Author Archives: maryjane

GIVEAWAY: One World Family Calendar

Posted on February 25, 2015 by maryjane

I recently picked up two of these handy “family calendars” with the intent of gifting one. Plus, I wanted to support the organization behind it. The One World Family Calendar features beautiful photography of people from around the world, along with space for daily schedules for up to five people. It’s a beautiful calendar that will help you plan the rest of your family’s year.

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This calendar comes from the New Internationalist: People, Ideas, and Action for Global Justice.

With new technologies, the whole wide world is at our fingertips, and we can help those in other countries as well as our own by shopping with a global responsibility in mind. And if you don’t think you support buying things from overseas, take a closer look around … that melon purchased in December probably came from South America, and that cell phone positively came from the other side of the globe. And wait … before venting about buying American-made, please realize that it’s an opinion typed on a computer that was most certainly made in China, Japan, or Taiwan. Sorry, Dorothy, but we’re not in Kansas anymore. We’re all part of a bigger picture, and that picture involves supporting workers around the world—not governments, but workers, people like you and me. So my stand is, I support workers, wherever they happen to live. Made in the USA, awesome. Project F.A.R.M. (First-class American Rural Made), love it. And yes, Made in the World. For me, they’re no longer mutually exclusive.

To win this beautiful calendar, tell me why you’ve decided to embrace the whole wide world and ALL the working people in it. We’ll put your name in a hat and pull out one lucky winner sometime in the next week or so. Stay tuned!

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Posted on February 24, 2015 by maryjane

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Shadows on Glass

Posted on February 24, 2015 by maryjane

Imagine going to an antique store and purchasing a box of old photographs, then spending the next 50 years trying to figure out who the photographer and the people depicted in the photographs were.

Douglas Keister, photographer and author of 42 critically acclaimed books, did just that. I first met Doug when I asked to use a couple of his photos in my third book, MaryJane’s Outpost. Doug had just published one of my favorite books about travel trailers, Teardrops and Tiny Trailers, with Gibbs Smith (also my publisher for Glamping with MaryJane and Milk Cow Kitchen).

In 1965, Doug was a junior in high school in Lincoln, Nebraska, and already a budding photographer. He acquired a stack of 280 black and white 5×7 glass negatives from a friend who had run an ad looking for area antiques. Doug proceeded to set up a makeshift darkroom in his parents’ basement to develop and print the negatives. He discovered an important part of history when he saw that most of the photographs were portraits of African Americans in the early part of the 20th century.

“Five decades of research finally revealed that the photographs were taken by an African American photographer a century ago in Lincoln, Nebraska. The variety of images reveals a vibrant community and, more importantly, an ennobled and hopeful African American population,” says Doug. The importance of these images has been recognized by the Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture, which now has 60 prints from the negatives in its permanent collection.

Doug has made a 25-minute video, Shadows on Glass, about his discoveries that shows many of the photographs, fills in the blanks about their origins, and paints a fascinating picture of the lives of the African American community in Lincoln 100 years ago.

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Posted on February 23, 2015 by maryjane

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I’m afflated …

Posted on February 23, 2015 by maryjane

This enchanting scene, painted over a century ago by a gent named Ludwig Knauss, instantly leaves me feeling afflated to begin planning for planting and picking flowers, lots and lots of flowers …

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Afflated (uh-FLEY-tid): having inspiration; inspired

What flower afflated you to start dreaming of spring?

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Posted on February 22, 2015 by maryjane

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Say cheese, please!

Posted on February 22, 2015 by maryjane

Why does Swiss cheese have holes?

Here’s a short video that answers that question—the most oft-asked cheese question on the Internet—and also tells us that the USDA regulates the sizes of those holes (who knew?)!

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Posted on February 21, 2015 by maryjane

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GIVEAWAY: Magic Pillowcases, Bee My Honey fabric

Posted on February 21, 2015 by maryjane

In the Dec/Jan issue of MaryJanesFarm, “Home for the Holidays,” we taught you how to make “magic pillowcases.”

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Now, you can win a set of the pillowcases featured in that article, made from my Bee My Honey fabric collection. The body fabric is my “Colony Hum” print, the cuff fabric is the “Honey” pattern in “Gold” color, and the trim fabric is “Multi” in “Grey.” The giveaway includes two standard-size pillowcases and a pretty, pinked-edged poinsettia bow made from another of my collection’s patterns.

To win, tell me your pet name for your favorite honey (guy or gal) in the comments section below. We’ll put your answers in a pillowcase, shake them up, and draw one lucky winner. Come back sometime next week to see who wins.

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Posted on February 20, 2015 by maryjane

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