Who is Amanda and what is Frogbird Farm?
She comes from a long line of strong women. They where pioneers, healers, matriarchs and educators. She has a love of the mountains, oceans, deserts, farms, forests and fields and having lived in and seen many of these places she truly feels "Her home is where her heart is and her heart is always home."
She was born in Missouri, but when she was 6 months old her family moved to Hawaii. Ten years later she moved with her family back to Missouri where she grew up and went to school. During the first part of her adult life she lived in New Mexico, where she raised two strong and beautiful daughters and established a foundation for much of the art and craft work she loves to this day.
In the 80‘s once again she moved, this time with her own family, back to Missouri and ventured into the then male dominated field of PrePress and Advertising. It is here she became expert in photo-retouching. She developed training programs and taught others in her field. After over 20 years of a successful career, she is now pursuing a new and more creative life path including, embroidery, sewing, crafting miniatures, photography, photo retouching and historical photo restoration.
She has found her love of the technical and the handcrafted can be merge to create new and beautiful items.
She shares her life with her husband Kelly and their cat, Aspen Skydancer. She is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and spend her time between their home in the city and Frogbirds Farm.
Frogbirds Farm is in the the northeastern part of the Missouri Ozarks. This is how it got its name. Amanda was given a birdhouse to hang out on the farm. She took the birdhouse outside to hang but got busy and set it down to hang later. When she came back to hang the birdhouse a week later she noticed something was sitting in the opening. It was a little Gray Tree Frog. When she walked toward it the frog moved back inside as if to say "This is my house" so she decided to let him stay. Amanda's husband Kelly strapped the house down to the deck it would not be blown off by the wind. This friendly little frog would often sit in the opening of his house and watch us. We named Frogbird (since he lived in a birdhouse) and he lived in there for two years and we started referring to the Farm as Frogbirds Farm.
Respecting the spiritual beliefs of all, she will often stitch spiritual items that bring light and meaning to many of all faiths.
“In our lives we need to Love the Earth and One Another, Reuse what we Find, Fashion what we Need, and Make a House a Home! Not only for our physical dwellings but also for our spirit hearts.”
