Introduction

Hi. My name is Rebecca, and I've decided to share my experiences in learning what I call "The Womanly Arts". The arts include traditional women's roles like cooking, gardening, canning, sewing, etc. So if you were searching for any other type of "womanly art" then I am sorry to disappoint you. I am a wife, mother, and Registered Nurse living in Utah. From that description one would assume that I grow all my food and sew all the clothes for my family and my husband's many other wives. Not true! I've never been handy- although my mother sewed and canned and gardened, I just never did. Now that I am 46 I feel like I've missed out on something and somehow let my family down. There must be other women in my same situation - I can't be the only one out there who can't sew! What better way to share my experiences and maybe encourage someone else than to start a blog! Let's be honest...I can cook. And I do cook. But I want to learn more about cooking than just the basics. And I can sew on a button and have sewn a little bit as a teenager. Wasn't any good at it. My husband even bought me a nice Necchi sewing machine after I begged for it several years ago. I just need to take it out of the box and use it! To encourage me, I bought my 9 year old daughter a 3/4 size sewing machine for Christmas so we can sew together. My gardens (container gardens) have always dried up and died. I felt so bad this year because my 9 year old son was really looking forward to growing peppers and I feel so guilty that I let them die. That's what happens when you don't water them. But next year will be different. I have desert gardening books and I am going to get my kids to help me and they will be proud when we eat the food we have grown! And I'm going to preserve some of that food and display it in my kitchen, so everyone can admire the pretty and colorful glass jars all lined up with the bounty from our harvest. Am I taking on too much? Probably. But I'll try to be realistic, too. Stayed tuned and enjoy my adventures!