The Winner Is!!

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!

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!

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!

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!!

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!

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!

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!