My first childhood memories start around the age of 4 years old.  The time I wrote the alphabet (incorrectly) on the white radiator in our rental townhouse on Upham Road (that didn’t end so well), running up a snow covered hill to my friend’s apartment in the same complex, and a black and white teddy bear I received  around the second grade.  
I took the bear to school with me almost everyday but still tried to play off as my Christmas show-and-tell when I left my new Jem (and the Rockers!) doll at home by mistake.  I just happened to have the bear with me.  Even though I have that memory, I can’t remember the bear’s name, nor would I think my parents would remember that doll.  But Jessica?  We’ll all remember Jessica.

Ani chose Jessica when she was 2 years old.  The shelf at Studio 8 Ten was filled with one-of-a-kind “alien” dolls.  I love the shop and the artists in it, and since it was “The Great Alien Adoption” I offered her to choose any doll.  Being that she was starting the little girl ingrained desire for all things pink, she picked the one with the head full of stringy, fibrous pink hair.  She had a sad face on one side and a happy face on the other, extra long braided fleece arms, and a mermaid tail.  Through my own desire to support handmade artists, a friendship beyond anything I could have imagined or hoped for began.

Jessica traveled.  She got around.  Vacations to Minnesota, hikes at Red Rock Canyon, countless walks to the nearby parks…and always, without fail, (and with tears shed over an occasionally misplaced friend), she ALWAYS went to bed with Ani.  The hair…that stringy, pink hair was what comforted a little girl through naps, tantrums, and tiresome car rides.  She chose the perfect strand, the longest, dreadiest lock and tucked it safely in the palm of her hand, wrapping her fingers tightly around it as if she were giving a thumbs-up.  That little inch of protruding hair and her thumb popped into her mouth, her eyes settled shut, and she was off to dreamland. 

Sometimes Jessica was cast-off in the night.  Ani would wake up and Jessica would be hidden under her blankets or on the side of her bed, out of sight of her tired eyes.  She cried.  We got up. And after flipping blankets and bending to check under the short toddler bed, we’d always find Jessica, sad side up. Ani would smile, grab her, flip her to the happy side.  Back to bed they went, thumbs-up.

We frequently visited the park in Las Vegas several blocks from our home.  After a long, spring walk to and from with playtime in between, we realized Jessica was left behind.  We ran back and found her, sad side up.  After moving back to Wisconsin Jessica was the victim of stovetop neglect and ended up with a scorched face…the sad face.  She eventually went through open body surgery to stitch her torso (sad side) and then a full-body replacement complete with butterfly fabric.  We learned the basics of hair replacement when her locks began to find their way to the floor and furniture of the house.  

I’ve had more conversations with my now 4-year-old about “letting go” of her friend then I can count.  I could add income to our homestead if I collected a quarter everytime someone at the post office commented on what a "loved" doll she is.  Jessica’s face and body are torn, we now find her fluffy guts on the floor and on the furniture.  The mermaid tail is hanging on by only a stitch.  She no longer goes everywhere…and no longer to bed, as she has no hair.  Ani isn't quite ready to retire her friend,  she still loves her.  She comes to every tea party…usually because it’s her birthday and she’s the princess. Jessica’s appearance is of no consequence to Ani, she will defend her anytime it is brought up.  It breaks my heart a little that we will all have to part with Jessica one day soon, she has brought so much joy to my daughter’s life.

The happy ending is that my son also “adopted” an alien doll that day.  He went through a very short
-lived love of pink…I think it both began and ended when he chose Tatiana to bring home.  A squatty-bodied doll
made with floral pink fabric, legs of differing lengths, her 2 faces both pretty indifferent of happy or sad, and thick, soft yarny hair.  Tatiana has sat on the sidelines for years.  She recently went up against Jessica in a beauty paegent, but could never beat the princess.  She’s stayed pristine, clean, safe from hot surfaces.  Recently Tatiana was the recipient of Jessica’s last strand of stringy hair, donated out of love for a little girl.  Now Tatiana goes to bed with Ani, and she searches out that one strand of Jessica’s hair in the thickness of not-quite-right-for-sucking Tatiana hair. I don’t think Tatiana will ever replace Jessica at the head of Ani’s “posse”,but she will have her chance to be a friend to a pretty amazing child.

As we start this new year, I have been thinking about how much our lives have changed since we left the big city life in Las Vegas behind and moved to the Wisconsin countryside.  We are now in a totally different enviroment for both
climate and social culture, and our living arrangements have been drastically altered.  Here are a few of the things I am happy to be doing now that we never  did in the city:

1)  Grow All Our Summer Vegetables.  Although I always give
Chris credit for his attempts at growing food on our steamy condo patio, it had NOTHING on what he was able to accomplish with just over 400 square feet of landspace dedicated to gardening.  By the end of the summer, I didn't have a care when the farmer's market was ending for the season, because we had no need to go.  We grew an abumdance of vegetables including acorn squash, tomatoes, beets, radishes, carrots, potatoes, beans, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, corn, and cucumbers (I'm sure I forgot SOMETHING).  Along with an already established asparagus patch and 3 apple trees on property, we are still eating the fruits of our harvest.  Which leads me to number 2...

2)  Can and Preserve Food.  We've done dehydrating on a
small scale for years, this year we not only dehydrated buckets of apples, we
also did watermelon and tomatoes.  We canned apples, tomatoes, sauerkraut,
beets, jams, and pickles.   Once we realized how much money we could save on
apple juice, we purchased a Jack LaLaine juicer and froze several gallons of
juice from our own apple trees.  From our herbal tea garden and black walnut
trees we also dried enough chammomile, fennel, lemongrass, lemon verbana, black
walnut, and spearmint to serve our tea addiction throughout the winter.

3) Live Amongst Animals. Our housecats, Bubba and Binky, and a handful of fish throughout the years was our only connection to four-legged companions...until now! Now we live in harmony with 30+ breeding cattle, 3 horses, chickens, ducks, and no less than 15 barncats. Although we can't call them our own, or reap the benefits of raising them, it is still one of the coolest things to look out the window during dinner to a cow rubbing up against her baby, or two bulls duking it out.

4)  Recycle.  HOLD YOUR STONES!  I know, I know people in the city recycle all the time...but at our condo complex in Vegas it was not a requirement, and no services came, which would have required us to take it ourselves to the recycling center, which we never did.  The funny thing is, here we not only have to take our own recycling, but we have also opted out of paying high prices for trash removal, and deliver that ourselves, too.  Between burning our paper and cardboard, saving various glass bottles for artist friends, recycling our metal, plastic, and glass, and feeding our kitchen food scraps to the ducks and chickens, we only accumulate about 1 full trash can each month.  This is a HUGE difference from the "bag a day" we were hauling to our complex dumpster...without a thought or care as to where it was going.

5)  Live on Less Money (and Feel Good About it!).  Chris and I have never been wealthy, and I can't speak directly for him, but I was NEVER ok with that in Vegas.  Maybe the "money-culture" is partially to blame, but I take full responsibility for my own unhappiness in this area.  We are now down to a 1-income household that relies on 2 part-time positions to survive.  And while we are diligent about watching our spending, we reap the huge rewards of having a full-time stay-at-home parent, having more time to engage in the arts and crafts we love to create, a comfortable home on 10 acres of land, being the only house within a half mile, and living amongst like-minded people who are family-driven, not money driven.   Having the opportunity to think and act creatively about diversifying income is one of the biggest draws to homesteading for me personally.  This, along with also getting creative about DIY projects, appreciating all the things we are gifted, and wasting less, all bring so much more joy to life than rat-racing to the office everyday to a job that was not bringing fullfillment to my life.

As our lives progress, I know this list will grow and grow.  We have such big dreams that we only started to see the possibilities of when we lived in the urban center of Las Vegas.  If you have made the move from city-to-farm, what kinds of things can you think of that are different?  We would love to be inspired by our readers!  Please feel free to comment and share!

It's our 2nd annual "Make an Offer" month at Breedfashion on Etsy!  This was such a popular sale last year, I'm doing it again!  This is a great opportunity to purchase my unique, quality, handmade clothing at a price that really works for you and support our homestead business.

HOW IT WORKS

1)  Visit www.breedfashion.etsy.com to view available items.  All items listed are available to accept offers. 

2)  Find the item listing you want to make an offer on and start a conversation through the listing.  In your message, state your offered price for each listing you want to offer.  Offering on multiple items increases the chances of a lower offer being accepted!

3) I will either message you back with acceptance of your offer or a counter-offer I deem to be reasonable.  NO RESONABLE OFFERS WILL BE REFUSED!

4)  Once an offer has been accepted, I will change your listing(s) to reflect the agreed upon price in a private listing with your name attached.  I will include the link(s) to your item(s) in our conversation. 

5)  Purchase your item(s) through the etsy site and they will be sent to you via USPS.  All sales are final!

Handmade clothing makes a wonderful shower, birthday, or new baby gift.  I take great pride in making ultra-contemporary pieces that are unique, versitile, and long-wearing.  After this sale, I will be closing my Etsy shop and selling all new items through www.yburban.com!  Keep an eye out on our store section of for my new collections coming in April 2014!