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How many of my Farmgirl friends have seen the fashion trend from last year – making a coat from a vintage quilt? When I first saw it (for $700 at Anthropologie, no less) I was stunned and expected it to burn out pretty quickly… but here we are, more than a year later and the trend is still going strong!
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HAPPY NEW YEAR, FARMGIRL READERS! Here we are in 2025, and the start to my FIFTEENTH year blogging here as the MaryJanesFarm’s Suburban Farmgirl! It’s hard to believe – time just speeds by. January is probably the least favorite month among most people, but I think January is a good month to rest, regroup, get organized, and look ahead to a fresh, new year!
In New England, January can seem like it lasts forever. I always call it my “nesting month”. It’s been cold this winter, but sunny, so I don’t mind. We’ve had a few small snowfalls. Snow is so peaceful.
I like to get my Christmas decorations put away the first week, especially outside before it gets too cold or snow-covered. However, getting outdoors, even if it is for a short time, is a great mood-booster. We took a quick, refreshing New Year’s Day walk on a Connecticut beach.
As I put away the holidays, I think ahead to next year, so I don’t stress. Organize supplies like wrapping paper, and make notes on your calendar for what you’ll need. Our local TJMaxx sells beautiful rolls of vintage-print wrapping paper, made from recycled material, in the fall. If I see my stash is low, I’ll write on my calendar to pick it up in October, so I am not stressing in December to wrap gifts. Now is also a good time to organize gift bags, throwing out any that are too worn to reuse.
After all the indoor Christmas decor is put away, I like to give things a good “spring-like cleaning”. Clutter can bring on stress; having things organized also helps save time in the long run. I’ve got my routine down pat, and what tools to use so I don’t spend too much time on chores.
My forecast for 2025? I’ll be vacuuming Christmas tree needles until June, haha! After a good vacuuming, I neaten up the fringe on our throw rugs with a comb-out, using a teasing comb meant for hair. I remember my mama doing this tip back in the 1970’s.
After the holidays, with all the food and baked goods, I give the pantry, fridge, and freezer a good cleanout, and check expiration dates. Groceries are SO expensive these days – I want nothing to go to waste! I am not much for New Year Resolutions, but mine this year is “no food gets wasted!”
In the pantry, repurpose plastic produce bags to keep open boxes of crackers, chips and cereal from going stale. (This is another tip I got from my mama, who did this when I was a kid)!
I love that in my area, I have an old-fashioned bakery to get fresh baked goods from, and an old-fashioned butcher for meat. By stocking up on basics and picking up meat in bulk a few times a year, we rely less on expensive take-out. However, buying in bulk and freezing is only economical if you don’t throw out food that got buried, forgotten and past its expiration.
To keep track of what I have on hand at any given moment, I bought a small dry-erase board and keep a running inventory of what I have, so I don’t buy more of what I don’t need, or forget about what I have.
On snow days where we might get a later start, I’ll make a big, hearty breakfast with homemade muffins, eggs, and the occasional treat of bacon.
To clean my cast-iron skillet of the grease, I’ll throw uncooked oats on the bacon grease as the skillet cools. The oats soak up the grease, which I give to the chickens as a treat. Cleanup of the skillet is a snap, without ruining the seasoning of the pan, no grease goes down my drain, and the chickens LOVE their treat. It’s a win-win.
I also always keep frozen and canned veggies on hand. That way, I can throw together a pot pie or a soup from leftover meat cooked for the previous night’s dinner. I also freeze dinner portions of casseroles like lasagna for great comforting dinners on busier nights when I’m too tired to cook. Cook once – enjoy several times!
In the laundry room, we changed our washer filters this week, which I mentioned in last January’s blog post. I also cleaned my iron. It’s amazing how much gunk builds up!
Using an old cloth or towel, you simply run your hot iron over the cleaning paste. Mine was really nasty! After a bit, your plate is as shiny and smooth as new! What a difference!
I knew a lovely lady who still ironed all of her sheets when she changed her linens! I don’t do that, but I do like to iron my vintage linens, such as decorative vintage dish towels, for example, or my all-cotton clothes. I love that crisp, fresh look. Many people do not iron anything anymore…do you?
It’s good to look forward and try new things. I’m a true, simple-life loving farmgirl, but I did something not so “farmgirl” last year. Though I really don’t like change, I am open-minded to trying new things. New foods, new exercise classes, new books to read, and new experiences are just some examples of things that make life interesting. Now in my 50’s, I had not been to a big concert since my 20’s (growing up in Houston, I used to go all the time as a teen). Especially since the pandemic, I had no desire to go to a concert – I don’t like crowds, I don’t like being out late, but when my daughter was a teenager, she made me absent-mindedly promise that I’d go with her to a certain band’s concert if they ever came to town. Little did I know that over seven years later, she would hold me to that promise, in November 2023. She bought tickets six months early, as a birthday present to herself. Five bands would play; she promised we would leave if I felt uncomfortable at any time. I like what I like – in my house or car, most of the time I’m listening to 1940s Big Band and Swing music. Honestly, the day of the concert, before we left I was actually scared to go, to the point of tears (the crowds, the being out late…the HEAVY METAL)! I never thought I’d like it, or end up enjoying one band so much that I’d WISH to go again! So…for Mother’s Day last May, we went to see the band again (a Swedish HEAVY DEATH METAL band – can you imagine me there – what a hoot!) This time, it was “standing room” only, and we ended up right at the stage. It was phenomenal.
Waiting in line to go into the venue, one young “goth” man opened his umbrella for us to stand under while he got soaked, and while inside waiting for the concert to start, several young ladies standing with us said how much they wished their moms would go with them! We had a wonderful time, (and I actually was not the oldest one there)! It was a perfect evening with my daughter, an experience I will never forget.
After that, I ended up unexpectedly going to two more concerts in 2024. One of my best friends got tickets for her birthday for us. This time, it was all 80’s bands, such as Thompson Twins and Psychedelic Furs (be still, my Generation X heart)
Lastly, for our 32nd anniversary, my daughter treated our family to a weekend in Boston and a Glass Animals (modern pop) concert.
My point is that getting out of our comfort zones, and thinking “outside the box” keeps life fresh and interesting. I also think it’s important to have something to look forward to. I’m looking forward to going to another concert with my daughter later this spring.
I’m also looking forward to a new, upcoming garden season, and all that comes with a fresh, new year. I hope that 2025 is a great one for us all! I can’t believe I have blogged here for 15 years! It means so much to me that you all are here! Thank you so much, MaryJane, and dear farmgirl readers, newer and past. Wishing you all a great winter, and a very Happy New Year!
Tell me, what are you up to in the “nesting season” of winter? And what are you looking forward to in 2025? Leave me a comment…I want to hear from you!
Slipping into winter has been gradual…there have been days teasing Spring with temperatures nearly 60° F, only to wake up and find mornings of 7° F with a wind that was breathtakingly cold.
Today I’m greeted by a wisp of chilly wind and an icy cold rain, as well as the sound of chain saws in the distance. A few nights ago I heard that unmistakable sound…have you ever heard it? The deep, echoing, “crack” that a limb makes as it breaks free from a tree. The wind gusts were strong enough to send a cascade of limbs to the ground from an old maple tree, reminding me that it’s January, and snow and ice storms will be coming my way.
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is a certified farmgirl at heart. She’s happily married to her beach bum Yankee husband of 20 years. She went from career gal to being a creative homeschooling mom for two of her biggest blessings and hasn’t looked back since. Debbie left her lifelong home in the high desert of Northern Nevada 10 years ago and washed up on the shore of America’s hometown, Plymouth, MA, where she and her family are now firmly planted. They spend part of each summer in a tiny, off–grid beach cottage named “The Sea Horse.”
“I found a piece of my farmgirl heart when I discovered MaryJanesFarm. Suddenly, everything I loved just made more sense! I enjoy unwinding at the beach, writing, gardening, and turning yard-sale furniture into ‘Painted Ladies’ I’m passionate about living a creative life and encouraging others to ‘make each day their masterpiece.’”
is a “MaryJane Farmgirl” who lives in a large metropolitan area. She is a lawyer who has worked in both criminal defense and prosecution. She has been a judge, a business woman and a stay-at-home mom. In addition to her law degree, she has a Masters of Theological Studies.
“Mustering up the courage to do the things you dream about,” she says, “is the essence of being a MaryJane Farmgirl.” Learning to live more organically and closer to nature is Rebekah’s current pursuit. She finds strength and encouragement through MaryJane’s writings, life, and products. And MaryJane’s Farmgirl Connection provides her a wealth of knowledge from true-blue farmgirls.
an old-fashioned farmgirl with a pioneer spirit, lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As a “lifelong learner” in the “Live-Free-or-Die” state, she fiercely values self-reliance, independence, freedom, and fresh mountain air. Married to her childhood sweetheart of 40+ years (a few of them “uphill climbs”), she’s had plenty of time to reinvent herself. From museum curator, restaurant owner, homeschool mom/conference speaker, to post-and-beam house builder and entrepreneur, she’s also a multi-media artist, with an obsession for off-grid living and alternative housing. Cathi owns and operates a 32-room mountain lodge. Her specialty has evolved to include “hermit hospitality” at her rustic cabin in the mountains, where she offers weekend workshops of special interest to women.
“Mountains speak to my soul, and farming is an important part of my heritage. I want to pass on my love of these things to others through my writing. Living in the mountains has its own particular challenges, but I delight in turning them into opportunities from which we can all learn and grow.”
Dori Troutman is the daughter of second generation cattle ranchers in New Mexico. She grew up working and playing on the ranch that her grandparents homesteaded in 1928. That ranch, with the old adobe home, is still in the family today. Dori and her husband always yearned for a ranch of their own. That dream came true when they retired to the beautiful green rolling hills of Tennessee. Truly a cattleman’s paradise!
Dori loves all things farmgirl and actually has known no other life but that. She loves to cook, craft, garden, and help with any and all things on their cattle farm.
describes herself as a goat charmer, chicken whisperer, bee maven, and farmers’ market baker renovating an 1864 farmhouse on an Ohio farm. With a degree in Design, Mary says small-town auctions and country road barn sales "always make my heart skip a beat thinking about what I could create or design out of what I’ve seen.”
Rooted in the countryside, she likes simple things and old ways … gardening, preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and all things home. While you might find her selling baked goods from the farm’s milkhouse, teaching herself to play the fiddle, or sprucing up a vintage camper named Maizy, you will always find her in an apron!
Mary says, “I’m happiest with the simple country pleasures … an old farmhouse, too many animals, a crackling fire, books to read, and the sound of laughter … these make life just perfect.”
is a budding rural farmgirl living in Palmer, the agricultural seat of Alaska. Alex is a graduate student at Alaska Pacific University pursuing an M.S. in Outdoor and Environmental Education. She lives and works on the university’s 700 acre environmental education center, Spring Creek Farm. When Alex has time outside of school, she loves to rock climb, repurpose found objects, cross-country ski on the hay fields, travel, practice yoga, and cook with new-fangled ingredients.
Alex grew up near the Twin Cities and went to college in Madison, Wisconsin—both places where perfectly painted barns and rolling green farmland are just a short drive away. After college, she taught at a rural middle school in South Korea where she biked past verdant rice paddies and old women selling home-grown produce from sidewalk stoops. She was introduced to MaryJanesFarm after returning, and found in it what she’d been searching for—a group of incredible women living their lives in ways that benefit their families, their communities, and the greater environment. What an amazing group of farmgirls to be a part of!
Suburban Farmgirl Nicole Christensen calls herself a “vintage enthusiast”. Born and raised in Texas, she has lived most of her life in the picturesque New England suburbs of Connecticut, just a stone’s throw from New York State. An Advanced Master Gardener, she has gardened since childhood, in several states and across numerous planting zones. In addition, she teaches knitting classes, loves to preserve, and raises backyard chickens.
Married over thirty years to her Danish-born sweetheart, Nicole has worked in various fields, been a world-traveler, an entrepreneur and a homemaker, but considers being mom to her now-adult daughter her greatest accomplishment. Loving all things creative, Nicole considers her life’s motto to be “Bloom where you are planted”.
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