About
You wish you could be more crafty; you admire people who can sew, can, make homemade gifts, and paint furniture. You want to cook more meals for your family, but you’re kinda…really…busy. You know handmade & homemade is better but where the heck to you start?!
You are a smartie, that’s for sure. You are worried about doing things the right way, without making yourself sick or without wasting a bunch of time.
You are here for inspiration, information, and encouragement. You are here for SOLUTIONS to your prepackaged, store-bought life, one easy-to-understand blog post, workshop, tutorial, or course at a time.
Me
I’m Jenny and I LOVE helping beginners learn that the old fashioned stuff I have been doing since I was riding a school bus is
- EASY
- BETTER
- HEALTHIER
- FUN
- SATISFYING
I’m just like you, but crafty and old fashioned.
I’m a hard worker, a romantic, a junior high and community college adjunct English teacher, a wife (how does that saying go? Can’t live with them, can’t live without them?), a lover of rural mountain living, reading, and keeping all the balls a working mom has in the air.
I’m just a Wildflower making a handmade & homemade life.
A wildflower grows and blossoms without extra or special care. They thrive with warmth and simple food and not a lot of fussiness. They sprout up where you least expect it. They are beautiful and strong without being showy. Wildflowers make do with what they have, where they have it.
Born in very Northern California, my younger siblings (a brother and a sister) and I were raised by my parents on a cattle ranch in a valley nestled among the Marble Mountain wilderness. I graduated from my small-town high school in 2002 with 72 students in my class. A scholarship from the Ford Family Foundation sent me to college in Chico, California where I earned my Bachelor’s in English in May of 2007. Eager to teach at the college level, I balanced work, education and family to earn my Master’s Degree in English from National University in 2010.
I aim to encourage my Wildflower readers to model their lives a bit after those of the wildflowers by seeking what is simple, effective, beautiful, and just a little wild in their domestic lives.
I want my readers to leave here feeling inspired, encouraged, and capable.
Let me help you grow like a Wildflower- what are you here to learn?
I originally thought this would be a sewing blog; sewing is my first creative love. I’ve been sewing since I made a rad fish-print vest & culottes in 4th grade 4-H. This is me at the California State Fair Fashion Show. It was pretty cool.
And I’ve been sewing ever since. Here’s the quilt I made when I was pregnant with my daughter that inspired this website. Yes, fabric can inspire websites.
Now, I teach beginners how to preserve food in jars, crochet gorgeous handmade textiles, sew, craft and make homemade cocktail mixers.
If making homemade cocktails and becoming the hostess with the most-ess is your dream, sign up for my free email course that teaches you in super-simple, quick email lessons how to make shrubs, the sweet tart homemade answer to the tired old store-bought margarita mix.
If you want to make dreamy felted wool baskets and plush crochet throw blankets, head to this workshop. I’ll teach you how to crochet this basket in about 2 hours!
And if you really want to make your dinner time easier, if you’re ready to make healthier choices for your family, canning is the thing that that has helped me do just that.
Canning gives you CHOICE. In this completely free canning basics course, I teach
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Process (what to do when)
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Safety (how you will know for sure you won’t make yourself sick)
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Equipment (how to use what you already have to can)
