Author Portrait: maryjane

Why love?

Posted on September 20, 2012 by maryjane

I just received an e-mail from my book editor and noticed her tagline had a quote from C.S. Lewis: “We read to know we are not alone.”

For sure, but if you think about it, prior to that, we write to know we are not alone. When we write, we’re talking to someone, right? A letter is specifically TO someone, but a blog, manifesto, book, graffiti? Writing. Writing with the desire to connect. Even some of the highest profile anti-social people like the Unabomber weren’t really anti-social. He wrote. To you. To me. To anyone who would listen. Yes, he wrote with deadly anger, but he wanted us to know him. He craved witness to his life, his beliefs. If a person can’t engage someone in love, do they attempt to engage them in anger? As long as they’re still wanting to engage, can it be changed to love? Here’s a Newsroom piece we published in our magazine 10 years ago. With today’s news, I got to wondering this morning if …   

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  1. Shery says:
    September 20, 2012 at 7:18 am

    Wow. Great story of arresting a problem before it exploded like a seed pod.

    Reply
  2. Winnie Nielsen says:
    September 20, 2012 at 8:59 am

    I wonder in today’s political experience if this is even possible? It seems that the first step is to stop the insanity that suicide is the pathway to God’s glory? In societies of oppression, how can you dissuade the promise of God? They have nothing else as a path to the future for themselves or their families? Like the suicide bombers in Japan in WWII, it was considered a privilege to die for the emperor this way.

    Is it listening? Is it education? Is it justice and peace? Equality? Maybe it is all these things. I only wish we knew for sure because innocent people die everyday in the name of doing the most honorable thing.

    Reply

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Author Portrait: maryjane

Jersey More!

Posted on September 18, 2012 by maryjane

Awesome!!!!! All of my cows are finally pregnant (go Milky Way—you da MAN). Over the course of the summer, they’ve been in various different pastures, but now that we’re having to feed them hay again (no rain, big pain), I realize how happy it makes me to have them all together (it’s a first). I love witnessing their little interactions, their “community.”

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  1. Winnie Nielsen says:
    September 18, 2012 at 8:12 am

    Happy girls make creamy milk!! They look so contented in the late summer pastures and sun. Maybe one baby name could be Hershey if she is born with the darker colored hair?

    Reply
  2. Shery says:
    September 18, 2012 at 9:44 am

    Sweet cornstalks … … our horses love them too. Jersey cows are soooo pretty and sweet. My friend, Anita, has a purebred piebald heifer. I didn’t know that they can be ‘pintos’.

    Names? Hmmmmmmmm…

    Ivanhoe D’Idaho (obviously a bull 🙂

    Mia Mocha

    Cocoa Chanel

    Lucy Latte`

    Moolin Rouge

    Boogedy Beauvine

    HAYley Milks

    Butterfly

    Buttercup

    Louise-y Lamour

    EmmyLoo Moo

    MooPoo Gaipan

    MooFly Pie

    Herdy Gertie

    Carmel

    BuhBuh LaBoeuf

    Peaches En’Creme

    Meadow Muffin

    Tater The Rumenator

    Eliza Moolittle

    ~Shery J

    Reply
    • MaryJane says:
      September 18, 2012 at 9:48 am

      Leave it to Shery! Now we have all the names we’ll ever need. I nearly peed my pants I love these so much:) Ivanhoe D’Idaho!!!!!!

      Reply
  3. LaRoyce Eskew says:
    September 18, 2012 at 6:55 pm

    Are the mini-jersey breed also used for milk? And beef? I have been wondering what mini-breeds provide.

    Reply
    • MaryJane says:
      September 18, 2012 at 7:15 pm

      Yes for milk. That’s why we have them. For a family, it’s the right amount of milk–not too much. And yes, for beef, but not as beefy big as say an Angus. I’ve tried other breeds and like Jerseys best for milking.

      Reply
  4. LaRoyce Eskew says:
    September 21, 2012 at 7:20 am

    Thank you!

    Reply

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Author Portrait: maryjane

Longhand

Posted on September 18, 2012 by maryjane

I was going through old photos and came across this little tidbit I hadn’t seen before that my mother wrote for a newspaper when she was 13 years old.

By the time she was 14, the largest Utah newspaper (some 50 miles away from her home) had hired her as a regular columnist.

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  1. Winnie Nielsen says:
    September 18, 2012 at 8:21 am

    It is interesting how it takes a huge personal disaster to make us stop and rethink how we roll! Why is that? Intuitively we recognize how we are off the scale but the fast pace of our lives just sucks us up into the vortex until something dramatic happens. I would say we are lucky when we are given a chance to reset our path without having to lose a life or our health. it is like a second chance to get it right !!

    Reply
  2. Terry Steinmetz says:
    September 18, 2012 at 9:12 am

    I know the feeling. We are on our long journey “home” from seeing the Grand Canyon. I just stood there, looking over the vastness of it all, and took D-E-E-P breaths feeling the part of me coming back to ME! I then went & bought some postcards to send to those I love–family, friends, others. Life is good! I feel like I can come back to my world at home & begin all over!

    Reply
  3. Elizabeth says:
    September 18, 2012 at 11:28 am

    These are wonderful pictures MaryJane. So much story in each picture; they are true treasures. Your mom sounds & looks wise beyond her years. She also looks & reads as if she has a multitude of talents & innate skills. Sometimes it’s nice to hear stories from & about our moms’ long before they became moms. Looks like your mom already had a good/paying job before age 14 & what a cool job too! My mom got a paying job at age 14 as well & she even dressed-up & wore lots of Makeup to the interview in order to look older than hiring age…quess it worked. I also love to see my mom’s handwriting as it is so beautiful & you can tell it’s something she took care in doing. Alas, my mom never had an opportunity to e-mail me but I still enjoy re-reading her cards~notes & lovely letters to me. And it is so strange & a bit eerie that you are longing to rekindle your Calligraphy as I hoped to do the same but Petered out & the new & unused book I bought many years ago sits in the pile to be donated to the library. MaryJane, if you would like to have this Calligraphy book to use just say the word & I will mail it to you.

    Reply
    • MaryJane says:
      September 18, 2012 at 11:44 am

      Yes! I would love to have it. I’ve mastered my freehand, now I’d like to tackle something more ornate. How sweet of you to offer it.

      Reply
  4. Cat Livingston says:
    September 18, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    Thank you for sharing. Recently I came across a book at an estate sale. Inside the cover was a beautiful inscription written by a woman in the 1800’s. It was art in writing. I treasured the fact that she took so much time writing with such style and flair. Ever since then I have taken extra time to write with curlie cues and added extras to my writings. I love to send people hand written letters on beautiful stationary I have gotten from estate sales or junk shops. We get so hung up on doing things so quickly these days with computers, I pods, and other things that consume our time, that many of us have forgotten how wonderful it is to recieve a hand written letter in the mail. I am a year older than you and I realize that we must preserve some of the forgotten treasures from the past. So my passion is to continue to write books reminding future generations of those past treasures. Blessings! 🙂

    Reply
  5. Elizabeth says:
    September 19, 2012 at 9:21 am

    Consider it yours MaryJane. Would you e-mail me the address where you would like me to send it? I’m glad it is going to a good home were it will be appreciated & used for the purpose it was created, Happy Calligraphy-ing:-)

    Reply
  6. Elizabeth says:
    September 19, 2012 at 11:26 am

    OK then MaryJane, just finished packaging it & will ship it out tomorrow. I also included another book that was in the library pile; after I read your short Bio I thought you might enjoy reading it as well (as you read like a female version of John Muir:-). Although it seems like meeting & working with your mentor Emil was part of your destiny? Enjoy

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Author Portrait: maryjane

Pumpkin Factoid

Posted on September 18, 2012 by maryjane

I recently discovered that not everyone know pumpkins are green until they turn orange. Most of mine this year are already orange and BIG! I’m not sure the green pumpkins pictured here will make it in time.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:
    September 18, 2012 at 8:09 am

    I love pumpkins because there are so many ways to use the fresh pumpkin meat. Plus they are the fall reminder of the biggest and best of the garden slide into home base at the end! I am trying to grow the only variety possible in Florda called the Seminole Pumpkin. It looks like a pumpkin shaped butternut squash and the meat is delicious to cook with. Right now the vine is trying to take over the front yard but no signs of flowers yet. I hope it all makes it. Our biggest threats are molds and bugs because of the persistent hot and humid environment. Here is hoping I have some harvest come November.

    Reply
  2. Eileen Stone says:
    September 18, 2012 at 10:53 am

    The green pumpkins are equally beautiful! I like to have an assorted collection for the month of October. I especially like the real “warty” pumpkins.

    Reply
  3. Goose Fedders says:
    September 18, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    we recently discovered that pumpkins are good to eat when they are young, also. Baby pumpkins are tender and delicious steamed or baked!

    Reply
  4. Chris says:
    September 19, 2012 at 10:56 pm

    I just bring the green ones inside when a hard frost threatens. It sometimes takes until Thanksgiving, but so far once I move them into a warmer part of the house they have all eventually turned orange.

    Reply

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Author Portrait: maryjane

glamping fabric

Posted on September 17, 2012 by maryjane

You’ve got mail, said hubby as he delivered a box of what the fabric industry calls “strike-offs.” It’s the first time I’ve seen my fabric on anything but paper. Strike-offs are irregular bits of printed fabric the mill sends for a color check.

This moment can’t go to waste, I thought! I’m thinking these scraps deserve to be made into something. I know what this occasion calls for—a new dish drainer quilt for my teardrop trailer (instructions in my Glamping with MaryJane book).

I’ll be showcasing my new fabric line in Houston at the end of October at the Quilt Show (we’ll have an actual teardrop in the Moda booth; how fun is that?). My fabric will begin showing up in quilt stores across the country in early March. Next on my list? Getting my hands on an actual bolt of fabric. Hopefully, getting this box of scraps will help me remain patient. Oops, I feel an entire trailer remodel coming on in the meantime. I think the brown and yellow rendition. Or maybe the pink and teal …

  1. Shery says:
    September 17, 2012 at 6:39 am

    Congrats on your new line of fabrics! Love the colors … especially the addition of the chocolate brown to the works. Yum. Will look for them later. I used to go to the Houston market and the springtime market also…20+ years ago (another life) as a designer. The Houston show is GiNorMous and so much fun, very inspiring to be around so many creative people too. A teardrop on display will be a magnificent magnet for attention!!

    Reply
  2. Winnie Nielsen says:
    September 17, 2012 at 9:03 am

    Love this new fabric line! The colors and prints are going to be inspiring glampers from coast to coast next spring. And what better way to set the trend than with a quilted dish drainer ? Those things were so fun to make and I have used the idea all year for little gifts. Please post the prototype of whatever you decide to make with your samples. Inquiring minds want to know!!

    Reply
  3. Dolly Sarrio says:
    September 17, 2012 at 11:01 am

    Well I sure will be glad to get some of the new fabric and I know it will be absolutely fabulous! I really can’t wait to get into my new glamping book! Thanks MaryJane for all of the beautiful things and ideas you create and share with us.

    Reply
  4. Marie Christopher says:
    September 17, 2012 at 11:08 am

    Can’t wait until March….

    Reply
  5. Terry Steinmetz says:
    September 20, 2012 at 2:48 pm

    Can’t wait until I can buy some material & begin quilting in March!!

    Reply
  6. Karin says:
    October 11, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    I cannot wait to see this in person! I’ll be at market with Karen and Angela- the A Scarlet Thread team. I hope that I get to see you. It’s been a long time!

    Reply
  7. Laura says:
    December 29, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    Will you only be at the part of the Houston show that the public attends, or just for vendors? Look forward to seeing you there.

    Reply
  8. Regina says:
    January 15, 2013 at 4:56 am

    I am looking for a liitle trailer as we speak and this could be the color scheme! So excited! Love all you do. I get your mgazine and follow you on pinterest. Such wonderful ideas.
    Regina in Murfreesboro Tn.

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Author Portrait: maryjane

Montana’s Biggest Weekend

Posted on September 16, 2012 by maryjane

Here are some more photos from the rodeo we stopped to watch in Dillon, Montana, on our way back from glamping in South Dakota.

And here are the ladies of the rodeo. From trick riders, to the drill team, to barrel racing.

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  1. Theresa says:
    September 17, 2012 at 6:25 am

    Love the photos!

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Rodeo Behind-the-Scenes

Posted on September 16, 2012 by maryjane

Okay, so there I was in the bleachers, enjoying the rodeo, when I looked down and behind me, only to discover I was sitting right above where the wrangler-butted GUYZ were suitin’ up to ride. (My camera was instantly redirected.)

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  1. Eileen Stone says:
    September 16, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    Oh Yes!

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Well, ain’t that darn cute!

Posted on September 15, 2012 by maryjane

My ’68 Airstream, ‘Lily’, and I had a real bawl on our recent trip to South Dakota. Get it, bawl? Hahaha, ok sorry! Don’t have a cow. I mean DO have a cow, a backyard cow, a miniature Jersey to be specific. 😉

I am in the midst of writing my next book, Milk Cow Kitchen, and here’s the deal …

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  1. Siobhan McBride says:
    September 15, 2012 at 11:31 pm

    How awesome is that! Just my kind of thing!

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June/July Magazine Cover

Posted on September 14, 2012 by maryjane

We had a request for some close-up photos of the vintage wedding dress I wore on the front cover of our June/July magazine.

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  1. Terry Steinmetz says:
    September 14, 2012 at 7:48 am

    How lovely! And I can tell that it would be comfy!

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  2. Winnie Nielsen says:
    September 14, 2012 at 9:04 am

    Beautiful and so elegant! What an heirloom to have and still be able to use it today. Maybe one of your grand babies will get married in it one day??

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  3. Dolly Sarrio says:
    September 14, 2012 at 9:37 am

    That is such an item to have and cherish. It is lovely, just imagine the work that went into that just from looking at it I see lots! I am so glad you shared that with us.

    Reply
  4. Elizabeth Colvin says:
    September 14, 2012 at 9:59 am

    That dress is absolutely gorgeous. The handiwork is beautiful. Thank you for sharing Mary Jane!

    Reply
  5. Beccie says:
    September 14, 2012 at 11:12 am

    IT WAS ME!!! I WAS THE ONE WHO REQUESTED TO SEE THIS LOVELY DRESS!! i cant get over how beautiful it is! i was considering crocheting something similiar to this, but wow! this is a little out of my league! LOL!
    THANKYOU!THANKYOU!THANKYOU!THANKYOU! oh, so much for doing this! its not often a magazine would fulfill such a request. i truely appreciate the time you took for the photos.
    You have now a subscriber for a LOOOONG time!!

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  6. Shery says:
    September 16, 2012 at 8:21 am

    What a labor of love. I wonder how long it took to make this masterpiece. Imagine being able to look back in time and watch the creator at work on it. That fits into my dream vacation theme. Not a matter of where, but stepping into a time machine and going back to watch certain things as they happened … the signing of the Declaration Of Independence, Laura Ingalls Wilder looking out the back of their covered wagon, Amelia Earhart standing on the wing of her plane for a photo op, a band shell concert in a New England park around 1910, Central Park on a Sunday when fancy buggies and horses were cruising throug, and the wedding when a lovely bride wore this dress. The list goes on :o)

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  7. Elizabeth says:
    September 17, 2012 at 10:12 am

    A wedding dress worth saving; it’s quite lovely. Do you have pictures of the original bride wearing the dress? Love old pictures as much as I appreciate quality workwomemship:-)

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photo-of-the-day

Posted on September 13, 2012 by maryjane

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