I live on an amazing 18th c. farm in beautiful Westford, Massachusetts. Everything has been painstakingly restored to beauty from the house to the barn to the cider shed to even the two seater outhouse, except for one rather decrepit, yet picturesque little building. The old schoolhouse. Meadowbrook Farm, LLC has been looking for just the right reason to restore this former schoolhouse, and I am happy to announce that the right reason is me!

Rumphius has found a home. The little schoolhouse, nestled in the backyard of the farm, behind the big old tree and next to the stone fence and garden, will become my classroom and office for my business. Once again its walls will hear the sound of children’s voices and its floors will feel the scuffle of little feet. However, my lessons will not be grammar and arithmetic, but instead, creative classes, workshops, camps and parties of all kinds from creative writing to art to puppetry to historical model-making and more!

And, in true Mrs. Junkbox style, we hope to restore it using recycled materials. If you have access to roofing, flooring, clapboard siding, perennials and more, please contact me at rumphius@creativityunhinged.com.

The work begins this Fall and will continue throughout the Winter and Spring. There is much to do! I will try to document its progress as best as I can. It is a dream come true for me and my business – and, I think for the little schoolhouse!

I grew up between some of the best country auction houses you can imagine. This was not in a little town in New England, but a beautiful, yet economically struggling county nestled in NWPA in Amish country. Old wooden floors (if there are floors at all), grimy junkmen bidding against each other, ladies fighting for pretty china and lamps, and the furniture people with big bucks to spend to fill their antique stores with 19th c. finely crafted furniture. I recently brought one of my dearest friends to my parents’ farm in Beaverdam, Pennsylvania to witness this little piece of antique heaven. She was in awe of the auctions, the shops and the gorgeous countryside.

My mom is an antique dealer in little Waterford, PA. Her shop, All Things Nice, is an amalgamation of cool Fifties kitchenware, “chippy” chairs, folk art, china tea cups, grape carts, and other items which raise the question, “What on Earth was this used for???” (always followed by an excited description of its function by my mother). Her store is a treasure of wonderful vintage and antique items.

About a year ago, I was reading Country Living magazine. I stumbled upon an article of “occasional stores.” In this economy, a lot of small retailers who sell antiques and decorative goods are giving up their store fronts and overhead costs and opting for the occasional sales they hold in their barns or a rented space. It is becoming quite popular and is fun not only for the seller, but also the shopper. My mom and I are great teammates, so I immediately called her and told her that she should close up shop for a weekend and do an “occasional sale” right here in Westford. She could bring up her really cool items and sell them to New Englanders who love a great bargain and great antiques. The Antique Boutique was born!

This Friday and Saturday, my mom and a small collection of other NWPA and local vendors will hold the Antique Boutique at Westford’s Parish Center for the Arts on Westford’s Common (10 Lincoln St.) There will be a wide variety of affordable antiques and vintage goods, fall flowers, my recycled art, a café and live music on both floors of the PCA. The admission is $5 which includes complimentary coffee and tea and a cookie. The hours are Friday, Sept. 10: 9-7 and Saturday, Sept. 11: 9-5. Come for great shopping, a place to relax and chat with friends, to enter for prizes and to meet some fun antique people who have been in the business for decades. And, remember, bring your friends! Shopping is always more fun with pals!

Proceeds from admission support local art events and Sustainable Westford.

We were featured in the Lowell Sun with our chickens in January. Here is the link to the story and a video taken by their reporter and photographer. It is pretty fun! I must say that our chickie girls are very photogenic! The above photo was taken in a warmer time when our girls were still pretty small. Now they are big, fluffy and giving us delicious eggs! Check out my flickr page for more chicken photos.

http://www.lowellsun.com/business/ci_14262654

Well, I do talk about my animal family a good bit in class and with new acquaintances.  So, I have decided to do a bit of a Meet-the-Piper-Family series on my blog.  I am beginning with Wallace, our big Southern mutt.  We adopted him this Spring from Big Fluffy Dog Rescue of Tennessee.  He is a big fella and is all heart.  We love him to pieces.  His “pedigree” is Great Pyrenees, St. Bernard and Hound.  He is both elegant and ridiculous.  He loves to lay on the porch on my fancy pillows and strike poses to please the passersby.

Our Little House in Westford with Wallace the Dog

Well, as of this month, we have officially been New Englanders for an entire year.  We are tenants of Meadowbrook Farm and have enjoyed its seasons to the utmost.  We are embarking upon another fall, my favorite season.  Already, the leaves are changing on the tree in front of the decrepit schoolhouse.  This time of year is marking the end of plant life (as evidenced in my aged garden), but for some reason, the hint of crispness in the air always invigorates me and makes me think of new beginnings.

Speaking of new beginnings, I want to share all of our new additions to our life since last September.  We now are a two-car family (as of two years ago we were merely a two-bike family).  In April, we added a wonderful dog from Big Fluffy Dog Rescue of Tennessee to our feline animal family.  The cats aren’t so sure that they love him yet, but he has been our pride and joy and our key into Westford community life.  People can’t help but stop and ask us, “Is that a dog or a horse?”  Then, in June, I picked up a peeping package from the Westford Post Office.  We added 25 baby chicks to the Hanlin-Piper household.  They are now happily thriving in the old coop my dad restored in the backyard.  We also restored a very old garden and have been living off the Mother Lode of Cucumbers.  And, I have added to my life my very own business.  I have had the entrepreneurial spirit since I was a child running a “carnival” in our backyard and selling cucumbers on the side of our dirt road.  Now, I have Rumphius . . . Creativity Unhinged which is a conglomeration of all of my favorite things.  I paint, sing, write, teach and hot glue all in the name of art.  What could be better?

Finally, and most importantly, I have a new last name.  I am no longer Emily Hanlin.  I am Emily Piper.  I married the love of my life just two weeks ago.  What a lucky girl . . . a beautiful old farm with 28 creatures to love, a stonewall garden, a budding business and a handsome, supportive husband. 

So, I start anew this September.  I look forward to the additions of this coming year.  Happy Autumn!

There is so much to do—feed the chickens, walk the dog, complete final wedding plans for our wedding next Saturday, keep the house tidy, work in the garden…build my business! Today is a rainy day—just the kind of day I needed to sit at the computer and work on building my website, upload photographs of my newest creations and to plug in my glue gun and build puppets for Tuesday’s Westford Farmers’ Market. I also have a door in the Outhouse Gallery waiting to become art. This lovely rainy day is just the type of inspiration I need to be industrious and creative!

My degree is in Theater Arts from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.  In order to gain this degree I had to a complete a four credit final thesis my senior year. My professors had many ideas for me as to what thesis subject matter best suited my theatrical career goals.  In the end, I opted to try my hand at something new—junkbox puppetry. ”Junkbox Puppetry” was a small blip in an obscure puppetry book I had picked up after taking a short seminar in puppet-building.

I was already headlong into the reduce-reuse-recycle mantra, so the idea of creating a puppet play out of garbage truly appealed to me. Over the course of a few months, I created 18 puppets all made from garbage. It became a bit of a community project. My friends were all forced to eat lots of Cool Whip so that I could have the containers to make crowns. The same with eggs, soda, milk- you name it. I even remember an evening in the theater building with many theater students sitting in the hallway waiting to perform—working away their nervous jitters by unraveling yards of old yarn to use as hair for my puppets.

A few months, a few frazzled professors and many gallons of milk and dozens of gluesticks later, I had created something odd and fairly remarkable. My junkbox puppet play, The Frog Princess, based on an old Russian folktale, was greeted by a collection of mesmerized onlookers in a courtyard at Allegheny. Although there were a few mishaps (such as when the main character’s leg fell off), but altogether, it was an unforgettable experience.  It is not everyday that you see a huge bear with toilet brush paws. In the end, this project solidified what my parents had always known about me since I was a small child…that I like to find my own way and try new things—whether I succeed or not. At least in this instance, however, my fierce independence allowed me to put a tick in the “Success” column.

I have not forgotten my connection with those first junkbox puppet friends. While my theatrical comrades at Allegheny were busy earning Masters and dressing people on Broadway, I was making a Baby Jesus from a tiny cream jug. Over the course of ten years, I have taught children (and children have taught me) how to make worms from toilet paper tubes, gathered twigs and old Veteran’s Day poppies to weave into the hair of a marionette, and have sat in a circle with a dozen children to rewrite the stories of beloved fairytales in order to create our very own original puppet plays. I have taught children and adults from Prince Edward Island to Pennsylvania to Illinois the creative art of “Junkbox Puppetry”. I am excited to add Massachusetts to that list. I can’t wait to see New England imaginations go wild and engineering skills put to work on a new crop of junkbox puppet friends.

People ask me about the name of my business.  Several years ago while visiting a farm in Nova Scotia I was introduced to a wonderful children’s book named Miss Rumphius by author and illustrator Barbara Cooney.  Very much unintentionally, my life began to mirror the life of the title character of this book.  It is quite uncanny.  She grew up with a grandfather who was an artist.  He told her that she must find her own way to spread beauty on the Earth.  She grew up, moved from the seaside to the city, was a children’s librarian, enjoyed visiting the city’s flower conservatory, travelled the world, moved to a sweet cottage by the sea, had many cats and planted lupine seeds across the countryside.  She was also beloved of children.

Well, my mom is a retired art teacher who also has always instilled in me that we must follow our own paths and try to make the Earth a better place.  I moved from Pennsylvania to the seaside (Prince Edward Island), to the city (Chicago), worked as a children’s seller in a bookstore, visited the Lincoln Park Conservatory often as a place of respite, have travelled (but not nearly as far yet as Miss Rumphius), have three glorious cats, have now moved back near the ocean to a small house, and am an avid gardener with a penchant for lupines.

Plus, I do have a special connection to children.  I thought that all of these were odd coincidences.  Then, I began learning about Barbara Cooney.  Curiously, she lived in Pepperell, Massachusetts which is only two towns away from my current home.  She taught children’s classes as well.  Finally, her mother encouraged her artisitic sensibilities in the same way my mother did- giving her as much freedom as she wanted as long as she cleaned her brushes properly!  So, I have decided that these are not merely happy coincidences.  Miss Rumphius, Ms. Cooney and I are meant to have a special bond.  So, I have named my company Rumphius as a tribute to these two fine ladies (one fictional, the other not).

I look forward to creating the story of me, Emily (Soon-to-Be) Piper and my business, Rumphius . . . Creativity Unhinged, and hopefully one day someone will find inspiration in what I have created and follow the same path of trying to make the world a more beautiful place.