Twig & Vine Farm

05/02/2022

Good news or bad news first?

Let’s just get the hard part over first: we have decided NOT to host an online dahlia tuber sale this year.

We're so deeply grateful for each one who made our past years of online sales such a tremendous success. While the overwhelming success was wonderful, it also made us realize that scaling to meet demand, spending more time trying to improve shipping systems, and more time shipping wasn't what we wanted for our family.

When we started this little farm, what we wanted more than anything was to create space and opportunities to welcome others. We've always dreamed of a farm that would be a resting place, a place of beauty, inspiration and encouragement.

I think the last two years have taught us all: choosing what matters most is always the right choice.

For us, that means letting go of the online tuber sale and embracing more of what we love: keeping our family first and helping others find rest and beauty.

That's why we're thrilled to announce we're hosting our first ever dahlia tuber sale, here on our farm in Conway, WA on April 9, 2022.

But it isn't just a dahlia tuber sale: its an invitation to come enjoy the sweetest season on the farm. Here, Spring means brand new lambs, piglets, and chicks. Visiting the farm means snuggling all the critters (dwarf goats, barn kitties, and May the mule included) and just taking a minute to breath and connect.

We want you to have the chance to not only shop for beautiful, coveted varieties of dahlia tubers to take home to add to your garden, but also savor all the sweetness spring on the farm has to offer.

In order to offer the very best experience possible,
this event will be available by ticket only. (We don't want you to have to jockey for parking, stand in a long line, or catch a crowded peek at all the baby critters.) Limiting the number of guests throughout the day allows us to provide you a truly special event.

And best of all?

We've again pledged to donate a portion of the proceeds of sales to , the now world-wide a nonprofit that started here on our farm.

Will you join us? Who will you bring?

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25/01/2022

Dreaming of the color?✨

Our current wintery gray, brown, dark palette can start to feel pretty heavy.

I love the PNW: I truly do. But winters here can be tough. While the constant rain, heavy cloud cover, and fog make for lush rainforests and verdant summers, they also can just plain old start to weigh on you.

So, as my dad says, we “pull ourselves up by the bootstraps” and find ways to chase away the darkness.

For me, there are a few things I’m learning I must do each winter to keep from losing hold of the proverbial bootstraps:

☀️Get outside. EVERYDAY. There has never been a day when I’ve regretted it…even the ones when I literally have to wring my socks out when I come back inside.

☀️ Get out of the house-find a change of scenery. I love homeschooling our boys…and I’ve also learned if we stay home too many consecutive days, is no bueno. So we go: to coffee, for a hike, to the library…

☀️Sit in front of a mood light. If you don’t have one, get one! I have mine right by the spot Jasper and I sit when he reads with me so I know I get at least 30 minutes a day.

☀️Clean off my counters before I go to bed. Call it controlling, call it being a neat freak, call it whatever you want. There’s tons of research on the correlation between clutter and depression: calmly the chaos in my physical space makes me feel sane.

☀️Plan things to look forward to. Maybe it’s big, maybe it’s little. Just plan stuff you’re excited about doing. For me, that’s planning little things like a trip to Lowe’s with Shane, field and farm planning (because seed shopping IS therapeutic) and big summer trips and events.

Right now, I’m planning something so very extra special, that I’m so excited about that I get to share with YOU! Newsletter subscribers will get all the details first tomorrow.

Need to plan to get out of the house, connect, dream, plan of summer blooms, and maybe even snuggle a lamb? You’re gonna want to be here for this.

Stay tuned!

Also, if you need some more ideas on how to get though the winter, I’m sharing all the incredible suggestions YOU shared with me in stories. I’ll save it under “mental health” in the highlight reel.

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07/01/2022

Fourty one trips around the sun today. ✨(Swipe to see tiny cowboy Shane)

I started dating Shane when we were just seventeen. We’ve celebrated twenty three birthdays together.

You get to know a lot about a person when you’ve spent more than half your life together. One thing I’ve come to learn: Shane has a such a special way of making everyone around him feel seen and important. I always tease him that he’s everyone’s favorite, but it’s kinda true. When you have a heart that big, care that much it makes an impression on people.

He’s made a wide circle of friends, including those of you here who’ve cheered on both his kindness and his crazy antics. 😉

In keeping with birthday tradition, see who knows the real Shane with a round of Three Truths and a Lie, the younger years…

(One of the following is a lie : three are truths.)

1) When Shane was 9, he caught a mouse in the hayloft and kept it in a box under his bed. It was going great until his mom found it.

2) When Shane was 16 he rescued a donkey named Rudy, even after the donkey had bucked him off over a barbwire fence.

3) Once, Shane flushed a baked potato down the only toilet in a house of seven, putting the toilet out of commission for days before the potato was discovered.

4) Shane is left handed.

Can you guess which is the lie? Shane will hop on live tomorrow to set the record straight. 😉

26/12/2021

From our family to yours, wishing you a very merry Christmas.

May your days be filled with time with the ones you love, rest, joy and opportunity to reflect on the all the good, hard, wonderful, growing, delightful things this last year has brought.

This Christmas has been slow and special in so many ways. It’s our first time ever not traveling to be with family. I can’t remember the last time we’ve had three days home-no projects and no plans. The boys all caught colds (including Jasper, which has made recuperating from his tonsillectomy slow.)

I want to remember these days…matching buffalo check Jammie’s, pillow piles on the living room floor, Jasper reading me The Snow Bears, sweet gift certificates and butter toffee made by Eli, Emmett mastering muddy buddy’s and being the first one to spring out of bed on Christmas morning, going for snowy walks with Shane, candle light and sparkling cider toasts. Rest. I want to remember it all.

I don’t want to wait until I’m old and look back and realize these were the golden years: I want to see it now.

What a gift.✨

08/12/2021

We never grow poor by giving.

Do you believe it? I do.

But sometimes it’s easy to forget.

Sometimes when I start feeling really empty I realize it’s not because I haven’t been getting enough, but it’s because I haven’t been giving enough.

Giving doesn’t deplete us-it fills us.

It’s why we’re preparing for our 4th annual centerpiece drive for the SCFBS].

It’s hard to explain how much im@looking forward to these workshops and being able to share with our community in the special way.

I can’t be the only one who has felt the weight of this unusually dark and heavy winter and gathering, creating and giving back are just simply fulfilling.

Come join me December 15 or 16 at and spend two hours making fresh floral centerpieces to gift to SCFBS] so they can share them with families who could use a little extra cheer this holiday season.

You don’t need anything but a smile and a willingness to learn: I’ll teach you how to make a centerpiece and I’ll provide all the materials and supplies. Truly no experience is necessary to join in on the fun and lend a helping hand.

Link in my bio to sign up for this extra special Growing Kindness Project ™] workshop. Tickets are by donation. (All donations offset the cost of flowers and materials. Any remaining proceeds help Growing Kindness Project ™] provide education and support to our worldwide team who is growing and giving flowers in kindness.)

Come spend a little time giving back, and in the process reap so much joy.

If you can’t make it, it would mean the world to mean of you could share this and help spread the word: many hands make light work!

03/12/2021

Mark your calendar-it’s time to make beautiful things together!!

🌲Saturday, December 4 8AM. FREE Holiday Centerpiece Design Workshop (Online)
🌲Wednesday, December 15 Holiday Centerpiece Workshop at Happy Hollow Farm, Happy Hollow Farm]] in Stanwood
🌲Thursday, December16 Holiday Centerpiece Workshop at Happy Hollow Farm, Happy Hollow Farm]] in Stanwood

It really is the most wonderful time of the year: time for creating, connecting, giving back and !

THIS Saturday December 4 at 8AM, I'll be teaching a FREE online design workshop, sharing how to create a beautiful holiday centerpiece. This one hour class will walk you through everything you need to know: from finding the best ingredients, to mechanics to design tips to create a balanced, lush arrangement.

This class is free to all Growing Kindness™ team members as a part of our Holiday Cheer Kit. We want to help more people in more communities make and give centerpieces in kindness this holiday season. Whether you share a sweet centerpiece with a single neighbor or give hundreds to your local food bank, whatever bit it is you have to share is more than enough to grow kindness in your community this holiday season. The Growing Kindness Holiday Cheer Kit has everything you need to get started-live design class, video tutorial, ingredient lists, step by step directions, and more. If you're not a team member yet, but you're ready to give back in your community-come join us! It's free and easy to sign up! (Link in bio!)

And if you're local? Come join me in person and for a two hour floral design workshop at Happy Hollow Farm]] on December 15 and 16. We'll work together to make holiday centerpieces to donate to 's, where they'll be gifted to families in our community who could use an extra dose of kindness and cheer this holiday season. All materials are supplied and all levels of experience are welcome. Link in bio to sign up now!!

Whether it's via Zoom this Saturday or in person later this month, I just can't wait to see your smiling face! Let's learn, create, give back and grow kindness together!

01/12/2021

What do you want first: the good news or the better news?

The good news is that I’m hosting a series of extra special holiday floral design workshops for Growing Kindness Project ™]] this month!!

The better news? Not only will you be able to join me for two beautiful hours immersed in floral design instruction, crafting and creating, conversing and connecting-the fruits of our labor will be gifted to local families who could use some extra beauty and kindness this holiday season.

For the past four years, each December we’ve made holiday centerpieces to gift to families who visit the our local ’s Christmas Distribution.

Along with the trimmings for a holiday meal, we want to make make sure that families receive a little bit of beauty and cheer in way of a fresh floral centerpiece.

Over the years, countless family members, friends and local businesses have teamed up to make this special Growing Kindness Project ™]] project happen and this year is no different!

I need your help!!

If you’re a member of the Growing Kindness Project ™]], you’re invitation is waiting in your inbox (or you can find it on the GK Resource Page! (If you’re not a member, but love growing flowers and giving back in your community, come join us!! It’s free and easy to sign up to be a part of the team!!)

The only thing I love more than making a beautiful space, gathering people together, and teaching is the chance to foster connections, kindness and community.

I absolutely can’t wait and I hope I get to see YOU there!!

And are you ready for the best part yet? If you can’t join me in person, you can still be a part of the Growing Kindness Holiday Cheer Campaign!! We’ve made a complete digital kit-including a link to a FREE, live floral design workshop-to help you make a and give holiday centerpieces!

So are you in?

12/11/2021

27/08/2021

Influencer.

Influencer of what?

Lately, I've been getting a lot of emails addressing me as an "influencer."

Influencer of what? How you spend your money? Which stretch pants, face lotion or camping tent you purchase?

I hope and pray we never lose sight of the fact that each of us has a tremendous power to influence those around us, whether thats 5 or 50,000.

These aren't just numbers that add up to a "swipe up": these are souls we are talking about.

So what exactly is my influence on how you spend your time and heart?

I hope I've encouraged you to plant a garden and grow more flowers, to appreciate the beauty that surrounds you.

I hope that you've felt inspired by the everyday magic of family and farm life.

I hope you've felt encouraged to reach out in kindness and freely give flowers, your time, a smile or a word of encouragement to another.

I hope here, you've felt emboldened to seek more heart and home and less hustle.

But above all, I hope I've influenced you to invest in the relationships that matter most to you.

Because for me, that's what has real value and that's where my greatest opportunity for influence rests: not in numbers but in the family and dear friends who share my days, my table, my home.

That's why I'm stepping back from this space for a while.

September feels a lot like New Year to me: maybe it's because I was a teacher for so long or because we now homeschool. Whatever it is, it's a chance to start fresh, refocus and prioritize.

Maybe you've been feeling it too? The need to quiet the noise, the pressure to show up, the mindless scroll? Maybe even this post can influence you, friend: if you've been feeling it-that pull on your heart to pause-do it. Let's all keep influencing each other to seek what matters more.

02/10/2020

I’ve been triple checking tags and photographing all the dahlias the last week, making sure everything is set before our first frost hits. While it’s likely still a few weeks away, I breath easier knowing every single plant is properly tagged before it arrives.

This is “Roque Starburst”, a new addition on the farm this year. As the season cools, her blush tones are intensifying and I’m definitely loving this color combined with these wilder petals.

For those asking, yes! We Weill be hosting a dahlia tuber sale again this March! I’ve got several new favorites that I can’t wait to share!

28/09/2020

Today is National Good Neighbor Day!

When you live in a rural area, the word neighbor takes on a new meaning. You might not actually live next door, but maybe you share a fence line or gravel driveway. Or maybe you can just see each other’s kitchen lights at night.

Regardless of proximity, your neighbors are equal parts friends, fire department, equipment rental, veterinarian, and grocery store.

We have a neighbor who won’t let us rent equipment if he has it in his garage. Another neighbor hand delivers a Christmas present each year. Yet another gives out handmade popcorn balls and specially made treat bags for every kid on the block each Halloween. One neighbor and I text each other for missing ingredients, then send the kids across the field to deliver them. (It’s a twenty minute drive to the grocery if you’re short one egg.) We have neighbors who’ve chased in our sheep when we were out of town and showed up to help fight fire at 2 AM. All of them wave when they see you coming.

And that’s just a few of the many ways our neighbors show generosity and care. But what I’m truly most grateful for is the way that these acts of kindness reveal a far greater gift: to be a part of community.

They say home is where you hang your heart. I’d argue it’s truly home when you’re on a first name basis and can lend a cup of sugar.

National Good Neighbor Day feels like the perfect opportunity to reach out and let them know just how grateful we are for them. I harvested a few of my favorite fall blooms this morning and I’m excited to make a little something for each of them.

Now more than ever, we need connection and kindness in our communities.

Flowers are such a powerful catalyst to be able to reach out and cultivate kindness. That’s what our is all about: helping others to grow and give flowers in their neighborhoods and communities. I hope you’ll come join us if you haven’t yet: we’re now a team of nearly 800, growing kindness by giving flowers in every corner of the world!

Cheers to good neighbors! What do you appreciate most about your neighbors?

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