Horn of Plenty for All

One of the small bread cornucopia
I make filled with snacks to nibble on.

Thanksgiving has come in many forms at our house through the years. When I was a child, it was always a time of gathering folks together.  If we were living in the States, then we had our extended family join us or we joined them. If we were living overseas, it usually meant that my parents opened our house to those who were also serving the USA far from home.  Although the table was always filled with scrumptious foods on beautiful silver serving platters and fine china dishes, I was led to believe that the holiday had more to do with the camaraderie than actually "stuffing" ourselves.

I love the wheat motif as well as the cornucopia.  In analyzing this love, I have determined that it has to do with harvest and abundance.  Neither of which is pleasant to do alone.  So, the "horn of plenty" to me means, "plenty for all". So, SHARE!

Cornucopia nylon flag I sewed.

When you're younger, you're "encouraged" to eat whatever a grown-up has bestowed upon your plate. The worst Thanksgiving memory I have is of a vegetable side dish that was a navel orange hollowed out, filled with mashed sweet potatoes and brown sugar, and then topped with a few melted mini-marshmallows. (or something like that!) I think I was supposed to like it, but the smell made it difficult to even get to my mouth. I had a whole one just for me! Yay! I still remember the glare that was cast my way.

Later, as an adult living overseas, and before I had children, I opened my house to many friends who were also spending the holiday without family. That group of friends made the day special as we ate both American food and local cuisine favorites.

Bread Cornucopia I made then
packaged to give as a gift to friends.

Years later, when living back in the States with children of my own, we always saw extended family at Christmas time, but Thanksgiving plans were different year by year.  Even when we were in the States, we rarely lived near family, so it was always a road trip for someone in order for us to be together.


So, for Thanksgiving we started a new family tradition (this was so that holiday expectations wouldn't be a disappointment). We began camping! For many of those years, we'd lived in Florida, and November in Florida is wonderful for outdoor anything! We visited almost every state park throughout the year and at Thanksgiving would choose the one we liked best that year. With every manatee, wetland, wild horse, sea turtle, and starry sky we saw, we shared experiences and built memories to last a lifetime.

On Thanksgiving day, I still created a table of great food that had required some extra advanced planning by me, but brought joy to the family.

My oldest daughter who was away
from home one Thanksgiving, made
this Cornucopia to share with her friends

I hope as the years pass for you, that you change your traditions to suit your family's changing lives.  Sometimes when we hold fast to rituals that we can no longer do with ease, the holiday holds disappointment and that's not the intent.




                 


 My wish for you as this holiday season begins, is-
Please take time to count your blessings, and let the family and friends you love and people who make a difference in your life know that you Give Thanks for them.

2015 Farm Calendars have Arrived!

I am so excited!! My 2015 calendars of the farm have arrived from the printers today.

Calendar Cover

I have worked on this project for over a year.  Every time I thought I’d had the photos for each month just the way I wanted them, a more perfect picture, even more fitting than the last, would present itself.  For instance, I thought I had the most perfect shot for OCTOBER’S main photo.  But, on a heavy foggy morning while I was out photographing the farm, I caught a glimpse of the horses through the gates rungs that just happened to have a spider web laden with dew, hanging there.  The mood was perfect for October.  So, OCTOBER it was!

Calendar Back with all months shown

Another similar instance was for January.  I had a taken a beautiful photo of the pond totally iced over.  It was at dusk and the glow was reflecting back.  I thought it was perfect; however, friends and family felt it was a little “cold” to start the year off, so instead Imax (our yard llama) is the pin-up for January!

Similarly for December, I had chosen a photograph of a scarf that had been knitted from the spun lamb fleece of one of our favorite sheep (Yerba).  Again, friends and family said even though the photo was gorgeous they hoped to end the year with one more glance at life on the farm and home to so many animals.  I looked and looked through literally hundreds of photographs from this year trying to match what I thought suited DECEMBER and what would still please my “critics”!  As luck would have it, we had a fluke storm in late winter and the snow fell at blizzard rate.  I could barely see outside more than 25 feet away.  That must have been all I needed.  I caught a wonderful photo of so many cardinals (male and female) at one of our feeders at a backyard crabapple tree not far from the house.  I opened the dining room window and took the shot from there, so as not to scare them away and to prevent my lens from fogging up.

December's main photo

I designed the calendar for people who are interested in life out-of-doors.  While each month has a large pin-up 8 x 10 size photograph up above, down below in the actual days/date part there are gardening tips, odd facts about moon phases, holidays, random animal trivia, and wonderful small photographs of life on the farm during that particular four weeks.

April's date/day 

April features trivia on the native shrubs and trees that begin to grace the landscape across the bluegrass region of Kentucky and also the mid-region of our Country. The Full Pink Moon is in early April.  The small photos include Victorian hollow peek-a-boo sugar Easter eggs that I make to sell that time of year, daffodils, Scottish Shortbread that HeartFelt Baskets & Gifts also makes, as well as Sweet Pea, Dolly Llama, and some of Dolly's roving.



For example in February, we not only have Ground Hog’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Ash Wednesday, and Presidents’ Day, but we also have the Full Snow Moon,  and reminders to sharpen pruning tools, clean nesting boxes, and make homemade bird treats.  The small photos include some chocolate covered strawberries that I made as well as cardinals and bunnies sharing bird seed under one of our feeders!

A typical month's date/day calendar inside

March includes Pi-Day 3.14 (Pie Day on March 14th) as well as a Daylight Savings reminder. Lots of gardening tips as well as a small photo of one of the Wool Wreaths that I make, adorned with a green burlap bow and felted Shamrock in honor of Saint Patrick's Day, are highlighted during this month.

I am certain you will love the calendar as much as I do.  By the end of the year, you’ll feel as though my hobby farm is your farm, too!  And that’s what I’m hoping for.   Whether or not you live in the country or even take care of many animals on a daily basis, this calendar is for you if you appreciate the simpler yet more colorful things in life. 

The quantity is limited, so I hope you will order a calendar soon and enjoy a HeartFelt year in 2015, day by day!