You know that pondering tilt of the head a person gives a work of art they’ve just completed? Writing about your life is that exactly. You step back, pick up your paint brush, apply a dab of compassion here, a brush stroke of flair over there. Putting your life on canvas allows you to see what your life looks like through the eyes of others.
Going Granny (actually my grandkids call me Nanny) is my best achievement yet! Here’s a phone message my barely two-year grandgirl left for me on my 58th b-day. I guarantee it; this will make your day.
Have you seen my step-by-step trailer restoration photos on my International Glamping Weekend website? If not, here’s a little peek of Lily, my ’68 Airstream trailer …
Complete with clawfoot bathtub, stove, and treadle sewing machine.
And my boudoir … my get-away-from-it-all sanctuary!
The floors are reclaimed wood from an old basketball court. The vintage painting of lilies on the wall is the reason she’s named Lily officially.
Elizabeth says: Hope they make it through the winter for you. Imagine it is cold there about now?
I can’t tell you how much I love this picture! When I was a kid I had ladybug everything…I still have a soft spot for them:)
Elizabeth says: Lucky you! I consider these little ladies a good thing to have roaming about in my garden too. A friend once had Ladybugs by the dozens’ coming into her home (I suppose trying to escape the cold winter) & she wasn’t happy about the invasion. So I tried to capture as many of those indoor Ladybugs as I could & put them in a small container & tried to overwinter them in my refrigerator…sadly they didn’t make it through the winter in my fridge. I’ve also tried luring them into the garden with special Ladybug scented lures. Not sure if that was a success but I did see a few productive ladies working their way up my Bellis Tasso plants. Anytime you feel you have too many then please feel free to usher those little buggers this way:-)
Terry Steinmetz says: We have the ladybugs, too. I haven’t seen them concentrated like that, but I’m sure they are somewhere out in the field! Thanks for the pictures!
Be there or be square! This Saturday, November 10, at noon, at Herberger’s Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck, Idaho, I’m all yours. There will be tons of farmgirl fun to be had, including awesome giveaways and free samples of my organic chocolate.
Herberger’s Pine Ridge Mall
4235 Yellowstone Highway
Chubbuck, Idaho
Elizabeth says: You are making me wish I lived closer; next thing you know I will be researching all things Idaho! Seriously though, it would be neat to meet you in person MaryJane as you make everything look so fun & effortless. Stumbled across one of your short video clips recently (about farm work & joys) & watched you move from one chore (or blessings) to another with gusto & energy to spare. I can honestly say that I have never used or personally seen a water well~hand pump (except for in the movie about Helen Keller called, ‘Miracle Worker’). Believe I’d actually like to try pumping my own well water one day & perform various other farm girl deeds. Looks like the daily living there keeps you all in great shape too!
Winnie Nielsen says: I concur with Elizabeth’s comments. I sure wish I lived closer to be able to meet you in person. But visiting Idaho is rising to the top of things that could happen in 2013 and you can bet I will try and visit the Farm as allowable by Mary Jane’s staff during B&B season!!
Winnie & Elizabeth, I’d enjoy meeting you both, as well as, Miss Mary Jane. I know y’all will have a great time at Herberger’s, with all that can make it. Best wishes, Mary Jane!
It was inevitable. We have clothing made from recycled plastic bottles, why not thread? Leave it to thread maker Gütermann to come up with technology for a stronger, more environmentally friendly thread. I enjoyed breakfast with the woman, Phyllis Dobbs, who was “manning” the booth at the Houston Quilt Market last week where this idea was launched. I’m going to keep a close eye on my local fabric shops so I can start using it. One bottle produces 10 spools of thread.
Good morning, Mary Jane, I met you at quit market and you so graciously posed for a photo with me and one with good friend Kristie in front of your charming Glamper. How I do want one, in pink, pulled along behind my cute little PT Woodie! Don’t know if Woodie has the horsepower to do so for a long haul, but it certainly is something I want to do. Also, I am mama hen of the Rabbit Hutch Chapter in Rogers, Arkansas. We are new, growing, and glowing! You mentioned that you had some things you could send our chapter that we might enjoy. Our members would be thrilled! I have your new Glamping book on my list to Santa. I am 69, live alone, and truly hope there is a Santa out there somewhere…he doesn’t even have to have a beard.
Glad to see that our industry is taking recycling as seriously as we take up-cycling. The new thread you mentioned is certainly a viable alternative for specific and variable uses. I personally prefer Presencia Threads for quiltmaking, garments, and most home dec and stitching on cottons. I represented them at quilt market and have used them since my first of five books was published in 2001. They are a long-staple 100% Egyptian cotton, virtually lint free in your sewing machine, all 40, 50, and 60 weights are 3-ply. Other cotton thread companies have cut back to 2-ply for their 50 and 60 wt. threads, so Presencia Threads are fine and strong. This is truly not meant as a commercial, but is information that is good for those who prefer a natural product in their sewing. I certainly can see many uses for the new Gutermann threads, and appreciate your information. I will check with Colonial Needle Company and see if we can’t get you some samples of Presencia.
Hope your time at Houston was most successful and great fun. You touch the lives of so many women in so many gracious and positive ways.
Happy glamping,
Judy Moore
MaryJane says: Hello Judy!!! I was hoping I’d hear from you. Send your address to me at maryjane@maryjanesfarm.org and I’ll round up some fun stuff for your chapter. How many members? And yes, I’d love to get thread samples if you have some. New, growing, and glowing INDEED! Yes, Quilters were the original up-cyclers. Much love, MaryJane
Terry Steinmetz says: Wow! I love the idea of recycling bottles into thread. I use Gutterman thread now & will look for this new thread in our area. Thanks for the information. 🙂
Winnie Nielsen says: What great news this is!! All of the gazillion water bottles that circle the earth can now have a better ending for humanity. I sounds like a solution to what to do with the plastic as well as a thread worthy of increasing the life of a garment too. Thanks for sharing!!
I’ll have to check that out. Sounds like a great idea. I know they made carpeting out of the same materials. Makes sense to me.
In addition to manning (wo-manning) the Gutermann booth at Quilt Market, I have also been sewing with these threads and love how they sew! They are fabulous with no breakage, fuzz, etc. I’m also delighted at the use of water bottles that would liter our country, if not re-cycled. Its amazing just to know that something so beautiful can come from a piece of plastic trash.
I so enjoyed meeting you and our breakfast!
Angie Robertson-Brown says: I’m going to look up this product too, can’t wait to see if it is a good thread. Have used that particular brand of threads for many years.
Krista says: I love the idea of recycling old water bottles into thread. We can protect the world and in return make beautiful things. I will keep this product brand in mind next time I buy thread.
With everything going on, from the magazine, to the launch of my new book, to traveling to L.A. to appear on T.V., to spending four days in Houston launching my new collection of glamping fabric, I admit, I’ve let my Facebook personal messages fall through the cracks. (I’ve disabled the function everywhere Facebook will let me. Call me old-fashioned, but I do still have AN e-mail address. It’s maryjane@maryjanesfarm.org 🙂 And I’ll answer them here since I probably can’t find the Facebook PLACE where I found these to start with. (If you’re from my generation—two minutes away from age 60—you can surely relate.)
1. Hello Mary Jane … I was telling my former aide that I had recently joined …
Winnie Nielsen says: And when you pass over the 60 year old mark and moving on up the ladder, forgetting your thought and place gets to be more frequent. Yikes!!!!!!
MaryJane! I love you and your magazine! As a girl bunny farmer from Maine, I thought you would like to hear about us. I started the first and ONLY Licensed Rabbit Shelter in the State of Maine: Cottontail Cottage Rabbit Rescue. Here is our website: http://www.ccrabbitrescue.org and information about us:
Cottontail Cottage Rabbit Rescue is a non-profit organization run entirely by volunteers, dedicated to rescuing abandoned, neglected or surrendered rabbits & finding them loving, forever homes. Our orphaned rabbits are provided with physical and social rehabilitation and sanctuary at Cottontail Cottage’s “Bunny Barn”, until they are deemed fit to be matched with qualified adoptees or foster homes. We also seek to educate the public on the care for these beautiful creatures as well as the importance of spay/neuter. Cottontail Cottage Rabbit Rescue’s mission is: “together, we can save somebunny today.”
MaryJane says: Were you on TV recently? I saw a wonderful feature that must have been about you!
MaryJane says: Where did I see it??
Please check out our website: http://www.ccrabbitrescue.org there is a wonderful blog on there and we have a facebook page. would love, LOVE to be featured in some capacity by you! I can’t tell you enough how much you inspire me!
What’s the best way to keep your lunch warm while you run to the barn to accomplish just one more thing?
A binder clip. 🙂 Today, it’s on my Peasant Tomato Soup.
Also very helpful while waiting for my favorite, Fiesta Rice (or any of my rice and pasta meals for that matter), to let it steep in the pouch the exact amount of time given in the directions … yum! When I travel, like recently to L.A. and Houston, I rarely eat in restaurants. Instead, I toss several of these in my suitcase and heat the water required for their 10-minute steep in my room’s coffeemaker. Dinner on a dime and just in time! AND organic to boot.
Winnie Nielsen says: What a perfect idea for travel ! I would have never thought is such a great idea. Eating out can be expensive and horrible, especially if you have a sensitive GI tract!
Here’s a look at some of the characters that showed up for work at the farm yesterday. Louise, as Little Red Riding Hood, brought her dog, Saphira, the big bad wolf.
Karina made her owl costume out of burlap, feathers, and fabric. Crafty chick!
Cute costumes, love the dog too.
Now I would love to come to work at the farm, I like dressing up:-)
Winnie Nielsen says: Such creative costumes! I do love Halloween as it just invites fun and delicious things to eat!
A candle lit for safety and swift recovery for all our sisters, families, and friends harmed by storm Sandy.
Terry Steinmetz says: Since I am visiting our son & DIL in CT., I’ve seen the devastation. I’ll light a candle too. We were very blessed to be unscathed by Sandy. (Just some rain the wind here.) The pictures are too much to watch, with whole neighborhoods gone! Love & Prayers are being sent from me to all of them.
Laurie Dimino says: Here on Long Island, there is devastation all around. I was lucky to escape with minimal damage, but I know many who have lost everything.
Keeping a candle of hope burning for all of those facing such devastation.
Hugs,
Laurie
Buy props used in MaryJane’s books and magazine!
5% of profits will benefit www.firstbook.org, a non-profit that provides new books to children from low-income families throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Here’s how:
MaryJane will post a photo and a description of a prop and its cost along with a few details as to its condition here: https://shop.maryjanesfarm.org/MaryJanesCurations. It’s a playful way to be the new owner of a little bit of farm herstory.
Lily looks awesome & inviting. I love the floor. (And I bet it is easy to care for!) I’m still dreaming of my glamper!
Simply elegant and beautiful!
OMG! Lily is gorgeous! It makes me want to do something with my old trailer/temporary shed!
Just looked through & read your step-by-step trailer restoration pictorial & am quite dazzled; what a remarkable transformation! The details you provided are wonderful & every bit as good as what one would see watching, ‘This Old House’…actually even better because you accomplished the entire project in one audience viewing. How long did that Airstream restoration take (from start to finish)? And you have another~similar project in the works? Wow, when do you find time to sleep MaryJane?
Yet again, your details are superb & the pictures make me feel like I am there watching the transformation in real time. Love the “Decorative Thermoplastic Backsplash Panels” which you lined the curved ceiling with. Now your Glamper truly looks like a place I could vacation in while visiting a National Park or several…sure beats a bogged down Station Wagon with no throne:-) Not that I have ever tried that either but I’m starting to get the Glamping idea/theme. The inside of your little home away from home looks exactly my style. Will share your pictorial with hubby this w/e (pretty sure he will be impressed too) & also w/ a friend that lives out of her trailer year round. Thank you for sharing all of your hard work & knowledge with us. You should be so proud of that little Glamper!
Thank you Elizabeth! Lily took 5 months on and off. Yes, I’m working on a Shasta rebuild but right now she’s parked in the barn for the winter. Don’t plan to start on her until spring. I have a book due May 1 (Milk Cow Kitchen) so after that I’ll be ready to roll. I pulled Lily through MT, WY, and SD late last summer. Piece of cake. You need to get yourself a glamper!
Mary Jane- you are just so creative and your trailers are like works of art! This interior is so beautiful and practical too!!
I love Airstreams. I have a 2007 27-footer and it is so fun to decorate. While mine is not nearly as glammed up as yours, They are such easy trailers to work with (and live in!).
I’ve been looking at Airstreams. We are a family of 5. I’m thinking something like a 23′ with the bunk. Are they able to withstand a northern winter, without adding insulation?
What model is your 1968 Airsrtream?
Thanks
Guess I don’t know. Where would I look for that? The title?
Yes it should be there. What length.
It looks like a land yacht but not sure.
Thanks
PS
If you ever sell let me know. I have 1968 Caravel for sale. Ground up restoration.
Ah, yes, a Land Yacht. The sign is still on it. Send me photos of your Caravel! I have the skin off a 1958 Yellowstone right now. I love that a Yellowstone isn’t riveted together but screwed together, even the windows. Easier to work on.