what I have done. I happened to pick one of the hardest materials to work with and I worked for many hours outside of school to complete this quilt in time. My completed quilt is large enough for a queen bed. It’s made of a minky type of material and is patterned white and neon green. It’s something I will forever be proud of. Especially since I made it all by myself!

Many years ago my mother created a beautiful Cathedral Window Squares quilt using old sheets fort the backing squares and scraps from her hundreds of dresses/etc she sewed for her 6 daughters and 1 son (OK, she did not sew him dresses…) and she did it by hand. The sheets were difficult to pierce with a needle, so this was hard on her fingers. Around 2005 I gathered quilt scraps and materials and backing to make my own Cathedral Window Squares quilt. But my job moved me from WI to NC in 2006 before I could start putting the quilt together. By 2014 I had still not started the quilt, so I gave away all the pieces and materials I had gathered, including the only pattern I had for the quilt. I fully expected to never make a quilt again – EVER!!. Well, I retired last year and got the “itch” again. So far I have gathered new materials and after months of search, found the pattern in The Ultimate Quilting Book by Maggie McCormick Gordon ($25) with 448 pages of quilting patters and quilting wisdom. Now I just have to find the time…… Just Kidding – I’M RETIRED!!!! I get to choose my time. YIPPEE, quilt, here we go. milka

My very favorite quilt is one I recently found and purchased at an antique shop. The pattern is called a “postage stamp” quilt, and it is called that because all of the pieces are squares about the size of a postage stamp. When I found it in the store I looked it over and only found a few squares that were frayed a bit. This quilt is entirely hand pieced and hand quilted, and after I counted the squares down one side and across the top, and multiplied, this quilt is made up of 7,905 squares and each one finishes at 3/4″ square. Somewhere there was a quilter who worked long and hard on this quilt, and I find it hard to believe that her family gave this quilt up. But I found it and will treasure it. I sure wish we could post pictures here so you could all see it.

My favorite quilt was a family quilt that had used identifiable pieces of clothing of all the family members. The last child’s clothing used was my dad’s. My mother not a quilter kept clothing of mine hoping I’d do it or we’d have someone do it. Well sadly we didn’t get a chance as it was destroyed in a fire. I also don’t quilt but am interested and my daughter has started and I have many friends that do beautiful work!

I have many favorite quilts , as I collect antique textiles . But the one that is the sweetest is a vintage ” feedbag” quilt from the Depression made from old printed feedbags. The mills started putting the grains in printed bags to bring in more women customers . Since few had the money to buy new fabrics this was a way to get something new and not worn out for quiltmaking. ( and free! ) The design is all tiny little triangles made into flower baskets. see this pic:
https://promail.ptd.net/service/home/~/?auth=co&loc=en_US&id=162113&part=2
You can see the darling design and also my kitties Duke and Earl and some vintage punch needle hooked cat pillows also.

My favorite quilt to do is a Jelly Roll Quilt! It’s super easy for beginners (that would be me) and I love how it always comes out different for each quilt.

My favorite quilters are the Gees Bend Quilters. wonderful, delightful quilts made from scraps they have saved over the years, creating beautiful designs and messages of love. If you get the chance go to one of their presentations-it is life changing!

My favorite quilter right now is my daughter, who at 40 embraced quilting with verve. She’s still working on her first top, a bright Courthouse Steps, but meantime pieced her second, a jelly roll race, which is now waiting to be quilted. Her sense of color and design is totally delightful, and her enthusiasm to learn equally so. She is helping a friend, an even newer quilter, and it tickles me that skills from her great, great grandmother, grandmother, and mother are continuing in a new generation. She is my sewing buddy and gives me fresh eyes and joy every day.

My favorite quilt is one I got from my mom who received it upon my grandma’s passing. It was a quilting bee quilt made by all the older female members of my family. It has a central square where is stitched mother (my great-grandma) and all the younger women, my grandma included, had squares all around it with their names embroidered. Some of these women I slightly remember but others this will be my only connection to them. I was blessed with my great grandma for 13 years of my life. It is slightly worse for the wear but will always be treasured by me. I will eventually pass it on to my 7 year old daughter.

About a year ago, I joined a Facebook quilting/fabric exchange group. I did this because my mother was in hospice and I believed that I would be living with her and would need something to do with her as her health declined. It turned out, unfortunately, that she passed away after being in hospice for less than a week, so I did not have that time with her that I expected. She is, and always will be, my favorite quilter. What I didn’t expect, though, was to create friendships with the quilting ladies on Facebook. It has helped me through grieving the loss of my mother and also keeping her spirit alive, to stay active in this group. It has been an unexpected blessing.

My favored quilt it the one we called Strawberry Fields. My aunt that was 78 years old and had a very hard time seeing what she was sewing, made the top and I got it quiled for her, before she passed away a year later. It ment so much to me to get to work with her on this beautiful red and white gingam quilt. I miss her everyday.

Was yard saleing one day and found old Christmas plates and cups exactly like my great grandmother had. Just had to get them.

That’s a beautiful re-use for that canteen and cookie cutter! I have a huge collection of vintage aluminum bakeware, coffee pots, etc., which includes two similar “canteens” except that they’re bedwarmers!!

Just the other day I found something I’d never seen or heard of – a sad iron heater! When I googled it I found they’re also called railroad or camp stoves. It’s about 8″ high, a Kerosene reservoir forms the base, there’s an adjustable wick (wider than a lamp wick) and on top a place to sit a sad iron to heat it! Imagine! You could heat an iron without lighting a fire in the stove in the summer heat. But more than that, can you imagine ironing with something weighing over five pounds, and trying not to scorch all those pleats and ruffles in those lovely Victorian gowns and blouses. Oh my! But are we fortunate or not? Seems things were so much more uncomplicated then.
Thank you Mary Jane for this sweet opportunity!

I love finding embroidery hoops and crafts to do with them. But I really love finding doorknobs!

My husband found a box of burlap bags turned inside out with all kinds of quaint printing on them. I keep one hanging and trade them out once a month.

My favorite vintage find for glamping is a wooden ironing board in excellent condition. Found it at a thrift store for $3.00! We love to use it on one side of the glamper trailer tongue, hang Scottish themed tablecloths on it, decorate it with vase of flowers, solar lights, etc. Tickled pink for such a find!

Thanks for the opportunity to participate in this giveaway!
CJ

Where to begin! I can never pick an all time fave but a current one is a lovely vintage warming baby food plate. It is divided in three sections, painted in each a kitty, a puppy and the biggest is little bo peep and her sheep. It is real heavy! I bet it kept baby’s dinner warm a good long time! It seems to be stainless steel, porcelain and Bakelite.

My favorite vintage find is any old edition of a book. Thanks fro the giveaway
Marilyn

My favorite vintage finds are some old tea cups and saucers I use to hold my pins and needles when I sew.

I discovered a recent find that I love – it is from a huge store along CA Hwy 395; the store appears out of nowhere along that desolate road, so of course we had to stop. I was with business colleagues on the way back from a seminar, and no one objected to stopping! Outside the building in the front yard was a collection of just stuff, from big metal equipment left over from area mines, to a little, randomly placed, dirt encrusted white enamel bowl. I picked it up and dusted it as best I could, and saw it was old, but perfect. I also saw it was priced to sell.

I took it into the store and handed it to the shop owner, who held it for me while we all looked around. By the time I got back to the front counter, the shop owner had washed the bowl for me, and it was indeed in perfect condition. I plan to use the bowl in my soon-to-be renovated camping trailer. The bowl, the trailer, it’s all meant to be.

I wasn’t even shopping, and happened to glance up and saw a vintage glass measuring cup with a beater contraption inside. The beater has a wood type knob “holder” and beneath the wood knob handle to turn the beaters inside the bowl is a metal cover that sits atop the glass measuring cup. The glass is an 8 cup measure. I had to buy this. When my grandchildren visit every other weekend, Saturday is our “egg” breakfast day and my 4 year old granddaughter goes after the glass measuring cup with beaters and she beats the eggs for our scrambles. On Sunday, my 7 year old grandson uses it to help make the batter for our waffles. This beautiful piece, which I’m sure was not given away, but saved, has found it’s way into my home, and is creating cherished memories for our next generation.

It’s hard to pick, I have a few, but it’s not hard to describe the feelings of of awe when I come upon something that has a history I know nothing about. I can see and feel the signs of use and age that inspire me. One of these items is an oak kitchen work center with the drawers in the base that when opened are actually metal bins with deep, rounded bottoms. It’s beautiful.

My favorite find was a ventage J & P Clark cotton sewing cabinet. Found in Comfort Texas a few weeks ago. It is in wonderful shape.

I work at an auction every Thursday night after my regular job, so it’s hard not to buy things when the price is right. I like to get things to use in my garden, like an antique hose reel, or sprinkler, or an old chandelier to hang in our maple tree. it looks fabulous!

My favorite artisan farmgirl is my mom who was raised on a small farm in eastern Tennessee. Quilts were a given and my grandmother made them from scraps. Later in life my mom began making quilts as a hobby. She makes them totally by hand and they are truly works of art.

Favorite farmgirl artisan: MARYJANE BUTTERS! Thank you for all the wonderful things you have created and shared with us!!!

My favorite Farmgirl artisan is my garden buddy Annie Allbright, the most creative person I have ever met . She is just now finishing up her ” fairy gourds” which are her own homegrown huge hollowed out gourds. She filled them with woodland things like moss, live plants,her own glass sculptures and such and they are so much more artistic and truly magical than they sound. Her entire farm is filled with her artwork, as she is the queen of upcycling. I adore her giant dragonflies she crafts from wooden fan blades and hand paints. Or her glass ” totems” that tower throughout the property. Or her wall of blue glass that undulates through her flower beds. She recycles the deep cobalt blue Skye vodka bottles. I could go on and on- she gives classes a few times a year as well. She is an inspiration.

I’d have to say my mom. She sews with the best of them. All my clothes were handmade growing up. All the curtains in the house. She loves to do needlework and knit too.

My favorite artisan is my friend Shirley. She started quilting seriously at the age of 70 after her husband passed away. She has made beautiful quilts for every member of her family, (about 30), as well as for friends. At the age of 82, she drove down to Portland Oregon, to take care of her grandson for a week and deliver another quilt to an older grandson living there. He has requested quilts for his children to come, thinking she might pass away before he gets married. We had a good laugh over this one. She has such a great heart, many talents in the fabric arts, and amazing energy. I think she will live to see many great-grandsons or grand-daughters and make quilts for each. I have so much admiration for her.

My favorite farm girl artisan were actually two artisans. Christine and Barbara Granzen who lived across the street growing up and taught be to sew, in the 5th grade. Sewing ever since and I do think of them every time my foot hits that pedal.

Love the jewelry here . . . thanks for the opportunity to participate.

My favorite farmgirl artisan is Sharon Bakke. She does the most creative, incredible papercrafting I’ve ever seen. I am the proud owner of some of her cards and ATCs which I will treasure forever. She also does wonderful paintings!

Thanks!
CJ

My favorite farm girl artisan is my Mom. She grew up on a farm in Washington State and learned to can, sew, cook and bake from her mother. She made most of our clothes, which I didn’t truly appreciate until I was in high school and found that my Mom could recreate just about any piece of clothing I wanted and make it uniquely mine, rather than something that came off a rack! She cut out recipes from the newspaper and magazines and came up with creative meals for our family, even when times were hard. She made loaves of bread and pans of cinnamon rolls every week, and even though I envied my classmates sandwiches made out of Wonder Bread, I knew that mine were made with love, which made them oh, so much better.

I have so many but my fave will always be my youngest daughter! Se we are both Spoonies http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/
Yet she plants our garden, she draws, writes,bakes,decorates cakes and just so much more. She plans to open a café someday which will no doubt feature only artisan created bounty. I’m very proud of her and the young lady she’s become.

I would have to say that my favorite farmgirl artisan would have to be my grandmother. She was such a strong and powerful woman. She made anything and everything. She was especially gifted in her sewing and cooking. I am blessed to have many of her sewn items in my possession. In particular, some of her homemade Christmas decorations. It is also a blessing to have all of her most wonderful recipes all in one amazing book. Even though we all know mine will never taste just like hers, it’s fun to make her recipes.

I have so many farm girl artisans that have touched my life and taught me so many things…sewing….from my grandmother….I still have her first electric singer sewing machine and sew on it…my mom….who taught me how to bake bread, and shares her knowledge of herbs…..my grandfather….now he’s not a “farm girl artisan” but a grandfather artisan…who taught me to garden and cook….he was a wonderful cook and a landscape designer by trade….my oldest sister, who ran her own craft store in Gatlinburg, Tenn., and always sends me material and patterns in my “care packages” so my hands will always be busy…

My favorite farmgirl artisan is my mentor Lynn. My mother wasn’t a creative person to her own acknowledgement but wanted to feed my passion for creating the best she could, so she contacted a lady in our church to mentor me. She took me to tea parties, fashion shows, home shows, fabric stores, fairs and more. After each event, I had to pick my favorite item : recipe, clothing, home decor item etc and recreate but in my own sense. She taught me what I didn’t know, encouraged me to learn new things on my own, and even taught me to catch crawdaddies! For the past year I have been working in a floral shop as a flower girl. My mentor came to me with our Autumn wreath for the church and had me repair and decorate it. Just recently she gave me the privilege of challenging me to spruce up the church’s many evergreen decors for this year’s Advent ceremony. I am looking forward to the challenge and am grateful that even all these years later she is still mentoring me and challenging me!

As a new subscriber, Erin is my favorite so far! Her spoon creation remind me of my mom, who had several spoon rings she loved. I have the only one left, and can’t really wear rings as an RN. Erin’s beautiful work makes me think I can use my jewelry tolls and possibly fashion a pendant out of my treasure!

My favorite farm girl artisan would have to be MaryJane! You make such amazing things and you inspire me to do something great!

My favorite farm girl artisan is quilt designer, Lori Holt. Lori’s designs and her excellent use of color come together to create captivating quilts.

Thank you for asking!

i can’t pick just one. i have always admired the handiwork of anyone who was passionate about their craft, be it sewing, pottery, doll making, painting, playing an instrument or whatever they enjoy making. it is all inspiring.

My favorite farmgirl artisan is half of a couple, Anne Bosch, with her husband Marc Robertson. Together they own Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill (www.blackberry-ridge.com). They make amazing wool yarn out in the country in their own woolen mill! Although you will only see their beautiful yarns if you go to their website, they have a lovely residence in a rural Wisconsin area and are living the farm life to the fullest!

The local arisan farm girl is Shelly Poetter, who started a scrap book retreat in our neighborhood called the Country Cottage east of Blue Earth, MN.
She is a talented hostess and crafter!

Ohhh, this looks like lots of fun! Immediately, the Beatles song popped into my head: “I want to be, Under the Sea, in an Octopus’s garden…”

I read a lot, knit,find new recipes to try. I still garden in the winter because I live in Florida.

My favorite indoor winter pastime is crocheting and crafting. Although I live in sunny South Florida, I like to pretend I’m back in the cold winters with a fireplace, cozy cup of coffee, and nice, warm comforter. 🙂

I always love to read but a good jigsaw puzzle is my favorite.

My favorite indoor winter pastime is curling up like a ball in my red blanket with a cup of hot mocha and watch Christmas movies when it’s raining outside.

First of all, thank you for the opportunity to participate in this giveaway. I’ve just gotten back into coloring, having found a neat adult coloring book at Michaels.

Favorite past time for me in the winter would be papercrafting with sewing coming in as a close second which would be in contention with playing the piano!

Thank you again!
CJ

Favorite indoor winter pastime…big pot of homemade soup on the stove, fire in wood stove, and knitting in hand! Coziness…

My favorite indoor winter activity…there are so many! I like working on crafts and have plans to get a lot of sewing done this winter. Love hanging out with friends and family watching movies too. I do love being outside playing in the snow though too!

In the past few years, I have taken up knitting and I enjoy creating something that will keep someone warm.

In the cozy winter months I love to create. I color, make journals of all kinds, knit ,quilt and sew. I share these with friends and family. I also love watching birds I feed.

I love crocheting and scrapbooking with my daughters, then we join the couches together and enjoy popcorn and a movie with my hubby and our two dogs. Makes for a cozy night

I enjoying knitting in my rocking chair by the cast iron stove. Oh yeah, and eating homemade, warm out of the oven chocolate chip cookies.

Snuggling under a blanket by the fire with a good book and a big pot of soup simmering in my cast iron pot.

Baking and coffee roasting.

I enjoy finding new sweet potato recipes and cooking the sweet potatoes that I dug up from the fall! On those cold winter days nothing welcomes you home better then the delicious smells of sweet potato delights!

A good book, a comfy quilt, and my kitty Sophie on my lap. A nice glass of white wine is sometimes in the mix as well. The times I most like to color is when I am flying. So many people on the plane smile and nod, which I interpret to mean they wish they had thought of it! What a great way to pass the time and, because I am a nervous flyer, coloring naturally relaxes me. Love, love, love it !!

My son gave me a small adult coloring book to “meditate” with while he was on his motorcycle trip to Utah. I’m addicted! And this one looks especially delightful! But if I don’t have a coloring book, I love winter evenings making rag time quilts. Again, very therapeutic!

My favorite indoor pastimes are playing with my 1 year old little girl, baking goodies, and crocheting with a fat hook.

I love adult coloring books and this underwater one sounds so exciting. I would have to say my favorite indoor winter pastime would have to be wood crafting or putting together a good Christmas puzzle. Both of these pastimes are perfect with background Christmas music or a Christmas movie. I just love these pastimes when it’s cold and snowing outside.

Quilting and reading.

I love to sit by a fire with a cup of hot chocolate and read a good book.

Baking! Bread cookies, even better with kids around. Alternatively when I need peace and quiet, I like to curl up with Mary Janes Farm and a cup of tea/cocoa/hotcider/hot toddy…

Weaving, stained glass, card making.

Curling up by the fireplace with a book and a mug of hot cocoa

I enjoy sewing, cross stitch, painting, playing piano, spending extra time with my cats, rabbits, chickens, birds and dog. To totally relax – warm soak, followed by hot tea, a good book or an old movie, next to the fireplace of course. 🙂

I love to watch the birds all winter long. They lift my spirits each day! I have for the most part chickadees, nuthatches, purple finches, bluejays, pileated woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers,hairy woodpeckers, and winter wrens. Occasionally, we see rose-breasted grosbeaks, too. Oh I almost forgot about the flickers that visit my birdfeeder.

I am blessed to have a beautiful backyard, although a bit fallish looking now. I have always fed the birds outside my patio door and arranged a garden to attract hummingbirds. During winter months I hang suet from the branches of my Apple tree. We have many varieties visit, sparrows, goldfinch, and more. The most interesting visitors we have watched this summer and fall are a family of woodpeckers. They tried for a couple of days to figure out a way to land on bird hangars meant for smaller birds. They are now very adept at clutching the sides, upside down, hanging on for dear life, successfully eating away! Birds are amazing creatures that I have enjoyed my entire life. Enjoy your day everyone.

We enjoy feeding the birds all year long. In the warm seasons it is the hummingbirds, but in the cold seasons it is all of the lovely little birds that over winter here on our part of the Palouse. We have Gold Finches that stay all year plus Chickadees, SnowBirds, Sparrows of many varieties and other Finches, too. Plus when we are very lucky we have Quail come into town and visit the ground under our feeder to get what the little birds have let fall to the ground. Oh yes, and on occasion we have Flickers come to the suet feeder.
We feed only black sunflower seeds & thistle seed. There is less waste this way as the birds don’t pick through & “throw out” the seed they don’t want to eat.

Oh my gosh! I’m so, so excited! I saw my first pileated woodpecker yesterday in our neck of the woods. We’ve had Downys, Harrys, and Red bellied, but this was a first 🙂 Love, love, love my birds 🙂

I love watching the birds that I see in my yard. In the summer there are a lot of hummingbirds, robins, lots of cardinals and finches, blue jays, and woodpeckers. I put up 2-3 hummingbird feeders and at times I have had 15-20 hummingbirds around my feeders at the same time – all vying for a chance at the feeders. I have a wire Christmas tree I put up in my yard in the winter and I like to decorate it for the birds with popcorn strings and suet cakes. It is so refreshing to see the tree and the feeders full of birds.

I’ve been feeding birds “forever”. When I rented and upstairs apartment from my dad in Wisconsin until 2006, I would feed birds on the front “porch” upstairs, and my dad just barely tolerated it because of the mess and because I would be walking on the roof of his sunroom downstairs. Dad transitioned to his spirit side in 2006, and I thank him for allowing me to make the mess. When I moved to Greensboro NC, I really went crazy and purchased all kinds of feeders for my “backyard” as I face a small 1-acre “woods” between my patio and the busy street beyond. Wild Birds Unlimited has been a happy recipient of my addiction, and most of my feeds came from their excellent, healthy seeds/suet/nuts etc. When I retired in 2014 my income required that I tone down my enthusiasm for my critters (yes, not just birds, but also squirrels, chipmunks, oppossum, and the occassional turkeys or deer that lost their way crossing busy Friendly Avenue going from the 400+ acre woods of Guilford College to investigate the stands of “woods” interspersed between the residences and apartment buildings and pond on “our side” of the street. Winters here consist more of rain and sleet. But when there is sleet, I get hundreds of all types of birds at my feeders even though my normal is a few dozen all year round, and many dozens of migrators at various migration periods. Until winter requires me to feed more critters, I am down to just 4 feeders and suet and ground feeding. milka

The variety of birds varies with intensity of the weather. My favorite is the one I’m watching at the moment. I cannot watch a nuthatch without smiling at his upside down antics in his tuxedo. When I hear a chickadee, the mantra in my head is always “chick-chickadee, chick-chickadee.” In the summer, when I hear a blue jay’s raucous calls, sounding like “CAT-CAT-CAT,” it’s the announcement there is one skulking around. The little mews of the finches are sweet to hear. The gentle clicks tell me a titmouse is present. At dawn, just after noon and at dusk, I hear my pair of cardinals. When the wren comes in the early summer, singing his love song, I hope his bride and he choose a home wisely, and not in a traffic area, because his bumble-bee warning can be rather annoying.
I feed sunflower seed in a hanging feeder and on the ground. The squirrels will eat from the ground (until supply is depleted) and the cardinals and doves graze there as well. A wild bird mix is in a hanging tube because it’s okay to have sparrows. There is a sock with thistle seed for the finches. The flicker and downy woodpeckers search the bark for hidden treasure and are drawn by the suet feeders.

Waiting for the first winter’s snow and the tiny, little chikadees to start hopping about looking for breakfast. The cardinals and bluejays are engaged in a daily contest right now to see who can eat the most before the early sun settles.

To see such beauty on drab winter days is the joy that feeding the birds bring.

Gosh, I just love the birds from the little tufted titmice to the Hawks and even those ugly headed turkey vultures. The bluebirds stay with us all year. If the robins leave they are not gone long, my feeder has red birds, blue jays, juncos, chickadees, red breasted woodpeckers. A lot of times I’ll see flickers and occasionally goldfinches. North Catolina is rich with winter birds

I have enjoyed watching birds all my life but even more so the past two years. My grandson, Ethan, loves to sit outside on my back porch and listen to the birds in the yard. He calls the Cardinals “Red” when he hears them. He points in the direction of their calls from one side of the yard to the other. He is also fascinated with a Red tail Hawk that frequents a neighbors yard & flies around mine.

I have a large back yard that I love to fill with beautiful home made feeders bird baths and suet feeders. The squirrels like to join in too. Every now and again the deer help themselves to soon treats as well. Orange slices popcorn apple slices add color and fun to feeding our outdoor friends all year.
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Where we live in rural South Dakota I don’t see many winter birds. We have a lot of sparrows. The birds we enjoy are the wild Pheasants (SD state bird) and hopefully, Pin Tail Grouse. But, if I am chosen to receive the suet I will keep track of what birds come to our ranch to eat.

I enjoy the cardinals, blue jays, red-headed woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers and chickadees that visit our feeders each winter. I especially enjoy watching them with my grandbabies! We keep a bird guide nearby to identify our birds.

Moved to the alleghany mountains almost six years ago. Always dreamed of country life and this area is absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite things is my bird feeder. Have suet year round and also hummingbird feeder in the summer. There are downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, pileated, red bellied woodpecker, nuthatches, blue jays, juncos, chickadees, and some passerbys. And of course chipmunks, bears, deers, flying squirrel, red and grey squirrels, foxes, porcupines, raccoons, all like to sneak in for a few bites of the suet. Their antics, the whose next on feeder, and insistence I fill it when empty keep me amused no matter how bad the day. This year my pairs of woodpeckers all brought their babies to eat and they have stayed.

Chickadees and cardinals! I’ve watched them since I was young- I will never get tired of them.

Winter finds chickadees, and titmouse plentiful at the feeder. Woodpeckers brighten it up. I enjoy watching them all. Of course we also share with the squirrels who can eat so much so quickly!

I just recently was able to start feeding my birds again, and I especially love my downy woodpeckers and the cardinals. The splashes of red, white, black and darker red of the female cardinals always brighten a dreary winter day!

We have cardinals(beautiful), bluejays, finches, woodpeckers, wrens, and a few others. These ones are the main birds that we have around here. My grandmother has a pine tree and under that pine tree she has suet, a bird bath, and many bird feeders. She loves to sit and watch them(so does Sadie, her dog).

We are grateful to have a small cottage by a county park were we can watch eagles and osbrey dive for fish in the warmer months we have bluebird boxes and bird feeders a crow who likes left over noodles and this year a racing pigeon took a rest and refuel on our metal roof for two days.😊

In Birmingham, Alabama our birds are happy and full. On our feeder we have Chickadees,
Nuthatches, Doves, Sparrows, Cardinals, Blue Birds (who raised 3 families this summer), wrens, titmice, finches, crows, Cooper’s Hawk and or Chicken Hawks, Great Horn Owls, brown thrushes, and occasionally Blue Jays. They share with the many squirrels and chipmunks and have plenty of trees with plenty of holes to live in and store their food. Many sleep under our decks and on our decks and feel free to fly through even when we are standing or sitting on the decks. We get to see and hear their calls and songs of joy and sometimes fear when Mr. hawk decides to come calling. Most entertaining and definitely a learning experience daily.

we have lots of titmouse, chickadees, cardinals. at certain times there are finches, the purple finches are so pretty. doves are here sometimes. grosbeaks will be here closer to spring. and occasionally we have to get the bird book out to try to identify some.

When we purchased our dream home I became an avid bird-watcher. 19 years and 2 bird-watching granddaughters later the thrill is still there. It’s mesmerizing to watch the cardinals, finches, chickadees and junco’s flit and fly and land to feed. My oldest granddaughter Leah gets as excited as I do when we see a “new” bird. We also love spring’s arrival which is announced by the arrival of hummingbirds and orioles. I will never forget 3 weeks ago when a mourning dove sized bird landed on top of my bluebird house. There was something different about his coloring and then I saw his beak and claws-I had a HAWK! I raced for my bird book and sure enough it was a broad-winged hawk. He took off with such power my bird house swung back and forth like a swing. We are definitely a bird loving household and an eco- friendly one:filtered water,recycling,composting and use organic.

I live near the Wisconsin River, so there are a lot of birds that visit the area. Just this week, I saw around 500 sandhill cranes on their trip south after having spent the summer here. It is truly amazing! However, in winter, I am so lucky to be able to see eagles that stay year around to fish on the river. They are so beautiful and majestic, though cardinals are the most colorful winter visitors.

Living in the frozen northeast we always fed the birds during the cold winter months. The Chickadees would be so brave and eat right from our hands. Even the Chipmunks would become so accustomed to us they would perch on a knee or boot and take seeds from our hands. Now that I live in S.C. the winters aren’t as cold and I wonder who I feed the birds for, me or them. But the excitement is always there.

Would love to win coloring book for my daughter.

Looking forward to your blog each day. Enjoy your magazine to much.

I love to color! It’s so relaxing and yet so creative. I would treasure a beautiful color book that this book is,thank you for the chance to win this treasure.

Love coloring books as well as MaryJane’s Farm. Found my first issue at a tractor supply store and subscribed immediately! I’m also a quilter, so Art Quilts of the Midwest would be just wonderful! Not sure if I need to leave multiple comments for each book or wait for some announcement…will watch this space to find out, I suppose.

Thank you for the opportunity to win this wonderful book!

My favorite winter indoor activity is creating beaded jewelry. Coloring is becoming a close second. Have fallen in deep infatuation with the new coloring books.

My favorite winter pastime is reading, followed by watching movies while knitting. If I could do this while allowing the snow to remain unshovelled, that would be even better.

Congratulations Farmgirls! This is the perfect gift to keep in your purse for that unexpected need.