My most..most favorite is Pumpkins!!! Between the blossoms, watching them grow and the huge bounty they are and the fun you get to have with them is so cool. Plus my kiddos love helping take care of them and picking them for jack-o-lanterns. <3

Oh MJ, where did you get that wicker dress form? I would love to find one. Beets are my favorite veggie to grow. THANKS, MB

Green beans! They are our best producer. What a wonderful vegetable! Casseroles, side dish or right off the vine!

I love to grow squash any squash ! Is my all time favorite an you can do alot with all of the different kinds..Thanks for the giveaway !

What an adorable apron! I would have to say that my favorite garden veggie is okra…So very easy to grow in my part of the country, and oh, so yummy battered and fried up in a cast iron skillet, and super tasty in a big pot of seafood gumbo. Thank you for the opportunity to win! Gardening hugs ~ Donna =)

I have loved growing my dwarf blueberry bushes in my back yard. Nothing better than growing your own fruits to pick early in the morning for cereal or baking pancakes or home made syrup. I have always grown blueberries and other berries. But blueberry is my favorite. I love to wear aprons in the kitchen. I love this one being offered with great pockets. Colors are so great and festive. In the magazine I love seeing all those great aprons in the photo’s. Nothing better than a woman in the kitchen! I hope to be the one who is be sporting this new apron in my home. Thank you for all you do. Winnie Jackson

I love rhubarb. It is so early it is one of the first things I start baking with out of my garden. Rhubarb cream pie, muffins, cake and sauce. The best part is that it is a perennial so it comes back each year. Just love rhubarb.

Blueberries are our favorite. We started off with 17 bare root plants in January of 2015 and had a small harvest that summer. This summer we have picked baskets and baskets of blueberries! They are our favorite, either fresh off of the plants or in my oatmeal every morning of the week! We are cloning new plants from cuttings and they are all doing well. Looking forward to many more harvests and healthy berries in our meals in the years to come!

Denise Anderson

I grow so many things, grapes, pears, plums (aren’t doing well this year.). Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, kale, horseradish, asparagus, onions, peppers, onions, beets, spaghetti squash and of course flowers, herbs. Would love to win this beautiful apron.

In March every year I seed eggplant along with many other veggies and have for several years. I have carried out my father’s traditional farming as a hobby. He also raised carnations snapdragons and bedding plants in his greenhouses. My eggplants are by far my favorite crop as I make eggplant parmesan for my Italian family. It is their favorite meal! I would love and need that beautiful apron! I have such a bountiful harvest I give it to neighbors and coworkers!

I love pumpkins! I have loved gathering them over the years with my boys, decorating with them and then cooking and freezing the portions for yummy muffins and pie. This year I am finally growing my own…it is never too late to join the gardening fun! 🙂

What an adorable harvest apron! I love all the veggies and fruit I grow in my garden, hard to pick just one! Tomatoes, potatoes, corn, green beans, cucumbers, peas, carrots, onions, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb and lots of flowers! Thanks for the giveaway!! Blessings!

My favorite thing to grow in my garden has to be nasturtiums. The edible flowers brighten up any salad.

Tomatoes would be the winner, just waiting for it to finally ripen so we can make the best BLT ever!

My watermelon patch is the essence of an all-around summertime harvest straight from the field to frolic on picnics. Love your harvest apron that is almost like pastorale toile de jouy of fruits and vegetables!

My favorite thing is green beans. There is nothing like a fresh steamed side dish of green beans. I keep it very simple with a bit of real butter with salt and pepper. Simple is the best.

My favorite is our Meyer lemons! They are the very best, and I keep finding fabulous ways to use them from baking and cooking to health and cleaning. : )

My husband and I have been collecting vintage rotary dial phones. We love that most of the ones we have found actually work!

One of my most favorite finds is an old dark red high chair! I spied it at a garage sale and gasped out loud but there was no tag on it. I went to ask the price and notice the mans wife had just went inside. I gasped again! I asked the man if he knew the price and he looked at it and asked me if $1 was too much to pay. I handed him my $1 bill in my trembling hands and thanked him! I turned and exhaled and fought the urge to cartwheel to my car! lol i yhink of that man everytime i walk by it and hope his wife forgave him. lol

An very antique stainless steel double wash tub complete with stand on legs and drainage hose still attached (for rinsing) found abandoned in an country field while strolling through on a fine, sunny day! Somehow I managed to put it inside my truck to take home. Now sitting proudly in the garden, flowers are blooming out from inside the wash tubs. With drainage hose, it can still be useful for washing/rinsing laundry so it is a lovely treasure of the past, not junk!

I found a 1958, 23.5 x 31 inch acrylic on canvas painting of a stream flowing into a high mountain lake with snowy, jagged peaks above. It was laying in a jumble of frames and prints on the bottom shelf in a thrift store. There is one slight tear in the canvas which is almost unnoticeable. The artist is “OKRENO”.

What I like best about this find is the peacefulness of the scene and memories of special moments spent in the Sierras with family and friends.

My find was a book that my mom’s mom read to her as a child called “Little Brown Bear”.

My favorite thing is actually something my daughter found for me, it’s Edith Bunkers Cookbook. Love it along with pictures there are stories in it. I display it on a easel in my kitchen.

My favorite junk find is a cabinet from a butlers pantry. Only $20!

One of my many favorite finds, is a cylindrical Scotch cooler, just like the one we always took camping when I was a kid.

I have lots of junk finds, I love going to flee markets, yard sales and thrift shops. One of my latest finds was a rooster & chicken, sugar & creamer, salt & pepper containers, so cute.

My favorite junk find was miniature creamer and sugar bowl that is green depression glass at a thrift store

One of my favorite finds was a handwoven wool tapestry with lovely colors. I got it to cut up to make Christmas stockings and thankfully realized it was hand loomed before I totally ruined it.

My favorite junk find would have to be any random old wood laying around my sister’s farm. Treasure hunting we call it: I use the old wood pieces to make picture frames and string art. My newest project is using an old scrabble board I found and creating a crossword family tree with scrabble letters, then I am going to nail to old wood so my mom can hang it, it is her christmas gift.

My favorite find is an old bench with a shelf underneath. It was my first find and I have been using it for years.

Have fun everyone!!

Congratulations MaryBeth, Margaret, and Teddie! Enjoy your new prizes!

Congratulations everyone!

Would of entered the creative
lettering but gf that gives me books was to late
But a very goodfriend who is battling
cancer told me there is nothing like something in the mail or a phone call
No tech devices, so true.
Ann Marie

Congratulations Sara! Enjoy your new book and all the grand stories inside!

Yes! I love Little House on the Prairie ❤️ I read the series in Junior High. One of my favorite young girl series. I was 11.

I love Little House on the Prairie!! I have read and reread the series many times!! I was probably around 8-10 when I first read them. My favorite books in the series would be the later books about Laura and Almanzo. I really want to go out to South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas and visit all the little house sites one day! It’s a dream of mine!

My mom read the series to my family when I was very young. Great stories! I have visited the site in SD.

I have not read the Little House on the Prairie series. I have heard much about them and would like to read them some day. They are on my large list of things to read!

I read the series when I was about 10 years old – I couldn’t wait to start the next one!

Well, I can’t really remember when I read them, but, of course I did! And, over & over, too.
As well my 3 sisters, my 2 children were read to and then read them on their own, even my 2 grandsons were read to and I look forward to reading to my great-grand daughter. Had the complete set, gave them to my daughter for her boys and plan to get a set for msH, too.
Loved them all!

I love your magazine..
Everything anout it. I sure enjoy this field guide..
Thanks..

I read Little House series in middle school. My children all read it. Also now we all watch the tv series reruns. We just adore all books and the show.

YES! The first time was not until I was in my 20’s, but I’m hooked and I read the series every year since then. That’s a lot of years. I even had my mom reading them before she passed away.

I started reading the series when I was ten. I received the boxed set for Christmas. I always asked Santa for books! ( Still do)

My mom used to read them to me when I was a baby.

I read the series in the 1980s with my girls. Today, I still think about Laura and her family life on that big prairie. These are so many aspects of these books that cross all barriers of time!

I was in third or fourth grade. They are all wonderful to read and read again.

Loved the Little House Series. I feel many times as if growing up in e 50’s was a lot like those prairie daya. Good times, friends, family. There were many hardships but everyone worked together. School was so important, as was church and community.

Oh yes, I read these books when I was around 8-9 years old (I’m talking about the mid-1960s). LOVED them!! They were always one of my favorites so of course I was thrilled when the TV series came about.

I think I read some way back when. But not sure.

I was 12 when I first read the Laura Ingalls books. I lover Little House on the Prairie.

I read the series when I was in elementary school-second and third grades.

I read the series as a young adult, about the time the tv series was winding down. I was especially drawn in to the books because of the detailed adventures with the Morgan horses, since I had just purchased my first Morgan brood mare.

The origami book looks like fun! I did some oragami when I was a kid, many moons ago. I now have a five year old grandson and know teaching him origami would lead to many hours of fun.

Thanks for a chance to win.

what a great book I have long to be able to create origami crafts. I would love to
explore more in this avenue of paper folding. When I master such a craft of wonderful farm animals this would be so great to do with the grandkids. I know they would love to
learn how to make cows, chickens and give them to friends. We live in farm areas and there are many cow farms, lama’s, chickens, goats, and of course horse farms. They would be able to relate more with this paper craft. I am told there is special paper to create. I hope to win this wonderful book to future my craft experience. Thank you for offering such a wonderful book. I pray that the person who wins will enjoy it to the fullest. Blessings to all who enter, Winnie

I have done some basic origami and have had fun with it. This book full of origami farm animals would be so much a great time. I work for a rural school and have recently gotten the school it’s own coop and chickens and ducks. The children would love to do origami farm animals and what a great way to work on fine motor skills!

I would love to win the origami book. I learned to make boats and sailor hats when I was a child, however, I taught school for 22 years and many of my students would make me frogs, various kinds of birds and other animals. I loved them and would display them my desk. They were amazing little creatures and always a welcomed gift from an entertaining student. Origami is an extraordinary type of art. Madelyn Shields

When I was in High school I liked folding paper cranes. I challenged myself to fold 1,000 of them before I graduated. I used colored paper, magazine pages, newspaper, notebook paper… basically anything I could get my hands on.

I managed to fold all 1,000 in time, and I strung them all on long pieces of yarn (50 per string) and hung them in my bedroom.

In 2011 I was put in a situation where I had to move and I couldn’t take my cranes with me. I was going to throw them away, but my friend (who was helping me pack) asked if she could take them instead. So I gave her my cranes. It turns out she used them to decorate a party she held for seniors!

I have done origami with my kindergarten students. One of my students gave me an origami calendar. I chose an animal that we could do together. It was a lot of fun. This book looks like something I could do with my students.

My 14year old great son would just love this book . I hope to win it for him.

Love origami and especially making Farm Animals. Would like the book to add to my artist opportunities for the 5-12 year old artists in my 2 week summer art camp at my studio The Painted Tree Studio.

Love Mary Jane’s Farm!

My Father-In-Law gave me a subscription to your magazine. I love the articles and recipes. My 12 year old son was looking at the magazine and realized there was a chance to win the book Origami Farm. He was really excited. He LOVES doing origami and is VERY talented with it. Thank you for this chance to win this book.

I would enjoy running through my thoughts to bring up those memories of working with oragami folds; including mastering the art of folding napkins for the multitude of bridal showers,baby showers and friends who treasure a gourmet meal. Thanks. MaMere

My 11 year old daughter reads the Mary Jane magazine all the time when she saw this book she said she had to have it. She sits for hours doing origami and she’s getting pretty good at it.

Sure love the idea of farm animal paper-craft for children to play with—a blissfully wonderful pastime away from computers!

I love doing origami; I just recently did a origami kit that really caught my attention.

I’ve dabbled in origami off and on since I was a teenager. Recently, I attempted some paper crafts for decorations for a local fundraiser. I was inspired by a recent art exhibit where the artist used a lot of origami to create amazing paper sculptures. Unfortunately, my daughters and I decided that my origami skills were quite lacking. Even my crane looked like a super sad pterodactyl. I really want to try to make the origami cow that’s pictured in the magazine. So cute!

I started doing Origami when I was in 2nd grade and had a friend who was a Korean War orphan and she taught me how to make a simple house and piano. Next I learned more from watching a show on PBS and have been interested in it ever since.

My daughter, Chrissy, who is now 40 years old, took home a blue ribbon for her origami design when she was in elementary school! It was sent to compete in Santa Fe, NM and won blue ribbon. Her daughter, my precious Brooklynn, who is 10 years old, loves your magazine almost as much as I do. She just saw this farm origami & was over the moon in love with it! Looks like another origami artist here.

I’m not sure what website is required, and since it is not a required field, deleted it. I hope this clarifies it.

When my girls were in school they read “Sadako and the thousand paper cranes” by Eleanor Coerr. I believe they tried their hand at Origami then; so the two oldest both took Japanese in college, the oldest did a 3 month exchange and when she got married we folded 50 paper cranes to put on her wedding cake. She got quite good at doing very small ones. My 2nd oldest graduated with a degree In Asian cultures determined to be a Manga artist. She has not become a Manga artist even though she took four years of it in a Japanese school, but settled down in the mountains of Japan to sustainably farm and now has 4 little ones with her Japanese husband.

Only experience with origami , is i found out i was all thumbs ! lol

Our girls are homeschooled and one of their lessons is in origami. They have made dragons, frogs and working on Yoda (HARD)!!! It has been discouraging at times. They made the chicken in this months issue of MJF and enjoyed it. The book would be be an awesome addition to their lesson and so discouraging. Thank you.

my creative passion is quilting/sewing. it may be a table runner, wall-hanging, bed quilt or possibly a vest, a jacket or a purse. Working with fabrics makes me happy.

My creative passion is making Greeting cards and bookmarks requested by my friends. I enjoy using scraps and leftovers, things I find around my home.

I too love being creative with my penmanship. I love to have special pens as well as note paper/cards to show the person how special they are when getting that special note/card or gift as well as my creative tags for my baked goods that I share with that special person for the day. I love to bake and making special tags for the goodies is so special for me so that person loves to see how easy it is to show others they are cared for and how special they are in this world. I often give to the homeless, older people or just someone I want to surprise for that day. When one gives to others we get so much back in return. I love being that person. I hope to win this wonder book to help me along with being even more creative in writing to others or just my crafts. I often make quilts and create my own labels for that quilt. I hand write all of them with special pens. I love this magazine of yours with wonderful recipes, educational articles on foods, crafts, etc. I hope you will continue to inspire all of us woman in this world.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you do. 🙂 Winnie

Currently, my passion is learning to play my mountain dulcimer and learning to jam with friends and bicycling. I am also intrigued with art journaling and enjoy pinning examples of it on Pinterest.

My creative endeavor is gardening and passing my knowledge on to my children and grandchildren. Nothing is better than taking a “flower walk” with granddaughter, Audrey. Now if I can only get to think that weeding is not boring!!!

I like to sew, embroidery, quilt! I’d like to learn to hand letter !

My creative endeavor would have to be making seasonal wood decorations. It’s been a little while since I have made any, but I love when I can sit down and dig into some painting and decorating. It’s one of the best ways I can express my creativity!

My creative passion is taking a piece of history and restoring it to its original beauty or repurposing it. I love the stories behind the pieces I find. I love working with wood and lettering so this creative package would be very useful.

As a self-employed bookkeeper, I live in a world of numbers so being creative is a very important part of my week. I set aside 1 day a week to step out of my analytical self and tune into my creative side, it helps keep me balanced. I have so many creative endeavors going, I love to sew, currently working on renovating our old patio furniture for our upcoming family reunion. I am also working on 2 wedding scrapbooks, one for my daughter who was married a couple of years ago and one for my son that just got married in June. I am also working on a cross-stitch for my son and new daughter in law that will go with their wedding photo.

I am a small-batch producer of all-natural handmade baked goods. It is my passion, my love, my therapy. I am trying to grow into a full-time business with my baked goods and provisions, farmhouse line and backyard farm. I thank the Lord every day for giving me these treasures of my children and my home!

Right now I getting creative in my yard. We were recently flooded with 2.5 feet of mud and water. I had just put my plants in and mulched all of my beds. I’m re-planting and re-mulching. Next up I will be digging out all of the mud from the creek bed. I would love to win this book. Calligraphy used to be very relaxing for me, but I’ve gotten away from it and only do the occassional birthday card 🙂

creative lettering is s craft I have always wanted to learn and I believe this book will help me tremendously

Well I have many, quilting, scrapbooking, painting/drawing in any media (oils are a little tricky to me) canning, gardening, baking, making wreaths etc…my friends & I have a club called craftahollics anonymous where we meet once a month & work on a project together. It’s wonderful:) In high school my art teacher gave me my first calligraphy pen & a book on how to do it. From then on I was the official name writer on all of the certificates & awards given for 3 years hahaha. I loved it but after school it fell to the wayside as some things do. I would love to learn that beautiful art form again.

I love writing snail mail letters to my many friends around the world. I find the outside of the envelope is just as important as the letter inside. I love to decorate the envelope with calligraphy. I also draw flowers and other cute things, like cats peeking through the leaves. The envelope’s are a lovely work of art. My husband always photographs the finished envelope, front and back.
I now have a nice archive of my calligraphy/drawings.

I enjoy writing and reading. I write to my 7 grandchildren every other week. Almost 2 years ago when we moved to North Carolina I sent each grandchild a map of NC. I also did this for a few friends. When we go on a day trip or two weeks I do an itinerary where we have been and what we have seen along with pictures and info I have picked up along the eay. I always do a personal letter to each and mail. I have also done a traveling Grandma Karen. My grandkids love the travel and have fun searching the map. They live in Michigan, Alaska and Nebraska.
I subscribe to your magazine and love it. Thank you.

My recent passion is Coloring – the new rage. I have been drawing & painting all my life, and making my own greeting cards for every occasion. I’m always looking for new ideas & especially lettering styles. Having 11 grandchildren & 26 great-grands keeps me busy coming up w/new card ideas for all those birthdays! I have gotten some inspirations from Mary Jane”s Farm magazine, not only for cards, but my other crafts (sewing, quilting, decoupage, etc.) & gardening. I may be 86, but never idle.

My current favorite craft is art journaling, since I can paint, glue, draw…whatever..lots of fun and relaxing too!

In art class in school, I always loved calligraphy time! I recently saw a video on a master handwriter. I would like to hone my handwriting skills! Maybe even teach a class or two.

My favorite endeavor is teaching my grands and great grands how-to read with passion using fake accents, making strawberry jam, sewing fine seams or cooking up gourmet meals.

I first did calligraphy in art class in high school. Since then I have done lots of other “artsy” things. One of the latest was fashioning a coffee table out of hand sanded and finished, curly maple, using a set of legs rescued from the dump. It has a facinating pattern, almost like looking at the desert from the air.

“Creative Lettering and Beyond: Inspiring Tips, Techniques & Ideas” book brought to my mind of my grandmother’s handwriting in old letters that was jaw-droppingly beautiful, so much so that this book would inspire me to cultivate such an artistic skill for writing snail mail on fragile paper and sealing on the back of the envelopes with embossed wax stamped in calligraphical initials to family and friends. A dying work of art that needs to be revived to its heyday! My creative endeavor/passion is quilting, sewing, gardening, and cooking that I love doing for the home and family.

I really enjoy calligraphy and love learning new lettering styles. I also really enjoy puttering around in my little garden of herbs, flowers and vegies. Current projects for the summer are going through each room of the house trying to simplify.

When I was a young girl I learned to sew from an Aunt who tried to compensate for my deceased Mother. After sewing I tried macrame and then crocheting, cross stitching,
Crewel, petit point, beadwork and jewelry. All of which helped pay the bills. I taught my daughters to love home, family, nature and creativity. When they and their families get together a craft activity is always on the program. And so my Grandchildren are learning to appreciate being creative in many forms. The two oldest granddaughters love books and journeling. They frequently receive art kits and can dry up a marker or use up colored pencils in a short time. Today I mostly create Mosaics artwork, cross stitch, color and crochet. But Iam blessed to share my love of art of all kinds with the people I love most.

My favorite creative endeavor is making the KitcheWitches :). They always make me happy as they develop. I especially love making group custom orders, because the stories and pictures that come before and after are just precious.
I love adding little handwritten notes to my orders, and have recently discovered colored calligraphy pens! They are fantastic, but I am still learning the actual lettering.

My favorite creative craft/project is the one I am working on at any given moment! 😉
I am interested in so MANY things: quilting, sewing, crochet and creative lettering. I am retired and don’t have enough time to do the things I want to do. I have been interested in calligraphy writing for years, but am just now having time to get involved with it. I would like to make my own greeting cards and stationery, etc. Love the fancy writing, I have never liked my own writing. Love your magazine, I just saw my first copy recently. Thanks for having it for us to enjoy and learn from.

I would love to receive a copy of Brandon Stanton’s book Human’s of New York. It is so important that we know the good, the heroic, and the beautiful rather than the bad and ugly. Our children need to be exposed to the good, not the bad and the ugly. Thank you for the opportunity to acquire a copy of this most prestigious book. Madelyn Shields

The current focus of stories from Pediatric cancer patients are always moving and disturbing. My best friend’s sone was diagnosed with cancer at age 17 and the ordeal that he and his family went through for three years was numbing. Thankfully today he remains cancer free and is living a normal life. But, nothing is quite normal for him or his family as the specter of what ifs can never be avoided.

As an artist and a blogger and a observer of the world and people, I find this book very intriguing. Would love to have a copy. Thanks for making the offer. Hope it’s mine.

Their story be one we’ve heard before but in HONY we see that everyone really is unique and special and it takes on such a nice compassionate quality to their every day trials or tribulation

Our world can become so self centered, these stories open our eyes to how others live and face the challenges of day to day life. I appreciate the reminder.

HOLY brings out a need in me to want to give more even though I am almost 71 years young. This book would be a delight to me. Peace!!

I would love to win this book. I remember reading about this gentleman, but I can’t recall whether it was online – magazine or what. I just recall being very moved.

Thank you.

Simply put, hanging out clothes out on the clothesline makes me feel RICH! We only have a 1/2 acre but the air is clean and the clothes smell wonderful after drying on the line. So many folks don’t have enough space, fresh air or time. I am so fortunate!

Hanging laundry is the best free therapy Mother Nature has to offer! I use lavender in my wash to also give me a stress relief scent to allow my mind to clear! It’s so relaxing and it allows anyone who hangs their clothing on a line to forget their worries for as long as their load size! I make clothespin bags for friends and winning this would be a treat for a cold story to add! Have an amazing day!
Thank you
Catherine

One aspect of hanging out clothes on my clothesline that I enjoy is the simple way they all look. The colors and shapes sort of form their own artistic scene and it is different every time the laundry gets hung. Add some wind and I am suddenly transformed to the days watching my Mother hang up clothes in our backyard between the two Dogwood trees.

Nostalgia tugging at my heartstrings! Hanging laundry out in the sun feels so wonderful that always put me in a relaxing mood every time, something magical bestowed by Mother Nature using crafted clothespins made with love that makes for laundry chores a whirlwind breeze!

I like hanging laundry on the line because it reminds me of being younger and running around through the hanging sheets and blankets as if I’m lost in a maze! Then on windy days you had to avoid the sheets from touching you!

I love clothes hung outside. The freshness from the great outdoors! Not to mention
that we should all be greener these days and saving energy is what hanging clothes outside does. I love it! I would new clothespins and the joy of using them daily.
What a wonderful gift to offer us readers! I thank you.

I’m out with The Great Creator. Every time I do laundry I look forward to hanging it all on the line to dry. I get to get out of the house and get to conserve electricity and I get to breath in the fresh clean air. My clothes are hung to wave in the breeze and be cleansed a bit more by the sunshine. I enjoy the memories of hanging with my mother and grandmothers who also took the time to enjoy the little things that were seen from the line. You can watch butterflies and birds and the breeze pushing the clouds across the sky. I have watched beetles and bees and worms and all sorts of critters while at the line. When I got the clothes off the line I fold them while I’m there. It gives me just a few more minutes to be outside and enjoying the moments.

It truly is the little things in life that give us joy.

Hugs and prayers,
Daizy #1097

I love to hang laundry. I feel so at peace when I am out there. We have needed a new dryer for a few years now but I won’t let my husband buy one because I love being outside putting the laundry on the line. Listening to the birds, watching the clouds, seeing the clothes move with the breeze, the fresh smell of the outdoors. I love it all!

Fresh. But that just seems too simple, not sure if there is a word for it. Sheets, quilts, freshly dried, just the best!

“Hanging out the wash” helps me feel real and complete. I think I was just born in the wrong time. Some of my favorite memories are of hanging out my babies’ cloth diapers. Thank you, for this opportunity.

Often it relaxes me, helps me unwind when I’m truly present to all of nature around me; I feel grateful.

Laundry hung outside to dry makes me feel young, and brings memories of hanging laundry with mom & grandma. 🙂

Hanging clothes out on the line remind me of days past. I love to see the fresh cleaned clothes floating in the breeze back and forth and that fresh air smell is divine.

For me, hanging clothes on the line is about returning to my roots. Having been raised on a farm/cattle ranch by my grandparents- we did things the simple way. When I first got married I wanted things to be just the opposite. Now the feelings are reversed- we are slowly getting back to the simple things and are working hard at making our homestead green. Smelling clothes that have been hung on the line brings me back to my favorite times as a child- the clothes smell like my Granny! No sweeter smell than that!

My dryer stopped working about a year ago. I already hung some things, quite frankly, I like to hang them. My husband has been wanting to get that dryer fixed, for my convenience ever since, but I can’t seem to get anyone to understand that I can get a few moments peace out there… just me, the laundry, the line, and the birds!

Life is busy and we must choose how to spend our precious time. Taking time to line dry clothes is one thing that is worth the effort.

I started hanging laundry when my dryer broke…9 years ago! I never replaced the dryer and hang laundry inside in winter….but, come spring and warm weather….I am hanging things outside…I love the smell of the sheets on the bed at night when they have hung outside…the laundry blowing in the breeze…..not to mention the upper body muscles that get to work when you move your arms up and down…the fresh air you breath in…. nature that calls you to stop and look…I even planted lavender in the garden bed that runs near my clothes line…..just to have the fresh smell there….I put lavender oil in the wash…oh…the smells of clean laundry…those clothespins would be wonderful…todays clothespins just don’t last…I would make a new clothespin bag to honor those wonderfully made clothespins if I won them!

I have only one line, but I hang laundry every day that weather permits. I remember mom hanging everything & those jean stretchers so they wouldn’t have wrinkles!

Hanging clothes on the line makes them smell so fresh, and it reminds me of my Mom hanging clothes out when we stayed at my grandfather’s farm in the summer.

I grew up hanging clothes on the line. I have been married for 30 years and have always had a clothes line. Nothing smells better then line dried clothes. My youngest son was in high school and a girl wanted to know what his mom washed his clothes in to smell so good. Homemade soap and line dried freshness. clothes on the line make me smile!!

There is a memory about hanging laundry make me laugh. It is when my hard-working, German “Ma” in cold, Wisconsin winter would sort our clothes into heaps on the checkered kitchen floor.Then with her already-chapped hands she would plop one of the piles in the stubby washing machine. All morning it chugged & bounced, first cleaning the whites & at the last my Dad’s Oshkosh, buckled, farm overalls. Then she would squish each piece ( and occasionally her hand) through the wringer. They would dump into a bushel basket lined with a floral, flour-bag fabric. She sewed the liner as well as the clothes pin bag on her cherished, “New Home”, pedal machine . A Donning dad’s warm parka & her old boots she would hang them outside where they would stiffen to a board. Bringing them back in still damp she would hang them all over the house like friends waiting to dry. I still use some of her close pins remembering her with love.

I remember hanging out clothes and sheets with my grandmother. She would talk about how when she was young her family raised sheep and she’d have to be careful hanging out the laundry as the sheep were quite interested in what she was doing…We would together talk about things while hanging out clothes that we probably wouldn’t have thought about otherwise. I miss those times…there is something almost hypnotic about watching the laundry whip in the wind.