Plain Jane Primitives

The Winner Is!!

2010-03-08T12:18:00.004-06:00

We have a winner, chosen by my #1 helper, and the winner is Starry Nites Farm! Please contact me at plainjaneprimitives@hotmail.com with your mailing address and we will get your gift out right away!

Thank you so much for all the comments on your favorite parts of Spring! Hopefully, the more we talk about it, the faster it will be here!

Have a great Monday!

Anticipating Spring's Arrival!

2010-03-04T10:29:00.008-06:00

I am so happy that spring is knocking on my door! The snow is melting fast, the grass is starting to peek through, the birds are singing, the sun warms my back through the window as I type this. I love this time of year! Soon we will be planting our gardens, enjoying long evenings on our porch, smelling the sweet smells of fresh cut grass and tulips! It is also time for all of natures creatures to wake up from their long winter's nap, which brings me to one of my many interesting stories of real life at our farm!

It seems that we have somehow "adopted" a skunk or maybe a family of them at our farm under the old granary! Now I know they look nothing like Flower the skunk from Bambi, but it makes me feel better to have this image in my head. This all started a few weeks ago where we started to smell it occasionally. Occasionally has turned into daily. The smell is so potent sometimes we can smell it in the house, I leave to bring the girls to school and the vehicle smells of it. I get back in the vehicle and I can smell it. As I start to leave the parking lot of the school I start to wonder, OMG, do I smell like skunk? I can just hear it now, oh here they come, that crazy skunk smelling Haas family! Oh well maybe I will patent the smell in a bottle and start a whole new fad of smelling like skunk, very doubtful but humerous none the less! We are now trying to figure out how we are going to get rid of that skunk. We have yet to see it, only smell it!I will keep you posted on the skunk when I have more!

All of this talk about Spring makes me want to hear from you! What is your favorite part of Spring? What do you anticipate the most? Do you have a skunk as a pet? Tell me please, tell me I'm not alone! I want to make it even more exciting and to spread my love of Spring, I will pick a name on Monday, March 8th from all the posts and you will receive 1 of the picture above, our cute Robin's Blue Soy Chick on pillow filled with Lavender. Leave a comment, add a link on your blog to this post, come back and post a link to your blog and be entered twice! Also, if you place an order, you will be entered! A possibilty of 3 entries!I will post the winner on Monday, March 8th in the morning! Spread the word, have fun, enjoy the weather and welcome Spring!

Go Green, Live A Simple Life!

2010-01-07T10:31:00.008-06:00

How many of you live or try to live a green life? Maybe it is was one of your New Year's Resolution's or maybe it is something you try to be conscious of on a daily basis.It seems everywhere you turn, there is something about being green or going green. All the big box retailers sell a reusable, Eco-friendly bag. Some of them offer money back for bringing your plastic bags back in. Many magazines have articles in them about ways to go green or how to be more Eco-friendly, which brings me to my post today.

In my latest issue of Hobby Farm Home, they have 2 articles that have ways to live a simpler, more green way of life. Here are the 3 suggestions they offer:

1.Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
2.Shop Secondhand
3.Make or Grow It Yourself

I try on a daily basis to live a more simpler, green way of life. We we have a compost site, we recycle everything we can,we grow our own vegetables and fruits which we can and preserve. We have changed all of our light bulbs to Energy Saving ones. In the Spring and Summer we line dry our clothes. These things seem small in comparison sometimes, but I believe every little bit helps. We also try to incorporate these ideas into Plain Jane Primitives. I know there are many more ways that I could possibly live more "green", so I would love to hear all the ways that you live a more simple,green life? Leave a comment, let me know!

Have a Simple Sunday!

Welcome the New Year!

2010-01-05T07:13:00.008-06:00

We hope you and your families had a great holiday season! We had a wonderful holiday season. We endured ours with a snowstorm that started on the 23rd and lasted through the 26th. We got about 20 inches of snow from this storm and now we are on to the blasted bitter cold (-20's & -30's, just a little cold)of the Minnesota winter season!

The new year always brings more promise and hopes for a fresh start. How many of you make New Year resolutions and follow through on them? I always have good intentions while setting them, but as the year goes on I seem to lose sight. This year I didn't make a regular one, like losing weight or being more organized (2 that have obviously failed year after year, so I've given up on these). This year my New Years Resolution is to try and remember to embrace all the good things in my life and to remember how fortunate I really am. So many times we get wrapped up in how busy we are, or the challenges we sometimes face and we lose sight of all the great things that surround us in our lives. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful husband, 3 beautiful daughters, good health, loving parents and family. I wish you all the best in 2010, I know it is going to be a fabulous year!

We have great expectations for 2010 and many new items and ideas for this year! We will be adding NEW Spring items this weekend! We will send out an update to all of you on our mailing list.

Enjoy the Day!

Santa's Watching!!

2009-12-07T16:31:00.009-06:00

You better behave, Santa is watching has become the most commonly used phrase in our house within the last few weeks. I'm not sure if anyone else uses that phrase anymore, but it sure works in our house (I use works, very lightly). It becomes so common that after Christmas I still threaten it and my girls look at me and say "Christmas is over Mom! Santa is sleeping now!" Just how early is this supposed to start? At what age do they start to outsmart mom? Am I alone here, someone please help me!!! Moving on..the other day, I had this feeling of being "watched!" All this talk about Santa watching has put me a little on edge,and I started to get a little nervous. Could Santa be watching me too, have I been good this year?? Who am I kidding, right? Mommies always behave, he couldn't be watching me. As I turned around I saw this

(forgive the dirty windows,I've never understood the hype of being spotless clean,my mother can attest to this)It's not Santa watching me after all, it's our farms newest misfit, Spook. As if a cat acting like Santa isn't bad enough, our chickens apparently are a little disoriented on who they are.

Hey Mister, don't you think you are a little big for that bird feeder?

I hope everyone has a wonderful day! We are expecting our 1st winter snowstorm of the year today and tomorrow. I have a feeling a lot of baking will be taking place.

The Pioneer Woman in Minnesota!

2009-11-23T12:57:00.009-06:00

We had so much fun meeting Ree, The Pioneer Woman on Saturday. I didn't get as many pictures as I had wanted. I think it had to do with sweaty hands and the possibility of my camera slipping right out of them. I did have a chance to get a few pictures of the line that was so anxiously awaiting her arrival.

We had a great opportunity to meet her downstairs before she went up for her book signing. She was just as wonderful as she sounds on her blog and it was so great to meet her in person. Marlboro Man and her two little boys were there, and they are all just as cute in person as in the pictures!

The cast of characters, my wonderful mother and the mastermind behind Plain Jane Primitives to the far left, I am in the black turtleneck and my sister-in-law on the far right. Oh yea, The Pioneer Woman is in the middle, as if I needed to point that out! She so graciously signed my cookbook in 3 spots, one for each of my daughters. I found pictures in her cookbook that represent each of my daughters well. She personalized each one, by just knowing the little I mentioned as to why I chose the picture. This one is for my youngest daughter who loves cows, because she is going to be a "Cowgirl!"

Here is the one for my middle daughter, Riley, who is absolutely crazy for horses and the reason I started to read The Pioneer Woman blog in the first place. It all started just so she could look at all the pictures of the horses.

This last one is for my oldest daughter Taylor who will soon be thirteen, the flower represents her well, carefree and beautiful.

We had a great time, even though when it was time to meet her we lost all rememberence of what we had planned to say. Let's just say a deer in headlights would describe it well. Quite embarrasing, so Ree if your reading this, thanks for taking the time to meet with us and we love all that you do!

Exciting News!

2009-11-20T10:46:00.007-06:00

Another Rip Roarin Day on the Farm! All the kiddos are in school, check. The morning feeding chores are done, check. Time to have a moment to myself, no check. Ugh! The Farmer is home today, and he always has a list of stuff to do. As if my own list is ever empty! So much for me relaxing!

On another note, my oldest daughter has her very 1st Middle School dance tonight! I don't think I can handle this. I have threatened to chaperone several times, which always results in the famous twelve-year-old eye roll, which is always one of my top 5 daily goals,I love that. Since chaperoning is out of the question, I guess my only other alternative is to hide out and watch from the sidelines. Which is more embarassing, seeing your mom at the dance as a chaperone or seeing her Army crawl on the school lawn? That's what I thought, maybe that will teach her a lesson. All fun aside, I am very proud of her and I wish I could make time slow down just a little. My little girl is growing up so fast.

Ok, Ok, are you ready for the very exciting news? I'll give you a few hints....

1) Her husband looks fabulous in Chaps!

Enough said, right? You all know who I'm talking about! Ree, The Pioneer Woman! She is stopping in Minnesota on her cookbook tour!
We are going to the Mall of America tomorrow to meet her and get our copies of her fabulous cookbook signed, we are so excited! We will take plenty of pictures and tell you all about it! Here is the information for her book signing tomorrow, if you happen to live in this neck of the woods and want to stop by and meet The Pioneer Woman in person.

Saturday, November 21, 2009
1:00 PM – Nordstrom Court
MALL OF AMERICA
60 E Broadway
Bloomington, MN

Have a Great Weekend!

2009-11-17T06:38:00.007-06:00

What a weekend! We did a lot of cleaning outside this weekend since we were blessed with wonderful weather again. The days are much shorter and the wind is a little more brisk, but wonderful when we think of what typical Novembers are like in Minnesota.

The barn was our biggest task by far. It was a family event cleaning the barn and to my surprise they all did very well. Not much fighting, no manure throwing and not to much arguing, at least for a few hours. However, there may be one little reason behind the enthusiasm of cleaning the barn together in harmony.......

Actually 3 little reasons! The girls each got a little piggie on Saturday!Aren't they just the cutest things you've ever seen?

My sister-in-law came over with my two adorable nephews for the fun arrival of the little guys! We had quite the time with the first pig, who decided he was making a break for it and ended up giving Farmer aka hubby a run for his money. If I wasn't busy trying to help catch the little guy, I would have been busy snapping pictures of Farmer diving and missing several times. Dang it, those would have been good!

After all the excitement of the pig on the run, my nephew decided he wanted to try a more relaxing past time on the farm, feeding the chickens! We enjoyed the rest of the day just hanging out and keeping it a little less eventful then the morning! All in all we had a great weekend!

Another busy day, many things on my to do list and one of them is making a few apple pies from scratch. I have the darndest time with the pie crust. I am always looking for tried and true tips, so if you have one for pie crusts, please leave a comment and I will give it a whirl!

Enjoy the day!

A Day of Certainty!

2009-11-12T11:07:00.015-06:00

Today is one of those days that I have so much that needs to be done, yet nothing seems to be getting accomplished. However, here are a few things I am certain of and I feel the need to share them with you today.

1) I love living in the country and being a stay at home mom, no neighbors, no traffic, peaceful mornings, staying in my pajamas as long as I feel like it, no need for showering early in the morning. Until the nice lady who ride shares for your kids decides she wants to talk at 6:45 in the morning and your hair looks like Albert Einstein and you have Racoon Eyes! Seriously?

2) I love my children dearly and would do anyting for them, but they will be the early death of me! It is going to be a very long winter, inside closed corridors!I can already hear you saying, they look so beautiful and innocent. Looks are very deceiving, trust me!

3)That this is not the normal behavior between Dogs & Cats! Honestly, I did not pose them this way, this is their normal hard day at work here on the farm! Meet Miss Bailey, our loveable and very spoiled yellow lab and Bootsie Kitty!

4) I truly love my life and wouldn't change it for anything!

I am off to try get my long list of items accomplished.Tell me what things are you certain of today?

Holiday Giveaway Winner

2009-11-09T12:30:00.006-06:00

Thank you so much for sharing all those great Holiday memories! The winner of the Plain Jane Primitives Holiday Gift Basket giveaway is June B.! Please contact us at plainjaneprimitives@hotmail.com so we can get your information to send you your prize!

We haven't really had a fall this year, Mother Nature it seems decided to skip over that season in Minnesota! As I previously wrote, it snowed in October! We had lovely weather here this weekend, sunny and warm for a change! One of the last nice weekends we will see for a while I'm sure, winter is right around the corner. Hopefully, everyone else had a chance to enjoy some nice weather this weekend!

Even the chickens got a chance to enjoy the warm weather and roam the yard for a while! They even managed to find Thomas Cat lounging and soaking up the warm sun! It's a little hard to see him, but he is in the back corner! I had to put a quick halt to the playful running through my newly planted Rasberries before they scratched them all up!

Have a great rest of your Monday!

Special Holiday Giveaway!

2009-11-03T18:00:00.004-06:00

The holiday's are approaching quickly and it is almost time for the hustle and bustle of Christmas Shopping, wrapping gifts, visiting family near or far, eating that delicious holiday food that we all try and swear we will watch how much we eat this year. Unless you are anything like me, that thought flys right out the window as soon as I arrive home and smell that familiar smell of mom's cooking. No matter how busy we get during this busy season, there are always moments that pass that make us think of our most cherished childhood holiday memory.

Was it a special day spent with family choosing and cutting down a Christmas tree to bring home? Did you have make snickerdoodles or sugar cookies with Grandma? Maybe it was going to church at Midnight on Christmas Eve? The list could go on and on and that is exactly what we would like it to do.

Please post a comment telling us what your most cherished childhood memory is of the Holiday season. The comments will close on November 7th at 12:00 p.m. CST and a winner will randomly be chosen on Monday November 9th to receive a special Holiday Season Gift Basket filled with Plain Jane Primitives items.

Spread the early Holiday cheer early and let your friends and family know about this wonderful giveaway!

Good Luck and we can't wait to hear from you!

Long Time, No Write??

2009-11-03T15:29:00.009-06:00

The picture of this crazy rooster of ours really has nothing to do with this post, it's just that I feel like he looks, Crazy! My Internet has been on a major hiatus, so that is the reasoning behind my M.I.A. recently. Hopefully it can be resolved soon! It seems to work when it feels like it, so I am taking advantage of it as we speak!

There has been so much going on at Plain Jane Primitives, I am not really sure to start! I think I will start off by saying a HUGE thank you to all of you wonderful customers who purchased our Primitive Breast Cancer Awareness Flicker Candle in support of promoting Breast Cancer Awareness. We sucessfully raised $250.00 to donate to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Again, thank you so much for the support and we plan on making this an annual event, with even more products to support the cause in 2010!

Remember this picture from an earlier post? Unfortunately, when we are the Junk Bonanza, I was so overwhelmed with the amount of fabulous JUNK that the cards I grabbed from all the vendors I took pictures of became a big disaster in my bag and I was unable to remember which belonged to which while I was looking through all of my pictures. Good News is, the wonderful vendor, Tami Jordan of Little Red Hen, who was selling these Feedsack Handbags left a post on our blog and I would like to be able to direct you to her. Her etsy shop is www.tamijordan.etsy.com and her little slice of Blog world is www.littleredhenmn.blogspot.com. Stop by and let her know just how adorable you think these are or better yet, buy yourself an early Christmas gift, you deserve it! I still just absolutely love them! I am putting this on my Christmas list this year. Hint, Hint Santa in case you are reading!(which I know you are!)

Stay tuned, I will be posting shortly about our Olde Time Christmas Giveaway! We wouldn't want you to miss it.

An Unwanted Visitor

2009-10-13T07:34:00.008-05:00

Old Man Winter was knocking on my door yesterday morning! This was the scene in my yard and I can surely tell you this isn't what I wanted to wake up too! Living in Minnesota, one must always expect the unexpected when it comes to the weather, however the snow is quite early this year. It is almost gone and they are predicting 60 degrees this weekend, so back to our usual fall like weather. It was pretty to see but I am glad it is going away for now, I want to enjoy fall. Here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy!

Snow Covered Pumpkins!
I hope you enjoy your day and whatever weather Mother Nature chooses to bring your way today!

Junkin Finds!

2009-09-23T18:46:00.007-05:00

We had so much fun spending the day at Junk Bonanza last week, a much needed break from the daily grind. There were so many great vendors with fun and creative fall displays.The Scrabble letters above seemed to be a big hit with many of the vendors. Feed Sack bags were also being sold at several vendors, they are just adorable! I think these are a fall must have!

Here are a few pictures of some cool junkin finds that we found. This old hook that now has it's new purpose as a witches boot is one find we couldn't pass up!
Another fun idea for fall decorating!

There was so many fun things to see and it was such a refreshing place to become inspired for new ideas. There will be more Junk Bonanza pictures coming shortly. Enjoy the Day!

Junk Bonanza!

2009-09-16T09:42:00.004-05:00

Now that school has started (Hooray!), we feel that it is time to do some relaxing! We are heading to Shakopee, Minnesota tomorrow for the 4th annual Junk Bonanza. If you are not familiar with this show here is the link, http://www.junkbonanza.com/. It is definately going to be a fun time. There will be several exciting people that we look forward to meeting. Ki Nassauer, founder of Junk Revolution & JunkMarket and former editor for Country Home Magazine, Serena from The Farm Chicks will be there signing their newest book, The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen and that is just to name a few of the great people who will be there. We can't forget all the vendors with their incredible finds & fun junk. We will post some pictures of our junking excursion later this week! Wish us luck, hopefully we will find some good deals!

We Are Off To A Great Start!

2009-09-08T14:43:00.007-05:00

We would like to thank everyone so far who has purchased our Breast Cancer Awareness Flicker Candle, we are off to a great start. Fall is such a beautiful time of year and one of our favorites. The leaves changing, the crisp smell in the air, baking apple pies and of course decorating for the fall season. We thought it would be fun to have a little contest to celebrate this great time of year. We would like you to send in pictures of some of your best decorating ideas for fall. They can be ideas for outside or inside. If you don't have any pictures but have a great decorating tip, submit those too to be entered. Please send your pictures or tips/ideas to plainjaneprimitives@hotmail.com by September 30th to be entered. We will post pictures that are submitted throughout September and we will randonly choose a winner on October 1st. The winner will be able to choose 1 of our Fall items as their Free Gift. So have fun, send in your pictures and spread the word! It's fun to show off and everyone loves a Free gift!

It is one of my baby girls Birthday today, she turns 6! Oh, how time flys. She has her 1st full day of Kindergarten tomorrow. Happy Birthday Riley!

Plain Jane Primitives Special Event!!!

2009-08-31T18:29:00.009-05:00

We are proud to announce that we will be having a special event that will help promote Breast Cancer Awareness. We have designed a One-Of-A-Kind Flicker Candle that still has a primitive style, but allows you to Think Pink and support a great cause. We will be donating 1/2 of all the proceeds from the candle to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Our special event will run through October 31st, which is officially Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The candle is made of 100% soy wax and stands 4 1/2" tall. It is scented in a delicious Vanilla Cotton scent. We have added an aged label over cheesecloth that has a pink ribbon on it and it reads " Once You Choose Hope, Anything's Possible! - Christopher Reeves". It also comes with a pink tealight, so you never need to worry about an open flame. If you would like to purchase this candle and support the cause, please visit our website at http://www.plainjaneprims.com/, under Early Simples.

We wanted to include a few links that you may go to and read more about how you can help in the fight against Breast Cancer or to make an individual donation if you prefer.

http://www.komen.org/ - Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/ - National Breast Cancer Foundation

We are very excited about this event and hope that by doing this we can all make a difference in the fight against Breast Cancer. Please feel free to leave a comment of inspiration, encouragement or how Breast Cancer has touched your life or of someone you may know!

We Have A Winner!!

2009-08-28T09:01:00.002-05:00

We apologize for announcing the winner a little late for our event we had during August, it has been quite a crazy month for us. We have randomly selected a winner and a congratulations is in order for Jade R. Congratulations Jade, you can select any item on our website as your Free gift.

We will be putting some new items on our website Monday, August 31st and announcing a new and exciting event that will be starting on Monday as well.

Have a great weekend!

It's Official! We are Blogging!

2009-08-17T21:38:00.003-05:00

Welcome to Plain Jane Primitives' Blog! We are glad you stopped by. It has been a long time coming for us to get this blog up and running, but we have finally done it. We have many exciting things to share, so we hope you will continue to visit. In the next few days we will be posting about our special event that is planned to start August 31st and will go through October 31st. If you are on our mailing list we will be sending out an e-mail about it also. We hope you will enjoy our blog and all the fun stuff we have in store to share with you.