Her farmhouse doesn’t look quite like this…
Gradually…
Since she inherited the farm, she’s been trying to decide what to do… She rents the fields – she’s NOT going to start farming when she retires!
But she is going to live there. Starting just before the end of the year – she will be there by Christmas! There’s so much hiking, bird-watching, and just general relaxing there…
cardigan – Incentive!; earrings – Madewell; scarf – Nordstrom; tee – Boden; watch – Rosefield; jeans – Lands’ End; tote – Madewell; waterproof boots – Teva
She has committed to work through the middle of December, but she wants to start moving NOW, and she has a fairly excellent idea. Why not take things up to the house every time she visits? Some winter clothes, some bedding, some books… If she takes a car-load every visit – say maybe 9 times before the final move – she will save some moving money. And her visits there will feel more and more like home, with every cookie sheet and tea towel that she moves!
sweatshirt – Make + Model; fleece – Patagonia; grey & green tees – L.L.Bean; green plaid shirt – Lands’ End; rust plaid shirt – L.L.Bean; grey sweatsuit – L.L.Bean; shorts – Patagonia; rust jeans – Lands’ End; blue jeans – Lands’ End; hiking socks – Smartwool; hiking boots – Vasque; slippers – L.L.Bean
So she’s taking winter clothes, jeans, and cozy clothes. She’s also going to leave a pair of shorts and a couple of tee shirts, just in case she has a warm day or 2! The warm clothes will be useful – especially sweats in which to sleep – because she really MUST sort out the heating system…. She doesn’t think she wants to carry wood for heating!
Her plan is to take her favorite clothes to the farm. Anything that she hasn’t moved by November is NOT going to move at all – if she doesn’t like something well enough to move it, she doesn’t need to keep it, right?
Casual clothes, neutral colors… A farmhouse near a million nesting birds, some bodies of water, and some forests…
She really would like to just live there NOW, but she’s being deliberate…
Would you know what to take, and what to leave, if you were moving?
love,
Janice
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ahhh i love love love love love these colours!!!
Is she going to be living there alone? It sounds wonderful and peaceful (and isolated) for a holiday home, but permanently? I don’t think I could do that – certainly not in my later years.
Other than that, a lovely rich autumnal colour scheme and great choices for the outdoors. I like the idea of filling the car up and moving gradually, but what about the larger items? Unless of course the farmhouse is already well furnished, in which case, she could sell her own pieces to help fund her retirement.
Janice,
This is what we did with our recent move half an hour away from where we used to live — car trip after car trip of moving smaller items !
Change the gray here to tan, and these are my colors and style of living , as we are both retired, and live in a wooded area with farms nearby . Love this post and the colors !
Question, Janice — when you show a packing post with the illustration showing how to wear a garment , like trousers, 3 ways, is that an inference that it is to be worn 3 times, or is that just an example of what you can do if you so choose to do ? I love when you show these !!
For trousers and jackets, use the jeans rule. Wear them until they’re soiled or stink and then wash them. Lighter fabrics may not last as long as rugged jeans or coats; however, wearing them several times in a row is not going to kill them. Washing them on normal after each one day’s wear will. Especially the dryer. Unless they’re heavily perfumed from overkill at the office, or smoking, or soiled, wear on! I have two over-the-door hook racks (bedroom + closet doors) where they hang separate from the rest of the closet after wearing. That’s where the planning comes in so you rotate on the go. In general, I wear mine about three times each before I wash on gentler cycle with gentle soap. If soiled, I soak first. And wash right away! I had to break the habit of leaving them in the bin for a few days; then you have nothing to wear!
Nina,
Thank you, but I was wondering what Janice’s take was on this, if showing 3 illustrations with one garment was also a suggestion that her intent was that the garment be worn three times on a trip, when doing packing planning.
I want all of this. The house, the lifestyle, all those clothes in exactly those colors! Well maybe I’d switch out the plaids for something else but otherwise, this represents my fantasy retirement!! It’s still a few years away but a woman can dream!
I have a friend who is well into her retirement years who has a handicapped husband, and manages a small farm (~20 head of sheep) all on her own with some assistance from grown children and neighbors. (to be fair I also know some younger farmers who couldn’t cope without the assistance of friends & family.) She is totally amazing and I respect her tremendously – but if I inherited a farm like the heroine of this tale, I’d rent out the fields too. 🙂
How fun to see such a casual collection. The colors and the painting to wonderful!
I am ready to move here, though if I lived on a farm I would definitely that a darker neutral, you can get very dirty there! Love the blue and greens! I want the farm house, I would take my hubby and my cats ( but cats inside only,,, would not want them harming the birds!)
I also love this story and color scheme. I would switch out the orange/rust, but this is lovely, soft, and very wearable. I recently visited a nearby ranch with my family, where they spent the last 5 years eradicating an invasive species of juniper, and the land that was revealed is striking in comparison with the nearby land–springs of water, wildflowers, native grasses, oak trees. I could see myself picking a color palette from that!
I’m not moving this year, but we’ve been in our house for 5 years, and a few months ago I decided to act as though we’re moving in December. I want to clean out and have a reset! This post gives me some inspiration to continue this project. What would I move to a new place? And those are the things I keep.
What a beautiful painting and the colours for the wardrobe are simply stunning. At another time, can you pull out some of the other colours – the deeper blue, pink, deeper (moss) green and gold? Thanks. Living this lifestyle is a wonderful dream but you would need a lot of help to maintain it and be close to facilities and amenities and security would always be an issue especially if you are living there alone and as you get older.
What a dreamy story … And what a great incentive to think about our futures and our stuff. My particular fantasy when editing the collection is to say, “You’re moving to a one-bedroom apartment on the Left Bank in Paris. What will you take?” It’s good for discipline. But a house in the country or at the seaside works just as well, and a little less dramatically. Great choices here for our heroine’s new life in prospect. I think the choices are practical and appealing.
I like the way you think! Paris, Nice, somewhere in Northern Italy, or the Florida Gulf Coast in a lovely small apartment/condo surrounded by restaurants and small shops. The country is lovely until it snows 2 feet and you can’t get down the mountain you live on (done that). And thinking of downsizing to a one or two bedroom apartment really makes you think about what you love and would keep.
Sleeping in sweats will be too hot. Sleep in your long underwear instead. My silk pair from Lands End (several years old, but they still carry similar) work perfectly in our mountain home when we don’t want to mess with the wood burning stove. Also great for traveling in a colder climate and you don’t want to pack bulky warm pjs.
I would wear ALL of these things. This is just my style. Love it!
How do I find all the posts for this lovely woman that inherited the farm?
Jaymalea
This is the first one, so far! But if you search for the name of the painting, you will always find her – it’s her signature!
hugs,
Janice
I live on a farm in real life. The acres of fields are indeed leased out to row crop farmers. I, however, live in the Deep South where a different sort of wardrobe is needed.
It sounds as if the heroine of the story is currently in a rat race sort of life and ready to escape it for an idyllic life in the country. I would suggest that she keep some of her nicer clothes because after a while, she may want to venture into civilization for an evening out or to visit friends. We farm gals like to look pretty, too!
Ooh – I can so relate to this. I’ve appreciated your previous posts regarding downsizing, as we look ahead to storing whatever we must keep for a future relocation in the US while we live in our south of France home for several years. Clothing is the issue – what will we take from our 4 season current home? And what will FIT from our multiple large closets in a 3000 square foot home into our single armoire in a 600 square foot home?!? Like your heroine, we take over bits and pieces each time we go, but we haven’t done the huge downsize yet….gulp!!
I did inherit the farm last year – just three acres, not that rural or romantic. We rent the field for hay and spend our spare time in the garden and greenhouse. I live in t-shirts, plaid shirts, jeans and down vests – and one essential item: tall rubber boots, a must for muddy gardens and hayfields especially after they have been “fertilized”. I expect this lovely lady will eventually get a pair as well.
Your posts are always thoughtful and inspirational. Thanks to you I need fewer clothes because everything works well together. You put my best colors together in a post a few years ago and I have used that post as the basis of my wardrobe ever since. I really cannot thank you enough!
A dear friend has decided to spend 6 months each year, spring to fall, in Quebec City. She’s newly divorced. Rented an apartment, furnished it all in whites. Her wardrobe is minimal and matches the apartment: cream and soft pastels. The whole effect is of much-needed serenity. When I visit, I feel like I’m in a cloud.
That sounds heavenly!
hugs,
Janice
Not even remotely my colors, but what a versatile wardrobe based on a lovely painting! – nancyo
I live on a 5 and a half acre farm with chickens, a horse, and miniature cattle. Practical, durable clothing is a must but that doesn’t mean it can’t be lovely too as you have clearly shown. I second the tall rubber boots! I love this painting and this story; it feels like this heroine is moving toward the same kind of life I aspire to. The only difference with me is that I would actually be planning to farm and haul firewood. We use our fireplace a lot in the winter! I also like that the color palette has the colors equally distributed. I think the variety you have here is one of the reasons this post appeals to me so much. I’ve been struggling so long with establishing a color palette but I think I might could actually work with this example! I am going to spend more time studying this one! Can’t wait to see where this heroine goes with her plan!
The way you describe it, Janice, *I* want to move there now …