Creating stronger connections within our community by creating spaces to learn crafting and home arts skills.
Handmade boutique products made from the homestead and garden.
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Upcoming Classes
PAINTING FLORALS ON DENIM - Saturday, August 3 from 10AM-12PM. Think Free People meets Urban Outfitters, Boho meets Hippy!
FALL CLASSES (dates TBD) - Sourdough on a Budget, Sewing for Kids and Adults
Classes are non refundable, but you are welcome to find a replacement for your spot.
If you are interested in a private class, ladies night out, birthday party or team building event, email to inquire about a date, time, pricing and logistics.
The porch market is set up on class days with handmade products available for purchase. Feel free to browse before or after class.
The Homestead Porch Story
The Homestead Porch is a place where home workshops and classes begin and end. It's a little pop up porch market with handmade goods that started on our property in California and moved to Tennessee in 2023.
We started on a California homestead in 2002 with our three little ones. We had a barn sized shop and plenty of room for gardens, orchards, goats, bees, a treehouse, pool, dirt bike track and large backyard.
Homeschooling was never more fun!
We built a cottage for my parents to live out their years in, and it wasn't long before our kids grew up, a recession hit, and we found ourselves struggling to make ends meet. Mustering up all our resourcefulness, we converted part of the shop into tiny home #1, and our son and his new wife became our first tenants. Two years later, we converted the rest into tiny home #2 for our newlywed daughter. At one point all three of our married kids lived on our property along with five grandkids. It was heaven for us grandparents and we still own that communal property where so many beautiful memories were made. Our middle son and his family still live there on the beloved old homestead!
So back to the porch...
Over the years I've made many products using the resources from our fruit orchard, vegetable garden, medicinal herb garden, bee colonies and chickens. I've taught classes on once common skills like sewing, textile arts, gardening, beekeeping, painting, and making soap & skin care products. I started selling some of these products from my little porch market after classes, where people would gather to chat while enjoying our fresh roasted coffee or my homemade popsicles.
Our first spring in Tennessee, I immediately got busy planting a food forest, then as soon as we had a dining table and chairs, I opened our home up for classes. There’s nothing I love more than teaching about the skills I enjoy so much!
"You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance."
Psalm 65:11
For years I’ve been documenting many of the crafts and projects I’ve created on the blog. If you want to see what I’m working on, check it out. View the archives for craft project tutorials, recipes and featured articles I’ve written for SheKnows Magazine!
What people are saying…
These classes are not to be missed. Tennessee is very lucky! - Shannon J, Thorn Hill, TN
I had a great time and learned so much! Mariko was patient with all questions and went through each step in detail. Highly recommend her classes!
- Cassandra, Spring Hill, TN
My favorite class was a sourdough class back in Cali. I still look up to Mariko for her amazing homesteading skills. The skills she has were once common for so many women in previous generations. Her classes are such a blessing for those wanting to keep them alive, myself included!
- Taylor L, Sneedville, TN
Mariko's classes are the best! I've loved every single one... soap making, sign painting, bullet journaling, denim jean fraying, just to name a few. My favorite was a sewing class making zippered pouches. Mariko provides a fun environment with all the supplies needed, and always special attention to fun details!
- Lisa A, Pleasant Hill, CA
Amazing teaching style- very hands on! Definitely recommend!
- Diamond, Spring Hill, TN
Meet Mariko
Mariko is a former homeschool mom of 17 years, and currently helps homeschool her grandchildren. She is known to be a “Jill of all Trades” but is especially passionate about teaching the lost arts of old fashioned homemaking skills.
Mariko is an expert seamstress who learned on the lap of her mother, a pattern maker in the LA garment industry. She has won numerous awards for various textiles including knitting, quilting, sewing, embroidery and photography.
After homeschooling, she went on to many different careers: worship leader, sign painter, health coach, nanny, blog writer, photographer and photo shoot stylist.
Currently she is writing and illustrating a devotional book called “Lessons from the Garden”. She’s passionate about organic gardening and self sufficiency, is a beekeeper, healthy lifestyle advocate, musician and Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioner. But her favorite title of all is “Nana” to her six grandkids.
