EmnEllie Cross Stitch Blog

  Photo by  Ray Hennessy  on  Unsplash Happy Monday! “April showers bring May flowers,” is how the saying goes. But so far here at the Castle, it’s been April  and  May showers! Not that I’m complaining about rain- I love a rainy day. This year has been strange for my garden. I planted a bunch of seeds, but only got my okra to germinate. 100% germination too! But the peppers and eggplant refused to germinate. So I went back to the drawing board (or seed container in this case) and placed the new batch of seeds in a paper towel. I sprayed the paper towel with water, placed it in a plastic container, and left the container in a sunny spot of the Castle. Over the next few days, I made sure that the paper towels stayed moist. After that, I planted those seeds in a seed tray. Well, the paper towel seemed to work wonders for them! I’ve got Italian Eggplant! Thank goodness too, because I adore Eggplant Parmesan. Now it’s just a waiting game for the bell peppers. While we’re still talking abou

Photo by Alice on Unsplash   Happy Monday! Do you collect buttons? Let me put that question another way; do you have a button tin? In the Castle there’s an ancestral button tin that’s filled with buttons from garage sales, from family members, clipped off of coats that were on their last legs, and from trips to Hobby Lobby or Michaels. I think that a button tin is an essential part of every house. What if you need a new button? Go to the tin. What if you want to add an accessory to a finished piece of cross stitch? Go to the tin. As the years go by you’ll amass quite the collection! I recommend using a cookie tin for button storage; cookie tins give your button collection a bit more gravitas. More of that, “ephemera is here,” feeling. Plus you have an excuse to eat cookies. Win-win! Here’s a very interesting and informative post about Czech buttons. For instance, did you know that the Czech were famous button makers? I certainly didn’t.  Here's the link to the article. Moving on t