Thank you for dropping by my Raising Jane Journal to participate in my giveaways! We’ve chosen a winner for this giveaway already (click here for details), but don’t be afraid to leave a comment anyway. I love reading them. And stay tuned for more great MaryJanesFarm giveaways.
In the Apr/May issue of MaryJanesFarm, on newsstands March 6, you’ll see how Megan converted an old wicker bassinet into living-room picnic-gear storage that now holds a picnic quilt, a couple of pillows, and board games for the perfect indoor picnic.
In the photo above, you’ll see my MaryJane’s Home “”Busy Bee” quilt and pillow with my favorite patchwork shape, the hexagon. Why a hexagon? The hexagon, a shape that speaks the zen of the busy beehive or the wired manors of chickens (the oldest domesticated animal on Earth), symbolizes the unity and structure of the farmgirl life—a framework for the proper order of things, a pattern for life. In unwritten feminine language, it is a standard for farmgirls, or for that matter, the ordinary honeybee or the hen, rank and file workers that move the work along. It says that all things are to be done decently and in order, and that small things add up.
For a chance to win one of our “Busy Bee” twin quilts and matching 16″-square pillows, tell me all about your favorite picnic experience in the comments below. I’ll toss your name into a hat and draw a lucky winner sometime mid-May.
Stay tuned for more magazine-related giveaways. If you’re not yet a subscriber to my magazine, MaryJanesFarm, subscribe here for $19.95/year.
Love the quilt! In 1989 my husband and I spent a week in Ireland. Traveling on the cheep side, our sightseeing consisted of taking hikes and trying to see the actual “country” , not the tourist traps. One day we decided to spend a day hiking a section of the Wicklow Way, a trail along the east coast. Ireland is green for a reason and it rained on us for a good portion of the day. Lunchtime found us in a heavy downpour. As we rounded a corner we found an overhanging rocky out crop just big enough for the two of us to hunker down under. We enjoyed a simple picnic there while looking out over miles (err..kilometers) of lush, misty, drippy countryside. Definitely a never-to-forget moment!
When I was little, and in the spring, my mom and dad would take us three kids on a picnic. Mom would make pasties, coleslaw and brownies, and we were allowed a bottle o pop too. My dad would load up blankets and off we’d go. We’d hike around looking fo spring flowers or bird nests. Often some of her sisters would meet us. My favorite thing to do was lay in the clover, looking for 4 leaves. When we were all starved, mom would bring out the pasties and we’d gorge on it,the coleslaw and pop. Good times.
We love having year round picnics. It’s not always blankets and beautiful weather. One time my husband and I packed sandwiches, snowshoed a few miles, sat in a bank of snow, and enjoyed our sandwiches. It was cold but wonderful!
One time, my girls and my young cousin had a pizza and drinks outside the school one Summer. Another summer, same girls, same school, ate a whole cake with milks that was an extra cake from my daughter in 4h! That was a good time.
One of my favorite picnics occurred on a Thanksgiving day. Our kids had all grown up and were spending the day at their in-laws with their families. My husband and I decided it would be a good day to hike in the woods. I put our single burner wilderness stove in my backpack along with a can of Spam brand turkey, jarred gravy and hand held pumpkin pies. Though in a coffee pot, water bottles and binoculars and we, and the Jack Russell, were off. What a great time! My husband still talks about that day. He says it was one of the best Thanksgivings he ever had.
Picnic on the Olympic peninsula with two amazing ladies I met online, to do a tour of Native American reservations and visit Forks WA; our tour host Deana made our picnic and treated us like princesses; having never met before , we marveled at our names; Deana, Tina, and Rena, all well over 50 and looking for adventure in the beauty of nature 🙂
my favorite picnic memories are those at my maternal grandparents’ house. they lived in a large stone house not far from a river where my mother’s family fished and had campfires/fishfries on the banks. picnics include homemade fare and farm raised meats. there was no lack of company nor entertainment since my mom had sixteen siblings which meant plenty of cousins! lots of good memories.
My favorite picnic experience was a “going away” party with my best friend. I was leaving Texas to move to Washington state and we met at a lavender farm outside of Brenham, TX. We brought along gourmet sandwiches, sparkling apple juice (I was pregnant), and a bubbles to blow so we could play like kids for a moment. I’ll always hold this parting dear to my heart. Now she lives in Florida and I’m in the other side of the country but we meet whenever we can….and will have more picnics to come.
When I was a teenager I went on a picnic in the forest….cold chicken, potato salad, pickles. watermelon and cookies…..it was a beautiful , mysterious very quiet place. With the sun streaming down thought the tall trees. I never have forgotten this beautiful place and it comes back to me in my dreams. A time of peace and love…….
Oddly enough one of my favorite picnic was actually in my living room in front of the fireplace. My 3 nephews were over visiting and we were looking for something fun to do. So why not have an indoor picnic? So we laid our one of my handmade quilts, made some nachos (yes really, it was their favorite meal at that time!) and had a great time!
My favourite picnic, I had packed the most wonderful picnic for the family, husband, me, and my three sons. We hiked about 4 miles through the woods, following a beautiful path to Skookumchuk Narrows, in British Columbia, a fascinating place where the tides change directions. We all sat down on a blanket at a perfect place to observe the tidal change. We had all worked up an appetite. I told my husband to bring out the food now, he said what food. Well you guessed right, we forgot the picnic 4 miles back in the van. Each of us thought the other had put the picnic in our back pack. Did we ever enjoy the picnic after we hiked 4 miles back to the van, we had certainly worked up an appetite!
My favorite picnic memory is from a camping trip we took with our 3 children in the blue ridge mountains. We stopped at an overlook, the children were starving as usual so we lifted the hatch on our suv and spread the food out . Suddenly t
My favorite picnics are riding ATV/UTV’s with friends to a spot that has a waterfall, hanging out laughing, eating good food, and occasionally doing some fishing.
Picnics were special social activities in the summertime when I was growing up back in the 30’s and 40’s. There was always a picnic to go to. The church picnics after Bible School, neighborhood picnics in a cleared area in the woods across the street from our home, school picnics, picnics with relatives and picnics that our family of seven would enjoy at one of the local parks near home. My mother enjoyed putting together enough food to carry in her wicker picnic basket and then we would all pile into the car and off we would go for a “ride’ in the country! A lot of picnic tables along the highway back then where one could pull off the road and enjoy their picnic. Also many cleared places along the creeks and rivers were we could remove our shoes and socks and wade in the creek! I do miss those “care free” days!
I loved reading about your picnic memories! Your description is lovely and I can so picture them! That was just what I needed to read today!☺
We live in Wisconsin. 9 months of the year it’s cold or wet. When my kids were young I would set up a picnic in the living room in January. They put on their summer clothes and we had a picnic feast all inside. I would also surprise them by having them out summer clothes over their winter clothes and take them to the Mitchell Domes in Milwaukee where it’s summer all year long.
My favorite picnics are the ones my husband and I take every time we take the horses on a trail ride and are gone all day with a picnic lunch I carry in the saddle bags. Lunch usually consists of a food/sandwich that doesn’t have to be refrigerated, fruit and homemade cookies plus something to drink, usually water. We usually share these picnics with friends that are riding with us. My husband, our friends, the horses and being outdoors in the woods are what make these such a special time. My husband and I are senior citizens now (78 and 73 this year) and we’ve lost some of our friends that used to ride with us so we appreciate these times more than ever.
I was a young girl, from Louisiana, on my the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. We took along a bag stuffed with sandwiches and bottles of Dr. Pepper. My father and y’all, male friends would walk out into the seawater with a long trowel net going to fill it with shrimp, crab and flounder. The real fan began when the net return fall of ocean treasures. I picked up hermit crabs and small fish to fill my own Sand -dug miniature ocean. I played with my living treasures until mother called us for supper. She had spent the evening cooking fresh crab and shrimp. And that’s when the real meal began.
Each weekend after Labor Day, most of our family attends the Tri-State Rodeo. On Saturday afternoon, we meet at the riverfront and enjoy fried chicken, watermelon, and the acoutrements. It’s a fun, restful time before the evening festivities.
We moved to Indiana and had an empty nest for the first time in 30 years. My husband and I would take our dinner to the west side of our property and watch the sun set. It was our special place to talk about our kids that we missed so much.
My favorite picnic experience was when my boys and I traveled to steptoe state park and eat a picnic at the bottom and then journeyed to the top to watch the sun set! And following the sun was a bueatiful display of stars! No one wanted to go home!
When my family lived in Plymouth, Iowa in the early 70s, my sister and I were drawn to the Rock River that flowed through town. The woods behind our house had paths that led along the banks and to a railroad trestle. Slightly upriver from the trestle was the stone foundation of a waterwheel. This was our favorite place to sit and picnic. Mom would pack us paper bags of bologna sandwiches and carrots sticks in pastel Tupperware glasses. We’d sit crosslegged and enjoy the peace and quiet.
Last June we were headed to the mountains of N.C. for a week stay in our newly purchased time-share cabin. It was a Saturday, and we couldn’t check in until 4:00, so we packed a small picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day that we didn’t want to waste, so we checked the map for a nearby hiking trail, and left early enough to get our hike and picnic lunch completed before check-in. I must say this was the most memorable picnic ever, because our hike brought us to the most beautiful grassy meadow with wildflowers and 360 views. We felt we were on top of the world. We spread our blanket, and after eating our sandwiches, just laid back and watched the clouds and listened to the peaceful sounds of nature. I cannot wait to go again this year!
Smokey Mountains… heading up the backroads until we found a meadow overlooking a babbling brook. We spied something down in the rocks and climbed down to see what was shining in the bottom of the brook. It was an unopened can of Yahoo…possibly from someone else’s picnic? I fell in reaching for the can … that water was COLD! But once retrieved, it was shared by all over a good laugh. Built a small fire to dry out my pants (and yes, properly extinguished before we headed back home.)
My husband and I were raised in the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon. Now at retirement we again live on the foothills of the Cascades in Central Oregon. We have been married for 45 years and love to celebrate our August wedding Anniversary in the mountains. Every year we pack a picnic lunch of baloney and cheese sandwich, Fritoes, fruit and chocolate and water ( our first picnic anniversary lunch! All we could afford!) and head into the hills to find a road we haven’t been on before! When we find the perfect spot with a breathtaking view we stop , put out our humble lunch and enjoy all our memories while looking at something new we found together!
I remember my mom pitching a sheet tent over the rose bushes, we’d be called to join her inside. Lovely spread of bolonga sandwiches, kool-aid and her famous heart shape layer cake… made from her tin heart shaped pans; yellow cake topped with pink frosting!!
My very favorite ‘picnic’ memory was back in August of 1998. My then boyfriend, was trying to impress me, and suggested a picnic. He told me I didn’t need to bring anything. He said he would do the whole thing himself. We took a drive up to a lake. It was a beautiful day! I don’t exactly remember what we ate but I do remember what we drank.
Being 45 yrs. old, and he was 50, he wanted some nostalgia, a blast from the past. We drank a old-fashioned soda called Green River. I hadn’t had one in years and it was so good! He also brought the old-fashioned red checked table cloth. I WAS ‘impressed. Only three weeks later, we were engaged. The rest is “picnic history”.
That is so sweet and romantic!
My favorite summer picnics are with my daughter. These special times are made that much more meaningful with my grandmothers old fashion picnic basket that I salvaged from an out building on her farm after she passed away a few years ago. We lug that big old basket everywhere during the summer, finding magical picnic settings at parks, under a tree in our back yard, or just in our living room on a rainy day.
Picnics are always fun, but the best picnics are with family. My mother’s birthday is March 26 so one year her birthday fell on Easter Sunday. It was a gusty, chilly March Sunday, but we hid eggs in the backyard, spread a table cloth under a tree, and enjoyed deviled eggs, chicken salad sandwiches, and “Peeps”, a marshmallow treat that my kids, at that time three and four years old, loved. Mother was always happiest when we were all together, and we were all quite happy that day.
My favorite picnic memory is making violet bracelets with my granddaughters where we stuck the flowers to tape that was sticky side out on our wrists. We also would put down a circle of string in the grass, lay on our tummies and name as many things as we could see…
My favorite picnic experience? Outdoor grilling in the Sierra Mountains mid-January, while snow floats like feathers down to the ground, finding you huddled in the corner of an abandoned “ice house”, it’s roof long gone, while your freshly caught pan-sized trout sizzles ‘n pops under the crystal snowflakes…
I have so many lovely picnic memories but one that stands out is a series of often impromptu picnics my mother and I had when I was eight and nine years old. We were reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott together and tended to bring the book with us frequently. So while waiting for my dad to finish work, we would often sit under a tree, munch on Granny Smith apples and read about the adventures of the March sisters. I still love Granny Smith apples, and treasured Little Women so much that I wrote my masters thesis on the book but it is the memories of those picnics that I hold most dear for my mother showed me how to take time to venture under trees, feel the fresh air, laugh a lot, cry at times ( Beth’s death!) and make memories that last a life time.
My kids when they were 4 & 5 loved to picnic. There was something about eating outside that they loved & found so freeing. My daughter would even insist that we all dress in our snowsuits in December at 10°F and head outside to picnic on grapes and peanut butter sandwiches. Now that they’re a little older we’ve become fair weather picnicers.
I would have to say my most memorable picnic was when my husband and I were first dating. It was a warm clear summer evening. We had heard that there was going to be a meteor shower so we picked the perfect spot to put our blanket on the ground and sat and talked and waited for the shower to begin it was very romantic evening.
I remember packing a picnic lunch and setting out for a hike with my cousins on their farm. I was probably under 10 years old, and we were all off by ourselves taking a trail made by my uncle’s tractor tires. We probably made it only a quarter of a mile before we decided it was lunchtime and sat down to take a break and have our picnic!
I was pregnant with my 3 child and we went on a picnic down by the creek. Great time my uncle took the quilt we were using got real high on the mountain and yelled like an Indian. It was great fun. My children were very little at the time and wanted to meet the Indian. It scared them a little.
Packing a very ordinary sandwich into a little box and taking my young niece to school to eat outside at the picnic table with her sister!
Thirty years ago my husband to be packed a picnic lunch of grapes, crackers, cheese, coffee and water and took me to a pasture down by where he grew up. We ate lunch under a tree on a sleeping bag.
In the fall my Dad would go pheasant hunting in Minnesota. Mom would make fried chicken, potato salad and her delicious cookies. Dad would take Mom, my brother Tom and I and we would walk the emptied corn fields and scare out the peasants while Dad walked beside us. I don’t ever remember we were very successful in our hunt. But back at the car we would have our picnic in the frosty air and just enjoy the outing and being together as a family.
A couple of years ago my husband and I celebrated our 25th anniversary. We spent the weekend traveling the western coast of Michigan. At one of the scenic overlooks, we found a lovely sitting area along Lake Michigan where we had a picnic. We unpacked fruit, cheeses, crackers, and chips. The weather was perfect – warm and sunny!
When I went to work for the local sheriff’s office I had to learn the road system.
Every Saturday morning I would pack a picnic lunch, the county map, my twin daughters and myself into my old Volkswagon Beetle. My car had hardly any paint on it so we named her “Broomhilda”.
Each Saturday would be a different area of the county. We would mark the map as well as our new picnic spot for the day. We always had a good time and a good homemade lunch. We learned new things together, including never leave the picnic basket in the backseat with the kids,
We used to have the most exciting Summer Picnics when we were young. Ou family of eight children, plus our parents, and sometime relatives too! This was a tradition every year, after school was out.
We would go to the biggest park in town, which to us kids was fabulous, because it had an actual “wading pool”, not the splash pads of today. It had lots and lots of big trees to keep us shaded, and open areas too where we could play games and be in the sunshine. We had such fun playing baseball, going in the pool, playing cards, just running around, and whatever our little hearts desired to do. There was always some little mishap with someone getting a scrape here or there, and sometimes a little more serious, like twisting your ankle, sort of, because the ground was not too level in the park, but it didn’t matter because we were having the time of our life!
We would go mid-morning, and stay until it got dark out. We’d have the best picnic – hotdogs, hamburgers, potato salad, jello salads, special desserts, chips, snacks, and all kinds of goodies that we usually didn’t have at home.
Ohhhhh, those were the days!!!!
I was six-years old and my parents had a cabin on some property in the piney woods of East Texas. I had my own little picnic – just me and a young pine tree. It is a special memory for me 50 years later!
Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia, Humpback Rock Hike and picnic afterwards…Labor Day Weekend. We were there with another dear family. Their son had picked this weekend to propose to our youngest daughter. The picnic that day was so fun, very special, and it was so exciting to look forward to when he would be popping the question. No, it wasn’t at the top of Humpback Rock because the two moms who couldn’t hike were waiting down at the picnic area below and wouldn’t be at the top of the mountain to help celebrate the moment…..the anticipated moment came later in the weekend. But I’ll never forget that afternoon of picnicking with our daughter’s future in-laws and reveling in the excitement of young love.
My favorite picnic experience was when my children were young. We used the plastic easter baskets bought on clearance after Easter and filled each with homemade peanut butter sandwiches, cut up fruit, a homemade cookie or two and a drink box. I would grab a blanket and we would hike to the farthest point of our property from our old farmhouse, each child with their “picnic basket”. We would then enjoy our picnic on our blanket and enjoy our home looking much different from this point of view. A relaxing way to enjoy a summer day.
I have 3 daughters; ages 9, 5, and 2. We LOVE picnics and basically live out of picnic baskets Spring through late Summer. Being that we homeschool, one of our favorite things to do is pack our books, a cozy blanket, and some snacks and sandwiches and head outside to a shaded area in our back pasture for the morning. We lounge under an old Apple tree, reading aloud, studying, exploring, watching the deer, bunnies, chickens, goats, and farm kittens frolicking about. We look forward to these days all Winter long! This article has inspired me to search our local thrift stores for the perfect bassinet to convert into the perfect picnic baskets 🤗
Believe it or not I have never been on a picnic. I am 66 years old and cannot share any memory of that but to all of you who have I am so happy for you and look forward to reading your happy memories. With that I really do like quilts and love your magazine. I can go places through your pages. I would love to be entered into drawing but if I do not qualify I will understand. Have a beautiful day. Sandra Rich
We were fortunate, as an Air Force family, to have the opportunity to live in different countries. We spent as much time as possible exploring our host nations’ sites and treasures and would always pack a picnic lunch to enjoy on the road or at a destination. Those were always the best picnics…the food was simple, but we were together (my husband, myself and our 2 kids)…meeting new friends and seeing new places. Great memories!
My favorite picnic as a child would be a car picnic. We would take long family drives into the Colorado Rockies and my Dad would usually pick the narrowest, cliff hanging old miners roads to explore. Of course, if you opened any door there would be a thousand foot drop-off (my Mother was so terrified she couldn’t even look, of course, Dad thought this was hilarious). Needless to say, she busied herself making bologna sandwiches and we girls would pass pickles and ice cold coca colas from the old coca cola cooler in the back of the station wagon… Yeah, car picnic!
When I was a girl my best friend and I would hurry through our chores then pack a lunch in a paper sack and head for the sagebrush and cedar forest-covered hills behind our houses. We would hike and explore looking for cactuses, indian artifacts or old mine shafts. We would stop when we tired and have a picnic lunch of warm bolgna sandwiches looking out over the valley below. I was free as a bird and absolutely in heaven!
Favorite picnics for me were the days my children and I would all load up the picnic basket for a walk across the rocks in a creek in our pasture and along the creek about a qtr mile away. They were not allowed to do this alone so it was an adventure to them.
Lots of giggles and fun.