Monthly Archives: January 2013

Pucker Up

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 4,690 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—6,500 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life

For this week’s Beginner Level Stitching and Crafting/Spinning Merit Badge, I was excited to try my hand at spinning! Well, actually, my legs. After all, spinning had been all the rage at my local gym for a few years now, right alongside Water Aerobics and Jazzercise, and …

Oh, THAT kind of spinning.

Yes.

(I knew that.)

Okay, off with the sweat band and leg warmers. On with the flannel pajamas and slippers I like to sport while crafting. Now we’re ready!

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words to live by in 2013

Here’s an old 2007 post of mine on our Farmgirl Connection Chatroom that I thought warranted recirculation in 2013. I must say, six years later, it’s still some of the best advice I’ve come across yet …

Feb 08 2007 11:01:05

Hi farmgirls!

I was reading Miss Manners in the paper this week and decided the advice she gave was worth sharing with my girlfriends.

An activist that really disagreed with the mining of diamonds asked Miss Manners how she should handle her many friends getting diamond engagement rings. “I am happy for all my friends’ engagements, but when they go and show me the diamond and ask my opinion on the ring (i.e., “Isn’t it beautiful?”), I really want to explain my position on these stones.”

Miss Manners replied: “Miss Manners assures you that people do not absorb moral lessons from those who trample on their feelings. Rather, they forever associate the unpleasantness of the spokesperson with the cause itself. So if the certainty that you would hurt your friends’ feelings is not enough to satisfy you into mere murmured politeness, how about the certainty that you would hurt your cause?”

You’ve Got Mail (Neckwarmer & Mittens)

Wyoming rancher Anita Shepperson found her way into my heart again. (I met up with Anita and friends last summer in South Dakota for a weekend of glamping.)

This time, she surprised me with a knitted cowl/neckwarmer and mittens that she’d created using wool from the Rambouillet ewes she raises on her sheep ranch. Fuzzy, warm feelings!!!! Thanks, Anita. They’re gorgeous!!! Love.

Here these beauties are modeled by Saralou, our seamstress/crafter. Love the handmade antler buttons Anita used. But of course! Anita makes her own butter and cheese. She also weaves extraordinary baskets and so much more in addition to running a large Wyoming ranch. She’s what you’d call self-sufficient to the max.

 

Great Find (& not a Giveaway)

Molly, one of my graphic designers, SCORED big time. This purse, her satchel, cost her only $30 in a secondhand store in Portland over Christmas break. Good FIND, Molly. Covet. Love it.

 

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Quickly, she acted prickly.

You should have seen her!

She was …

prickly

(but not peevish),

spiky

(yet not exactly sharp),

and thorny

(without a trace of temper).

I’m quite sure she had four tiny paws and a little black nose,

but she was curled up into a bristled ball such that I couldn’t tell one end from the other.

She was positively erinaceous!

Can you guess what she was?

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WINNER! Giveaway: Glamping Fabric Apron

How was your holiday? We had a spectacular time communing with friends and family. Coconut macaroons = devoured. Now that we are all back to work—it’s time to pick the winner of the apron giveaway! Thanks to all who entered and became new fans of the International Glamping Weekend FB page.

The glamping apron, above, was made by our very own Project F.A.R.M. (First-class American Rural Made) Elaine Forster of “Fit to be Tied Aprons.” The lady who wins this is a lucky duck.

And the winner of the eye-catching cooking companion is ...

S Rachel H Perry

She said:

“For sure “Liked” it … me and my gals have our Glamping Weeks planned for the summer in the hills of Tennessee. Can’t wait! I wear my aprons daily especially when packing up for camping and setting up when I get there.”

Thanks to all who entered. And Rachel, keep your eyes on your inbox for an incoming email shortly.

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my first embroidery project

I decided my first embroidery project needed to be a gift for Nanny Jane, my grandmother, because she’s the one who taught my mother how to embroider. I held it behind my back and surprised her with it when she came to get me for a Friday night just-the-two-of-us sleepover.

I used a blank flour sack towel, tapestry needle (blunt with big eye), water-erasable marker, pair of scissors, and a variety of 6-strand embroidery floss to make her gift. I created the design myself and then my mother helped with the knotting and threading of the needle. I used all 6 strands.

During our sleepover, “Nan” helped me start another gift towel for Kim. It didn’t take me more than a few seconds to come up with the design for her towel—the words, Cowgirl Kim OMG! next to a pink cowgirl boot. (Nan helped me draw the boot but I did the lettering.)

Nan and I made a list of all the things we wanted to accomplish during our afternoon, night, and morning together—things like:

-start a knitted scarf

-take her dog Tulip for a long walk

-gather eggs

-take a bubble bath

-fix a big salad from the greenhouse for our dinner

-sort buttons

-fix a breakfast of potatoes, bacon, English muffins, eggs, and fresh oranges (It was YUMMY!)

I want my Nanny Jane to want me back again real soon so I did things like make the bed without being asked and I also cleaned up after myself. Nanny Jane told me that when she was my age, she also spent weekends with her grandmother and slept in the very bed that we now sleep in together! She told me that when I grow up and have a house of my own, I can have her grandmother’s bedroom set to someday give to my granddaughter.