Monthly Archives: May 2013

photo-of-the-day

farm_romance-3031

Hear Ye!

Welcome New Sisters! (click for current roster)

Merit Badge Awardees (click for latest awards)

My featured Merit Badge Awardee of the Week is … Kristina Smith!

Kristina Smith (kristina72, #5176) has received a certificate of achievement in Stitching & Crafting for earning a Beginner Level Cross-stitch Merit Badge!

“This turned out great. I tried to cross-stitch as a child but didn’t have the patience to complete anything. I was looking through the Merit Badge lists and thought that this would be a good way to try again as well as have a gift item for the “Summer Surprise Swap” that I signed up for on the Farmgirl Connection site.”

Continue reading

photo-of-the-day

farm_romance-6332

Trailer Show in Lindsborg, Kansas

… and our first glamp-mobile is ready for viewing! Let’s begin with THE pink chair for sitting …

kansas-1972

with a whole lot of adorable kiddos! (Sweetest, most polite kids we’ve met in a long time.)

kansas-20917

A bloomin’ pair of bloomers for wind checks.

kansas-1988

And glamporific book signings. Since my mother was celebrating her 60th b-day, she treated herself to a surprise, well, actually, she WAS the surprise … guest. No one but chapter leader, April Choate, knew she was going to show up. Who doesn’t like a birthday surprise?!

Continue reading

photo-of-the-day

farm_romance-2751-small

The Story of Food

You’ve probably heard Michael Pollan’s name popping up in the media again lately. The author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (and many other books) has just released another must-read manifesto called Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.

This is great news in itself, but I’m equally thrilled that this publication has swung the spotlight back in Michael’s direction.

This man has things to say worth hearing.

Michael Pollan has emerged as one of the world’s most eloquent and persuasive voices for food preservation.

Not “preservation” as in canning and dehydration … we’re talking the protection and long-term security of food as we know it—or, rather, as our ancestors knew it.

Lest we forget and begin believing that our daily bread originates in a factory where genetically finagled wheat is impregnated with pesticides, Michael Pollan is intent on buzzing in our ears and bringing our consciousness back down to the soil.

He’s sort of like a neatly shaven Lorax who speaks for our food.

Continue reading

GIVEAWAY: Winners of Assorted Books and Magazines …

Our lovely recipients from yesterdays GIVEAWAYS are as follows:

Glamping with MaryJane goes to Jan.

giveaway-bad_pubs-2336

Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook goes to Wanda Sue Aldridge.

giveaway-bad_pubs-2340

Artists in Aprons issue #9 goes to Linda Radziminski.

giveaway-bad_pubs-2342

Continue reading

photo-of-the-day

farm_romance-2755-small

GIVEAWAY: assorted books & magazines

Chipped nail polish, worn-out soles, split ends … everything gets a little beat up now and then, and the same is true for books and magazines.

These poor souls just didn’t survive bumps in the road, the jostle of UPS boxes, the printing press and/or were squished in an overt display of misjudged stacking.

This particular Glamping with MaryJane book was feelin’ a little bent out of shape, or so it appears. The rest of the pages are in purrrfffect condition, you won’t miss this blank polka dot page, will you? There are 224 more pages to look at! The first person to leave me the comment “polka dot” gets this book.

giveaway-bad_pubs-2336

Same with this copy of my mother’s Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook. Juuuusssssst a sticky page or two later and the rest is good as gold, right as rain, cloudy with a chance of meatballs, you get the idea. You want it? The first person who hollers out “shilly shally” gets this one!

giveaway-bad_pubs-2340

Continue reading

Ink Slinger Merit Badge, Part I

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,091 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—6,887 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 Stitching and Crafting/Ink Slinger Merit Badge, I finished the last page of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, with a satisfied sound and prepared to … wait for it …

Write the Great American Novel.

Well, eventually.

Continue reading