I love magazines. I confess to having stacks of them in my bedroom. But in my defense, I keep a lot of them and revisit them now and again. If I don't want to keep them I pass them on to a friend, recycle them or give them to a charity.
I decided I needed to subscribe to the ones I buy frequently. It saves money in the end, when a single issue runs around $5 or more. I'm subscribing to three right now, and all of these are bimonthly (six issues a year). When I open my mailbox and one of my magazines is in there, it's almost like Christmas to me!
These are all environment-related, country living type magazines, but they all have something that just about any woman would find useful or fun. All of them fit into my new goal of simplifying my life, getting back to nature, doing some gardening and canning, and connecting more to the environment. I'll be putting links to their companion websites on this blog.
My favorite new magazine is Hobby Farm Home, a sister magazine to Hobby Farm. As much as I would like to, I don't own goats or chickens (if you do, look into Hobby Farm magazine)... I don't even have much of a backyard to speak of! But nevertheless I love this magazine, because it has all my favorite topics in it. Here's what was in a recent issue -- recipes using maple syrup, an article about tapping maple from trees, how to work vegetables into your garden alongside your flowers, an article on vintage ironstone dishes, tips for getting blue ribbons at county fairs with your baking, craft articles on how to make a garden journal and another on how to make a painted floor cloth -- you get the idea.
Another new favorite is MaryJanesFarm. This one I happened to run into at Border's, I haven't seen it anywhere else, but now I have a subscription so I don't have to go hunting for it! MaryJane Butters is the Martha Stewart of all things environmental and organic. Here's some of what was in the latest issue: glamping (glamour camping for us girls), making quirky jewelry from fishing lures, building a portable garden box for growing lettuces, organic recipes, organic bedding (including stuffed vegetable toys for babies from organic cotton, so cute! I want some), making a quilted bath mat from material dyed with Kool-Aid (I'm not making this up), a pattern for a rug crocheted from a new eco-friendly cotton yarn from Red Heart, instructions for making a portable foam chair that doubles as a cot, etc. etc. The issue before that was all bee-related... everything to do with bees, honey, even vintage bee embroidery patterns for tea towels.
My third subscription is to the old environmental standby, Mother Earth News. This one is certainly less girly than the other two, but if you're into the environment and want the latest news on alternative energy, environmentally friendly housing, tips for organic gardens, recipes, and other environment-related articles, then this is a good all-around magazine to subscribe to. There's also a wealth of info on their website if you're looking for products or information.
