Autumn in Ohio County

Somewhere between Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes lives my hometown. I am from one of those areas that identifies as counties rather than towns. When I refer to my hometown I am basically never talking about the tiny town of 300 I grew up outside of, or the town of 3500 where I tell people is my hometown. The entire county and its population of 24,000 is my hometown. The fifth largest county in Kentucky. A county that is named after the Ohio River even though the river isn’t particularly that close (the part of the county that lies along the river broke away and became its own county years and years ago). The county toes that line between the rolling hills of central Kentucky and the flat Mississippi River bottoms that spread far and wide across western Kentucky. The landscapes in our county start in the east with hollers and valleys and by the time you get to the curves of the Green River the land is endlessly flat. I really do love the landscapes in all seasons, but there is something about autumn here that is warmer, more welcoming, and a reminder that these rural farming communities were built using the bounties of the land. A cornucopia of nature provides a painters palette of inspiration for the camera. These are a few of my favorite images I have shot around the county over the past few autumn.

Recap: A Kentucky Handmade Weekend Autumn 2020

We’ve started a new tradition at my farmhouse in Kentucky called A Kentucky Handmade Weekend. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to do something with the farm/on the farm that promoted handmade, rural made, our small town, and a slower way of life. Earlier this year we had the idea to host a pop-up shop and a few workshops at the farmhouse. It felt like a nice way to celebrate our community during a very rough year. We had our first event in August. At the time that event felt like a huge success….then we had our October event and we were blown away with the support.

The concept behind these events is pretty simple…we wanted to have a weekend that celebrated handmade, American made, and local art and folk art. We wanted it to be part pop-up shop and part workshops. We created a large store area in my backyard that was filled with goods and art by locals, vintage pieces I had collected over the years, and a ton of American made goods by my maker friends from all across the US.

The workshops were to be in the side yard, but they grew bigger and bigger and just kinda ended up being wherever we had enough space. The front yard was dedicated to food and pumpkins. Over three days we welcomed so many friends and neighbors to the house. We even hosted a bake off!

For Spring 2021 we will be filling the orchard out back with vendors, adding more food out front, and bringing in a whole new group of workshops. It has been our dream to bring our love of art and handmade to our very rural western Kentucky county and we feel like we are well on our way!

We are doing a much smaller Christmas Open House in December if you are near by.

The following are a few of the images I took over the weekend. I ended up being way too busy to properly photograph it all. I think in the spring we will need a photographer.

You can find many of these items in our online shop!

A Story for Where Women Work || Emily Riddle

Today I wanted to share something I am really proud of. My friend Jo, the editor of Where Women Create asked me to photograph a story for her newest magazine Where Women Work. I was especially excited because the subject was a friend of mine from college. She, Emily Riddle has recently opened a shop and coffee shop in Versailles, KY. If you’re in the area you must stop in for a coffee or a nibbly sweet treat. You can read the full story in this seasons issue of Where Women Work....which is on newsstands now. 

Where Women Work is dedicated to women in business sharing their own stories and own journies in their own words to other women around the world.  

The Where Women Create titles (Where Women Cook, Where Women Create, Where Women Work, and What Women Create) are available at Lowe’s, Barnes and Nobles, Michaels, Books a Million, and Costco locations across the country, as well as select Walmart and Kroger locations. 

Emily’s shop is located in downtown Versailles, KY.