Prairie Whims

A mother and daughter duo dedicated to encouraging others to take what's already around you and get creative again. Together Valerie and Allison share what brings them joy with you. Visit them in downtown Huron at their shop, Prairie Whims.

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Delta Dental Magic Show

Experience a little magic along with tips to keep your teeth and gum tissue healthy!

 

Darcy Pommer, CDA, RDA graduated from Lake Area Technical Institute with an Associates of Applied Science degree in Dental Assisting. Darcy has a background in Orthodontics, General Dentistry and Pediatric Dentistry and is currently a Regional Oral Health Educator for Delta Dental of South Dakota.

Darcy grew up on a Farm/Ranch near Wessington, SD and now resides outside of Willow Lake, SD with her husband, Jarrod, and 3 boys, Cooper, Bennett and McCoy.

Jennifer Littlefield

                Paper quilling is an old art form that consists of rolling thin strips of paper into coils, pinching them into shapes and arranging the shapes into designs.  Jennifer has been quilling for 16 years.  She is self-taught and makes a variety of cards, decorations and 3-demensional figures.  Jennifer has been a member of the North American Quilling Guild for 15 years and is the South Dakota Regional Representative.  She received her Accreditation status in 2012 and enjoys sharing this art with other people by teaching classes and showing her work at a variety of fairs and art shows.

Stacey Roberts

11AM & 3PM- Demonstration

 

Stacy Roberts, though a recent transplant to South Dakota, has deep roots in the state.  Her mother’s side of the family arrived in Richland Township (at the intersection of Spink, Beadle, and Clark counties) in southern Clark County in early 1886.  There in 1899, a great, great, great uncle ran a creamery and another great, great, great uncle started the Post Office at what is now the village of Carpenter.  Both sides of the family had emigrated from Norway – The Opsahls settling in Wisconsin and the Saboes in Iowa – before making their way to the area.  Stacy’s great grandmother, Caroline Iverson Opsahl, was born in Carpenter, Dakota Territory in 1887.  Her grandmother, Carmen Opsahl Lein was born in Carpenter in 1912, and moved to Seattle, Washington in 1940 for work.

 

As a child, Stacy travelled every summer with her grandparents from Seattle to Carpenter to spend time with them at their “summer home” and with her great grandmother and great uncle at the farm that she, her husband Mace, and her mother Jann, now call home.  So Stacy’s love of the area, its history, and all the prairie has to offer was sparked at a very young age.  There were lots of adventures to be had at the farm for a kid from the city. 

 

Being an only child, Stacy spent a lot of time with adults – listening to their stories, watching them at work (both inside and outside the home), cooking, sewing, building, farming, gardening, and creating.  This gave her the opportunity to work alongside them, and she was inquisitive with many questions.  Some of her first sewing lessons were on one of the treadle sewing machines great Grandma Caroline had at the farm and watching her make quilt blocks, then to make some of her own.  (Both Grandma Caroline’s and  Grandma Bani’s hands were always busy creating something.) At the farm there was a picture of Caroline’s mother, Anna Berte Saboe Iverson, at her spinning wheel which fascinated Stacy.  Eventually the wheel went to Seattle with grandma Carmen, and then passed to Stacy.  This is the spinning wheel she is using today.  Grandma Caroline often said that their pastime at night when (she was growing up) was knitting scarves, mittens and socks.  All made from their own wool and spun on this very same spinning wheel.

 

Stacy’s spinning wheel came to Iowa when Caroline’s grandparents came to the United States from Norway in the mid-1800’s, so its true age isn’t known.  For many years it was in storage in the attic at the farm until it went to Seattle after Caroline died.  Then it went into storage in the basement at Carmen’s house until Stacy and Mace bought a house where it was given pride of place in the great room.  And there it stayed until they moved to South Dakota 2014.  After moving, they finally found a man in Minnesota who restores old spinning wheels and has learned to make the pieces that are no longer available.  The wheel had likely not been used since the 1920’s or 30’s when great, great grandma Anna Berte died.

 

Stacy’s creativity comes naturally and intuitively and she had been fortunate to be surrounded by creative people all of her life, people who have answered her questions and had the patience to work with her and show her how to create.  Her grandmother was an excellent seamstress who had worked for the Singer Sewing Machine Company teaching people how to use the sewing machines they bought.  It was this employer that took her to Seattle in 1940.

 

Following high school, Stacy attended the Art Institute of Chicago studying art and design, then returned to Seattle where she studied pattern making, fabric draping, and clothing design.  Following that she went to work in the clothing design, fabric design and manufacturing world in Seattle.  In addition to her professional life in design, she is an accomplished cook, baker, gardener (both ornamental and edible plants), seamstress, crocheter, painter, landscaper and (thinking it would be fun to learn) a professional pruner of fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs.  Like Carmen and great grandma Caroline her hands are rarely idle. 

 

Stacy and Mace currently grow and sell produce and products from their farm (Little City Farms) at the Huron Farmers Market.  Her creativity can be seen in the beautiful fibers she creates and in the one of a kind crocheted items she makes.  Her pieces are available for purchase and she will take special orders for people.  She enjoys taking the time getting to know them and using the creative process to plan a project uniquely for them.

Rita Baszler

Tom, my husband, of 24 year calls me an artist and my girls, Courtney and Cassidy, say that I am always doing something creative. I call myself crafty.  When I was young my mother instilled the passion of arts and crafts in me and I am grateful for it. About 4 years ago a friend and I purchased the stained glass that I use from my home town (Huron) school auction. We had talked about creating some mosaic garden art.  Well that purchase turned into so much more.

I first created a small window charm, then started creating pendants. I soldered a few window patterns, but my true passion is creating jewelry that I can give as gifts. I had created and given nearly 100 pendants away before my friends convinced me to start selling them.  Each time I sit down to fashion more pieces I learn better technique.  It is all a learning process.

Nature has always inspired me. I love gardening and nurturing plants into beautiful flowers. Recently I combined my two loves. I began drying flowers and incorporating them into my stained glass jewelry.   I use the Tiffany style stained glass process.  

I also enjoy creating and re purposing antiques.  I have recently started turning antique silver plated flatware into jewelry. I stamp mostly inspirational saying on the jewelry, but custom orders are also fun to work on.

Jean Patrick

As you already know, I'm a children's book author. Most of all, I love discovering little-known stories from history and helping them come alive.

But I suppose some of you want the basic facts about my life, right?  Here it goes:

I was born in Carbondale, Illinois (way down in the southern tip of the state). However, I was raised in suburban Chicago where I played baseball with my brothers and cheered endlessly for the Chicago Cubs. 

When I was fourteen, my family moved to Lindsborg, Kansas, where I spent my high school years running track, playing tennis, and playing clarinet in the band and orchestra. I sat next to my best friend, Toni, and we spent most of our time laughing behind our music stands and getting into wars with the trombone section.

When I was eighteen, I went to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where I majored in English (and also studied history and elementary education). After that, I went to graduate school for three years at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, where I earned an M.A. in English. 

Somewhere along the line, I realized that I was getting tired of going to school. So, my husband and I moved to South Dakota and raised three children. We also raised zillions of animals. (Well, maybe not zillions, but close to it!)

Years later (after writing several books), I realized that I missed school. In 2011, I began work on a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) from Vermont College of Fine Arts. I received my degree in January 2014.

Since then, I've continued to write and to surround myself with animals.  

The newest animal on the farm is Freda, a hyperactive German wire-haired pointer. She usually goes to work with my husband (a veterinarian), but during the evening, she gets to come in the house. We're doing our best to teach her to stay on a pillow like the dog in the L.L. Bean catalog, but that isn't working out so well.

But back to my life...  Besides being an author, I write a weekly children's book column for our newspaper (The Mitchell Daily Republic); travel to schools and libraries to talk about writing; lead book discussions for the South Dakota Humanities Council; and substitute teach in a nearby town. I also work as a children's librarian at the Mitchell Public Library (the same place where I wrote and researched many of my books).

When I'm not doing any of those things, you can find me watching baseball, playing tennis, or taking an early morning run down our dirt road.

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More Information:

Karen Pearson

Karen Pearson was born and raised in South Dakota and is a retired public health professional. Her career has focused broadly on supporting and advocating for programs and services for women, children and families.  She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica immediately after college, moved back to South Dakota after her volunteer service to work in health, education and social services in the state.  She spent some of that time working on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian reservations. 

 

Karen moved to Alaska and while working for the Division of Public Health focused first on improving maternal and child health.  Then, in a leadership role with the Denali Commission and partnering with other government and non-governmental organizations, she focused her work on improving access to primary care in all of the rural areas across the state, receiving numerous awards for this work.

 

While in Alaska she was involved in several efforts involving public health in the Arctic countries. In this role she co-chaired, on behalf of the US State Department, the US delegation to Taking Wing-The International Conference on Gender Equity and Women in the Arctic in Finland.  Additionally, volunteer work with women’s groups in China and Russia expanded her understanding of the issues of women in diverse cultures and circumstances and brought her a renewed commitment to advocacy on behalf of women everywhere. 

 

Together with a very talented injury epidemiologist in Alaska, she worked to bring the public health community in the state and region a better understanding that family violence and sexual assault is a greater public health issue on a day to day basis for most women and children than are communicable diseases and other traditional public health problems. Together they established the Alaska Family Violence Prevention Program.

 

Building on work with colleagues in South Dakota early in her career to establish an Advocacy Network for Women in SD, she remains committed to educating, inspiring and advocating for all women, of all ages, all of the time.  Currently she is active in developing and delivering a leadership program for women who are entering the work force or seeking upward mobility at work.  

 

She authored the book “Dakota Dreams:  Stories of Passion and Perseverance” and is currently working with a group of women friends to produce a book honoring the SD women who have worked over the past one hundred years to bring equity to the women of the state. 

Cindy Gregg

DakotaAnne Trinkets are the creation of Cindy Gregg.  Cindy was born in Germany, lived in England, Ohio and Florida before moving to South Dakota 13 years ago.  Her travels have taken her to Africa, Europe, Central America, the Caribbean, and all over the United States and Canada.  With a degree in Biology, she worked as a naturalist in the Florida Everglades for many years.  She is currently the executive director of the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village.  To combat stress and winter doldrums, she began creating jewelry.  Her jewelry designs reflect her love of the water, nature and nature's amazing gemstones.  Each piece of jewelry is unique; many pieces feature components made by various tribes and peoples in Africa, Tibet, Thailand, and Bali.  Your purchases of DakotaAnne jewelry help these peoples in their day to day lives.

Ethel Diggs

1PM- Presentation

Ethel Diggs is a South Dakota author who writes romantic mysteries and inspirational books. Her titles include; “Call T Praise”, Love In The Mind And Heart Of God”, Jonathan’s Love”, “Amethyst Angel”, “A Hot Winter In Eden”, “The Secrets Of Mansfield Manor”, and soon to be released “Security Breach”, a sequel to “The Secrets of Mansfield Manor”. Ethel grew up in San Francisco, California and has traveled abroad. She enjoys marrying her life’s adventures to the sight, sounds and flavors of South Dakota. Ethel has lived in South Dakota twelve years, and resides in Mellette South Dakota with her husband Jonathan Nerland.