photo-of-the-day

farm_romance-4077

  1. Victoria says:

    Where can I purchase this roasting chestnuts soy candle?

    • MaryJane says:

      We have them for sale in our Coeur d’Alene, Idaho store but can ship them from here even though we don’t have them on our website.

  2. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I love the packaging of this candle and I bet it smells wonderful too!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

arm yourself

My book designer, Karina, discovered a new way of knitting at her last craft party. If you haven’t heard of this latest craze, it’s easy, it’s fun, and it’s fast … necessarily so, since you’re all tied up … literally … in yarn, using your arms instead of needles. And as you can imagine, there are a number of reasons why you can’t be tied up for too long.

arm-knitting

Photo, flaxandtwine.com

Because of the size of the stitches your “needles” produce, you can make an infinity scarf in about a half hour, even if you’re a beginner.

Find a step-by-step written tutorial with photos for the scarf pictured above at a wonderful blog called Flax & Twine: A Happy Handmade Life.

Or knit a blanket in just 45 minutes with a great video tutorial from SimplyMaggie.com.

An added bonus? It’s a workout for your arms … we’re talking toning, big time.

Note: For 20% off Lion Brand Quickie Arm Knitting Yarn, enter MARYJANES20 in the coupon code box during checkout for yarns at: http://www.yarncanada.ca/categories/lion-brand/shop-by-product-line/quickie-yarn.html

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Wow, this is kinda cool! It actually looks more complicated to me than using needles. The one drawback I see is if you needed to stop, how would you get untangled without dropping stitches and getting really messed up? That is a huge problem I always get into with needles. Or maybe I just make too many mistakes. I could see me getting all knitted into the the project!!

  2. Cindi Johnson says:

    Hahaha! Well, I can’t even put the sink sprayer back into is post without spraying myself, I can’t imagine what kind of tangle I will get into trying this ~ but I’m game! What a fun activity that would be for an afternoon gathering of friends.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Nostomania

You may find yourself overcome by nostomania this time of year.

800px-Cat_in_tree

Photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos via Wikimedia Commons

No, no—nostomania is not the sort of mania that causes you to become wild-eyed and rip up the house in a frenzy.

610px-Tiger_go_crazy!_(2854508919)

Photo by Torbak Hopper via Wikimedia Commons

Nor does it make you scale tall trees to escape the madness.

800px-Chartreux_cat_on_tree_-_Kartäuser_Katze_auf_Baum

Photo by Quickndirty via Wikimedia Commons

That is an entirely different holiday issue. I’m talking about missing your one and only, Jasper Tomkins.

Jasper Tomkins

Nostomania is more this kind of mania:

My_crazy_cat

Photo by Doryana02 via Wikimedia Commons

You know the feeling. You don the cozy crimson hat your sister knitted for you last year and stare into space while absentmindedly humming “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” because you are beset by a certain melancholy that can only be called nostomania (nos-tuh-MAY-nee-uh): an irresistible compulsion to return home; intense homesickness.

Yup.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    You hit the nail on the head! I’ve always wondered why there is always this uncertain melancholy every year in the days preceding Christmas? No matter how much one tries to recreate the past, it never quite meets the memory you have in your head and heart. Somehow, it always falls a bit short like something is missing and you just don’t know what. Yup!

  2. I guess I’m kind of fortunate, I don’t miss my dysfunctional family christmas celebrations at all. Lots of marriages, lots of step brothers and sisters, lots of going from place to place. I’m happy now with my own personal celebrations with friends . I’m headed to an outdoor bonfire party tonite. I decorate like there is no tomorrow with my vintage and antiques Christmas decor. My house is cozy and lovely.
    My most memorable Christmas was in India where we put on a travelling Nativity play with real CAMELS, and all the other animals. Baby Jesus was a real newborn. The 3 kings were amazingly authentic .Our costumes were exquisite with all the silks and fabrics. The locals were fascinated and it was the most close to the true meaning of Christmas I ever experienced.

  3. Cindi Johnson says:

    Jasper Tomkins? The writer? Oh yes, I do miss him. And, yes, a serious case of nostomania comes with the holidays for me every year. So to feed it, I get out Mom’s huge collection of holiday dishes (Vernonware!), starting at Thanksgiving and pull out all of the classic Christmas movies to continue the nostalgia-filled atmosphere through to the New Year and just enjoy it. With a smile. A huge smile. It’s a good way to feel my loved ones around me once again. And it creates a base of memories for my grandchildren to have their own nostomania when they grow up.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

a little piece of Downton Abbey

What happens when you combine a dash of Christmas spirit with gingerbread, candy canes, and Downton Abbey?

I’ll show you what happens …

A little something, oh, like this:

kates-welcome-to-downton-2

Photo courtesy of Eggton.com

Or, maybe, like:

photo 4

Photo courtesy of http://getbacktothedrawingboard.blogspot.com

And if you want to see how such a miracle might occur, just watch …

I know some of you are taking this post to heart, as if it’s some sort of triple-dog dare. What can I say?

First of all, remember that there are consequences to taking dares …

a-christmas-story-pole

Photo from A Christmas Story courtesy of Uproxx.com

And if that doesn’t deter you, then I triple-dog dare you to make a Downton Abbey gingerbread castle—and post pictures to prove it.

You still have time before the big day. Whip up some construction grade gingerbread (aka, “oven plywood”) and get busy!

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Whoa, this is great. What a talented and creative baker to make such an incredible piece of art! Did you know that The Republic of Tea has a set of three tea varieties in their Downton Abby Collection? They look adorably labeled too. I am curious about Mrs. Patmore’s blend! Wouldn’t it be fun to have a tea party with a Downton Abby Gingerbread house and special teas? In period dress? That would be so much fun.

    • Karlyne says:

      I agree, Winnie, and I’d love to come! (Was this an invitation?)

      We keep putting off our gingerbread cookie day, and if Thursday gets cancelled again, we’re going to have to make New Year’s cookies…

      • Winnie Nielsen says:

        Karlyne~ It would be so fun to do a Downton Abby Tea. Too bad we all live so far apart!!

        Gingerbread cookies are delicious any time of year! They are a favorite of mine. As Dorcus , In Lark Rise to Candelford would say, ” They are one of my weaknesses!”

        • Karlyne says:

          At our library trustee Christmas meeting last week, we all had to write down our favorite cookie and mine was “gingersnap”, preferably made by my oldest daughter, who’s a whiz-kid cookie maker!

          And, really, how much farther apart could our geography be?

  2. CJ Armstrong says:

    Those are gorgeous and very intricate . . . but, I’m not up for that challenge! I’ll leave it to the diehards!
    CJ

  3. MaryJane says:

    Imagine my surprise when I received an email from Twitter about this story.

    “Anna Bates (@MrsAnnaBates) retweeted one of your Tweets!”

    Yup, that’s Mrs. Anna Bates from the show! Happy moment!

  4. Nancy Coughlin says:

    Would love to try, but seeing as how I have trouble frosting a cupcake, I will leave this to those better suited to the task! It is wise to recognize and honor those areas where we are weaker and less inclined to do well.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Washi Tape

Have you been introduced to the colorful, textural, sticky goodness known as washi tape?

washi-tape

It’s taking the craft world by storm and I love to use it to decorate boxes and envelopes, but what do I really know about it? Turns out the word “washi” comes from wa for “Japanese” and shi for “paper,” and it’s used to describe paper made by hand in the traditional Japanese manner. Although the tape isn’t always made outright from washi, the washi-like patterns and texture are where it gets its name.

Washi tape is typically made from natural fibers, such as bamboo or hemp, but most commonly from the bark of trees that are native to Japan—the mulberry, the mitsumata shrub, or the gampi tree. The beauty of the pulp from these sources is that it has no grain, making the tape easy to manipulate and tear. The whole washi tape phenomenon started in 2006 when a group of artists approached a Japanese masking tape manufacturer and presented them with a book of art they had created using the company’s industrial masking tapes. The artists requested that the company manufacture colorful masking tapes for artists, and washi tape was born.

In addition to being used as an art supply for things like business cards, serving trays, lampshades, nail art, and gift wrap, some artists, like Nasa Funahara, are taking it a step further by using washi tape as paint to recreate masterpieces by famous artists like Van Gogh and Verneer.

nasa-funahara

Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer created with masking tape, photo spoon-tamago.com

An art student at Musashino Art University in Japan, Nasa takes about a week to build her paintings by layering different washi tapes together. Her pieces mimic the original in basic composition, but the real magic lies in looking at them up close, where the vast array of color and texture are revealed. And in Sacramento, California, there’s an art collaborative that creates large-scale interactive art installations out of washi tape, a whole “washi” movement known as Tapigami.

tapigami

photo, tapigami.com

So next time you see a coordinated pack of washi tape in the checkout line in colors and textures that make you giddy, go ahead and grab it. Its versatility is literally endless.

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    I have not seen these pretty tapes. The ones I have come across so far have been cute but not as interesting as these shown. Nasa’s art work is incredible! Wow, who would ever guess how she did this?

  2. wow and only using my colored ” frog” tape ! I’m so not with it!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Irish Trio Wins Google Science Fair

Three cheers for this lovely teen trio from County Cork, Ireland!

googlesciencefairwinners

Photo courtesy of Google Science Fair

Émer Hickey, Ciara Judge, and Sophie Healy-Thow recently won the Grand Prize in the 15-16 age group of the 2014 Google Science Fair.

To be sure, that’s pretty cool in and of itself, but it’s the particulars of their project that really take this farmgirl’s cake …

Reportedly inspired by Émer’s observations within her family’s backyard garden, the trio set out to study the effects of beneficial bacteria on the growth of cereal grain crops (and to think, we’ve just been picking and eating our veggies all this time).

“Émer and her mom were gardening, and she noticed nodules on one of their pea plants,” Sophie told National Geographic. “She brought that into school, and our teacher told us it was bacteria.”

As it happened, the girls’ class was in the midst of a lesson on the world food crisis, and they learned that the knobby nodules on plant rhizomes hold beneficial bacteria that boost growth. For visual reference, here are “Rhizobia nodules” attached to roots of a cowpea plant:

800px-Rhizobia_nodules_on_Vigna_unguiculata

Photo by Stdout via Wikimedia Commons

“We became really interested in what this bacteria can do and what people haven’t done with it so far,” said Sophie.

Atta girl!

People—lots of people—apparently told the girls that the bacteria wouldn’t have an impact on cereal crops, but they shrugged off the naysayers and decided to test their hypothesis on barley.

800px-Barley_fruit

Photo by Daniel Schwen via Wikimedia Commons

According to Scientific American, the team has tested the effects of beneficial bacteria on some 13,000 seeds over the course of three years. “We did a lot of experimental work in Ciara’s house,” Émer told RTE radio after their win. “First, we took over the spare room, then expanded into the kitchen, sitting room, conservatory, and the garden … It was quite a lot of work, but it has really been worth it.”

They found (naysayers be darned) that the microbes increased seed germination rates by 50 percent! What’s more, harvest yields increased by as much as 70 percent. The girls currently have a controlled field site planted with 3,600 seeds in their hometown. Émer says that further benefit may be seen in the reduced need for fertilizers and that improved germination speed is of particular interest to farmers in places like Ireland, where seeds can rot in the damp soil before sprouting.

For more details, listen to the girls explain their awe-inspiring research in their own words:

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    Fantastic!! The younger generation are our hope for a better and more prosperous future! It is amazing what can happen when you are open to questions and not pre-judging or dismissing the answers!

  2. Cindi Johnson says:

    These girls are amazing! I wish we would see more of these trail-blazing kids in the news. There are a lot of them out there. Maybe showing more stories like this would help the way too many kids out there that have no one in their life to encourage them, show them that they are incredibly smart and inspire their potential. Oh, and that wearing aprons is cool! Did you see it?

  3. April says:

    That’s fantastic! Way to go girls!!!

  4. Kim says:

    WOW!!! Way to go!!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Mr. G and Jellybean

I should probably assume that when something goes “viral” on the Internet, you’ve seen it already …

But what if you haven’t?

Some stories are just too heartwarming not to share—just in case. For instance, the story of Mr. G and Jellybean.

In a nutshell, Mr. G (a goat) and Jellybean (a donkey) were rescued, among many other animals, from an abusive California owner a few months ago. They were taken to separate animal sanctuaries in hopes of giving them happier homes.

And yet, Mr. G wasn’t happy. At all.

10011975_1441644032756518_3747895019517162598_o

Photo of Mr. G courtesy of Animal Place via Facebook.com/mrgjellybean

After arriving at Animal Place in Grass Valley, California, the 10-year-old goat stopped eating. For days, he wouldn’t even get up from the corner of his stall to go outside. Neither treats nor tenderness would perk him up despite a clean bill of health from a veterinarian.

There was only one thing to do …

Donkeycrossing

Photo by Grievous via Wikimedia Commons

There was only one “someone” who could come lumbering (lop ears and all) to the rescue …

10628738_1484668465120741_3989363600925902329_o

Photo of Jellybean courtesy of Animal Place via Facebook.com/mrgjellybean

Yup.

Grab a tissue and watch …

  1. Oh Yes, many tissues! People don’t realize the intense bonds that animals form , even those that are of different species. Goats are particularly empathetic and often kept as ” pets” for nervous horses and other larger animals. Burros are such sweet animals and to think that anyone would abuse and neglect these animals just makes me weep. My best childhood friend had a pet burro named Pocohontas and she thought she was a dog and she’d ride in the station wagon with the other dogs. We are all so glad Mr. G and Jellybean were happily reunited!

  2. CJ Armstrong says:

    So very heartwarming! Makes me smile great big farmgirl smiles!!!
    Thanks!
    CJ

  3. Terry Steinmetz says:

    My heart was so happy to see this story! Thank you for sharing!

  4. LouAnn Rice says:

    Of course. ..people forget that animals have buddies and feelings.
    Love this.
    Thank you. 🙂

  5. Cindi Johnson says:

    So happy the rescuers realized what was wrong with that poor sweet Mr. G. I love stories like this ~ and like Lisa’s ~ pet burro riding in the car, hahaha! That is wonderful.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Adopt a Farmer

I just learned about a super-great program in Oregon called Adopt a Farmer.

Don’t worry—no one is abandoning farmers by the roadside!

800px-HITCHHIKING_-_NARA_-_543027

Photo by Tomas Sennett, Environmental Protection Agency, via Wikimedia Commons

Nothing like that.

In fact, this program is more about farmers helping kids by being adopted. If this isn’t making sense yet, just let me gather my druthers, and I’ll explain …

The Adopt a Farmer program, launched in 2011 by the Agri-Business Council of Oregon, is designed to help reconnect students in middle-school science classes to the sources of their food and fiber with hands-on farm education. After all, it wasn’t so long ago that Oregon kids were grounded in good farm work …

800px-Farm_kids_with_Oregon_Electric_Railway_station_in_background_(Beaverton,_Oregon_Historical_Photo_Gallery)_(209)

Photo courtesy of the Beaverton Oregon Historical Photo Gallery via Wikimedia Commons

Each participating class “adopts” one Oregon farm or ranch for the entire school year. During the year, the class takes at least one field trip to “their” farm, and the farmer or rancher also visits the classroom once a quarter to share updates about life and work on the farm.

800px-Hurst_Farm_-_Sutherlin_Oregon

Photo of Hurst Farm in Sutherland, Oregon by Ian Poellet via Wikimedia Commons

Plus, the students share a blog with their farmer, which allows them to communicate directly. You can view the blogs by clicking on the “visit blog” link shown below each farmer’s picture on the program’s website.

Twelve schools and over 1,000 students are currently participating in the program, and the Agri-Business Council plans to expand the Adopt a Farmer program to schools across the state.

Here’s a little more about the program from those who know it best:

  1. Winnie Nielsen says:

    This is a great idea for school curriculum. Real opportunities for what goes on with a farm are few unless you have a chapter of Future Farmers of America or 4H built into the program and is open to all students. In Florida, we do have some high school agribusiness curriculums but they require specific teacher requirements and a school with career and technical funding to provide the necessary books and teachers to run the program. As a result, there are not as many opportunities for students to select agriculture as an option. Most of the programs are also in the schools located in the county which eliminates such opportunities for kids in the city. I think Oregon is smart in looking at ways to connect secondary education with the state agri-buinesss. But then, Oregon does a lot of smart and progressive things!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *