Butters to bring expertise to Spokane

Looking over MaryJane Butters’ Web site, or even chatting with her for a few moments, you begin to wonder:

Does this woman ever sleep?

She’s got a manuscript due in a couple of weeks, she puts out a magazine and she runs a farm and a bed and breakfast. She’s got a line of easy-to-prepare foods and another of high-quality linens and bath accessories. She sells candles and aprons and hat boxes.

“Before I go to bed, before I pick my second foot up off the floor, I’m asleep,” Butters says in a recent phone conversation from her five-acre organic farm near Moscow. But, she says, “I’m a five-hour a night person.”

For Butters, an all-around lifestyle guru often compared to Martha Stewart, the hectic pace is a bit ironic as she preaches the virtues of simplicity. But, she says, she has no trouble finding peace amidst her sometimes chaotic schedule.

“I’ve just perfected my routine,” Butters says. “Every day, I just juice carrots, beets and greens … I take baths outdoors. I have this beautiful bathtub, and I take baths under the stars. I have these ruts that sustain me.”

Butters will be in Spokane Wednesday, speaking at the City Forum luncheon about “green” living and “how to live an altruistic life,” she says.

“Not in terms of whether you can fix the world, but in terms of making yourself feel better and little things you can do,” Butters says.

Butters is finishing the final title of her three-book deal with Random House. This one is called, “MaryJane’s Outpost Guidebook for Cultivating Your Inner Wild.” It’s due to be published in June, and it focuses on developing a love of the outdoors – especially for children.

This will likely be Butters’ last nonfiction book for a while, she says.

“I’m actually writing a novel,” she says. “I want to do one without photos.”

Instead, she plans to focus most of her attention on her magazine, MaryJanesFarm. The glossy lifestyle magazine is slated to be re-launched this April and will, for the first time, accept advertisements, she says.

“It’ll be my 10th issue,” she says. “I did nine on my own and wanted someone to take on the subscribers, selling it through to all the stores … I like magazines for content. You can do them quickly and your information is timely.”

Butters is now a proud grandmother to a 1-year-old girl named Stella. She hopes to pass along some of the wisdom from her parents, lessons she credits as the backbone of her success, to the baby.

“I attribute it to parents who never told me I couldn’t do anything,” she says. “I think the most important thing you can give your kids is leave the word ‘can’t’ out in a field.”