Today I had the honor of going to New York for a luncheon at Country Living‘s headquarters as A WINNER in the 1st Annual Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards in the ‘Lifestyle’ category. This is in addition to winning their Reader’s Choice Award in the ‘Lifestyle’ category; only Crepes of Wrath and Crafty Farm Girl won both the Reader’s Choice and Judge’s Choice Awards. Wow.

The luncheon was for the winners of the Judges Choice Award, which was not officially announced until today after the luncheon. We were actually told some time ago of our wins, but were sworn to secrecy until the official announcement by Country Living, so it’s so exciting to finallybe able to share with everyone. My congratulations to all the other 23 finalists and to the winners.Mingling during the Meet & Greet before lunch.

Now there’s a reason I’m a blogger. If I liked being in the public spotlight or being photographed I suppose I’d be teaching classes to a real audience somewhere. I’m not. I have such a fear of public speaking that even a Dale Carnegie Effective Speaking course years ago did not help. Thankfully we were informed that we would not be required to say anything.

I also didn’t have time to work myself up into a state because most of my afternoon yesterday was consumed with this:

India not only broke a bone at the joint of her thumb and hand and has to be in a cast for 6 weeks, but she also got diagnosed with a concussion. The ripple effect from those consumed my time and thoughts for the rest of the night.

Although parts of Connecticut are still struggling without power from our freak October snowstorm, today was a beautiful day here and, after farming the kids out to various friends because they were off for parent-teacher conferences, Country Living sent a driver to pick Jim and me up for the drive into Manhattan.

When we arrived at the beautiful Hearst Tower we were whisked up to the 44th floor and into the room where the luncheon was to be held. The views of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park were a breathtaking backdrop.

There was a meet-and-greet as people arrived. Lots of the Country Living staff was there, three of the 4 judges, all of the winners in each of the seven categories, and lots of press as well. By the time they were ready to take pictures of all of the winners my mouth was so dry from nerves I couldn’t even talk!

It would have been nice if Jim had moved a little more to the center so we had a better view of everyone.

The judges in attendance were Sarah McColl of Pink of Perfection, Jodi Kahn, author of 3 books and blogger of Simply Sublime, and Cooper Boone, Country Singer, TV personality and author of the blog Cooper’s Kitchen. Cooper was the very funny and animated Judge in charge of handing out the awards to each of us. Of course I was up first. Thankfully I didn’t trip, drool, or throw up.

Finally I got to sit down and watch everyone else get their awards.

None of the other winner’s photos came out great, and they’d kill me if I posted them so I won’t. The awards are beautiful. A blue ribbon under a glass dome. I could not get a decent picture of it tonight, but will tomorrow in the natural daylight to show everyone. We also got sent off with a huge goody bag!

The lunch was delicious, but I was too busy clapping and taking photos to eat much of it. The centerpieces were beautiful too.

I wish I’d had more time to talk to each of the winners some more, but it was a really fun day. Everyone at Country Living was so gracious and they made each of us feel special, and very honored, for winning.

Even on a special day like this, I was still really happy to get home, pick up my children, and feed the farm. Everyone missed me.

I have absolutely no shame when it comes to making a fool of myself for something I believe in. Add to that a chance to win some serious cash and you have no idea how shameless I can be.

When Amanda called me and told me Chipotle Restaurant’s were having a “family farm” costume contest with a $2,500 first prize and five $1,000 runner up prizes, I practically ran up into the attic to see what I could piece together. The rules of the contest stated that you had to submit a photo that clearly showed that you were in or outside a Chipotle Restaurant. Plus, tonight after 6:00 if you went there in a costume you got a burrito for $2 with all proceeds going to Chipotle’s Cultivate Foundation and Farm Aid.

I had one adult chicken costume for me that I bought last year. I figured if business got slow on Free Range Friday’s I could stand out there in a chicken suit and attract customers. So far I haven’t had to use it, so this could be it’s big debut.


Believe it or not, I dragged down the India’s chick costume from when she was 3-1/2, and with a few snips at the seams and removal of the sleeves, I managed to stuff Maia into it! The costume was showing it’s age after 9 years of attic storage and there was some serious “molting” going on.



And we managed to get India into the scarecrow costume I made last year for our Wizard of Oz theme.

For Jim I went to the local Goodwill in search of a pair of overalls but they didn’t have any. I don’t think a lot of people in our area wear overalls. I did find them at the local army/navy store and they were pretty inexpensive compared to what they’re getting for normal jeans these days. They also had one of those caps with the fake fur ear flaps I’ve been wanting for winter farm chores that would be perfect.

Jim wore a flannel shirt with the overalls and the cap and we stuffed some hay in his bib and pants pockets. The finishing touch was Kiki. She came along for the ride. I’m quite sure grace was pissed that she didn’t get to go and I’m sure I’ll hear it from her tomorrow.

Evan was being a typical 11-year old boy and couldn’t squeeze his family in when he had trick or treating to do with his friends.

You should have seen the faces on the people working at Chipotle when we walked in. They couldn’t run for their phones to take their own pictures fast enough. They asked us where we rented the goat and chicken! Both goat and chicken were very well behaved and we didn’t have any unfortunate poop or pee incidents while inside. I figure that will help our chances of winning.

They announce the winners on November 15th, so keep your fingers crossed for us. If we win one of the cash prizes, I’ll give the girls each a little money for Christmas shopping and maybe some special treats for the goats and chickens too, but I sure would be thrilled to be able to send a bunch of it back to some farm charity or use some to for the membership dues the Connecticut Farm Bureau and the Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

Although the weatherman predicted it, I have learned not to believe it until I see it when it comes to weather predictions. Well, for once they were right. By mid-morning it was snowing here, and by mid-afternoon the power and internet were out. Driving was a bit slippery, the highway was crawling, and it was really, really cold out for Connecticut on October 29th.

Our power came back on tonight around 10:00, which I’m very grateful for. Our house was beginning to get really cold and we were all walking around with hats and winter coats on. The internet just came on recently, and I’m even more grateful for that luxury.

As I said in the posts on Halloween Costumes Through the Years, I have lost my Halloween spirit this year. I don’t want to make a costume for anybody. I guess I’ve burned myself out. When the kids asked what they were going to be this year, I told them to go shopping up in the attic, where I keep all of the old costumes (or at least the ones worth saving).

The kids all had a Halloween dance at their school tonight, and although not all kids were going to go in costume, all of mine wanted to. There was a prize for “most creative” costume, and Maia had her eye on that prize.

Maia decided she would resurrect her sandwich costume from a few years ago. I really can’t remember what year she wore this, but I suspect it was that year that India was the mother dog with a box full of puppies, as that seems to be the only year I’m missing photos of the twins’ costumes.

India remembered that last year, until I got going with my Wizard of Oz theme, I had bought all of the materials to make her a jellyfish costume. While India did attempt to make this herself, I did find myself doing a lot of the work on this costume. Luckily it wasn’t that complicated of a costume to make, and I think it came out really cute.

Evan’s costume came about in a funny way. Evan loves candy — probably more than most kids do. In Jackson, Wyoming there’s one of the best candy stores I’ve ever been to. When Evan gets older he plans on buying the current owner out and re-naming it “Evan’s Heaven”. Evan also has an irrational fear of not succeeding in life and becoming homeless. Amanda came across this photo on Pinterest and sent it to me.


I sent the photo to Evan since it was a funny/sad combination of two things he could relate to. Surprisingly, he thought it was a great idea for a Halloween costume. Since it would probably be the easiest costume I’ve ever done, I heartily agreed. He already owned a red plaid shirt and jeans, so the only thing I had to buy was a plain black cap.

But then, while I’m searching for the original photo Amanda had sent to me, I come across incredible photos like these of real homeless people and animals.





And it makes me think how fortunate I’ve been in my life. How lucky my children are. And how lucky I feel to be able to give my animals a happy place to live with plenty of food to eat.

But it also makes me realize that Evan’s fears may seem irrational to me, but he has real anxiety issues, and they are very real to him at times. As his mother it’s hard to grasp it, but at 11 years old, my child can lose sleep worrying about things like this.

So I’ll let him wear his costume again on Halloween night. But this costume was never meant to poke fun at the unfortunate homeless people in the world. It was meant to make light of a two personality traits in my son. His love of candy, which is funny, and his anxiety, which is not.

Wow. What started as a nice, lighthearted post sure ended shitty, didn’t it?

As some of you may know, I long to leave my small plot of land behind and move to the country to a much larger piece of land. To a real farm. I’d like more goats, more chickens, my horses, some sheep, and at least one cow. Probably an alpaca for kicks and most certainly a donkey. And a barn cat. Jim and Maia are allergic, but I figure in a barn it could keep the mice down and it won’t bother them out there.

An area that I am continually drawn to is Litchfield County in northwestern Connecticut. It’s one of the few remaining areas of Connecticut that still has a small bit of farmland left undeveloped. I’ve been up there quite a few times over the past few months for various reasons, and I’ve yet to see anything I don’t like about the area.

While I was driving up there yesterday I had some extra time so cut off the main route to take some back roads. I found the most beautiful roads with old farmhouses from the 1800’s and rolling hills and pastures. This kind of land is becoming pretty scarce in Connecticut.


And many of them were still working farms. I actually saw a lot of cows.

I saw one simple but beautiful farmhouse that appeared to be empty. I turned into their driveway to take a better look, and there, behind a hedge, I was greeted by this lovely flock of ladies. I guess the house wasn’t empty after all, since they certainly looked happy and healthy.


Every street I turned down seemed to take me on an even more beautiful road than the one before it. It was a lovely fall day which certainly helped. I was coming up a rather steep hill, and I’d already been climbing quite a bit. I stopped to take a picture of the views.



All of a sudden, there on my left, was a field full of Randall cattle. This had to be Howland Homestead Farm. When I first became interested in heritage breed animals, Randall Cattle were one of the first I looked into after reading an article on them in Hobby Farms Magazine. I actually called this farm and took the kids up there one cold and snowy early spring day, where we all got a chance to milk a cow. It’s an image that the kids love finding on Google, and it was there on their website when I got home to confirm that it was, in fact, the same farm I’d visited probably 7 years ago.

One day I will own a Randall cow. Maybe in this very area.



It was a lovely day spent in a lovely area.

Continuing my walk down Halloween’s memory lane, we now come into the period of time when just being the mom of 3 small kids and a teenager was pretty overwhelming, so the costumes got pretty uninspired, or completely store-bought, depending on the year.

Below India is wearing the grapes that I referred to in yesterday’s post. That was Amanda’s costume when she was probably 2-1/2, but I couldn’t find a photo of her in it.

Now we get into the photos of some more creative effort on my part again. This photo of India was the first year we attended my friend Justine’s annual Halloween party. It’s late in the afternoon on Halloween and she has a local hot dog truck come. It’s a great way to get the whole neighborhood together, get a quick dinner, do some socializing, and everyone takes off right from there for their trick or treating.

I even offered to fly Amanda home for the weekend from College, as she would have been a perfect Glinda the Good Witch. She chose a weekend of college Halloween parties instead. Go figure.






And just to show you how really old I am, here’s a photo of me and a friend when I was 20 years old at a Halloween party. I was a hooker and he was my pimp. I still laugh out loud every time I look at this photo. Look at my hair! And I still remember going to the thrift store to find his clothes and what a score it was to find those pants (they’re corduroy!) and that satin paisley shirt. Remember this was almost 30 years ago…you couldn’t wear this costume today with about being beaten up by an angry mob. I do not mean to offend anybody, it was all done in the name of fun.

As a child I have vivid memories of some of the Halloween costumes that my mom made for my sister and me. One year we were a pair of dice, one year we were giant frogs with pink balls cut in half for our big googly eyes.

The past two years my friend and I co-chaired the haunted house part of the annual fall fundraising fair for our elementary school. We were a great creative team and had lots of fun coming up with new, creepy ideas to scare people. I have to say I was pretty happy this year to be done with that commitment though.

I’ve tried to carry on the tradition of making Halloween costumes for my kids through the years. Some years were successful and some not so much. Last year I knew what we were going to be 9 months before Halloween and was sewing months before the date. This year, for the first time, I have absolutely no interest in making a costume, trick-or-treating, or doing any of the normal Halloween festivities. I think I’m suffering from Halloween burnout. I’ve got a simple idea for Evan, Maia is going to recycle an old classic costume she wore a number of years ago, and India is making a costume from supplies I’d bought for it last year.


She was a beautiful bunch of purple velvet grapes the next year, but I don’t seem to have a photo of it that I could find.




Have you noticed the food theme going on here yet?




And then along came India, Evan & Maia and things got more complicated. Their first costumes were, by far, my favorite costumes ever. They were all, appropriately, chickens. Well, Evan was a rooster.





That’s enough Halloween for one day. I’ll finish this up tomorrow with the rest of the years gone by.

Well, I was wrong. We were NOT going to the Adirondack’s for the weekend, we were going to the Catskill’s! I never was good with directions/locations.

This is my friend Ted’s family house, and was built by his great grandfather in the very early 1900’s. He worked for many years in Japan as an attorney, and the Japanese influence can be seen everywhere in the home. Ted now shares the home with his siblings and cousins as a vacation retreat. It also had an absolutely incredible Japanese garden that includes an authentic tea house.

Unfortunately, as we were driving along the 2-1/2 hour drive to get there, the weather got progressively worse. The temperature hovered in the low 50’s all weekend and it sprinkled a bit on-and-off, although we did wake to a beautiful sunny day this morning for a brief period.

Ted took the kids on a tractor ride, and I hopped in for part of the trip down a dried up stream bed.


And Evan, who has been asking only for a lawn tractor for Christmas for the past 3 years, finally got to drive one. The girls enjoyed driving it, too, and Ted got a little lawn mowed at the same time.

And I not only got to ‘unplug’ for the weekend, with the house having no cell service or internet, but I forgot my suitcase at home too! (A disputable misunderstanding between husband and wife.) So I got to unplug in every sense of the word, living in dirty clothes with no shower or makeup. Thankfully Lorraine had some pajamas she could lend me.

We had a picnic at one of the highest points in the area today with amazing views. The recent hurricane hit this area hard though and a lot of the trees lost their leaves early this year, making for disappointing fall foliage.

The kids had a terrific time together (their son James is Evan’s best friend), not letting the cool grey weather deter them from any outdoor activities, including a good session of hill-rolling.


We had a great time there. I actually wish we could have stayed a little longer. I adore Lorraine and Ted, and it was a great opportunity for Jim to get to know them both a little bit better.

We have been invited up to our friends house in the Adirondack’s for the weekend. We will leave early in the morning and return on Sunday evening. It’s been a crazy week and I am really looking forward to getting away.

There is no cell service there. There is no Internet. I will be ‘unplugging’ for the weekend.

That’s going to be weird.

I’ll probably get to bed before midnight.

I’ll probably get a lot of artwork done.

I’ll probably help cook, but I won’t have to photograph it!

I’ll probably fret about all of the things I have waiting to post.

I’ll probably come home Sunday night and work until the wee hours of the morning.

But, in the meantime I plan on really, really enjoying myself.

And I’m bringing my camera and will take lots of pictures.

I love a good road trip. I’ll happily hop into the car and drive for hours with no particular destination in mind. Always with my camera. Always with good music. When my kids are grown and gone I may not be home much at all — you’ll just find me driving around taking photographs.

Last year I restored a 1957 Kenskill Travel Trailer (that I named Eleanor) back to her original glory — and then some. My sister and I drove her from Wyoming to Connecticut in May, and in June I drive back to Wyoming with India, Maia and my dog, Bullet. They were both amazing trips.

Even with all of the travel I did this summer, I ended up not feeling like I’d had much of a vacation. My sister and I had planned on going back to the John C. Campbell School of Folk Art in North Carolina, but when we compared calendars there wasn’t a class that interested us both at a good time for both of us. I suggested a road trip; a photography-taking, weird-spot-hunting, foodie-finding road trip. She happily agreed.

We decided it made the most sense to start in Austin, rent a minivan one-way, and drive back. We’ll need the minivan to pack all the cool things we’re going to find in. Hell, we might even need a roof rack to tie stuff down! It’s a lot of driving, but we travel really well together, have similar tastes, and love an adventure. I’m so excited I can barely contain myself.

Below you can see the tentative route we’ve worked out so far.


View Larger Map

I’ll just show you a few planned stops along the way.

In Austin we have quite a few places to go, but one is the Cathedral of Junk. Enormous towers of junk that has become yard art. It’s invisible from the street and apparently something to behold. I’ll be there, camera in hand.

Heading out of Austin on our way up to Fredericksburg, Texas, we’ll stop at the Hamilton Pool Preserve. A natural pool that was created when the dome of an underground river collapsed thousands of years ago. It looks so beautiful.


We’re heading to Fredericksburg not only because it’s a beautiful drive that my sister should see, but to go shopping at Red. Just a cool, funky store where, since we’ll have a rental car I’m hoping I’ll find something fabulous to bring home.

In Mississippi you can bet you’ll find us spending a night at The Shack Up Inn. I am SO excited to see this place.


And this whole trip really started because of this antiques store in a Atlanta neighborhood we stumbled across in May, Highland Row Antiques. They had so many awesome things for sale, but with no car and carry-on suitcases, the only things I was able to leave with were a vintage cowboy shirt for Evan and a finely woven wicker goat that now lives in the goat house. We plan on making that right this time around, hence the minivan.


And just outside Atlanta is a Serenbe, a 900-acre sustainable community that is a national model for the future of balanced development in the U.S. I have known of this community for a few years now, and am very excited to finally be able to go and see it first-hand. There are lots of options for us to spend the night in there, from a lovely hotel to different rental units available around the town. Heck, I may just sleep in the barn it’s so pretty.



So that’s the trip in a nutshell. It’s less than two months away!

If you want to read more about my Kenskill Travel Trailer or the road trips I’ve taken in her, you can click the links below.

Eleanor, my 1957 Kenskill Travel Trailer, Before & After

Crafty Farm Sister’s Great Plains Road Trip Day One – Jackson, WY to Worland, WY
Crafty Farm Sister’s Great Plains Road Trip Day Two – Worland, WY to Badlands National Park, SD
Crafty Farm Sister’s Great Plains Road Trip Day Three & Four – Badlands, SD to Rockford, IL
Crafty Farm Sister’s Great Plains Road Trip Day Five & Six – Rockford, IL to Darien, CT

Crafty Farm Girl’s Summer Road Trip 2010 Day One – The Worst Day EVER
Crafty Farm Girl’s Summer Road Trip 2010 Day Two – A Better Day
Crafty Farm Girl’s Summer Road Trip 2010 Day Three – Spencer, OH to Muskegon, MI
Crafty Farm Girl’s Summer Road Trip 2010 Day Four – Muskegon, MI to Milwaukee, WI
Crafty Farm Girl’s Summer Road Trip 2010 Day Five & Six – Milwaukee, WI to Fargo, ND
Crafty Farm Girl’s Summer Road Trip 2010 Day Seven – Fargo, ND to Kennebec, SD
Crafty Farm Girl’s Summer Road Trip 2010 Day Eight & Nine – Kennebec, SD to Teton Village, WY